Bought one from fin feather and fur today. Paired it with a 4x12 vortex scope. Any one have one? Good reviews? What powder/bullet setups do you guys use?
i have the v2 and love the gun but haven't got to use it on a deer yet. i bought the thumb hole stock with the scope, but right off hand i don't remember the power's on the scope. but it shoots great and is the easiest ml i have ever cleaned. right now I'm using 150 grns of pyrodex 3 50 grn pellets and 250 grn cva slickloads. but you cant get the slickloads any more so when mine are gone i'll be looking for something else.
sherman
I have one bought it last year killed a doe and was pleased. But I started using Black Horn 209 70 gr by weight with a Barnes 250 gr T-EZ FB . They were 2 in high at 100 yds. Like the gun a lot very light and easy to clean. I want to try some different loads before Muzzy season if the weather lets me.
I love mine. I took the scope off that came with it and put fiber optic rifle sights on it,just my preference for how I hunt. I shoot 100 grains of 777 and 250 grains powerbelt aerolites and it shoots great. I think you'll be pleased.
yeah i checked and mine has the thumbhole stock with the konus 3x10x44 scope on it. i have one of the tc encore ml's and its a great deer gun. but i just like the v2 i have and been hunting with it the last few yrs.
sherman
MY wife surprised me with a optima v2 this weekend for my birthday. I’m excited for the challenge and learning experience. I did order the cva blackhorn 209 breech plug yesterday. I’m stoked to get out and shoot it.
Smitty, when you put that new breech plug in the rifle the first time , you have to seat it as tight as you can , then remove it and do the entire process over about 3 times before you ever close the gun. Otherwise you will have trouble opening the gun because the breech plug will not be seated all the way. Don't forget that with the BH 209 powder you will have to use regular 209 shotgun primers not ones designed for black power.
I have one bought it last year killed a doe and was pleased. But I started using Black Horn 209 70 gr by weight with a Barnes 250 gr T-EZ FB . They were 2 in high at 100 yds. Like the gun a lot very light and easy to clean. I want to try some different loads before Muzzy season if the weather lets me.
What kind of scale do you have to measure it by weight? Most of the reviews I have read said that they get better consistentcy with the blackhorn by weighing it rather than measure it by volume.
Lundy posted the type of powder scale he uses on a thread in the Bucks and Does forum. Thread is titled: Muzzleloader shooting SST Hornady/ Thompson performance.
FWIW, there's some good info on shooting BH in general in that thread also. Too, I have the same rcbs scale and use it Spot checking powder weights when loading pistol cartridges with turret loader and will also vouch that its a good scale.
Lundy's post about scale he uses:
I use Blackhorn 209 in one of my MZ's that I set up for my Daughter-in-law. In my opinion it is easily the best power available today.
I use a beam type scale to weigh my smokeless loads and my Blackhorn loads.(see below for BH209)
BUT PLEASE READ THE BLACKHORN LOAD DATA PRIOR TO SHOOTING. http://www.blackhorn209.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/b209muzzleloaderdata.pdf
They show load data in VOLUMETRIC measure like you would for T7 or Pyrodex. A 100 grain load by volume is only 70 grains of actual weight. If you weigh out 100 grains of BH209 on a scale you could have a very dangerous load in your gun.
Shot mine for first time today. Man does that thing shoot accurate and smooth. Took me 4 adjustment shots to get dialed in. 3 holes at 50 yards all touching. 100 yards within a 2” group. Shooting 100 grain of 777 and 245 grain Powerbelt.
Shoot what you want but there are countless reviews of exactly what this picture shows. This yearling was shot from less than 40 yds away by a young neighbor boy on the property I hunt. He hit in the shoulder bone and like the reports all say the 245 gr. Powerbelt just exploded. We found
hair, meat and a little blood. It showed up on my camera a week later. I never saw that deer again in person or on any of the cameras. I doubt it made it through the winter.
Shoot what you want but there are countless reviews of exactly what this picture shows. This yearling was shot from less than 40 yds away by a young neighbor boy on the property I hunt. He hit in the shoulder bone and like the reports all say the 245 gr. Powerbelt just exploded. We found
View attachment 251450
hair, meat and a little blood. It showed up on my camera a week later. I never saw that deer again in person or on any of the cameras. I doubt it made it through the winter.
Your a lucky man and have a good wife. Well I bought a accura V2 MR nitrate mountain rifle last year it shoots very good. I also use BH 209 powder great stuff. I use by weight 70 gr it equals 100 grain by volume. Last year I was shooting 56 gr but bumped it up this year . But I did kill a doe at 80 yds with that load. I sighted it in again Thursday using 70 gr by weight with Barnes SpitFire TEZ 250 grn. After a cpl adjustments was dead on 2 in high at 50 then 1.5 high dead on at 100 bullets hitting same hole. Then went out to 135 yards they hit 1 in high dead on and same hole . I did like being able to load 12 rounds with out cleaning and they all loaded easy. But after I was sighted in I cleaned the barrel good to see how they shot at each distance with a clean barrel. All yardage’s were spot on. Oh the scope I have on it is a Inline Muzzy scope Nikon BDC . Good luck sorry so long winded.
