Well took the Apex out today.

Oh my! She's a shooter and a keeper.

I have to be honest, I just didn't see all the hoopla about inline muzzleloading until today. Wow. What a pleasure it was.

I decided to follow what I preach and shoot some conicals to start. I shot 270 ballets with 80 3f Goex. Prior to shooting the Apex I shot 375 SSB's out of the Sidekick with 80 gr 3f Goex. I was surprised find as much recoil from the Apex as the Sidekick because the Apex is heavier and the Ballet is lighter. The only explanation I can give is that the Sidekick had an additional recoil pad on her and the extra barrel length of the Apex lead to higher muzzle velocities than I would normally get from the Sidekick with the same load. I didn't chrony the load but I might tomorrow.

I set a target at 25 yards and set the elevation the first major grad from bottom. I wanted to see what the drop per grad is for the open sights. I shot three shots, all touched. Then I moved the rear sight 3 major grads. There are 3 minor grads per major grad on the Apex rear sight. Shot 3 more times, again 3 touching holes, 2 almost right on top the other. 9 minor grads lifted point of impact 4.5 inches at 25 yards. This is precisely 2 MOA per grad. So one minor grad is 1/2 inch at 25 yards, 1" at 50 yards, 1.5" at 75 yards, and of course 2" at 100 yards. Perfect!

Did some more fine tuning with the sights. The final 3 shots were a 2" group at 75 yards (a little under 3 MOA). This with the fiber optic sights which is basically what I get from the sidekick. I am very impressed cuz I'm not that great a shot, no bags, just resting on carpet laid over a boulder.

This is gonna be my load, I think, for my hunt in OK next week with my dad. Was planning to takethe sidekick, but the Apex will get the pleasure if the opportunity is afforded me to discharge the rifle at game.

What impressed me most is that I had ZERO blowback. When I brought the rifle home, I dropped the breech and show my wife. She said, "I though you were going out to shoot". I said, "I did,, I did" . The breech was totally clean. I am so not worried about the firing pin mech and the scope I'll be puttin on her. What a pleasure it was to shoot. Every time I dropped the breech, POP!, out came the 209 , I didn't have to dig or pry, literally never touched a 209 to remove it from the breech plug.

Looking forward to posting more as I learn more. But this is pretty much it for now.