Newbie here, dailing in a Z5 Omega!

[fisher2072]

I found this site last night and thought it would be helpful since I'm really getting into muzzloading! I purchased my first ML about 5 years ago, and recently gave it to my Bro-inlaw. I bought a used Z5 Omega off of gun broker. It had some fouling in the barrel when I recievedit , but I managed to get it out and make the bore nice and shiny. I put a Warne Maxima base and warne QD rings with a new Burris fullfield 2 Balistiplex on it.

Before the first outing with the rifle I floated the barrel using 60grt sandpaper aroung the barrel on the cheap composite stock then headed to the range. I'd like to try the new BH209, but cannot get it locally so I brought an almost 3/4 full, 4 year old can of Black Mag 3 that I had stored in my closet along for the bang. There were a few small clumps in there and with about 5 seconds of shaking the bottle, there were no clumps. I had some TC shockave 250s, and some dead center 240gr lead to sling downrange. I took my chronograph along to check velocity.

I setup at 50 yds using 80gr volume BM3 and 250 Shockwave loaded with about 30lbs pressure on ramrod, then loaded with a W209 primer and fired 1 shot 4in low and made the correct adjustment on scope, spitswabbed the bore and proceeded to 100yds. I then loaded up with 110gr volume BM3 and the 240gr dead center bullet, W209 primer, again about 30lbs pressure on ramrod. First shot 3in low chrony read 2220fps, wow thats cookin! I made a 12 click adjustment up. Then I again spitswabbed the barrel, reloaded the same load BM3 240gr DC. This time 8in high, I made adjustment down on scope. I then spitswabbed the barrel, reloaded again and shot 8in to the right. I had waited 5-10 minutes between shots. The chronny only read the first shot, I asume this was because it was getting dark! At this point, I figured some thing was wrong with the gun and headed home. Upon cleaning the gun I found my scope rings were not extremely tight so I sinched them down and ran the sandpaper below the barrel to clearance the stock a little more. There was some crud building up were the BM3 Charge was so I brushed this area dry and just spitswabbed the barrel there after.

I made it back to the range today in time to fire 3 shots bfore it started raining. I picked up some T7 Primers at walmart thinking the W209s could have been to hot. I set up at 100yds and loaded the rifle with 100gr volume BM3 and 250gr TC shockwave, and the T7 primer. I fired 3 shots waiting 5 miutes between shots and NOT swabbing the barrel this time. I had about a 3-3&1/2in group. Then the rain set in and I headed home. Anyone have any suggestions about the Black Mag 3 powder? Whether or not to swab the bore between shots? Which charge works well, and what primers to use?

I made a few orders last week for some of the Precision Rifles 260gr dead centers and Extreme Elite HPs. I also got the variflame 209 rifle primer adaptor to experiment with. Then I ordered the Precision Inline Muzzleloader DVD, I figred for 1/2 the price of a can of BH209 this would be a good investment. He tests a bunch of powders and bullets out of an Omega, which is waht I shoot. I 'll report back with my next few outings with this setup. In the meantime if anyone has anysuggestions with this setup I would really apreciate the input as I'll be hunting with this gun pretty soon!

 

[cayuga]

Make sure your scope and base is on tight. Black Mag is a good powder but that sounds like old powder. Although with the velocity you're getting it must still be good.

Before you keep chasing bullet holes on paper, try shooting a group. Shoot at least three shots. I like to start them at 13 yards. If the powder charge and bullet is right it should be a hole. If you are getting that kind of result, THEN move the scope. After you move it shoot another three shot group and do all of this at 13 yards until you are dead center bull.

You should be an inch high at 25, two inches at 50, and almost dead on at 100 yards. But check it. It does not good to fire one shot and then chase the hole. You have to know and trust your load first.

It sounds like you have a good set up.

 

[fisher2072]

I think the powder is still good. I'd only shot 5 shots out of it the first time I used it 3-4yrs ago, none since then. It's been kept in the original container with a tightly sealed lid in a constant 70-75 degree temp range. The grouping was what I was trying to do today, I only managed to get in the 3 shot group before I got rained out. Looks like I'm going to need to buy more powder and bullets to dial this guy in the way i want. As for the 13 yard shooting, i'm not sure if I can shoot good up that close. I'd be up for shooting at 50 or even 25 yards if that would help, but I dont see how it would. All shots i fired were from my benchmaster shooting rest. So recoil was not an issue with my accuracy with the gun. I do wish the trigger pull was lighter, i'm guessing its in the 4 &1/2 to 6lb range. I have my 270 weatherby that I use during rifle season setup at 2lbs, quit a difference between that and the omega!

 

[g.g.]

make sure the scope rings and bases are settled in before even considering shooting again

start at 25 yards at the most. like cayuga said, get your GROUP to about an inch high at 25 yards and then move to 100.

does no good to move your scope on single shots in most cases, especially with black powder guns which are sometimes finicky shooters anyway. move it with groups.

if you cant get a decent group at close range then start trying different loads to find what the gun likes.

good luck and let us know

 

[fisher2072]

Thanks for the input guys, I'll try some grouping with different loads at 25yds. "GG" What do you mean by settling in your base and rings? Does it take some shooting for them to get solid? Thanks again!

 

[cayuga]

Some times the new rifle itself just needs to settle in. All you can do is shoot it some. Since it is an Omega, you might want to try some 250 grain Shockwaves as well.

 

[g.g.]