Here is a pic of the scale I use and bought from Cabelas in Avon. What I did was weighed the loads from 56 to 84 gr. Then poured them in my brass powder measure from 80 to 120 gr. Then I marked the powder measure in what it was in the weight. So when I went to the range I just used the powder measure. I bought that scale because of the good reviews and was cheap.
Your a lucky man and have a good wife. Well I bought a accura V2 MR nitrate mountain rifle last year it shoots very good. I also use BH 209 powder great stuff. I use by weight 70 gr it equals 100 grain by volume. Last year I was shooting 56 gr but bumped it up this year . But I did kill a doe at 80 yds with that load. I sighted it in again Thursday using 70 gr by weight with Barnes SpitFire TEZ 250 grn. After a cpl adjustments was dead on 2 in high at 50 then 1.5 high dead on at 100 bullets hitting same hole. Then went out to 135 yards they hit 1 in high dead on and same hole . I did like being able to load 12 rounds with out cleaning and they all loaded easy. But after I was sighted in I cleaned the barrel good to see how they shot at each distance with a clean barrel. All yardage’s were spot on. Oh the scope I have on it is a Inline Muzzy scope Nikon BDC . Good luck sorry so long winded.
halfrack, have you been on Nikons sight that will give you the different yardages for the your rifle, load you've chosen and the scope you have when using the BDC?
Kinda fun to play around with and see the different MOI when switching from one power to another..and surprisingly, fairly accurate.
Go here and plug in the required info to get your particular info(also fun to plug in other powder charges,bullet weights etc to see their ballistics as well): http://spoton.nikonsportoptics.com/
That is special, Not many ever get recovered, they normally just pass through. Any chance he shot that deer stem to stern or visa versa. That is normally the only way you ever get to recover one.
Shoot what you want but there are countless reviews of exactly what this picture shows. This yearling was shot from less than 40 yds away by a young neighbor boy on the property I hunt. He hit in the shoulder bone and like the reports all say the 245 gr. Powerbelt just exploded. We found
View attachment 251450
hair, meat and a little blood. It showed up on my camera a week later. I never saw that deer again in person or on any of the cameras. I doubt it made it through the winter.
I can easily blame it on the bullet. He shot from an elevated stand and more importantly that performance is the same as reported by many, many, many other hunters with similar results from that same bullet. It is not a coincidence. That bullet has a proven history of exploding on impact with far less than desirable results.
Bought a ML this Fall and it included two packages of the PB 250gr bullets. Any problems with those? Would 5more gr make a substantial difference?? I’ve looked and found a few articles about the 245gr—. I dont bother with another “pellet” seems two does its job and the third only makes a difference on my shoulder—.
And with todays advancement of sabot's along with the wide selection of various sabot's and bullets, working up a bullet/sabot combo that loads just as easily as the PB, is just as(most likely more) accurate as the PB and has much better terminal performance on game is not hard to do in most cases.
Surely a sabot'ed bullet combo has a much flatter tragectory than any PB load due to less blow by.
In short, IMO, today PB's are extremely dated technology.
Again, I can remember when CVA bought the patent for the PB's from Big Bore Express and really started big time marketing PB's. At that time, with much less selection of other sabot's/bullets to choose from, PB's were the latest/greatest thing out there. Most guys that were currently shooting m/l at that time were used to very hard loading rounds. There used to be a couple sayings back in the flintlock/cap lock days when it came to loading. One was same as today..."it's all about consistency".
The second was one referring to loading pressure..."the tighter,the better".
With the advancement over the years of inlines,their ignition systems,barrel twist, powders,primers and available bullet/sabot combos
My son shot a small doe with the 245 gr PB through the shoulder & it absolutely exploded on that small deer. Destroyed almost all the meat on the entry side & tons off blood in the meat on the backside shoulder. Fragments of that bullet were everywhere & not one piece exited. That deer still ran 40 yards or so. He switched to Barnes after that & will never, ever go back.
Weird, I've shot more deer than I care to remember with PB bullets, and know plenty of other people who use them. I don't know of one instance of bullet failure. I won't pretend it's the best thing out there, but it kills deer just as dead as any other bullet I've used. Of course I try not to shoot through the leg/shoulder bones, and I'm not trying to shoot the hottest load my shoulder can handle.
regarding powerbelts, there ARE at least 5 different types. Different ones for different uses, powder charges , etc.
I use to use them...never had a problem or lost a deer or had a deer go very far at all with them. I used the regular copper coated hollow point, 295 grn, with 100 grns of T7. These would expend their energy in the deer...a lot of destruction, but generally not a pass through. Obviously with a pass through you are wasting some energy.
I decided that IF and or WHEN I get a chance at a real monster of a deer that I would prefer a better chance of a pass through in case a tracking job became necessary. I have since switched to a 300 grn XTP bullet and Black Horn powder. At this time, the only other bullet I would consider is the Barnes Expander.
I have NOT been impressed with a friends T/C Shockwave.
Muzzleloader bullets are made to "perform" at specific velocities.
* note: deer don't usually drop in their tracks.
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