I' ve had my muzzleloader for 5 years and have allways used pyrodex pellets. It is a remington 700ml bolt action using no.11 caps. I put a scope on it last year and really enjoyed shooting the rifle with the scope. It was first time ever using a scope. After reading so much about 777 I thought i would try the 777 pellets.At the store the salesman pointed out how much more economical loose 777 was compared to the pellets. So I bought the loose. Would any of you folks have any suggestions for someone using this powder for first time.

Since I own the exact same Ml as you and just switched to T7, the first thing I will suggest is get the 209 primer conversion kit for your ML to switch from Number 11' s. I actually hunted with the pellet form this year but tried both and go back to the loose and try for next fall. First of all if you have a 100 gr pyro load combo work out, try 90 gr of T7 and move up in 5' s. I found 100 grains with my hornady xtp (240Gr) in pellet form shot very well but for some reason I lost a tad accuracy with the loose & 100 gr...hence why I stuck with pellets. Now I am not saying this will happen in your case but I just ran out of time and went with what worked/shot best. I would also reccomend you buy speed loaders for placing the loose podwer in your ML, they will eliminate a lot of problem while in the field. I found that bullet seating pressure with loose is more critical than pellets, again this could be just mio but I marked a line on my ramrod with liquid paper so I ensured I was properly seated each time. While on the range I found that dry swabbing the barrel after each shot held my groups and didn' t show any build up or leave the " crud ring" some have found with T7. I also run a patch soaked with breakfree down after cleaning let it sit for a few minutes and dry swab, seemed to make it easier to clean up for me. If you shoot a lot, remove the breech plug while hot and use something on the thread sites of the nipple and breech plug. Clean up is a snap, no smell and less kick.

Good Luck[8D]

Skeeter 7mm thanks for the imformative reply.I got a couple more questions. Have you tried the 777 with 11 caps? While shooting at the range do you need to remove breech plug each time to dry swab the barrel. The main reason i want to switch to 777 is the ease of cleaning. I really enjoy shooting the rifle. Even more since I added the scope. Easy cleaning means more trips to the range.

biscuit, no I never did but knew a few who did and switched to 209. I needed to replace my nipple anyways, so I just decided to switch to 209 and then tried the T7. I never removed the breech, just ran a dry swab down and back out then reloaded. If you leave it to cool or more than one shot you may not be able to pull it out and have to push straight through-saw that happen on a number of occasions with other shooters. I am not saying this is the only way but for me I found it provided better accuracy and I never had any crud build up when using T7.

I shoot 777 in all my MZ' s and use musket caps on a couple with real good results. Tried shooting 777 pellets the other day and the musket caps didn' t light em too well. Reminded me of shooting my first Hawken----snap-bang.

Roger46982

Triple Se7en pellet powder is not recommended for side-hammers. Buy 777 FFF loose & get ready for instantaneous ignition with higher velocities/energy, no smell & less complications with final cleanings.