Help with White Hotz!

[guitarnik5389]

I recently was given a CVA wolf that needed repair from a guy at work. He said if i could fix it I could have it. Got it fixed, all it needed was a new trigger guard.

Now the issue is cleaning it, he used only White Hotz in it and I dont think he cleaned it well or at all. I soaked the barrel in Hoppes no9 and then scrubbed and scrubbed and got it as clean as I could. I test fired it after that and the Powerbelt did not need an excessive amount of force to load so i figured i got the barrel clean enough but Im hoping to get the barrel cleaner than i can right now.

My question to you folks is if anyone here has found a solvent or cleaning procedure that seems to work well for the White Hotz?

Im not new to black powder but I am new to using pellets instead of loose real black powder so Im curious to see if you fellows here have some tricks to cleaning up a really fouled barrel.

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance.

 

[MrTom]

First off, welcome to Modern Muzzleloader!

The Wolf is a nice little rifle and as a rule has pretty good accuracy out to about 150 yards, maybe even further.

The first thing I'd suggest is dumping the pellets.....any pellet. Granular powders are far more useful in inline guns. While a bit hard to find right now, BH209 is compatible with your Wolf. T7 powders are also great choices, plural because either the 2F or 3F granulation will work for you. Pyrodex will work too, but tends to be a bit weaker than T7.

I'm not all too sure that the White Hots are nothing more than an un-colored T7 product since they also will create the crud ring that T7 is noted for when standard 209 shotshell reloading primers are used in shooting: generally a damp patch has to be run thru the barrel before reloading to get the crud ring out. The BH209 powder is clean shooting and requires not after shot patching to remove a ring. Clean-up is done with regular gun solvent like Hoppes.

Be sure you clean the breech plug well and run a drill bit of the diameter of the flash channel [behind the primer pocket] to removed any built up carbon from it. Do this with your fingers. Also, be aware that as the gun is shot the flame hole [tiny hole at the powder end of the plug] can erode and enlarge. When it gets just so big you'll likely see accuracy drop off. Simply buy another plug and you're back in business. For a replacement plug I'd suggest a 209 powder compatible plug if you've gone to the granular powders as ignition can be a bit more consistent.

 

[michiganmuzzy]

X2 to all the above. Ditch the pellets. They can be used to liven up your July 4th party. Or just pour water on them and throw them in the trash.

 

[guitarnik5389]

Thanks for the welcome!

I have some White Hotz that I'd like to use up but also have about a pound and a half of Pyrodex P and a few pounds of Grafs fffg black powder on hand I use in my caplock rifle and my cap and ball revolvers. I have never used 777 but have read that it is clean burning and generates higher velocities.

I have been searching for BH209 since the rifle was given to me but have not found any in stock. My understanding is that if I do run BH209 I need the correct breech plug and primers, right now I only have Winchester 209 shotshell primers as that was all I could find.

I have a pretty decent knowledge of traditional black powder loadings but this is my first inline muzzleloader. This Wolf is designated as a magnum so my understanding is that it will handle up to 150 grains of powder but that most people have the best accuracy at about 70-100 grains.

Any tips and tricks to increase my accuracy and longevity of this rifle is much welcomed.

 

[MrTom]

I'd order the 209 plug and keep searching for the 209 powder. I think you'd really appreciate using it in the Wolf. The 209 primers you currently have are fine as long as they are specific to shotshell reloading. I'd stay away from any primer sold as a muzzleloader primer, they tend to be way cooler than shotshell specific primers and if you're in an area that gets cold at deer season those hot primers will be way more reliable for you.

The powders you've mentioned will work fine for you.

Although the Wolf can handle loads up to the 150 grains of BLACK powder, the subs will require some adjustments as most are more powerful than black. The 70-100 grains mentioned are good starting points for load work-up with many finding that 100 to 110 grains of powder getting great accuracy and very suitable as a hunting charge. The Wolf is not a heavy gun and those 150 grain charges can be a real brute to shoot, recoil-wise and accuracy might be in the toilet.

