Bigtimer

I have a question for you all. I have a nearly new CVA Optima Pro 50 cal. If I clean my gun real well and shoot it, the POI is about 4 inches high. Now the second shot is in or very near the bullseye. Every shot thereafter is dead on as long as I don't swab or clean between shots. Why is this happening? It's as if my gun likes a dirty barrel?????

BTW, I'm shooting 250 gr Nosler .451 HPs,
110 grains of Blackhorn 209
Winchester W209 primers

I'm about ready for a change. I want a muzzleloader that I can depend on. What would you all get????? Budget is around a grand for the gun, scope, rings and bases!!!!!! BTW, I'm a southpaw! I don't care for bolt guns (lefty) but willing to try anything that will go bang and hit where I'm aiming every time. I ain't askin for much am I?????

Muley Hunter

This is pretty normal. The good thing is you won't hurt a thing by hunting with a dirty barrel if you use BH 209.

Something about a shot on a clean barrel that's not consistent.

sabotloader

Bigtimer

Holy cow! It has been a long time since I saw you posting....

That really does not sound like a good situation... I mean I expect the first shot from a squeaky clean barrel to be of an inch or so but 4" inches seems extreme to me....

The only thing that i would start off thinking it has to be a bore related problem. I am wondering if you might have some fouling build up of some sort in the bore.

Normally from what I read an Accura is a pretty decent gun. Have you contacted CVA Customer Service?

I am not sure I would be looking to spend the money for a gun right now until I got a decent answer to what is going on with the Accura...

One more question... what about the fit of the sabot and projectile to the bore? In fact which sabot are you shooting?

OOP's another question you say a .451 250 grain Nosler... I thought the 250 grain Nosler was a .429 and the 260 was a .451...

Bigtimer

Hey Mike!!!!!! I intend to call CVA in the morning and as far as the sabots, they are MMP 24 and the bullet is the 260 grain. So send me you address so that I can send you a blank check!

BuckDoeHunter

What do you do to your barrel before shooting it the first time? What helped me was to run a dry patch down the bore followed by a denatured alcohol patch and then another dry patch. Then I snap off at least two primers.

sabotloader

Ok that makes more sense to me now... Loading does it feel as tight as it did going down you older gun?

And DoeHunter did ask a good question that I did not address. I do mine a little bet different in that I use Montana X-Treme bore conditioner in my barrels and put very little oil in the bore. So I just pop 3-4 primers run a dry patch and shoot that first one and normally I will be around an inch off my fouled barrel shots. And if you remember I am shooting T7 but still I never clean the bore until after the season. I do run a windex patch and so I claim I am shooting a semi-fouled barrel.

With BH you could get away with this a lot easier and with less worry than I have... Shooting BH - you really never need to run a patch after shooting - just keep pouring the powder to it. You do have to clean the flash channel in the BP.... which comes to another question - has your breech plug been modified to shoot BH more consistently?

Next question... in one of your posts did you not say that you could not maintain a group? Have you fixed that problem?

Bigtimer

Not try to be a smartazz but the first shot at the range is to simply get the barrel dirty . Our season opens this Saturday so I ran 1 dry patch down the barrel after my range session today and that's it. My barrel will stay dirty throughout the season. The only other way would be to shoot the gun one time before heading to the stand and that's really not an option and 4:00am. I hope that I answered your question.

lemoyne

This quite often depends on what you put in your barrel to preserve it from rust.
Some oils are hard to get out and affect how the gun shoots for the first few shots.
I would not use Rem oil as it has Teflon in it. I like Montana X Bore preservative but as with many others it is a chore to get it all out. I shoot 3 primers after cleaning with alcohol and #9 in a 50 /50 mix the shoot 3 more the clean again. I only do this for hunting as I just fire the first shot into the berm instead of shooting at the target.

sabotloader

Basically you are doing the same thing I do... and it works - it works...

Bigtimer

Mike, after the barrel is fouled I am dead on. The sabot and bullet are EXTREMELY difficult to get loaded. They are real tight!