Going to the range tomorrow. Got a few questions.

Modern Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Modern Muzzleloading Forum:

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

Cruzmoreno

New Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2018
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Headed to the range tomorrow. Never had or shot a muzzleloader.

I bought a CVA Optima V2. I will be using 247 grain .50 powerbelt bullets, 150 gr. mag charge white hots and federal 209 primers.

First and foremost, I'm planning to fire off atleast enough ammo to zero in my scope and get a good feel for the rifle. Probably 15 to 20 rounds. How many times will I need to clean the barrel during this amount of use? Or will I even need to during this session? And if so, I have all the nessisary cleaning products, what will I need to do to do a quick field clean?

Also, any tips for a first time muzzleloader range session? I'm former military to rifles are not new to me, just muzzleloading. Thank you.
 
Welcome to Modern Muzzleloader, Cruz.

Using the White Hots you can patch the bore using a patch dampened, not soaked, with Windex glass cleaner. Works great. Try to find the Windex with ammonia I it.

The White Hots are very close to Triple7 pellets so you'll most likely notice hard loading of the second or subsequent shots unless you run a damp patch down the bore after each shot, and follow the damp one with a dry one. Guns shooting any of the pellet products like to get a "crud" ring in the barrel right about where the pellet column stops under the bullet or sabot. The crud is hard enough to hinder follow-up shots unless its cleared with a couple patches.

You may want to pull the plug and locate a drill bit that will fit in the flame channel, that hole under the primer in the plug. Use your fingers to twist the bit into the hole after every dozen or so shots. 209 primers like to pack that channel with hard, carbon residue and if enough collects there it can mess with good ignition and accuracy. Taking time to patch the barrel will also serve to allow time for a little cooling too which will also help with accuracy.

When you get home from the range be certain to clean the gun right away using really warm soapy water or the Windex mentioned earlier. Run dry patches thru the bore until one comes out dry after the water or Windex cleaning. Make sure the gun is completely dry before wiping down with an oil that contains no Teflon and that's about it.

This has been beat to death but I'd urge you to get a 209 powder compatible breech plug, the Blackhorn 209 powder, a powder measure, some bulk bullets like the Hornady .44 caliber 240 grain XTP and some green crush rib sabots and lastly some powder tubes and try shooting that in lieu of the powerbelts and pellets. Using this granular powder requires no cleaning until about 25 or 30 rounds have been shot at which time you'll want to pull the breech plug to run the drill bit thru the flash channel anyway. This 209 powder requires a solvent like Hoppes to clean the gun too.

Get to know the gun using what you have and this will also serve to "shoot in" the barrel. Once you're fully familiar with the ins and out of the black powder world you may feel like expanding a little and that would be a great time to look hard at the bh209 powder switch. Enjoy yourself.
 
MrTom. Thank you so much for the welcome and advice. You don't know how good it is to post on a forum where people actually care enough to write a kind word.

I'm going to use your tip on the windex. And the drill bit as well. I bought a bunch of cva cleaning products for after shooting cleaning. From the bore blasting foam cleaner to the parts soaked, I got quite a bit of their products. But I will make sure to bring some windex with for on the range cleaning.

I bought the powerbelt bullets because I watched a bunch of videos talking about their superiority over sabot type bullets because of how much of the plastic is left behind. I haven't even touched the surface of the muzzleloadjng world but I'm sure I will and find out all these interesting facts for a better experience. Definately going to look into the 209 powder you mentioned once I get the hang of what I got. I'm super excited. Thanks again!
 
Cruz....Today's sabots are not going to leave any plastic fouling in your barrel when shot at even the highest muzzleloader charges. maybe thirty years ago the plastic would do some fouling but the sabots of today are way beyond that. Sabots are just one component in the grand scheme of things muzzleloader that we can delve into to make our guns far more superior than package recommendations would ever allow.

Just a note here, try not to fall into the bore butter line of thought. The stuff is a mess to work with, does little to make life easier and is a real pain to get cleaned up. AND, on the primers, stay away from primers sold as "muzzleloader" primers. Use those that are sold as shotgun shell reloading components. Your Federal primers are fine but if you start getting a lot of blow by or blow back and a lot of dirty breech area issues, try the Winchester reloading primers sold in the blue box. These are longer and can help seal the breech enough to eliminate other little things that may be called for to help clean up the breech area.
 
Cruz, welcome to the group.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

Latest posts

Back
Top