CVA mountain rifle & bobcat

[deermanok]

Does a bullet like that require a patch or anything like that?

The plastic cup on the bottom of the bullet acts as a patch or over powder wad. So no need for anything else.

 

[Enrgizerbunny]

The plastic cup on the bottom of the bullet acts as a patch or over powder wad. So no need for anything else.

Sounds good for a first timer.

 

[deermanok]

Sounds good for a first timer.

Good luck with them. As a hunting bullet, people love them or hate them. I have only shot them at paper, so I have no opinion on how they perform on game.

 

[chubby ninja]

Powerbelts perform very well on whitetails. most of my kills with them were a Bang- flop. Because of the high cost of them I usually used them for a reload.My frugal nature[ cheapness] bristles at shooting a projectile that costs close to 2 bucks at a critter when a full bore lead bullet costs about a third of that.Contrary to popular opinion my first load in my gun is rarely a prb [patched round ball ].I have had too many deer run off and not expire. When the smoke cllears I love to see a white belly on the ground.or even better a nice set of antlers.

 

[Enrgizerbunny]

A question on cleaning/preserving. I've searched and found a lot of disdain toward bore butter on this site - in the inline ML section. It was suggested to me that a natural lube would not interact with the powder the way CLP or oil would.

I've cleaned with soapy water and then I heat the barrel up with scalding water I can barely hold it, and I ran a patch coated in bore butter to coat the bore. Loaded and shot the bobcat without swabbing the barrel, no alcohol, didn't even pop caps on am empty barrel, just loaded and shot, cleaned afterward. Does anyone see an issue going this route at the moment? The barrel gets bone dry before the butter is applied because it's so hot.

At first when I saw all the bore butter hate I was concerned. Talk of build up and whatnot, then realized I remove it all when I clean so what's the harm?

 

[deermanok]

I've used bore butter for years and never had any ill effects on my guns. When I store my guns for long periods, I use a light oil on them instead

 

[Enrgizerbunny]

I've used bore butter for years and never had any ill effects on my guns. When I store my guns for long periods, I use a light oil on them instead

Define "long periods" better. Couple months? A year?

 

[deermanok]

Define "long periods" better. Couple months? A year?

I don't shoot year round, so after the deer season I generally put the guns away for a few months anyway.

 

[MrTom]

Its amazing how many people subscribe to the pellets and Powerbelts. I shoot a lot during the warmer months just to stay sharp. I shoot what I hunt with. I see lots of empty pellet boxes in the trash cans and what's amazing is that I find enough of the plastic seals the powerbelts come with laying out 8 to 15 yards beyond the shooting bench with spent sabots to make me feel like they are a hoax since they're supposed to stay with the bullet. In addition to the gernading issues many have had with the bullets, how can one get, or rely on, consistency when some bullets have the plastic seal at the target while others do not?

 

[michiganmuzzy]

Good question, MrTom. I shot that way for years and had acceptable accuracy and killed plenty of deer with PB & pellets. imho, I believe that more often than not, the base stays on the bullet. I also believe that once it leaves the barrel that base doesnt do much to the trajectory 'at typical hunting distances'. Meaning less than 100 yards. They are easy to use and available everywhere. They have there characteristics that help with performance, I believe that they work best when shot at soft lead speeds. They arent for everyone but they do make it easy for new shooters to get into muzzleloading and occasional MLers to extend their season a little bit. And we do need more ML shooters, especially younger people.

 

[MrTom]

From the standpoint of ease in getting started with a muzzy, I agree with you mm. But I wonder how many get put off by and discouraged by the hard-to-load second shot for pellet users, but then this is a side lock forum and pellets might not be that tough to load for a second shot. When I was still shooting my sidelocks I shot pretty much lead bullets made for the bore, nothing with plastic, and granular powder. I tried the pellets when they became the "thing" but lost the accuracy I was used to with granular loads so the pellets fell by the wayside.

Hopefully new-comers to the sport can find a website such as this and get some "steering" before they fall into any frustration while trying to get their feet on the ground with pellets and the pb's.

 

[Enrgizerbunny]

From the standpoint of ease in getting started with a muzzy, I agree with you mm. But I wonder how many get put off by and discouraged by the hard-to-load second shot for pellet users, but then this is a side lock forum and pellets might not be that tough to load for a second shot. When I was still shooting my sidelocks I shot pretty much lead bullets made for the bore, nothing with plastic, and granular powder. I tried the pellets when they became the "thing" but lost the accuracy I was used to with granular loads so the pellets fell by the wayside.

Hopefully new-comers to the sport can find a website such as this and get some "steering" before they fall into any frustration while trying to get their feet on the ground with pellets and the pb's.

