Newbie to Muzzle... What Ammo? What powder?

[JTIZZLE76]

Hey OSA,

CVA recommends powerbelt ammunition and white hot powder.

I've seen alot of complaints on bullet retention with powerbelt. I've read alot of people have a preference of Thor, Barmes and Hornady. Recommendations?

Powder Recommendations? I've seen alot of people use Triple 7 powder pellets and Triple 7 #209 primers as well as white hot.
Recommendations?

Thor offers a "target" lead load. For sighting in do you recommend using these as a replacement or shoot the actual ammo I plan to hunt with?

Should I stay in the 250 grain ballpark?

100 - 120 yards max shooting lane.
CVA Wolf v2 W/ Vortex Copperhead 3 - 9 x 40
Whitetail strictly.

Thanks everyone.

 

[retrieverman]

I’ve never used white hots, but I’ve burned up a lot of Pyrodex and triple 7. Other than the notorious crud ring, T7 is more user friendly for muzzleloader newbies that may not be as diligent about cleaning their guns. As far as bullets, I’ve spent a lot over the years on “premium” bullets, but now, I only shoot cheap 260 gr cast lead hollow point bullets. Deer really aren’t that hard to kill with a halfway decent shot. The bullets I’m shooting were ordered on sale from Knight, but Cabelas or Bass Pro should have some generic bullets like these.
I’d start out at about 70 grains of powder and bet that gives you decent groups at 100 yards.

 

[dlbleak]

I’ve heard that CVA owns Powerbelt, so there’s that to take into consideration. They claim that sabots can fail and they cause plastic fouling blah blah blah.
That being said, I bought an Optima last year and the accuracy is so-so. I’ve been reading up a bunch.
I’ve always run 2 pyrodex pellets and 250 grain Hornady XTP’s. I might have to try Blackhorn or another granular powder.
I did read something that made me think,hmmm. Some claim that the primer is making the bullet jump a bit before the pellets ignite. That makes sense to me but I won’t know until I try granular.
Also. I read that many primers are to hot for BP and that standard Winchester 209’s are the way to go.

 

[wolfkpr]

I’ll second the 2 (50 gr) pellets of powder and a 250gr xtp. Im a fan of the T7 pellets, as they clean up easier, but i shot a lot of deer with the plain pyrodex pellets too. The “ cheap shot” plain lead hollowpoint 250 gr/ sabot is a cheaper practice load that seems to hit same place, and is still fine as a deer load by itself. I think the xtp/ 2 pellet load is probably the most used muzz load in the country.

 

[AER244]

I don’t know if your gun can accommodate blackhorn 209 propellant, but if it does- that’s where I would start personally. It’s pretty clean burning, pretty zippy and a lot less smoke when fired. 90gr/volume of bh209 and the 300gr hornady sst sabot/slug have shot well in the 4 TC guns Ive tried it in. They killed deer just fine too.
Or do what retrieverman and dlbleak/wolfkpr says. I’d imagine they’ll all shoot and kill deer pretty well.

 

[swampratt]

Your 1:28 twist will work fine with the Powerbelt bullet as will 1:48 twist.
I have shot hundreds of them and never any plastic fouling.

I have always used loose powder and never anymore than 90 gr of it Pyrodex RS and tripple 7.

70 gr was stated as a good start load and it really is. My FIL uses 60 gr and 295 power belt and kills them dead.

I've seen alot of complaints on bullet retention with powerbelt.

It is true the old Hollow point Power belt bullet would shrapnel apart at 90 gr but it did it inside of the animal and created massive trauma.

Ruined a big area of meat you could have eaten.
Many years ago before the power belt tipped bullets came out there was a Power Belt forum and I was on it.
One guy made a lead mold to cast a small screw shapped piece of lead that would insert into the hollow point of the bullet.

Testing: shoot the HP as is and it would blow apart on impact if shot at 90gr or higher.
Then insert the leat plug into the HP of the bullet and shoot the same load. The bullet now sort of mushroomed and stayed together.

I made a spot in one of my homemade molds to make the inserts.

Other than the notorious crud ring

On that same forum one guy tested lubes and preseratives and found the CRUD RING was caused by TC 1000 Bore Butter.
Many of us quit using that stuff and we were no longer having a crud ring issue.

Even using patches with that yellow stuff on them will cause the crud ring.

I use paraffin wax melted in a pan with coconut oil and make my own patches and saturate them in the warm fluid in the pan them remove them and let them cool and bag them up.

You could use bees wax as I have done that but it is not as hard.

 

[retrieverman]

Your 1:28 twist will work fine with the Powerbelt bullet as will 1:48 twist.
I have shot hundreds of them and never any plastic fouling.

I have always used loose powder and never anymore than 90 gr of it Pyrodex RS and tripple 7.

70 gr was stated as a good start load and it really is. My FIL uses 60 gr and 295 power belt and kills them dead.



It is true the old Hollow point Power belt bullet would shrapnel apart at 90 gr but it did it inside of the animal and created massive trauma.

Ruined a big area of meat you could have eaten.
Many years ago before the power belt tipped bullets came out there was a Power Belt forum and I was on it.
One guy made a lead mold to cast a small screw shapped piece of lead that would insert into the hollow point of the bullet.

Testing: shoot the HP as is and it would blow apart on impact if shot at 90gr or higher.
Then insert the leat plug into the HP of the bullet and shoot the same load. The bullet now sort of mushroomed and stayed together.

I made a spot in one of my homemade molds to make the inserts.




On that same forum one guy tested lubes and preseratives and found the CRUD RING was caused by TC 1000 Bore Butter.
Many of us quit using that stuff and we were no longer having a crud ring issue.

Even using patches with that yellow stuff on them will cause the crud ring.

I use paraffin wax melted in a pan with coconut oil and make my own patches and saturate them in the warm fluid in the pan them remove them and let them cool and bag them up.

You could use bees wax as I have done that but it is not as hard.

I’ve never used bore butter and got a crud ring every time I’ve used T7.

 

[swampratt]

Horrible.
I just hate the crud rings.

 

[retrieverman]

Horrible.
I just hate the crud rings.

I solved the issue, because Blackhorn doesn’t produce one.

 

[AER244]

I solved the issue, because Blackhorn doesn’t produce one.

I really like BH if im not shooting smokeless. Its alot cleaner for me than any of the others. Itll still ruin a barrel if left unattended though. My dad died the day after we got back from a muzzleloader trip. That gun didnt get cleaned for year and it never got right after that. My dad shot pyrodex out of his knight that trip and his cleaned up just fine after a year of sitting dirty.