I just pruchased my first muzzleloader. A CVA Optima. I'll be sighting it in this week. How many times do you guys shoot before cleaning the barrel of a muzzleloader? And what do you do when you're done sighting in and waiting for hunting season. Nooilmaybe just a cleaning patch? With my centerfires, I don't clean them until the season is over. But I know blackpowder guns get dirty faster.
I'll be using 777 pellets and primers, and powerbelt bullets. Any tips would be appreciated.
I prefer loose powder. But 100 grains of pellets and a 295 powerbelt "for deer" would be a great starting point. If you can use sabots, a 300 grain XTP ".452 dia" in a knigh high pressure sabot with 100 grains of pellets would be an excellent load to try out. Depending on what i am shooting, i usually swab the barrel every 5-6 shots. With sabots, i can get 4 shots in the rifle before i need to swab to cut the fouling down.
Take your muzzleloader apart and clean it after you are done shooting. Make sure you use anti seize on your breech plug and "finger" tighten it.
Cayugad will help with the cleaning topic. That takes to long for me to type up
You really dont have to swab between shots. Ive never noticed any difference. I shot this 3 shot group yesterday on a dirty barrel.
Would swabbing have helped me? Doubt it.
Every rifle, bullet, powder,and shooter has their own preference on cleaning between shots. I like to let the rifle tell me what it likes by shooting a group or two with a wet patch & dry patch between each shot and a group or two without. See if there is much of a difference in group size & go from there.
As far as after shooting clean up, do it ASAP and do it thoroughly or your rifle may not last long.Follow the manufacturer's directions on how to clean the rifle and it shouldremain in good shape.That powder residue in the barrel is like leaving a wet sponge laying on unprotected steel! Shooting has burned all the oil & lube out of the barrel, and that residue is soaking up moisture quickly!
Some rifles & loads are very sensitive to a clean bore vs a fouled bore. The first shot with a clean boremay be right in the group, or it could be several inches off. If your rifle sends a shot from a clean bore way off the mark, you may have to fire a shot to foul the bore before hunting. If so, that means cleaning it at the end of the day.
I have had inlines where I could run a couple alcohol wet patches down the bore to clean the oil out, then a dry patch or two,then load & hunt with them. Unless the weather was bad a dry patch or two to clean any debris from the bore at night and I could leave it loaded for the next day. Others needed a fouling shot in the morning before loading for hunting, then a good cleanup that evening.
As for the pellets & bullet choice, the rifle will tell you quickly if it likes them. If groups suit you, then you're good to go hunting. If not, it might take some experimenting to find what bullet & powder charge gives good accuracy. Loose powder will allow you to go up or down in small (5 or 10 grain) increments to see if there is much of a change. As for bullets, there are a lot of choices - powerbelts, conicals, sabots, and a huge variety of sizes & weights. About all you can do is try them all and see which suits you as far as performance. Again, I've owned rifles that would shoot about anything well, and I've had others that liked a very specific load (and that load only!). I just sold a rifle recently that liked a Barnes Expander 250 grain bullet. Any other weight or brand bullet and groups would at least double in size! I could vary powders & charges slightly, but not bullets!
About the only way to know what will work is to put in some time shooting, so grab the rifle, head for the range, and have fun getting addicted to muzzleloading!!!!!!!!!!!!
You really dont have to swab between shots. Ive never noticed any difference. I shot this 3 shot group yesterday on a dirty barrel.
Would swabbing have helped me? Doubt it.
True, but with some load combinations it can be dangerous if you don'tcleanbecause you don't get a complete bullet seating. T7 pellets and powerbelts probably would do just fine with a swabbing between groups.
if i don't clean in between each shot, my patch/rod will get stuck in the barrel at the breech plug. there is not pulling it back out. you have to take the plug out and push the rod out of the breech. if i clean with a bruch/wet/dry inbetween each shot I'm good.
outdoorsmen. ... it sounds like maybe your patch is too dry. Or your taking too long of strokes. When I get to the breech plug area, I really slow down. Sometimes I will let that patch just bump the fowling a little at a time as I work through it. Once I do get through it, then I can do some longer strokes. There have been times where I bumped it so much that I actually tore the patch.
But you know what your doing, so use what works best for you. I swab with short strokes all the way down the barrel with the damp patch. Flip that over and repeat the process. Then work two dry patches, both sides down in the same manner...
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Sight-in and cleaning question
