Chris, How was the clean up? The gun looks like it could get blow back on the extractor/ rolling block the would be a pain to clean
Clean up was a breeze. The trigger and action assembly drops out the bottom as one unit. I just took some brake cleaner and blew it out clean as a whistle. I then sprayed it with some Rem oil.
I finally saw one of these today at Sportsmans Warehouse. Really liked the look of it, but it seemed kinda busy. What I mean is all the "stuff" you had to do to open it, reload it, get the hammer set, etc. And I could see a lot of potential for messing up a reload in the cold, with gloves or in a hurry. The primer could easily fall somewhere it isn't suppose to be. (I do realize this can happen in other designs as well, but this rifle makes it easier to do IMO). Especially in a real hunting situation. And these reasons were enough for me to be a bit concerned.
I did like the rest of the rifle, as Chris W. says above, it handled nice and was balanced. I did like the fact that the entire trigger assembly does come out easy for possible adjustment and cleaning. And I'm sure it is accurate. I was hoping this would be the rifle I was looking for, but as I was looking at it, an "old timer" who shoots MLs pointed out the primer reloading and trigger (and trigger tab) challenges that could present itself while in the field.
I was kinda disappointed honestly... my hopes were dashed a bit as my concerns grew. Practice can help a lot, I know, but in a heated moment where the big bull is still standing at 75 yards after the first shot... which one of the 6-8 reloading steps am I going to forget or screw up. So now I'm back to looking for a simpler design. But that's just me. YMMV. ;-)
Personally, I don't think the reloading steps are much busier than other muzzleloaders I've shot. Overall, I foundreloading to be fairly quick. Pull the hammer back, pull the block back, pour powder, seat bullet, insert primer, close block, flip hammer safety forward and fire. Only one more step in comparison withmy CVA optima. The only thing I can see having to get use to is flipping the pivoting hammer saftey forward before the shot. Inserting the primer into the block action wasdone easily today, but I wasn't wearinggloves either.It might be and issue with really bulky gloves. I'm not sure what trigger and trigger tab challengesyou're referring to?