rdish50

never thought i would purchase an in-line muzzle loader at any price..but i bought this one at gander mountain for 89.00...it only has a 24 inch barrel ..i havent tried it out yet..i know the sights are cheap,but i dont care ..i have a spare 3x9 leupold i plan to pit on it..it is a 45 caliber ...any suggestions...thoughts..how accurate?...i'm planning on shooting 80 grains of 3F...SINCE 1$ per shot for magnum loads doesnt appeal to my budget..I KNOW PUTTING A LEUPOLD ON IT IS KIND OF ODD,but what better way to see if it really shoots???

Rodsmith

My last 2 deer were taken with the CVA Hunterbolt using 100 gr of Cleanshot (loose) and 295 gr powerbelts (copper clad HP's) The 1st was an offhand shot with full pack at a distance of 65 yds (verified by GPS walk thru) only thing she gave me was the head so I took it. Pulled off the perfect "tweener" (right between the eyes) Today I went out in the crunchy stuff and found a seat looking over a big mt. laurel thicket. Watched 2 does come in and waited, and waited, and waited for them to come out in any direction, no cooperation at all. I saw 1 of them messing around in the laurel and saw a spot to take a shot, she gave me the neck and I took it. The gps had her at 321' plus/minus 19' in the error reading. Shot was true and its in the garage waiting for the knife. Spend time working up your load and practice at different ranges to see what it does. These muzzleloaders are amazingly accurate if you do your part. All this was with a 50 cal. My hunting bud has the 45 and would not throw the powerbelts with any kind of accuracy, we are talking groups of not even on the paper at times! He went to the precision bullets from up in Canada some place and he will not print better groups than mine will????? I will stay with what has been working for me and that is the PB's and cleanshot. BTW I put the Simmons pro-diamond 1.5-5 X 32 on this gun and it has performed great. I love the diamond reticle as it seems to suck you eye right to the spot. Trial and error is the name of muzzleloading but it is also the fun part. You get to shoot a bunch just to get it right. Have fun and shoot straight

rdish50

thanks for the info...even the guy at cva said the lighter .45 bullets..i believe 195 grain wouldnt shoot well in the .45.....sounds like yours shoots very well...if i understand you properly you shot your deer in the neck at about 100 yds....maybe i should just try these precision bullets from canada right off the bat....do you have the 24 inch barrel also?...you wouldnt happen to know what grain bullet he was using?......thanks for the reply

Rodsmith

My apologies if I mislead. I shoot the 50 cal with the Powerbelts out of a hunterbolt mag. My pardner shoots te .45 and on the range he prints a far superior pattern than I. He does shoot the precision bullets but I dont like (nor do my gunz) the sabots at all. My gun will not load the 2nd round without standing on it (his is not far behind using the 777) With the PB's I can sit at the bench and shot 10 rounds and be consistant by only running a spit patch down the barrel. In the field it is a much different story, 1 Shot IS your 1 Kill !!!!!.

Rodsmith

I just reread my initial post and must make a correction. "he will NOW print better patterns than I can" Sorry for the FU

kevin1

Rdish50 ,
see my post in the "Buying a ml" thread .

davidmor

I have a 50 cal. Hunterbolt Magnum that I used for the first time this year and took 3 deer with it. One at 75 yds, one at 120 yds, and one at 130 yds. All three were hit exactly where I aimed and none of the deer went more than 20 yards from where they were hit. I used the 295gr powerbelts and 100gr of Pyrodex powder. When I was sighting it in, I was able to shoot cloverleafs at 100yards all day long with this load and bullet. I was shooting 5 shots then running a dry patch down the barrel one time, then shooting again. It is a very accurate gun, once I get a fowling shot through it. The first shot through a clean gun is way off. It shoots about 7" off center at 50 yards with a clean barrel.

This was my first year with a ML, and after using a shotgun, this has become my new favorite gun! Have fun with your new gun, and enjoy finding that perfect combo. That is half the fun....

rdish50

WOW!...APPARENTLY YOU GOT THE RESULTS WE EXPECTED,but didnt get..we shot all day yesterday at the range..me and my brother...we are experienced hunters and shooters...but couldnt get good grouping from either my .45 cal 209 huntermag with 225 grain bullets,or my bro's 50 cal TC with different bullet weights all the way yp to 295...we were using pyrodex and power belt bullets and varied the powder at 5 grain intervals from 60 grains to 100 grains of powder and got groups averaging ANYWHERE FROM 7" TO 18"...WE WERE DISAPPOINTED TO SAY THE LEAST...we had no trouble obtaining a 1" group from my remington .270....dont know what the problem is,but it is something big!.....even 4" groups would have been acceptable...thanks for your input however...and maybe someone can tell us what is wrong with our loading,rifles,bullet-powder combination as we surely dont know..thanks!

Boss 1 Impact

I bought this gun about three years ago for $149 in camo/nickel and it is sweet. I can cut the same hole @ 100yds. Farthest shot so far is about 125 yds. I have no problem with the gun. I let my buddy use mine this year and I used his Rem ML and couldn't keep the bolt in it and eventually lost it. I told him he needs to lock tight the set screw. The CVA doesn't even think of malfunctioning....good luck.

rdish50

thanks for your reply..what kind of load did you use?...evidently i am doing something real wrong....i went to the range and using powerbelt bullets..i beleive they were 225 grain and eighty to 100 grains of 3f pyrodex...my gun is 45 caliber...i couldnt even get a 6 inch group ..my best was 7 inches and way larger ..like 18 inches...i varied the charge by 5 grain increments....but to no avail...i can do much better with patched roundballs in my thompson centers...the cva functoned o.k....no trouble getting the shots off..but accuracy is unacceptable......what do you think...so far powerbelts for me are unjustified $1.oo per shot uselessness