Your request is only one of many that I receive through e-mail and by letter.
It seems that more and more shooters are going back to their sidelocks to put
some challenge back into the sport of muzzleloading. I am also seeing that bullet
weight is on the increase. The "need for speed" thing seems to be dying off and
more and more shooters are asking for maximum bullet weights and not maximum speed.
In response to both of these trends, I have been working on a .45 caliber Keith
Nose Hollow Point bullet. This bullet comes in a black sabot instead of the green
sabot of the .44 caliber Keith Nose. By increasing the bullet diameter .021" the
bullet becomes substantially shorter and therefore easier to stabilize. This will
allow maximum bullet weights to be shot out of relatively slow twist barrels and
will allow for additional bullet weights to fit inside sabots. I have married
this bullet with a full boat tail and a "new" sabot. The accuracy is outstanding.
They are extremely easy to load. At this point, I have been able to shoot 330
grain bullets in a 1-48" twist barrel in 1.5" groups at 100 yards. I have been
able to shoot 400 grain bullets (experimental weight only) in 1-28" twist barrels.
Recovery box expansion testing yielded identical results to the existing Keith
Nose designs. I am very excited about this bullet and will be featuring it this
spring when we head up to northern Manitoba to harvest a color phase black bear
on video with our flintlock rifle.
Although these bullets do not show up anywhere in our brochure, they are on our
order forms and on this web site. They are available in weights of 275, 300, 330
and 360 grains.
Thanks to Ryan F. from Nebraska for that question and I hope that I have answered
it to your satisfaction.
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