To start with I am a relative noob to muzzle loading. I built a kit pistol in Boy Scouts in the late 70's early 80's. Then 2 years ago I bought an inline from a patient for 75 bucks, not realizing what I was in for. The bore was in craptastic shape, I doubt it had ever been cleaned, and after many hours was finally, (mostly) clean. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, taking advantage of the 50% of all muzzle loading stuff, at Gander Mountain, I bought a brand new CVA wolf.
In doing some research I discovered that I have apparently doing everything wrong. So, please, tell me your process for shooting, cleaning between shots, storage, and your stance on the seemingly controversial bore butter?

CVA actually has some videos on their website that I found useful when I first got into muzzleloading several years ago. I have had two inlines to date both being CVA. I have shot white hots and 777 pellets. I have settled on the 777 but shoot what works best in your gun. It takes some experimentation. I typically load two 50 g pellets and while I have tried a number of different sabots I like the Barnes TMZ is EMZ in 245 grain. I have not use butter bore but have read varying opinions. Seems from reading it helps ease loading and eventually is supposed to season your barrel. I run a wet patch followed by a dry patch down the barrel between shots. At the range, I can generally shoot 15-20 shots this way. Your experience may differ or vary. You can tell when it gets to dirty to continue as loading increasingly gets harder. I ALWAYS clean the gun after firing. This includes soaking the breach plug and cleaning it thoroughly using the wire pick to clean the hole. I use the foam barrel cleaner to start and let is set for a few minutes. I run a patch to clear it out and follow up some bore cleaner, then CLP on a brush, followed by several patches until clean. Once I think I have it clean I run a patch with CLP down the barrel and wipe the outside down with a rag with a little CLP. This is what I do but others may recommend other steps. Again I recommend watching the videos on the CVA website. For what it is worth, I bought the CVA kit that has most everything you need to load and clean the gun. It had a range rod, jag, brush, cleaners, and so forth. Otis also make some very good kits that I also use

Wow, that's a lot of maintenance to do while shooting. I'm glad i read this as I'm getting one today and will be at the range this weekend.

the side locks, flints, use the Goex, could send 2ta3 rounds down, each time setting ball gets harder...
as pappy says: Gives ya respective of back in the day when thats all they had for taking game, & war...
Way more dirtier or corosive powder... tried the Peridox ? smokless powder, one of the first seen cleaner shooting powders...
in-lines, started seeing more modern mix of powder, reason for greater acracy at greater distance... the pellets, almost like using modern rifle with out cartrage, use the 209 primers, never tried the pellets in side lock or flints, thinking more misfires...
Ya, it will teach ya maintenance, gotta make that first shot count... .45 Kentucky was first deer rifle back in 70's
got couple side locks & pistals...

Thanks bassman110 the videos were very helpful, I also found some on the TC website, with Tiffany from the Crush. It turns out I wasn't too far off, just needed to tweak my between shots routine.

My 14 year old son is working off a new (pre-owned never shot) CVA Wolf. He lacks one lawn mowing having it earned. He should have it earned next week. He can not wait. He has already worked for and paid off a new Remington 870 among other things this summer.

Proud of that boy

Very cool!

Good job dad.

I bought a CVA wolf last year and yes it is a pain to shoot at the range.

I go through about a dozen patches after every shot on the range. big pain in the butt!

I got 2 inch groups at 100 yards using 245 gr power belt and triple 7's. Good enough.

Watch the videos CVA puts out on their muzzleloaders they will explain everything and do it exactly like they say.

Also you must clean that baby head to toe after every use at the range or in the field even if you did not shoot it. Clean it everytime!!!!!

Good luck!

I am a long time inline muzzle loader hunter and I do all of my deer hunting in Texas with a Knight 50 caliber mz. With a 1.5 x 6 Kahles scope.i've spent a lot of time developing loads and it will shoot 1 inch 3 shot groups at 100 yds consistently. My personal limit is 200 yds and I've harvested WT, aoudad, Axis and fallow, as well as feral hogs up to 250 lbs with it.
I use Blackhorn 209 granular powder(105 gr by volume), Harvester PT gold 300 gr bullets with harvesters Black crush rib sabot and regular Winchester 209 primers. At the range I fire about 10 shots without wiping the barrel. BH209 is very easy to clean up. You use regular gun cleaning supplies. I do clean the flame channel in my breech plug with a 5/32 drill bit every 20 shots. The BH 209 webpage has detailed cleaning instructions and a lot of load information. My best advice is to stay away from Powerbelt bullets. There are at least 50 different bullets that do a better job. I've spent more time at the range developing loads in the last 5 years than my entire 70 years of hunting. World of info on the Internet on a number of blogs. Enjoy

I agree with Jim Adams.................. try the Blackhorn 209. MUCH easier to clean and can shoot more shots before cleaning needed. I have a NEF inline. With Triple 7 or Pyrodex I had to clean (run a boresnake then a couple of patches) about every 2 or 3 shots or loading became a chore. With 209 I have been able to load 15 times(did not go any farther) without cleaning. 15th load was a little more difficult than 1st, but not enough to make a difference. My breech plug cleans out very well with just normal cleaning (shoot Fiocci 209 primers). I have shot 209 almost exclusively since 2012. Have shot the other powders just because I did not have any 209 on hand, but will NEVER hunt without 209 in my barrel.

Nuprofessor, can you reveal your source for the orange primer carriers? I just purchased a used NEF huntsman .50 with one, and need to purchase spares.

Blackhorn 209 is the only powder I use. Easy loadings between shots even using sabots.

Hornady came out with a muzzleloader ftx bullet thats like a minnae ball. Its easy to load even with real FF powder