Smokey McFirearms - Anyone into powder?

[hardtrailz]

Always been a fan of muzzleloaders and snagged a new one with Black Friday.

I have an old CVA Bobcat I started with. Then I bumper to a Traditions BuckHunter Pro in stainless, but for some reason it seemed to fight me and never left me really enjoying owning it. It shoots good and took out a couple deer for me, but even with the 209 conversion and scoping it...I wanted something else for few years.

So Black Friday the wife drags me and the kids out. I decide to at least go take a look for myself and drop the 3 girls at Target and take the boy to Dunhams Sports with me. See an add for a basic break-action CVA Wolf rifle. Then see the ad has a bit more $ and I can get the Optima in stainless. So i ask to see one and boom---out of stock, BUT he says he will upgrade me for same price. So i ask to what and he brings me out a CVA Optima V@ in camo with the thumbhole stock and a nitrided barrel and their proprietary scope mount and Konus Pro 275 scope. A substantially more expensive weapon. Well...it made it way home and now I need to work out a good load for it.

But picture cause we all like pics...



now I keep an eye out for the pistol version to pair it with, but dont want to give over 250 for one.

Anyone else shoot powder?

[Zinergy]

My uncles all have powder guns but I never really got into them. Especially since in the "metro zones" in WI you can gun deer hunt with shotgun or rifle through muzzleloader season.

One of my private properties which is almost guaranteed does every evening is just west of the metro zone cut off. So I am actually considering picking one up but have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to loads etc.

[hardtrailz]

We have bow then firearm then muzzleloader seasons so I get an extra 2 weeks hunting with one.

It is easy to find basic loads and then mess with them as you get used to it. Lots of info online. I tend to stay simple though and not try too much so it is easily repeatable.

i have shot a muzzleloader shotgun and that is kinda nuts with the smoke cloud you get. Definitely something different to do when out shooting with people.

[Zinergy]

We get bow, then gun, then muzzleloader as well. But in the metro units, you can use shotgun or rifle during muzzleloader. So you basically get an extended gun season in those units. But now that I have a private property outside of the metro units I was thinking of picking one up. But I could just use my bow or crossbow since bow season goes to 1-4-2017 and in the metro units it goes to 1-31-2017. But it will be cold as ballz then.

Another firearm to add to the long list of guns wanted.

[0rion]

I have basically your exact old set up. Traditions buckhunter with a 209 conversion. It's a shit gun. Hate that damn thing but it was a gift and free so what do you do? I like muzzle load hunting and at some point I'll have a much better gun. We get a 4 day season with it here in Janurary although I almost always only get to hunt that sat-sun so it's just hard for me to justify the money for 2 days when in some years I'm tagged out by then and can't hunt anyhow. I bought my son a Rossi youth 45 cal a couple years ago. That's a bad ass little gun and it's 10x better designed than the POS traditions I have. At some point I'll have a Thompson center but I don't see that being anytime soon really.

John.....they've made muzzle loader loads and shit pretty much idiot proof. Not nearly as black art as it used to be. Get some power belt bullets and pyrodex pellets and you're done. There's stuff like triple seven and savage has a smokeless gun but you kinda know those things when you're buying that gun. Almost everything is going to be pyrodex and power belts. I still like to pour my own powder so I don't use the pellets. Mostly because my traditions shot the pellets like shit but at the time I was still using the #11 caps. Now that I've done the 209 shotshell primer conversion it would probably shoot pellets better but I really have no reason to change and powder is cheaper.

[hardtrailz]

Agred. The pellets are nice for quick loads, but I still use loose stuff quite a bit. There are a ton of bullets to try as well. I found the cheap saboted rural king 260 gr hollow points did the best in Traditions, but grabbed a few others to try in the new one.

[0rion]

Bought a CVA Accura V2 Sunday so no more using that damn traditions. Haven't been able to shoot it yet but as soon as the rain stops I'll get it out and run some loads through it. I want to go through the scope and loctite everything first anyhow.

[hardtrailz]

Nice purchase!

[0rion]

it's a lifetime gun.....meaning it'll be the last ML I buy for myself. I don't buy many guns really and when I do they're almost always for my son. Really the only thing I see me buying is a cantilever barrel for my 870 but after seeing the prices on those barrels I'll be putting that off for a long time. We can use ML's during gun season so really there's no need for that barrel now. This thing should give me 1 real good shot out to 100 yards+. That's all I need.

I've been on a small buying spree this spring for my hunting fishing stuff. My shit lasts me forever but it was just time to replace or upgrade some things....this gun was at the top of that list. I bought some new boots which actually aren't the ones I wanted but good enough. Bought new waders which are badass. I tried to buy a new tree stand top for my climber but had to return it. I have a lone wolf hand climber that I use now but I wanted a more comfortable top so I bought an XOP sit and climb top section which is identical to the lone wolf stuff. It sucked. Not sure if I had something wrong, although I don't think I did, but the lock knobs poked me in the back and I hated the sling style seat. I'm going to just get the thicker pad seat for my hand climber top and call that good enough. These days my back really bothers me on all day sits so I was trying to get something more comfortable.