Tips on getting the most out of your muzzleloader

The season is just around the corner and many have not gotten their muzzleloader ready for season. For a muzzleloader to be reliable you most keep it clean. The muzzleloader demands cleaning no matter what. The cleaning part is not hard but can be messy. I have used many of the cleaners on the market they work well, but I have plenty of hot water and dawn dish soap at home. That works as well as any of the cleaners. The bath tub works the best but make sure you clean up good, the wives can get pretty testy about a black ring of old burnt powder in the tub.

I take the gun apart and get the water good and hot. I then get the water soapy and get a cleaning rod with a bore brush. Put the end of the barrel under the water and clean from the breech end. This works great for the in-lines but the side hammer type this wont work. I plug the primer hole with a piece of tape pour a small amount of soapy water down into the barrel, and begin to swab the bore. You will be surprised and the amount of crud that will come out. Rinse with hot water and oil the bore right after you are done. The hot water gets the barrel hot enough that most of the water evaporates. The oil will stop any rust on the inside do the same of the out side and the barrel is done. I inspect my breech plug closely and clean the same way. I put a new nipple on every year. Make sure to use a liberal amount of breech plug grease on the threads of the plug. This will make latter cleaning jobs much easier. I used only oil on mine and had to send the barrel back to Knight because it pulled the threads out of the barrel. I was pleased when they fixed the barrel free of charge and told me that it would now be able to shot 150 grains of powder.

Speaking of powder there are many types on the market today. I use a black powder substitute called pyrodex in pellet form. Pellets are easier to handle and they help me reload faster, and are not as messy as loose powder. However they do have their drawbacks like cost…. they are more expensive than loose powder. Put them in upside down and you have to take the gun apart to get them out, because they will not fire unless the black part is down. They have a special coating on the bottom to ignite the pellet. They come in two sizes 50 grains or 30 grains. So if your gun and bullet combination shoot well that’s great if not you have to try other bullets or different weights.

There is a new company that makes a powder called Clean Shot. I have tried it. I love it! They offer it in 50 grain pellets and 30's now as well. But I have a box and a half of pyrodex left that I will shoot up first. The clean burn is much cleaner and you get more shots in with less fouling. This is not as important in a hunting situation but at the range it makes a difference.

I will lightly touch on the real black powder products. I don’t use them because they are harder to come by due to the license you must have to sell them. Stores like Wal-Mart and other sporting goods store don’t always carry them, but they do carry the pyrodex powders. However they do work very well and they add a touch of authenticity to shooting a hawken or a old Kentucky smoke pole. Goex is one I have tried it worked well, elephant is another type. They sell them in one lb cans normally.

What bullet or ball to shoot? Well the new in-lines will not shoot a ball very well due to the fast twist that the rifling has according to Knight Rifles. The same goes for using a sabot type in a slow twist in a hawken type rifle. According to Knight Rifle the fast twist is need to stabilize the sabot. Where a fast twist can cause some accuracy problems when shooting a round ball. A round ball loose its energy much quicker than a more aerodynamic bullet. Usually the older rifles that are not of the inline style do not have a twist suited for sabots, that is not to say that there are not rifles that have been reproduced to shot sabots with the classic look. Twist rate in the area of 1-28 are the normal for sabot.

There are many types of sight and scope that will increase the range of your black powder rifle. Note that I used the word rifle; they can shoot out to 200 yards very accurately. But I would like to say that unless you practice at this range that I would not recommend you try it. The new inline can shoot groups that rival rifles. I practice all summer with mine and it really helps when you go field to see how small a deer size target is at 150 yards +. A range finder is also very helpful if you are hunting fields. If is easy to misjudge distance with out a reference of trees or bushes.

I enjoy my black powder rifle so much that I use it instead of my shotgun, so get out,.....black powder shooting can be fun for the whole family. Take care of cleaning and you will have a very reliable gun. Good luck in your hunting season this fall.

I just bought a CVA Accura 209 Mag Muzzleloader PR3106S/.50Cal Realtree APG Thumbhole and I went to the shooting range to test it out yesterday. After the first shot, I had a lot of trouble trying to push the bullet down into the barrel, and I felt like it was sitting differently each time i reloaded the gun. I decided to clean the gun, but it still was very hard. Is this a common problem with muzzleloaders? I've never hunted with them before, but I don't feel like it should be this hard to reload the gun. Is there anyone that could give me tips, because I feel like I am fighting this gun way more than I should....
Thanks

Hello Dotsonjl,

I think that before anyone starts giving you advice, I think it would help if you let us know what kind of bullet and powder type you are shooting. That might be the only problem. Muzzleloaders today are much more accurate and durable than ever, but they still have the same problems, such as build upt from power. I have the same problem shooting a very old White inline. After a few shots at the range, I run a slightly damp cleaning cloth through a few time and then a lube wipe. That has made all the differnce for me!

