New Muzzleloader

I had no idea that shopping for a muzzleloader would be so difficult!  There are several different brands and then each brand has several different models.  I finally decided that I wanted a lightweight version, but then I still needed to decide on the brand.

I saw a decent CVA on sale at Cabelas with a scope for $429.99 and went to buy it, but they didn't have it in stock although it was one of the featured items in the flyer that week.  Evidently with no muzzleloader season, Texas isn't a hot spot to sell muzzleloaders.

I then found a Traditions Vortek on sale at Gander Mountain and they actually had it in stock.  It was already $100 off their retail price, but they were confused whether it should have a free scope or iron sights or what so they ended up knocking another $20 off on top of that.  So I walked out with it for $380 which seemed like a pretty good deal.

I've had a $50 gift card for Bass Pro Shops for almost 2 years now and never can decide on something that I want from them that is worth the shipping so I used it to buy one of the Nikon Inline XR scopes.  They seemed to be about the same price everywhere I looked so saving $50 sounded good and I got it ordered.

Next went back to Cabelas and got what I thought I needed to shoot the thing and confusion reigned even more.  What powder? What bullet? What cleaning and lubricating solutions?  I started a thread and got some good advice and ended up picking up what I thought I needed.

Here it all is except for the scope.

Turns out I bought the wrong primers and I didn't need the breech plug lube with the Blackhorn powder so after a few more trips to Cabelas I had what I needed to shoot it.

I have a 100 yard range setup at my house and after the scope came in I got out and sent a few rounds downrange.  First few were at 25 yards then out to 100 yards and got it sighted in pretty quick really.  Fired a total of 9 shots and didn't clean it once.  Evidently that's almost an impossibility with most blackpowder substitutes, but the Blackhorn evidently burns super clean.

Last 2 shots were on the bullseye at 100 yards so I decided to give it a rest and a good cleaning.  Everything cleaned up nicely and overall I really liked it.  Seemed pretty accurate and kind of fun pouring the powder down the barrel and all that jazz.

I still need to get back to the range a couple times before the season starts, but this for sure got me at least on target.  Next time I'll try to step it out to a couple hundred yards and see what it does then.