Muzzleloader headache

[HNTNBUX]

I am going out of state on a muzzleloader hunt this fall and decided to put a scope on my T/C Triumph that I had used with the iron sights before. I thought it shot pretty well with iron sights so I was surprised when I put a Leupold Ultimate Slam scope with Leupold rings and bases on it and could not get anything better than 4-5 inch groups at 100 yards. I was using Triple 7 pellets and T/C Shockwaves which caused a nasty crud ring. I am a pretty laid back guy except when it comes to accuracy with my equipment. I was mad and worried that the scope was bad or mounted wrong because I did not remember having problems while shooting with iron sights. I checked the rings and bases and remounted the scope myself after having the gunshop mount the scope.

After some research I went to Cabelas this morning and got all the equipment to shoot Blackhorn 209 instead of pellets slong with three different types of bullets, sabots and new primers.

The started with 100 grains of powder and Hornady XTP's at 25 yards. The first three shots were three inches high, in one hole and dead center. Moved out to 100 and tried 100 grains of powder with Harvester sabots and Hornady FTX 250 grain bullets. The first three shots were less that 1.5 inches. I adjusted the scope and the next three put two in the same hole and one just to the right for about an inch group in the bullseye. With the crosswinds today I thought that was just plain amazing. Just for fun I loaded up the same combo and used the 200 yard aiming dot to target a 200 yard steel plate. I missed just low and watched the impact as there is such little smoke from this powder.

After that I was freezing and decided to go home. Next time out I will try some of the other bullets, try a little more velocity or find the proper scope setting to match my current velocity. After the day I had on Wednesday I am happy with the results and now know why everyone brags about BH Powder. I did not even have to swab the barrel between shots or groups. The extra time used measuring powder was more than off set by not having to swab the barrel and will be much better for hunting applications. I will now consider myself a BH convert. Loose powder was much easier than I anticipated.

[Boar]

cool gonna look into that, then I suppose you can measure out for sveral speed loads an carry with you. Cool great info to know. Thanks for posting

[huntnfish]

When I hunted with a muzzleloader I always used loose powder and never felt like it was any more of a pain than the pellets. I could fine tune the load to get it where I wanted and the chances of another shot are slim no matter what your using for powder. When I start hunting with a ML again I had planned on checking out the BH powder. I've heard a lot of good things. The biggest pain of hunting with the ML was the cleaning after a shot.