Yes...Im like Bowsticker . Please tell us what you are using. For example, If you are using Sabbath's , a lot of times when barrels gets "Warm" it can make it difficult for the Plastic sleeve of the Sabbath to go down smoothly. Just for a test. The next time you shoot. Take just a little bit of vassoline on your finger and put on the ssabbath (if that is what you are using) and try that. I know a few guys that they have tried it and it has worked well for them. But get back to us and let us know exaclty what you are using.

I'm using the T/C Sabots shockwave 50 cal 250 grain bullets with Hodgen Triple 7 pellets (the 50/50 kind). Thanks for the help...

I had a feeling you were using the Sabots! Thanks for the info. Everything you listed dont sound out of line and should be fine with your gun. Clean the gun well....and try shooting again. Keeping in mind the Vasoline trick. See if that dont help you out. If so...when you load your quick loads . go ahead and put some vasonline on sabot. Then you'll be ready to go in the woods ! But hopefully...you wont need a quick load! One shot....One Kill.

Good luck buddy. Hope we were a help. Please spread the word about the site. Thanks!

Dotsonjl, swabing the bore after every shot at the range will make a huge difference in loading and accuracy. When I am sighting in my muzzleloaders, I run 1 or 2 damp patches through the bore after every shot. Then about 3 dry patches to be sure the bore is dry. After running the last patch through, I push it all the way to the bottom of the bore against the breach plug and leave the ramrod in the barrel. I then fire a primer to be sure the breach plug is dry and clear also. By having the last patch in front of the breach plug it will catch any moisture that my get into your barrel. Remove the ramrod and patch and you are ready to load for your next shot. This should make loading easier and will speed up the sighting in process. Once you have the gun sighted in, then shoot 2 or 3 shots between swabbing your barrel to see how it shoots under "field conditions". Some muzzleloaders shoot pretty good dirty and some don't.

I would stay away from petrolium products to clean your muzzleloader bore. I use T/C No.13 bore cleaner to remove powder residue and T/C Bore Butter to protect the bore after hunting season. Petrolium products can build up in you bore and cause hangfires or missfires.

Over time, Sabots can cause plastic to build up in your barrel, but you shouldn't notice any problems related to this in just a few shots. I thought I had this problem with one of my muzzleloaders, but I didn't. My gunsmith told me it would take a lot of shooting to cause a problem. He suggested using a bore cleaner that shotgunners use (Shooters Choice) to remove plastic from their barrels. At the end of every hunting season I do use this one petrolium product to get any plastic residue out, but I use tons of dry patches to be sure the oil is out. Lots of people do use petrolium products to clean their muzzleloaders and get along fine, but many have "unexplained" misfires. I have never had a problem with the products I mentioned and my muzzleloader bores look as good as the day I removed them from the box.

Some muzzleloaders are a bit difficult to load. Just be sure you are seating your sabot firmly on the pellets, but not so hard that you break them. One way to know you are seating at the same place every time is to mark your ramrod with something like a sharpie or scratch a mark on it as a guide. The next time you load your muzzleloader, seat the sabot firmly on the pellets. Leave the ramrod in the barrel on top of the sabot and place a mark on you ramrod where it is flush with the end of the barrel. This is where this load should be seated every time. If you change loads, your seating position may change also.

Hope this helps. Muzzleloading is a blast, no pun intended!!

You had to out do me huh? LOL Very good info Bone! I just gave the info that I was told from others. They have never had problem using the Petrolem method. I guess its a personal preference. I agree with swabbing it out after each shot. i do that myself. Although , with the one i have...I shoot in only once. And that s usally on the opening day with a buck in front of me. I know its in. LOL haha Good luck to all this year!

I don't think the vasoline would cause any problems unless you used a bunch of it. I am more concerned about gun cleaning oils.

I had a simlar problem getting my bullet started and felt like I was going to push the rod through my hand to get it seated. I switched to Powerbelt Bullets (Copper Series) . They made a world of difference when it came time to load and were super accurate with 100 grains of pyrodex.http://www.powerbeltbullets.com/

You can find them at Walmart too.

dotsonjl wrote:

I just bought a CVA Accura 209 Mag Muzzleloader PR3106S/.50Cal Realtree APG Thumbhole and I went to the shooting range to test it out yesterday. After the first shot, I had a lot of trouble trying to push the bullet down into the barrel, and I felt like it was sitting differently each time i reloaded the gun. I decided to clean the gun, but it still was very hard. Is this a common problem with muzzleloaders? I've never hunted with them before, but I don't feel like it should be this hard to reload the gun. Is there anyone that could give me tips, because I feel like I am fighting this gun way more than I should....
Thanks

Old post i know, but never lube your sabots!

T7 produces very heavy fouling, but worse, it creates whats called a Crud ring. This can be reduced by using a cooler winchester 777 primer or the cci inline mzl primer, but swabbing between shots is a must.

This is the hard crud ring that you try to push through, but its best to just run a damp patch down the bore to remove it and then reload.