As I opened the box, I noticed several things when I received my new CVA Accura V2.  The first was how stylish the stainless steel looked against the Real Tree AP covered stock.  It looked like a finely crafted work of art.  As I touched it, I noticed the smooth feel of the stock.  The ambidextrous stock was comparable to the stock on a fine custom gun. When I shouldered the gun, it felt as good as it looked.  It just seemed to “Fit Me.”
  This gun has the reputation of having one of the best trigger pulls that exist.  So of course, I just had to check it out by doing the unthinkable – dry firing the gun.   Many muzzleloaders have a long, heavy pull.  The Accura trigger pull was crisp and sharp. It lived up to all the hype and was simply amazing. 
    After adding a set of DuraSight scope mounts and a 4X14 Cabelas Powderhorn scope, I anticipated this gun would be a tack driver.  At the range, I quickly found out I was correct.  I shot three rounds just to pattern it.   All three shots of the Platinum 300 grain Powerbelts lapped each other at 50 yds. Soon after twelve more shots, I had the 45 caliber Accura V2 sighted in and patterning so well that I was ready to back up to 75 yds.  A few shots later and a little more fine tuning, I moved back to a 100 yd shot.  After a few more rounds off the bench, I was shooting sub 1″-1″ groups consistently.  The powder load that seemed to pattern the best was 110 grains of powder. 
     I was fortunate to be heading to Southern Illinois the following week.  There I would be able to see if the gun performed as well in the field as it did at the range.  Let me say the Quake “Claw Sling” was truly the “cats’ meow,” as it did not slide off my shoulder and made the gun truly easy to carry. CVA’s bullet guiding muzzle allowed the bullet to be easily started by hand.  There was no need to lap the barrel on this gun.  The bullets slid right in.  I spent the next few days in search of the ever-elusive white tail.
   On the third day of hard hunting, my chance finally came.  I had a mature tall-tined whitetail running toward me from a quarter mile away.  He soon closed the distance, and ran right at me. 
   Confident in how my gun shot, I centered the crosshairs on the bottom white patch of his neck and squeezed the finest pulling trigger I have ever felt.  The gun simultaneously went BOOM and through the smoke, I could see the Powerbelt hit its mark as the tall-tined whitetail did a nose-dive into the plowed field. 
  As my friends and I looked at the deer, I looked down at my new weapon. I said a quick thank you for the blessing the Lord just gave me. I knew right then I was truly shooting the finest production made muzzleloader on the market. This gun really does shoot as well as it looks.

So many hunters associate the rut as being the best time to be in the timber looking for big deer, but I really prefer late season as a time to pattern a big whitetail. I know this does not sound normal, but when the weather gets nasty the big boys will get back to an early season pattern by coming to the food sources. This is for one reason…they are simply run down from the chasing they were doing during the rut. They are very predictable this time of year since they’re movement is determined by their belly. The need to feed in late season has put a tag on many a big deer’s antlers!
This last week I spent some time with the CVA .50 caliber APEX at my favorite Illinois hot spot which is in the heart of the Golden Triangle in Brown County. Illinois Connection is a place that I have been visiting for over ten years to take part in the late gun and muzzleloader season that the state has to offer and the hunt below is the exact reason why.
We all know that Illinois is covered with food sources that deer are drawn to. The most prevalent is corn and soybeans..both are hot when it’s cold outside. On this hunt I targeted a farm that I had been on many times before because of the history of big deer there plus I had several trail cam pics off my Moultrie Game Spy camera of a big 7 point that I really wanted to introduce my APEX to.
The first morning, not wanting to blow the field out, I eased into to cut cornfield just at daybreak to prepare for an all-day sit. This kind of hunting can be mentally tough, but you never know when those old bucks might get the urge to feed especially when the mercury is falling.
The activity, surprisingly to me, was very slow in the morning, but deer seemed to trickle in throughout mid-morning. As lunch time approached, I knew this as my stomach was starting to let me know it was sandwich time, a big doe and two yearlings eased into the field at straight up 12 noon and begin to feed the whole time looking back over their shoulders. Noticing this, I lost track of what they were doing and kept my eyes pinned on the trail they walked in on. At 12:08 I noticed another deer heading up the hardwood ridge and could see the white flash of head gear. I pulled up my APEX, adjust the scope power, and waited for the buck to step in the field, but as big deer often do, he stood 20 yards inside the timber and watched the does. As he watched them I watched him and truthfully, I don’t think he even blinked an eye for ten minutes. This was starting to freak me out because I didn’t have a clear shot and the does were feeding their way back into the timber. In another 3 minutes the standoff was over and my shooter 7 was easing back down the ridge that he walked in on with his girls. No Shot!
The next morning I was back in the same field but this time I was on the timber edge that the big 7 was standing on the day before. I did this for two reasons, because of a late night wind change and it would also let me get a shot into timber if he came in to watch his does feed again.
At 11 am, my cameraman tapped me on the shoulder and said he thought the same three does from yesterday were heading through the timber straight towards us with the big 7 following 40 yards behind them. I grabbed my APEX and eased myself into position before they got to close.
 As the does walked by at 20 yards they did not have my wind but they knew something was not right so they started to hot foot it into the cornfield. Seeing the does uneasiness, the big 7 skirted me just outside gun range and entered the field 80 yards further down than they did..fatal mistake on his part. Still feeling uneasy about what was up in the the fence row, the does fed and walked simultaneously across the field which, if the big 7 followed, would lead him into an area that was only 100 yards from my muzzleloader.
Just like I had hoped it was written out somewhere in story book land, he cleared the brush and stopped at 104 yards quartering away. With his mind now occupied on his does, I eased back the APEX’s hammer and settled the crosshairs behind his left shoulder. When the smoke cleared, my quest of the big 7 was over at a few minutes after 11 am on the second morning of my Illinois muzzleloader hunt. 
This hunt will air on Moultrie’s The Hit List next fall on The Outdoor Channel.