Questions for Wolf owners.
 

I am planning on setting up a CVA Wolf for my wife to use. Looking at using either 250 or 300 grain Shockwaves and 777 3f loose powder. I do not want the gun to punish her or scare her away from using it, took me a long time to convince her to make the switch from her .308 to a muzzleloader. Figured I would work up a accurate load in the 80-100gr. range and need to know if the 250 or 300 would be a better choice. She will be hunting whitetails in Michigan and her shots would be out to 125 yards or so with a chance at maybe 150 during rare instances. I could use the 200 gr. if need be just figured the heavier bullets would retain as much energy as possible with a lower powder charge.

Any suggestions you all could provide would be greatly appreciated!

My girl friend is shooting 250 grain shockwave and 100 grains of powder out og rem genesis. works fine. i actually shot a deer last year at 130 yards and the deer went maybe 50 yards. The powder is pellets

I have the Wolf, but I shoot the 295 grain Powerbelt. I push it with 80 gains of 777 loose powder. No kick at all. My wife wants to try shooting it sometime, and I told her today that we should go shoot it tomorrow since we both have the day off, and I need to shoot it anyways.

Zrider,

If your wife is used to shooting a 12 ga shotgun (single shot or pump) then I think a maximum of 80 grains of 3f T7 with 250 shockwave will have similar recoil. The Wolf is light weight and as a consequence has greater recoil than the same load in a heavier rifle. 80 grains is sufficient to propel the 250 shockwave to 1748 and so it would be good out to 150 yards for sure.

If she is new to shooting, I would do this. Go to the range with her to work up the load. And just do it like if you didn't already know what charge the groups open. Start with 50 or 60 grains and shoot 50 yards for groupings. At 50 grains the recoil should be about 1/2 a 12 guage shotgun. Like twice a .243. Let her group them and if no complaint about recoil go up 5 or 10 grains. If you notice her rub her shoulder, its time to stop but go down 5 or 10 grains from that charge the next time out and sight further out and get an idea how it shoots at the further ranges.

You may find 100 grains doesn't faze her or you may find that she is uncomfortable with 80 grains. 50 grains doesn't sound like much powder but it will propell the 250 SW to 1380 fps. If there is an 80 percent chance her hunting shot will be within a 100 yards then it would be pretty flat shooting and deliver 700 ft lbs at 120 yards. I mention that not as a suggestion but if you get out there and she makes comment that it has some kick at 50 grains (3f T7), you really do already have load which will kill deer out to 120 yards if placed well. So if she says it kicks but it doesn't hurt don't think you can't work with that lighter load. I think I would go with an XTP though if you go lighter than 80 grains (as opposed to the SW).

Shot placement is the most important thing so as long as any load she is comfortable with shoots with precision in her hands, then she will be successful and will enjoy it. Good luck to you on introducing your wife to muzzleloading. Hope you have many enjoyable hunts together.

Zrider, I'm sorry I didn't notice that she is already experienced with the 308 Winchester. With a 150 grain bullet and 2800 fps (roughly 40 grains smokeless powder) it would have the recoil of about 3/4 a 12 gauge shotgun (16 ft-lbs). So that gives you a reference of what she is already used to. That would be roughly 60 grains of 3f T7 with a 250 grain bullet. So you could start there because you know she is used to that amount of recoil.

80 grains under a 250 grain shockwave would be an excellent load granting it shoots well from your gun.

Thanks to everyone so far. She shot my dad's Optima with 100 gr. APP and a 250 Shockwave and said it kicked a bit. If I can keep it under that I think she will be OK. She hunts with a .308 but does not do alot of shooting, she is a naturally great shot. Makes most of the guys in the family as well as our friends green with envy at her abilities with a rifle.