Beware the ?First Year Models? By Randy Wakeman
When advertising hyperbole takes over, the flood of e-mails received daily often turns to ?the new for 2004? models. It is can be a sad mistake for the new enthusiast, and sometimes promises are given equal or greater credence to actual field performance. In my opinion, they simply should not be.
The Thompson Encore has been a wildly successful muzzleloader. Hardly a new or unproven design, it was a successful centerfire single-shot rifle and handgun long before T/C Arms decided to offer .50 caliber and .45 caliber blackpowder barrels for it. It was a success for the beginning, with a well proven design as a platform to add a muzzleloading barrel to. That it ranks as one of the best inlines you can buy should surprise no one. However, many ?new? offering have no such rich background to built upon?and the purchaser of the ?first year model? can likely be setting himself up for a distinctly sour experience. After Thompson?s success, there is now a rush to tag along and cash in on the coattails of the Encore?as break action rifles are now more popular than ever before.
I augment my own testing with customer feedback from the field as best I can. The CVA Optima was rushed to market in 2003, and sold well along with the cheapened up ?Beartooth? models. Many people bought the sizzle, but there was no bacon. The first several thousand of these cheap Spanish imports came with horrid triggers. The gun that I tested was replaced a total of four times?first, a jumpy 8-14 pound trigger, then replacement of a rough barrel that unfortunately did not fit the 2nd gun?s action. I continued, and at the end of all the mess was a 3-4 MOA gun that operated well, but still lacked a reasonable trigger and exhibited erratic accuracy. A year later, the number of people offering their Optimas for sale is astounding. It is no Encore, never was?though it promised to be just that in smarmy ad copy.
The same happened with the ?Winchester? Apex, what most people realize is just a Spanish CVA (BPI) gun with a cheesy licensed Winchester decal on it. It promised to be a Thompson Omega clone, but failed in direct comparison in terms of workmanship, accuracy, trigger, and a ?sealed? action that still allowed blowback spray to ruin scopes, and made cleaning a chore. Now re-released as the CVA Beartooth, the cheapened up version promises more of the same.
The Spanish-made Traditions Pursuit model has been released for 2004, another
break-action knock off with universally poor triggers, and is one of the fussiest
guns find an acceptably accurate load to hunt with. It too has been rushed to
market without much attention to detail or quality control; the cobby workmanship is all too obvious.
Though it seems that CVA and Traditions bring in more sub-standard, poorly tested in-line muzzleloaders than most companies?even the new Knight Revolution has issues that make it a questionable purchase compared to their outstanding Disc Elite rifle. Though quality is not an issue, Knight Rifle testing is better than most, the promise of easy cleaning has not been fully addressed, and there are ergonomic issues that Knight will be looking at improving for 2005.
There is a break-action bright spot for 2005, though, that being the NEF / H & R ?Sidekick,? made in Gardner, Massachusetts. Now under the ownership of Marlin Firearms, the Sidekick is not exactly a ?from scratch? model. It builds on the long history of the H&R Huntsman and H & R ?Handi-Rifles,? the distinction being this version is a non form 4473 arm. For the money, it looks to be the best break-action value on the market today. Full reviews of the Sidekick and Knight Revolution are forthcoming after the next few hunts.
In the meantime, whether it is a refrigerator, a lawnmower, or a muzzleloader?new models do not automatically mean good models, or even acceptable models. Having to buy a hunting tool twice to get the job done is no bargain. The new muzzleloading buyer might do well to take a long, hard look at established quality models (Austin & Halleck, Thompson, Knight, H & R / NEF, Savage) before just buying a lottery ticket on glossy ad copy.
