N.H. Hunter

Has anyone actually gotten their hands on one of these yet ....? I' m going to IL in December and want to get an inline rifle. I like the Omega ... but the specs on the winchester apex are tempting ..... If anyone has had a chance to check one out yet, I be very interested in hearing your opinions .........thanks in advance .....

Big Buck Brannigan

I just bought an apex and haven' t shot it yet. I do know that functionally it is pretty good. The primer can be installed and extracted easily by hand. One of the problems I' ve encountered with 209 primers is that they don' t seat easily and can fail to discharge on the first try. They other problem is that they are hard to remove which greatly complicates a follow-up shot. They apex doesn' t have these problems. Should be very easy to service also.

Triple Se7en

I came within 48 hours of buying the Apex until I uncovered an article which stated the Omega barrel is the same strength steel as the T/C Encore. Both of these guns/barrels have been approved by SAAMI centerfire shooting sports association. Winchester Muzzleloading/BPI/CVA was not on that list. That' s when I opted for the T/C Omega.

driftrider

It' s interesting that you point out the barrel strength and SAAMI specs. I recently found an article on Chuck Hawks' website about the level of proofing and rated pressure limits of " magnum" muzzleloaders. The author talks about how most imported muzzleloaders are proofed to pressures much lower than those common to muzzleloaders with magnum charges and/or heavy bullets. These guns are only proofed to roughly 9,900psi, but a 150 grain charge of Pyrodex can exceed 20,000psi of pressure. He' s talking about ml' s proofed in Spain, but it got me to thinking that there are manufacturers (like CVA, Winchester, and Traditions) out there who are stating that their guns are capable of accepting charges far above the max pressures tested by the proofing house.

Anyway, after reading the article I think I' ll stick with American made and proofed muzzleloaders like Knight or T/C. I was considering getting a Winchester APEX or maybe a CVA Hawkin kit gun, but not anymore.

If you want to read more about what I' m talking about, the article can be found at http://www.chuckhawks.com/unsafe_muzzleloaders.htm . It' ll definately make you think twice about packing a 150gr. load into your imported gun.

Mike

Triple Se7en

driftrider

In reference to what you said about barrel strengths, I think the Spaniard barrels will hold up fine with normal recommended loads & I really like the feel & design of both the Winchester X-150 and the Apex, but just in the last six months, I have read around 5 posts where posters accidently used two bullets or used double powder charges by mistake. Stress cracks, welds ruptures & bulging barrels can get pretty scary with your face inches away from the barrel.

In the last 13 years, I have loaded a muzzleloader around 1500 times. Only once did I forget something by not putting a bullet in with my powder. When I fired, I had a narrow stream of fire on the ground for 10-15 yards.

We all make mistakes in this world & I' m overdue to make a dangerous one. I just want to be plenty sure that I can trust my firearm should I ever " double-load" anything... especially with magnum charges. As soon as I found out Omegas are SAAMIs, I started lookin' for dealers. Now I kinda' wish I spent $200 more on the Encore and purchased two aftermarket barrels (20 gauge shotgun) & (.308 centerfire). Oh well.... maybe in a couple more years.

trac209

I own a traditions muzzleloader and I looked for the psi rating stamp the artical talks about and I found no pressure related stamp at all. My rifle is supposed to handle 150 gr powder charge,but I have never loaded it to that.I find it hard to believe that a company would sell a rifle that could be unsafe.Maybe those stamps are an insurance policy for the spainard company to not be responsible for the rifle beyond a certain point.The must be tested in the U.S to the standards they claim the gun can handle.I would think that by now we would have had a serious red flag thrown up.There are tens of thousands of these rifles out there and I have never heard of a barrel exploding due to a design flaw.If you know of any such incidents I would like to hear it.