I'm going to piggyback on this thread if that's OK. I always wanted to try a ML just for fun. I bought one yesterday from a member. It's a CVA in line .50 cal magnum. I got all the stuff, pellets, primers, bullets to start shooting. My question is how often and how do you clean one after you shoot it? I looked online and found about 50 different methods and opinions. I figured I would rather have some "home grown" advice from the folks here. I appreciate any tips or advice!
You will see a lot of opinions. Here is what I do and I consider myself primarily a muzzleloader hunter.
1. Sighting in - I sight in with a clean barrel and swap the barrel clean between shots. I do not do a fouling shot. think about it...when you hunt you load the gun and the barrel is clean...so you sight in like you hunt.
2. All guns are different with the load they shoot best with (powder & bullet). I like the hottest load my gun will shoot since I have no issue with 150 -200 yd shoots. I shoot 150 gr of whitehots (3 50 gr pellets) and a 250 grain Barnes tipped Expander Sabot bullet. Some people are very happy with 90 grs or 100grs...you need to find what your gun will shoot accurately and what you can deal with recoil wise.
3. Pellets vs Powder = up to you. Loose Powder burns better than pellets so you might get the same velocity with 125 grs of loose powder as with 3 50 gr pellets. I like the pellets for the convenience and my gun also likes them
4. What kind of powder or Pellets. Again..one of those things that are up to you. The Buckhorn 209 Powder is suppose to allows more shots between having to clean a barrel and they say it's a good powder. If you like loose powder it's worth checking out. On the Pellets I like Triple 7 and WhiteHots. I think the WhiteHots give a little more velocity and more consistent velocity. But It is not worth arguing over.
5. ALWAYS clean the gun after you shoot it and plan to put it away. Never store a dirty gun. I clean mine and then run a lightly oiled patch through the barrel before I store it.
6. When I take the gun out I always run a patch though (remove the oil) to clean the barrel and look through the barrel to make sure the oil and the breech plug is clear. Some folks fire a primer to make sure the hole is clear.....just be sure that you have an unloaded gun. I saw one guy do this in camp and he had a charge in the barrel. Made for an interesting evening.
7. The ONLY thing that touches the animal is the bullet...buy good bullets. Powebelts suck....stay with Barnes, Hornady or TC (which are made by Hornady) or another premium bullet and Sabot.
8. After the hunting day and your gun is still loaded you can store it inside if the weather was not too cold or damp...if it was REALLY cold I suggest storing the gun outside. If it was raining all day I suggest pulling the charge, cleaning the gun and reloading with a fresh charge. You want to avoid moisture building up. Nine times out of ten you can get away with just bring the gun in and it will fire the next day....BUT there is that one time. I don't take a chance as I may have paid big money to go on a guided hunt and I may have only one shot at that 160 plus free range deer. So making sure the charge is not going to be an issue is important to me.
9. Stay consistent in the way you load the gun and what you load it with.
10. I sight in dead on at 100 yds and I am 3"-4" low at 150 yards and about 10 inches low at 200 yds. My barrel is 28" and the load is 150 gr White Hots and a 250 gr Barnes Tipped Expander Sabot. BTW, in my gun the Barnes and Hornady bullets shot almost identically.