Late Season Muzzleloader Hunt

[MT_mulies]

Hey Guys I drew out a November elk hunt. I will be at 9000-12000 feet in elevation. It will be with a muzzleloader. This is my first ever muzzleloader hunt with a new muzzleloader so I'm sure I will have some growing pains. Anybody have any good ideas or suggestions for the hunt? I've elk hunted my whole life and have hunted elk plenty with a rifle in November. I have actually killed 75% of the elk in my life in November. Just wondering if there are any tips for muzzleloader hunting.

 

[backcountry_hunter]

Once you load it, leave it outside/garage/shed at night so you dont get condensed moisture in your breech and render your powder useless from going to bitter cold to warm to bitter cold to warm... Some purists will say the primer is more important than the powder or bullet, I'm not sure how much truth there is to it but I shoot the best primers I can find (vs the cheapo shotgun 209 primers) just due to almost every gun writer's recommendation. Again, I don't know how much difference there is, but don't want to find out at crunch time. In Nov I'd guess most of your hunting will be closer to the lower range of the elev. you described?


I shoot & love blackhorn 209, scoped a charge of 110g, but when I'm in CO or anywhere else that requires open sights I'm around 90g. I much prefer it over pellets, pyrodex powder, triple 7, etc... shoot and shoot and shoot some more, no cleaning every 2 shots.


The full copper options have hit ML almost as hard as rifle. I haven't followed the bullets/selection very close but I'm guessing if you researched it theres some pretty remarkable bullets out now. I was just shooting standard 250 or 300 gr hornady and sabot but I'm seeing some sabotless all copper from brands like federal that appear to be more accurate (based on magazine articles) than my go to load.