Editor’s Note: Chad Schearer of Great Falls, Montana, host of “Shoot Straight with Chad Schearer” on the Sportsman Channel, has traveled all over the world hunting with  muzzleloader. This week, Schearer will give us tips to show us how to have a great muzzleloading hunt while out side of the U.S..

Question: Chad, how do you protect your riflescope, binoculars and range finder on those long airline trips out of the country, like when you’ve flown to Australia and Africa?
Schearer: I store all my optics in my gun case. A quality gun case not only can protect your gun but also your optics. I’ve got a well-padded gun case that I can lock.

Question: What other type of equipment should we take on an out-of-country hunting trip?
Schearer: Carrying supplies for cleaning your gun can be a hassle, if you don’t plan ahead. Make sure the cleaning supplies you plan to take can be carried in your luggage. Because of the new airport regulations on carry-on items, certain supplies, like flammable solvents or aerosol cans, will create a problem at the airport. Typically, I carry CVA cleaning patches that are presoaked, because they create the least amount of problems in any airport.

Question: Are there any other hassles we can avoid when we’re planning for an out-of-country hunt?
Schearer: Each country has some type of forms that have to be filled out before you enter or leave the country with firearms. So, I go to the Internet and download those firearm forms ahead of time. For instance, when I’m going to Canada, I always have those forms downloaded and filled-out before I enter customs. However, not all countries have their forms available online. To solve these types of problems and many other problems associated with traveling out of the country, especially to Africa, use a travel agency. A travel agency will work with you to get all the paperwork you need for the country in which you’ll be hunting. For our trip to Africa, we used Gracy Travel International, Inc. out of San Antonio, Texas. This was the best investment we made in our Africa hunt. Gracy had all the permits waiting for us when we got into the country, which expedited entry into Africa and made many of the hassles normally associated with going into a foreign country much easier. Gracy arranged for someone to meet us at the airport when we arrived in Africa and to help us with our gun permit. They helped us go through customs and reach the motel and/or the outfitter to go to where we were staying.

When you go to a Spanish-speaking country like Argentina, and you don’t speak Spanish, having someone who speaks Spanish meet you at the airport, like the outfitter or the travel agent, can be a tremendous help. If you’ll be hunting with black powder, having a travel agent, a host or an outfitter who can meet you, help you go through customs and get you to where you’re going will be a really-big help. I advise anyone to invest the money and the time required to make sure you have someone helpful meet you when you arrive in a foreign country for a blackpowder hunt and also when you prepare to leave.

To contact Gracy Travel International, Inc., call 800-299-8558, or visit their website at www.gracytravel.com.

Editor’s Note:  Terry L. Eby of Norcross, Georgia, is the national sales manager for CVA/BPI and a dedicated muzzleloader shooter and hunter. 

Question:  As national sales manager for CVA and BPI, you’re on the firing line as far as knowing the reasons that consumers choose CVA rifles over other muzzleloader rifles. When you go into a store, and a dealer asks, “Why should I put CVA rifles in my store to sell,” he really wants to know what CVA rifles offer his customers that other muzzleloader rifles don’t. So, what do you tell him?

Eby:  I really don’t have to say anything. I just lay the CVA rifle down next to our competitors’ rifles in the same price point or a rifle that’s close to CVA in features. You know CVA’s motto is, “It’s Just a Better Gun.”  And that’s our motto because most of our rifles are made of stainless stee,with the exception of the CVA Wolf.  All of our rifles in the break-action models have the quick-release breech plugs, which is also a feature that’s not widely available in our competitors’ rifles. Typically, only the higher-end guns will have this feature. Another important feature that CVA has includes a Delrin liner, which makes putting the ramrod below the barrel much quieter. When you look at feature-to-feature comparisons between CVA rifles and that of our competitors, you see that you get more features and better features for less money with a CVA rifle. For instance, when you compare feature to feature a CVA Optima rifle with a Thompson Center Triumph rifle, you’ll see that the Optima has more features than the Triumph does. Yet, the Optima costs $200 less than the Triumph. When comparing features and prices, CVA makes a strong argument as to why our company’s rifles are preferred over our competitors’ rifles.

Question:  How is CVA able to produce better-quality rifles with more features for less money than its competitors?

Eby:  CVA is in control of its production. We’re the leaders in volume production, producing a quality product, and we don’t believe that a muzzleloading rifle has to cost $800 to be a great muzzleloading rifle. Instead of having $10 million advertising budgets and super-duper websites, we prefer to take that money and invest it in producing a better-quality rifle at a more-reasonable price. We believe we’ve been able to grow by putting our customers first and giving them the best-quality products we can produce, at a price they can pay.

Question:  Terry, what does a consumer know when he buys a CVA rifle?

Eby:  They know for certain that they have purchased rifles that have the most features at the best prices they can buy. And, they also know that our guns carry a limited lifetime warranty, which means that we warrant the gun against any manufacturer or material defects. Our customer-service department bends over backwards to make sure that each and every CVA owner is taken care of in the best-possible way.

Question:  One of the unique characteristics of CVA is that you produce an awful lot of accessories, right?