I was directed here by my hunting forum. I didn't ask about projectiles before purchasing, I just knew I wanted conical rather than PRB at the moment, since the 1:48 twist could stabilize it. My primary mission was to buy the other supplies (powder, jag, cleaning patches, etc) and I sort of just picked the first projectile I saw and they were recommended by the clerk helping me, though he admitted to not knowing much. They are certainly easy to use being that they're pre-lubed and don't require anything additional. I didn't do a second shot, but I'll get to the range soon enough to get sights adjusted.

 

[deermanok]

I was directed here by my hunting forum. I didn't ask about projectiles before purchasing, I just knew I wanted conical rather than PRB at the moment, since the 1:48 twist could stabilize it. My primary mission was to buy the other supplies (powder, jag, cleaning patches, etc) and I sort of just picked the first projectile I saw and they were recommended by the clerk helping me, though he admitted to not knowing much. They are certainly easy to use being that they're pre-lubed and don't require anything additional. I didn't do a second shot, but I'll get to the range soon enough to get sights adjusted.

I'd say to shoot what you have. Later on when you get more familiar with your guns, you can experiment with different bullets, powder charges and such.

 

[Enrgizerbunny]

I'd say to shoot what you have. Later on when you get more familiar with your guns, you can experiment with different bullets, powder charges and such.

I think I'm interested in casting projectiles and shooting black powder rather than substitutes, for the sake of recreation that I can hunt with.

 

[deermanok]

I think I'm interested in casting projectiles and shooting black powder rather than substitutes, for the sake of recreation that I can hunt with.

There's something about real black powder that sets it apart from other propellants, the smoke, smell, hard to explain but it's just different.
Once you get setup, casting your own bullets is a good way to go.

 

[eekjellander]

A question on cleaning/preserving. I've searched and found a lot of disdain toward bore butter on this site - in the inline ML section. It was suggested to me that a natural lube would not interact with the powder the way CLP or oil would.

I've cleaned with soapy water and then I heat the barrel up with scalding water I can barely hold it, and I ran a patch coated in bore butter to coat the bore. Loaded and shot the bobcat without swabbing the barrel, no alcohol, didn't even pop caps on am empty barrel, just loaded and shot, cleaned afterward. Does anyone see an issue going this route at the moment? The barrel gets bone dry before the butter is applied because it's so hot.

At first when I saw all the bore butter hate I was concerned. Talk of build up and whatnot, then realized I remove it all when I clean so what's the harm?

Use room temp water ,never hot /scalding as it not only needed but promotes (FLASH) rusting which you will find almost immediately after drying . Again an unneeded step in an easy chore with tepid /cold or whatever (just not hot)water ,the only cleaning agent needed for cleaning black powder residue ! /Ed

 

[Renegadehunter]

I run into the same thing with flash rust. If I use water that is even warm out of the tap I get flash rust, let alone hot. Room temp/tepid works fine and no flash rust.

Room temp was a problem for me though back when I used bore butter. It seemed to get pretty hard after shooting and all of it wouldn't come out of the bore after I had cleaned by pumping tepid water through the bore from a bucket. I think some of the cooked hard stuff would just lay against the rifling and simply wouldn't release from the bore without using hot water. Following that up with wet patch / dry patch would take quite a while before I'd get mostly clean patches. I say mostly because I never really could get drying patches to come out without still having a bit of color on them. I could still apply a preservative oil and not see any rust though.
I finally went away from ever putting bore butter into the bore, and after multiple shooting & cleaning sessions I can now get those last drying patches I run down the bore to come out with zero color on them. I think I finally got all of the cooked on bore butter out (it was all the previous owner of the gun, my dad, ever used). I would love for someone to figure out why some folks always see flash rust when using warm or hot water, yet others don't. I keep saying I'm going to try some distilled water rather than city tap water and see what the result is, but haven't tested that out yet.
I've found other patch lubes that work just fine for me, return better accuracy, and are easier to clean out of the bore. I don't have any issue with a bore butter type lube other than I'd rather avoid using hot water to get it out of the barrel in trade for flash rust every time.

 

[deermanok]

I recently started using good old windex to clean up my guns after reading a few posts on using it.
Works pretty good, haven't seen any rust.

 

[Enrgizerbunny]

Think it's different types of steel. My bobcat was very clean patches at the end even with the butter. The mountain rifle had some brown patches, but they started out brown, went clean with water, and then a little brown with the butter, but clean when I was drying the bore. Don't think there is a rust issue.

 

[Enrgizerbunny]

Got my bobcat dialed in yesterday. Shooting 90gr Pyrodex with 295 gr power belt had about an inch and a half drift side to side (me shooting from supported standing position) as I filed down the front sight. Got it to 3/4" low at 50yds. Supposed to be on the money at 100 yds.