ORIGINAL: philnie
Hi All,
I'm a new muzzleloader in Washington State and have been working through all the rifle/powder/bullet options available and legal to shoot in my state. Many thanks to all posting here as I've learned more reading this forum than eveything combined on all the muzzleloader company web sites. I'll be going for deer first and if all goes well will try elk next year too.
I'm planning toget one of the White Ultra Mags ifavailable or perhaps a Knight bighorn/wolverine if none are left. What's confusing me is what powder to use - given Wa Fish & Wildlife regs, I assume no smokeless (muzzleloader) rifles are legal ...
At first I figured to use Triple 7 powder as its reportedly better then Pyrodex, but then read Triple 7 leaves some crud ring (roughly at the powder to projectile interface I recall).
I've heard about Goex and the newerBlack Max (I think that's the name!) being slightly better than Triple 7?
I'll probably start off w/ the medium grain conicals, but will also check out the highly recommended Buffalo SSBs too. What powder do you all use in similar conditions and why?Any reduced cleaning, ease of (re)loading, and/or follow up accuracydetails aremost welcome.
thanks again!
phil
GOEX
makes black powder, and sells "Pinnacle", a BP substitute made by
American Pioneer, which also sells their own stuff. Both of these types of powder are similar, and cleaner than T7. I have heard that Black Mag3 is excellent, and will try some as soon as I can find it locally.
Another excellent (probably the best BP in the world) powder is
Swiss Black Powder, a true BP with all the smoke & smell you need to sniffto become a truly addicted ML guy, but cleaning is a little moe difficult when you use a true black powder. Swiss is a "sporting rifle" powder, very powerful and accurate, and a trifle cleaner burning than GOEX.
And, contrary to what a lot of people say, Pyrodex is quite acceptable. I can shoot all afternoon with Pyrodex and not have to wipe the bore between shots, as
MOST of the solids resulting from Pyrodex combustion are blown out of the barrel, whereas when using BP, most crap deposits itself on the inside surface of your gun's bore....
American Pioneer and Pinnacle are both quite clean, and cleaning your rifle after a days shooting is a snap with either of these powders.
ALL ML MUST be cleaned well on the same day you fire them, and both BP and Pyrodex require a lot more work to get all the fouling out of the bore and off of the external steel parts, which is absolutely mandatory to prevent rust.
I believe you will be pleased with a White!!