CVA Wolf frustrated

Modern Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Modern Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Ricky Taylor

Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2019
Messages
6
Reaction score
0
Tired of wasting money, trying to get the right combo for the best accuracy out of the wolf. Last trip was a huge blowout. I have always used the pyrodex 50/50 pellets in the wolf. Seems at 100 yds with 250gr shockwave has been the best group I've gotten, at 4-5" groups. Still horrible to me lol. Last trip I decided to try out hornady xtp hp, and it was a total train wreck. I had flyers all over the place. Couldn't get a good group at all. Seems the last couple of inches was a pain too seat.

Any ways, I would really like to get it tuned in this year, as I have a few good bucks showing up on my land, and I really want to be dialed in. I have already decided to throw the 50/50 pellets in the trash lol. I have read they cause that horrible loading issue in the last couple of inches. Plus maybe 100gr charge is too much? Is that possible? Ain't these wolf's rated for magnum loads to 150gr? I don't know, maybe it was just a selling point for cva lol. But I'm going to purchase a BH209 breech plug for it, and start using the BH209. I have read good things about it. I will probably start out at 80gr charge, work my way up.

What's everyone else advice on this? Any experience on this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Rated for 150 grains doesn’t mean it’ll shoot well at that, in fact I would guess that most don’t. Switching to loose powder gives you a great deal more control. I like BH 209 but have no experience shooting it in a Wolf, but I’m sure someone here does.
 
Pellets = crud ring ——— sounds familiar. You have to swab between shots to remove the crud ring, otherwise the bullet and sabot won’t be fully seated. You should be happy with BH209 as there is no need to swab between shots because there is no crud ring. Keep us posted of your progress. Good luck.
 
If the Pellets were old, toss them and get new. Those Boxes are not sealed and can draw moisture. 100gn of Pyrodex pellets is not too much but 3 could be. I had them go bad when I first started and accuracy was horrible till I got new. Also one thing to watch with Pyrodex Pellets is that one end is slightly darker in color. This is a small amount of Black powder to make the pellets ignite easier. Be sure that darker end of each Pellet goes down the bore first. I have seen them not all facing the same way in the box before. Loose powder is a much better way to go as you can really tweak the load. With a Volumetric Measure and some Loading tubes you can pre-charge the tubes at home so it is just as easy to use as Pellets.

My nephew still shoots an older Wolf. His load is a 300gn XTP, Crushrib sabot and 2 777 Pellets. Shoots good for him.
 
I have a CVA optima V2 nitride which is like the wolf except for the barrel release. I also would toss the pyro pellets! Get the blackhorn breechplug like you mentioned. After you get the gun shooting like you want I recommend having a vent liner installed in the plug, makes cleanup so much easier! I use 90gr. of black horn powder with a 300gr .452 XTP an black harvester sabot. The smooth harvester sabots are more accurate for me, but load harder than the crushribs. This year I'm going to use a smooth sabot for the first shot an the crushribs for backup shots if needed. I use this gun in the late season when the weather is nasty an colder or during a rainy spell. I have killed two deer so far so must be doing something right...
 
toytruck's load suggestion is a really good one. That load only with 100 grains by volume of Black Horn shoots very good out of the Optima. You might try some Barnes Tez 300 grain bullets.
 
I have a CVA optima V2 nitride which is like the wolf except for the barrel release. I also would toss the pyro pellets! Get the blackhorn breechplug like you mentioned. After you get the gun shooting like you want I recommend having a vent liner installed in the plug, makes cleanup so much easier! I use 90gr. of black horn powder with a 300gr .452 XTP an black harvester sabot. The smooth harvester sabots are more accurate for me, but load harder than the crushribs. This year I'm going to use a smooth sabot for the first shot an the crushribs for backup shots if needed. I use this gun in the late season when the weather is nasty an colder or during a rainy spell. I have killed two deer so far so must be doing something right...
I opened my 10oz can of blackhorn 209. It looks almost half empty. Is that normal?
 
Sounds right. A 10 oz BH bottle will hold a pound of bh209.
 
90gr of BH209 by volume will give you more speed than 2 pellets. So when you look at it that way its not all that bad in pricing. Around 80 grains by volume is equal to 2 pellets. 80 grains by volume is around 56 grains by weight.

There are 4375 grains in 10oz. So that is about 78 shots at 80gr by volume in a 10oz bottle. Roughly 65 cents per shot if you paid full price of $50 a bottle.

Cabelas/Bass Pro wants nearly $33 per 100 pellet box. So thats about 66 cents per shot of a dirty far more corrosive propellant.
 
Hopefully my breech plug will be in today, or tomorrow. I'll be able to set up and shoot the new load I put together. 80gr by volume BH209, and 250gr Aerolite. Hoping for the best.
 
Read this when using BlackHorn 209 powder for proper breech plug cleaning
https://www.blackhorn209.com/specs/breech-plug-cleaning/

I recommend shooting Barnes 250 grain or 290 grain TEZ all copper bullets out of your wolf, pair them with a Harvester smooth black sabot, this combo should give good accuracy out of your rifle. I would not shoot powerbelts, I've read too many bad stories with those and one that happened to me.

Use a hot primer with BH209, Fed 209A or CCI209M, nothing that says for muzzleloaders on the box
https://www.blackhorn209.com/specs/primers/

If your primers come out sooty, you could try a Winchester 209 primer, the little bit of added length could be all you need for fired primers to come out clean and shiny.
 
I had the same accuracy issues with my CVA Wolf when I bought it. 5" + groups at yds. You should try polishing your bore with J-B bore cleaning compound. It takes time and patience. That's what I ended up doing with mine. I use loose powder at 80 grains with powerbelt aerolite 300 grain bullets and have shot 2" groups at 100yd.
 
250gr Aerolite is a very pricey bullet and not overly impressive either. Its very light for caliber which also means a very poor sectional density. There are many bullets that are better made for nearly $2 a pop. The 80gr load though should be in the ball park.
 
Thank you everyone for your advice. I will pick up different ones too try. I'm very limited to what's on the shelf where I live. I will look into ordering some online.
 
Went to the range today and gave it a go. 1 at the bottom is first shot at 100 yds. 2 at top is after scope adjustment. Decided to leave it be. I think that's good enough for where I hunt anyways. That was 80gr BH209 (by volume). 250gr pb Aerolite.
 

Attachments

  • 20190928_113336.jpg
    20190928_113336.jpg
    42.1 KB · Views: 19
Not a fan of that bullet but the 80gr load should put you in its sweet spot out to around 100 yards or so. They dont need to be pushed real fast. Most people that get poor results with them bought into the 3 pellet wiz bang load hype and the PB bullets just can handle that very well. They come apart like a varmint bullet at that speed.

According to Western powders your 80gr load should be around 1600fps or a little more. Nothing wrong with that out to around 100 yards.
 
Back
Top