So, I finally got to make a bit of smoke today. I was just plinking at a cardboard box, around 25 yards away- basically introducing myself to the ML. All bullets from Cabelas, all in crush-rib sabots.
777 (FF) 90g pushing a Hornady .458 300gr HP bullet: modest kick, easy to load. This will be my starting point for a whitetail round.
Same charge with a mighty Remington 45-70 405gr flat-point- after finally getting the bullet seated (which took grunting, sweating, swearing, leaning and other antics that I don't plan to repeat), definite increase in kick. If I had a staff of loaders on hand
I would like to use this, but it's just too much work! Looks like my reloading buddy just scored 98 free bullets. Hope he loads 45-70.
I met Mr. Crud Ring for the first time, and I have to say I'm not too fond of him. He snuck in after the second shot. I tried to ignore him but after the third shot, he just wouldn't leave me alone... I think I'm going to have to at least run a saturated patch every shot. (I had been shooting without cleaning specifically so that I could see how many shots I could get... answer is two, three at absolute most).
The Pursuit is a break-open model with removable breechplug... cleaning, even for one as new to this ML as I am, was ten relaxed minutes. Compared to my old ML (fixed and the breechplug was either not removable or required tools that I lacked, I forget which), this thing is a summer dream to clean.