New To Muzzleloading....HELP?!?

ColoradoSouthpaw · Sep 21, 2010

Greetings everyone. I am looking to get into muzzleloading and am hoping some of you veterans can offer a newbie some help. I am looking for some guidance on what brand to get...I have my eyes on the TC encores but wanted to see what else might be out there that is worth looking at.

Here is the biggest issue. I have shot a rifle for a long time right handed but I am left eye dominant. I shoot my bow LH and recently got a LH shotgun. I would really like to try and stick with the lefty thing since that is my dominant eye. I have been looking around and I don't see any mention of a "LH" or "RH" designation for muzzleloaders. Aside from the thumbhole stocks, are most muzzleloaders "ambidextrous"?

I live in Colorado so I would like something fit for mountain hunting and also other things like whitetails. Is 50 cal the best option.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give...
Greg

FrontierGander · Sep 21, 2010

In colorado, .50cal is minimum for elk so thats going to be your best choice.

Second is the fact you have to use full bore conicals.

CVA Apex would be an awesome way to go.
Second up would be the CVA Accura,
CVA Optima or the CVA Wolf

I own all 4 of these rifles and they are accurate as heck with conicals. I use blackhorn209 in all of them.

http://frontiermuzzleloadin.powerguild.net/

txhunter58 · Sep 21, 2010

Definately 50 caliber.

Thompson center will tell you their guns are not designed to shoot conicals. Since you have to shoot only conicals in Colorado I would stay away from these guns (encore, Omega, etc)

The new CVA guns with a Bergara barrel (the ones mentioned above) have been getting good reviews. Your best deal (cost wise) may be the new, but older Accuras if you can still find them.

Knight makes good conical shooters as well. People continue to rave about the disc extreme and the Knight LRH. Knight is not currently producing guns, but are selling accessories and plan on gearing up with guns hopefully in the next year. However, used knights in good shape are good guns and you can get replacement parts.

Shooting blackpowder guns left handed that are break action is not a problem. Should work just fine either way. Since the Knight extremes are bolt action, you may want to get one of the CVA break action models.

If I were in your shoes, I would probably look for a sale on an Accura.

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)

txhunter58 · Sep 21, 2010

Here is a pretty good deal:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/t...cabelas/en/common/search/search-box.jsp.form1

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)

VTelkchaser · Sep 21, 2010

I have been hunting with muzzle loaders for years and am by no way an expert but like everyone else I do have an opinion. So here it is.

Knight makes a GREAT gun but like stated above they are no longer in the gun making business so you will more than like be looking at a used gun here. Nothing wrong with used guns but if you are looking for new? I have a first generation Knight Revolution and it is a tack driver. I too am a left handed shooter and even though this has a classic trigger guard safety in can be switched to left hand. I do have a couple of concerns about this gun. 1st is that I have had to have firing mechanism repair twice. While rated for 150 grains of powder the two retaining pins that holed the firing pin in place do not like 150 grains of powder. I have been told Knight fixed this problem with the second generation Revolution? 2nd I get a lot of powder blow back with the breach lock system. After a day at the range my face looks like I just came out of the coil mine.

T/C also make a great guns. The Omega is a shooting son of a gun! I like the weight of the gun too. I have seen very impressive hundred yard + groups out of the guns. They are a bit pricey though.

I just purchased a CVA Apex for a limited entry elk tag I finally drew because of the issues with the Knight. I went with the Apex for several reasons. 1st was because of the great reviews the gun had received. 2nd The price is comparable to the T/C Encore yet you have the ability to changed the barrels on the CVA and they offer a pretty good range of rifle calibers. 3rd was all the hype CVA put into the ease of cleaning this gun. I was a bit skeptical of this, after all it is a muzzle loader how easy could it be? Holly crap, the breach plug really does come out with NO tools just screws in and out! that is awesome. It really is the easiest muzzle loader to clean I have ever owned. The stock is truly ambidextrous and you have move the hammer spur to the left side to accommodate left handed shooters. NOTE if you do move the spur contact CVA and have them send you a new spur. They use a heavy lock tight on the spur which comes on the right side. It will come out but mine broke after about 50 shots on the left side. It took some testing but once I found a load for this gun, it is a shooter! Three shot groups touch at 100 yards and inch groups at 200 yards.

Rant over.. good luck

ColoradoSouthpaw · Sep 22, 2010

awesome info and insight everyone...thanks so much. txhunter....boy I would jump on that but it says out of stock. I will call cabelas to make sure since that seems like a great deal.

Here is another question. How much time does it take to find the load that your gun likes? Is it brand specific or truly each and every gun is differen even if it is the same company?

I really like the apex since I would like to get a smaller caliber for antelope hunting since my 300 mag is a bit much.

txhunter58 · Sep 22, 2010

Sorry about the out of stock, didn't notice that.

Took me over 4 years to find something that my Omega liked in a conical. That is why I don't recommend them for Colorado.

My two knights liked most things I put down them, but you have to tinker with the powder amts a little to find the "sweet spot"

And yes, I would say that every gun is different. So when someone says they gurantee that a certain powder with a certain gun and a certain bullets will shoot great, don't count on it.

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)

plumdog · Sep 25, 2010

I have a Cabela's Hawken in a left-handed version, which suits me just fine as I prefer traditional. I have killed Elk with conicals (Precision Bullets), but the gun is more accurate with Round Balls, as it has a 1/48 twist. I switched back to round balls this season and have no doubt they will drop an Elk. (Presuming I could have found one!). I don't know if the lefty is still available, but I have seen them for sale used for REAL cheap. I like the blue over walnut with brass fixtures. My son had a stainless and synthetic version which he sold because it was so ugly.

hossblur · Sep 25, 2010

I shoot a Knight Disc, the original not the extreme. The stock is perfect for me, the camo on the other hand is rubbed off. I shoot Knight 245 sabots with 100grains (2 pyrodex pellets). Haven't hunting elk with it or I might of gone with bigger lead, but for the muleys I have killed this is my sweet spot. I personally would go with this or an extreme, you can get good used ones. As for loads, I never liked the 150 grains in my knight, but opinios vary. I think 100 grains is fine. I originally hunted with a Thompson New Englander, shooting 90 grains of powder(loose) and 360 grain conicals. That is a bunch of lead in my opinion and out very far they started to tumble. However it would blow a roast out of a deer so that is what I went with.

ColoradoSouthpaw · Oct 8, 2010

ok....thank you to everyone who helped me on this. I took the plunge and bought my first ML. However....I also made a rookie mistake but I am sure I can get it taken care of. I got an CVA Accura...thumbhole. 50 cal. The local stores were really weak on selection (pretty much nonexistent) so I bought a new one on gunbroker. It has a scope but i just realized it DOES NOT have open sights.

I would assume (ok...I am hoping!) i could pick up a set to put on the gun. Anyone have some suggestions for a rookie? I live in Colorado so scopes are illegal for hunting. I am planning on my first hunt to be in NE so I won't need to worry about the sites issue really until next year but I thought I would ask.

Very excited to give this a try. Thanks so much for all the guidance...
Greg

FrontierGander · Oct 8, 2010

replacement sights for the Accura from CVA are under $30 so not expensive to replace.

http://frontiermuzzleloadin.powerguild.net/

gnatboy911 · Dec 2, 2010

i know its been a while since you posted this, but i just found it. so as for sights i would recommend a true glow type sight. i can't remember the exact name...trueglow fire sights or somethin like that. i live in colorado also and have used these sights on my Hawken ML for quite a few years and love them. i wouldn't change them for anything else.