New to muzzleloaders - looking for advice

tsaxybabe · 03-18-2010, 10:17 AM

Hi, this past year was my first time hunting, and I shot my fiance's muzzleloader once (at a deer, but I missed @ 142yds..I didn't aim up high enough). The recoil didn't bother me at all, I didn't even notice it. A couple days ago I decided to buy my own muzzleloader so we could both hunt early ML season together. I got a Traditions Vortek with the thumbhole, very gently used. It looks brand new. I was wondering if any of you had experience with this gun or advice for me about it, such as what type of bullets, powder, etc would work best, and what type of scope I should put on it. Anything else you want to mention is greatly appreciated too! Thanks

dburns51 · 03-18-2010, 11:24 AM

tasaxybabe
Congrats on the new Traditions and welcome to the site. I am a newbie to ml myself. This site offers a lot of great advice and I have and am gaining quite a bit of ml knowledge. While you are waiting on the replies to your post you might want to look through the historical posts and glean some knowledge from past posts.

cayugad · 03-18-2010, 12:57 PM

That rifle is very near the same as my Genesis except a different action. All I can tell you is with two pyrodex 50 grain pellets and 250 grain Barnes Expander MZ projectile in the supplied sabots, my Genesis will really shoot some impressive groups.

Give them a try. Also if you want to shoot loose powder, start with Pyrodex RS. Try around 90-110 grains of powder. Start with some 250 grain XTPs, Shockwaves, and some Speer Gold dots. See which the rifle likes. Then all you can do is practice. Welcome to the sport. And for what it is worth, 142 yard shot is no cake walk for any one. I probably would have missed also. I never shoot that far.

50calty · 03-18-2010, 06:50 PM

Well if you can have a scope. I would say get the Nikon Omege Muzzleloader scope. So far I have had nothing but good luck with it. The cost is about 250 I got mine for 200.

tsaxybabe · 03-20-2010, 04:39 PM

Well I got a Burris scope for $150. I'm not exactly sure which one -my fiance picked it up for me. I will get some Barnes bullets if I can find them and then I'll try whatever he uses in his, too. Thanks for the advice.

SWThomas · 03-20-2010, 06:25 PM

+2 on the Nikon Omega scope. I really love mine and the extra eye relief is awesome. I use nothing but Blackhorn 209 powder so I won't be much help with comparing others.