My best piece of advice on longevity and accuracy is simple: shoot it, clean it. Maybe not clean it after every shot but if loading a second or third shot is hard just do a damp patch. Simple. Just like your other BP toys.

 

[guitarnik5389]

MrTom thanks for the replies!

Im in Missouri and it is usually pretty cold during deer season here with this last being an exception so ill stick with shotgun primers.

Do you have recommendations on sabots vs the powerbelts? Having only shot round balls in my other black powder guns I have little knowledge of whats better. The only thing I can see as an advantage to sabots is that I can use a 45 cal bullet with sabot to gain some velocity if Im not mistaken. But the weight of a full .50 bullet would seem to have more knockdown power.

 

[MrTom]

I'm not a Powerbelt fan at all as I've had some really off the wall results on deer, most not good. On the plus side of the Powerbelts, they are very accurate and do well on paper.

While .45 cal bullets all shoot fine in my CVA inlines I prefer the .44 cal bullets. I shoot XTPs on the targets but switch to Barnes Expanders or XPB bullets for deer and all of these bullets get either a regular green or green crush rib Harvester sabot. MMP makes good sabots too but for me Harvester fits the bill. I guess I'd settle on a bullet diameter, then try different sabots to see which load well and shoot well for you. I think you'll find that any bullet in the .44 or .45 caliber bracket will do anything a .50 cal will do on deer sized game. Hornady XTPs, Deep Curls and A-Frames all have bullet weights in each cal in the 300 down to 240 grain weights so you have a broad palette of sizes to work with and these are all superb hunting bullets. For hunting I personally do all copper, no lead, Barnes bullets as mentioned.

 

[Caniborrowsomeammo]

Now the issue is cleaning it, he used only White Hotz in it and I dont think he cleaned it well or at all. I soaked the barrel in Hoppes no9 and then scrubbed and scrubbed and got it as clean as I could. I test fired it after that and the Powerbelt did not need an excessive amount of force to load so i figured i got the barrel clean enough but Im hoping to get the barrel cleaner than i can right now.

My question to you folks is if anyone here has found a solvent or cleaning procedure that seems to work well for the White Hotz?

White Hots, being a BP sub should clean up with soap and water. Hoppe's No9 is for cleaning Smokeless, nitrocellulose-based powders. At least that is what I understand.

 

[southdakbearfan]

Hoppes black powder solvent works well on white hots and T7 pellet residue.

 

[deermanok]

You can probably clean up the barrel better by trying some of those Scotch Brite pads.
You'll need a 45 caliber cleaning jag to attach to the ramrod or range rod. Cut the pads into about a 3/8 to half inch by about 2 inch long pieces. Wrap them onto the jag and pump it up and down in the barrel.
You'll want to do about 50 strokes so change the pad after each 10 strokes.
I'd also recommend to steam clean the barrel prior to using the pads.
I use a small hand held steamer that I got off Ebay for about 30 bucks. Works great to loosen up any crud in the rifle barrel.

 

[chieffan]

X2 to all the above. Ditch the pellets. They can be used to liven up your July 4th party. Or just pour water on them and throw them in the trash.

Kind of new to the inline, so why are the Pyrodox pellets so bad ? ?

 

[deermanok]

It's not so much that they're bad but rather that your kinda limited with them. It's pretty much use 2 pellets or 3 pellets, 100 grain charge or 150 grain charge.
Your rifle might shoot ok with the 2 or 3 pellet load but it might just shoot awesome with say 90 grains of loose powder.
You'll not find the absolute best sweet spot for your rifle with pellets.
All, or nearly all of the competition shooters actually weigh their power charges for the best consistency.
Plus the cost, shot for shot, pellets are way more expensive than loose powder.
Pellets are easy to use, just drop em down the barrel but easy ain't always better.