Eby:  Yes, we produce all the accessories needed to keep our guns clean, in good working order and ready for hunting. We also have a tremendous number of dealers nationwide that carry our rifles and our accessories. Too, CVA recommends you shoot PowerBelt bullets – one of the most-popular bullets with all blackpowder hunters – in your CVA rifles.

Question:  If someone’s just starting out in muzzleloader hunting and wants to purchase an inexpensive rifle to hunt with, primarily during muzzleloader season, what will you tell them to do?

Eby:  I recommend they go to our website at www.cva.com and look at the different rifles we have available for sale. They can compare features and price points and determine the rifles they want for hunting. There’s also a section on the website called, “Intro to Muzzleloading Basics,” which is a video tutorial on all the different guns and unique features that each gun has. After reviewing the webpage, I’d suggest going to your local sporting-goods dealer and consider buying the CVA Wolf.  The Wolf is an entry-level rifle that has many of the features that are important, like the quick-release breech plug. Although the Wolf is an outstanding rifle, the customer may want a thumbhole stock rather than a straight stock and may like a stainless steel gun. So, that becomes a very easy step up to move from the CVA Wolf to the CVA Optima.  Both these rifles will not only meet the entry-level price point but also will provide many of the options that hunters are looking for when they’re taking any of the North American game animals. When they make the decision to buy a CVA rifle, a customer can feel confident that he or she has purchased a time-proven rifle and that he’s saved himself quite a bit of money that they can use to purchase optics and plenty of Power Belt Bullets. They’ll also save enough money to probably buy most of the accessories they want for both shooting and hunting.

Click here  to the review of the 2010 Optima  from the NRA’s American Hunter.

Editor’s Note: Michael McMichael of Idaho, president of PowerBelt Bullets, was a part of the three-man team who designed, created and developed the PowerBelt Bullet. CVA endorses the PowerBelt Bullets and wanted to know the history behind the bullet, including why and how it has been developed, and what makes it a superior bullet for blackpowder hunters.

Question: Michael, why did you develop the PowerBelt bullet?

McMichael: We had our first muzzleloading season here in Idaho many years ago when only two bullet options for blackpowder rifles existed – the round ball, which resembled a mini ball, wasn’t very accurate and was heavy; and the sabot, which was hard to load, shot a pistol bullet and didn’t seem to open-up properly. Both were lightweight bullets, only offered in .44 and .45 calibers. Idaho required a .50-caliber bullet to hunt elk and other big game. Robert Kerns, one of the three men who helped develop the bullet, and I decided to see if we could put a gas check on the base of the bullet. We also wanted to undersize the bullet, so it would be easy to load. We wanted a bullet that would engage the rifling in the barrel to give us much-more accuracy.

Question: What is a gas check?

McMichael: It’s the plastic bottom portion of the PowerBelt bullet today. The gas check seals the gasses inside the barrel once the powder is ignited. By using the gas check, we could get higher and more-consistent velocities. The gas check is a plastic wad attached to the base of the bullet. On the PowerBelt bullet, it has the affect of a sabot; however, the gas check is attached to the bullet, not a separate type of wadding. It doesn’t have petals going around the bullet like the sabot does. By not having the petals, the bullet actually can engage the rifling.

Question: How is the PowerBelt Bullet constructed?

McMichael: To increase accuracy, all the systems of the bullet have to work together. The bullet is 1/1,000 under bore diameter, which makes the bullet easy to load. The gas check is a few thousandths of an inch over bore diameter. Because the gas check is plastic, it will flex, making it easy to load in the barrel, yet still able to hold tight against the powder charge, until the powder is ignited. The PowerBelt bullet is 100% certified pure lead, with a copper coating over the top of the lead. But because the lead in the PowerBelt bullet is soft, when the bullet is fired, it can engage the rifling. You can see the rifling on a PowerBelt bullet after it’s been shot.

Question: How does this system equate to accuracy and weight?

McMichael: Because the bullet engages the rifling, it can be as accurate as the rifling built into the barrel. Our PowerBelt bullet is generally heavier than a saboted bullet. It’s a true .50 caliber, whereas the sabot is a .45 caliber.

Question: Once your team developed the PowerBelt bullet, how did it compare to the saboted bullet and the round ball of that day?

McMichael: The round ball in the right rifle can be fairly accurate, but the round ball is a lightweight ball and doesn’t create the shock or the size of wound channel that a PowerBelt bullet does. Our bullet is a bigger, heavier bullet, and it opens-up on impact, putting the animal down much quicker. Plus, our bullet is much-more easily loaded.

Question: How does the PowerBelt bullet open-up?

McMichael: Because it’s 100% pure lead, it opens-up very well under muzzleloader velocities. With the new PowerBelt Platinum AeroTip Series Bullets, we did some modifications on the tips of the bullets, so the bullets wouldn’t open-up too fast. We also found that some hunters wanted greater penetration, so we created the AeroTip, which has much-more controlled expansion. If you’re shooting a magnum charge with our 145-grain Hollow Point, you won’t get a lot of penetration, because there’s a rapid expansion of the bullet. So, if you’re shooting a magnum charge, you need to go to an AeroTip or a similar bullet. We’ve developed our bullets to meet the demands of the hunter to allow him to shoot heavier loads and have the bullet perform the way he wants it to perform.