The biggest disadvantage about the use of smokeless powders in the 10ML-II is that it may not be legal to use smokeless in your state during the established muzzleloading season. Make sure you check your state rules and regulations. And never shoot smokeless pwoder in any muzzleloader but the Savage 10ML-II.
One of the biggest detractors of out of the box accuracy for the 10ML-II is that the bore is somewhat rough, due to the button rifling method used by Savage, especially in the stainless models. The first thing that I did to all 7 of mine, and I recommend to everyone who buys one, is to lap the bore atleast 200 passes with J&B bore cleaning compound, to smooth the bore and take the sharp edges off the lands. It is much easier to do this, than to shoot the 10ML-II enough for the lands to naturally smooth out. Their are several powders that produce good top excellent results in the 10ML-II, but the bullets that seem to perform the best are the .452 Hornady 250gr and 300gr XTP's. The MMP and Hornady high pressure and high velocity sabots perform the best in the 10ML-II.
The advantages of using smokeless powder, and the Savage 10ML-II, is that you can get a very wide range of performance, for many different applications. You can use smokeless powders, BP, Pryodex, or any other of the BP subsitutes. You can tone down smokeless powder loads to equal the performance of BP, Pyrodex, and other subistutes or you can jack the velocity up to 2,600 FPS plus. With the 10ML-II you can shot it year round, with smokeless pwoder to equal preformance of a BP or Pyrodex load, then use BP or Pyrodex for the muzzleloading season if smokeless is not legal, then switch back after the season or during regular gun season.
Maintenace is much less of a hassel with smokeless powder, clean up takes less than 5 minutes, and is not really required at all after a day on the range. I hunted the first week of October this year here in eastern NC, just wiped the outside down, never cleaned it, then went this morning for the opening day of the central muzzleloading season and shot a nice 4 pointer at 7am. Never cleaned it the entire month from eastern to central muzzleloading season.
On a lot of muzzleloading forum or boards, the shear mention of the Savage 10ML-II will bring forth the more traditional mind and muzzleloader hunters and shooters with a vengence. They make the point, and a good one, that the muzzleloading seasons were establish, so that they, key word is they, have a a set apart season so that they and their their liked minded, can hunt in peace with their flintlocks and at most a sidelock percussion. They see, inlines in general and the Savage 10ML-II in particular, as a cancer on the the muzzleloading sport. A few go so far as to assume, and in extreme case stating, that anyone hunting with an inline is a non-hunter, just some lazy slob who is out for another week in the woods and to fill another tag. As one who has hunted with flintlock, sidelocks, inline percussion, and now the 10ML-II. I take a little offense as such broad, uninformed, and assuming statements. I beleive to each his own, they all load from the muzzle. I will diligently defend the right or privlage a trad to hunt with his or her flintlock, but I have doubts if very many would do the same for me to enusre I can hunt with my 10MLs or 10ML-IIs. Since the first inlines really hit the market back in the late 1980's, the number of hunter who have taken up the sport of muzzleloading has jumped from about 400,00 to about 2.5 million. Seasons and bag limits for the most part, have been expanded. To my knowledge, no state has eliminated the muzzleloading season or seasons, because of the inlines or the increase of the number of hunters. For the most part, I guess muzzleloaders are techies to a certian degree. They want positive ignition, consistent performance, and clean killing power.
If you want to check into the Savage 10ML-II more, check out the site about the 10ML-II. You can get tons of information and feel free to ask questions that you might have.
http://www.dream-tools.com/tools/mes...gemuzzleloader
Edited by - 1SHOT_1KILL on 11/09/2002 22:22:00