Muzzleloading questions

[BBOY]

Hello there, I am thinking about trying this form of hunting out this year for the first time. I have shot my muzzleloader before (a CVA Hawken) but only a few times. I bought my wife a CVA Bobcat and we both plan on hunting mule deer with them this year.

Anyone got any suggestions on a good round to use? I was leaning towards maxi balls with pyrodex, but again, I don't know. Both of our rifles have fiber optic, open sights, but are otherwise out of the box. We shot hers last year and forgot to clean it for about a month (bad, I know), so I gave it a good soaking/scrubbing. Did this hurt anything?

I ask for any and all help with this! Please!
B-Boy

 

[DallanC]

Well loads depend on your rifles barrel twist. 1/48 is common but really a poor twist overall for MLs. It neither shoots Roundballs or Conicals well so you will have to just test a bunch of loads to see if you can find something that shoots well in it.

1/24-1/38 twists are great for conicals and sabots, with the later liking as fast a twist as you can get.

Roundballs like a slow twist, in the 1/60, 1/66 and even 1/72" range.


For your wifes rifle and not cleaning it, you will have to take a good look at it. If it feels rough chances are it's junk. Some minor corrosion and pitting can be smoothed out with some lapping compound and elbow grease. Typically here in the west barrels won't corrode as fast due to less moisture in the air but it would depend on where you stored it and what the humidity was like.

Not alot of concrete answers for you, sorry.

-DallanC

 

[sourdough]

BBoy

Go back through the threads on this conference and print out all the Muzzleloading 101 posts by Blueelk. The vast majority of your questions will be answered

Sourdough

 

[BBOY]

Sourdough-

I found those articles after I posted this msg. They are great! I hope I have a good enough rifle for my hunting needs. They are pretty restrictive in Co. as far as ML go. You can't use pellets and they even banned inlines for 3 years so who knows if they will do it again. With all of this in mind, I opted for the Hawken.

I hope it works!
Bboy