Thanks for the input guys, I'll try some grouping with different loads at 25yds. "GG" What do you mean by settling in your base and rings? Does it take some shooting for them to get solid? Thanks again!

sorry I meant that you need to make sure that the bases and rings are tight..a drop of locktite might even be in order. no way to get the gun accurate unless this little step is good

have fun with it.

 

[fisher2072]

I did some grouping today when I chronoed the loads. It was grouping about 3 inches at 100yds with both loads shot. My buddies needed to sight in there deer rifles so we set up at that distance. The group was about 4 inches high and left, so i adjusted the scope after shooting two groups. I adjusted the scope, and then it shot 6 inches low. The adjustment was hard to move or notice the clicks on the windage adjustment. I'm wondering if i've got my scope ring to close to the adjusment knobs on the scope, theres only about 1/8in between the front scope ring and the turret bulge. Could this cause the elevation and windage adjustments to be out of whack?

 

[wayles]

scope

You may be out of adjustment on your scope, its happened to me before on muzzleloaders. What brand scope is it? You have approx 40 to 60 total clicks depending on the brand. You might check the allignment of the rings to make sure they are paralell. Who mounted the scope? Many folks do not properly torque the screws or use lock tight. Don't trust any body to do this but your self unless its some one you know and trust really well. If you are 1/8 in away from the bulge you are fine Its something else. Then agin You may just not have the right recipe for your gun ciphered out as of yet. Good luck
Wayles

 

[wayles]

scope

I reread your first message and see its a burris, Great scope but its the same one I ran out of adj. on on my encore. mine was a 4.5 to 14. When I put a 3 to 9 burris bp on it it was ok. The lower power usealy has more clicks available.
Wayles

 

[fisher2072]

The scope is a 3-9x40. I put it on new, and was within 10 inches at 100 yards from the factory setting, so I doubt I ran out of adjustment. It's just the horizontal adjustment that seems to be hard to turn.

 

[wayles]

scope

Ten inches is 40 clicks at 100 yds.. If your not paralell you may still be out of adjustments. The factory told me the 3 to 9 had sixty total or 30 clicks one way. Check to see if it turns easy going the other way and count the clicks. You can easly go back to where you were and it will tellyou a lot.
Wayles

 

[fisher2072]

If that's what the factory told you, then it's different than what they advertise for this scope. I looked in my manual and online at burris' site and they both say a maximum 50in total adjustment at 100yds. I'd never considered this as the advertised maximum is 2.5 times farther than I've had to move the adjustment.

 

[wayles]

scope

Maybe the service guy meant 60 inches instead of clicks. Either way you can tell by counting clicks one direction. I bought mine on line and did not get a manual. Let us know when you find out what the problem was.
Wayles

 

[wayles]

scope

Called a friend who also uses burris. He confirms your findings of 50 inchs or 25 inchs 1 way not clicks like the service guy said or maybe I misunderstood him. Anyway you can still run out of adjustment. Things like QLA's throwing things off and overall misallignments. The one that did not have enough adj. for me was a TC encore .45 cal barrel and a burris 4.5 to 14 full field 2 Which has 40 inches of adj. sorry for the misinformation
Wayles

 

[fisher2072]

Well, you were kinda right in your assumptions! I bought this scope new and did not run the adjustments on the scope antil I was at the range, and visually bore sited the rifle and scope on a target. I called Burris today and explained to the tech the unexpected jump in groups upon adjusting the scope. I told him the windage adjustment was difficult to move. He gave me a suggestion: he said that most likely one of the ball joint in the turrets was dry and sticky, at least thats what I believe he stated. He said I could send it in to them and they would fix or replace. Or, he said I could I could run the scope through the total adjustment rang up and down, and right and left. He said that should lubricate and loosen up the ball joints in the turret. So I started running adjustments as he stated, and found I still had about 40 clicks that direction which were really stiff. After about 10 minutes of turning everything back and forth the adjustments moved much easier. I think this might take care of the problem. If not, I'll send it back to them after deer season! Thanks for your help, you were on the right track!

 

[wayles]

scope

It looks like you you got it figured out. Good luck during deer season. Center fire starts sat the 15 here in nebraska and I'm ready, then black powder runs the entire month of dec. YOOHOO
Wayles

 

[fisher2072]

Firearms season starts here on Saturday also, it runs the 15-25th. Muzzleloader season here is Nov 28- Dec 7. I'll be using the muzzleloader some during rifle season though. Theres a 10,000 acre conservation area close to me that only allows muzzleloaders. Hardly anyone hunts it since you cant use a centerfire. And there's some good bucks out there!

 

[wayles]

deer

I got some private ground and then some rough ground nobody wants to tackle so I feel fortunent. Two years ago I hunted private ranch of 9000 acres, just me and my daughter on it . Corn and alalfa everywhere, Lots of water [ about 6 miles of the Niobrara river] plenty cover. Hunted it for 18 years. Then the dad died and the 3 siblings wanted it split up. The one sibling that was my friend offered the whole thing to me commercially. They wanted 8 guns at 2000 apiece, I might ought to have taken it and subleased it out but I didn't. That place was heaven to hunt
Wayles

 

[AJ]

When I got my Omega this summer, I had issues with the scope mount being parallel. I tried a couple of scopes but ran out of adjustment in a Niokon Monarch and my Kahles AH. I took off the crap Talley mount and went to a Ken Farrell mount with 20 min of taper built in. Now my gun is signted in near the center of the adjustment and it works great out to 300 yards.

The closer to the extreme you are, the more erratic the adjustments can get.