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Editor’s Note: Mark Hendricks is the vice president of technical development for (BPI) Black Powder Products, Inc., that owns several companies, including CVA.

Question: Mark, many muzzleloader hunters buy their first muzzleloader rifles and take them home in boxes. Although there’s always a very-complete instruction manual in the box, very-few hunters take the time to read those manuals. Let’s go-through the steps of what a hunter needs to do when he takes his muzzleloader rifle out of the box.

Hendricks: You’re right, a lot of customers are definitely allergic to owner’s manuals. They generally don’t read them like they should; even though there’s a lot of important information in these manuals, not only about how to operate the gun and get the best performance from that gun, but also how to be safe with your muzzleloader rifle.  These very-important subjects shouldn’t be neglected, and we encourage everyone who buys a muzzleloader rifle to read the instruction manual. So, let’s explain what to do when you take your rifle out of the box to get ready for hunting season.

Question: Ok, Mark, what’s the first thing someone needs to do, who’s just bought a muzzleloader rifle in a box?

Hendricks: When you take your rifle out of the box, open your rifle up (break it open), and remove the breech plug. All the new CVA break action muzzleloader rifles have a Quick Release Breech Plug, which comes out of the barrel very easily by simply unscrewing it with your fingers.  Although you’ll have to turn the breech plug about 14-15 times to remove it, no tools are required, however, and no tools are included in the box. Once you’ve removed the breech plug, look through the barrel to make sure there’s nothing plugging the barrel and no debris in the barrel. After you’ve checked the barrel, take your cleaning rod, and push several wet patches through the barrel. These wet patches should have a solvent on them that removes grease and debris from the barrel. You want to make sure you have a really-clean barrel. The barrels are heavily oiled at the factory as a rust preventative, because the guns are brought into this country in ocean cargo. If you’re not going to shoot the gun immediately, put a light coat of synthetic gun oil on a patch, and push it through the barrel two or three times. Wipe your breech plug down with the solvent, put some fresh Breech Plug Anti-Seize Stick lubricant on the threads of the breech plug, and screw it back into the barrel.

Question:  What type of anti-seize lubricant should we use on the breech plug?

Hendricks: CVA’s Breech Plug Anti-Seize Stick lubricant is probably available from wherever you’ve ordered or purchased the gun. Any anti-seize lubricant will probably work, but this needs to be a proper high-pressure type lubricant for breech plugs. Once you’ve screwed the breech plug back into the barrel of the gun, check the gun for any damage to the rifle from being sorted or shipped. Make sure that the sights are in place, if the gun comes with sights. If the gun comes with a scope mount, make sure it’s secure. CVA guns come either with open sights or with scope mounts. Be certain your forehand and buttstock are good and tight.

Then check all the mechanical functions of the gun. Make sure the barrel release opens and closes smoothly and locks tight; cock your hammer back, and make sure it locks properly; squeeze the trigger, and let the hammer down to be certain the trigger and the safety are working smooth and properly. On break-action guns, push the hammer forward with your thumb, because there’s a hammer block in the gun that prevents the hammer from reaching the firing pin, unless the hammer’s cocked. All these procedures are described in the manual that comes with the gun. Make sure that everything on your gun works properly, before you take your new rifle to the range to sight it in. When testing the trigger, cock the hammer, put your thumb on the back of the hammer, and when you squeeze the trigger, use your thumb as though it’s a brake to let the hammer down easy, instead of dry-firing the gun and letting the hammer fall by itself.

With the older inline guns that CVA still produces (like the bolt-action guns), the Elkhorn and the Buckhorn, be sure to go through the mechanical functions on these rifles also. Cock the bolt, and apply the safety. After you make sure that the barrel is clear, you need to be certain your safety works by putting the gun on SAFE and pulling the trigger to make sure that the gun won’t fire. Then take the safety off, put your thumb on the hammer, pull the trigger, and ease the hammer down. On the bolt-action guns, work the bolt up and down. Be certain that every element of the gun is working properly before you take it to the rifle range. On the outsides of these barrels, use a quality synthetic gun oil.  Now you’re ready to go to the range. If you’ll go through these steps you’ll eliminate any of the problems that you may have otherwise.

You can find information on what to do with your muzzleloader rifle when you get it home in a box at www.cva.com.  There’s a free-streaming video called “Muzzleloader Basics” on the site that will take you through taking the gun out of the box to sighting-in your rife in video format. And, these muzzleloader basics found in the video will applicable to any type of muzzleloader you buy.

Question: Mark, muzzleloader rifles can have two-different types of sighting systems: open sights and scope mounts for riflescopes. Let’s talk about how you sight-in an open-sight muzzleloader rifle.

Hendricks: Don’t start off sighting your muzzleloader rifle in at 100 yards. First, set-up the target at 20-25 yards, which is much easier to hit than a target at 100 yards. Even if the sights are off a little bit, the bullet should still hit the paper. The first thing you do is fire two or three percussion caps though the rifle before you put-in your powder and shot.  Shooting those three percussion caps will dry-out the back of the barrel and get rid of any oil or humidity that may be in the barrel. In other words, those three caps will get the barrel ready to shoot. Next, load the powder and shot, sit down at the bench, cock the hammer, let the safety off, and very carefully hit that 20-25 yard target, while gently squeezing the trigger. If you have the correct trigger pull, the gun will go-off without you knowing when it will fire.

Question: Ok, Mark, let’s back-up just a little bit. What load should we load with, and what bullets should we use, and why?

Hendricks : We’ve done quite a bit of testing on the CVA guns, and currently our favorite powder is the IMR White Hots that perform extremely well, are clean shooting and aren’t as corrosive as other muzzleloader pellet substitutes. This powder is the one we recommend in the manual above the other types of powder. This powder substitute is only available in pellets. In primers, we like the Winchester Triple Se7en Primer that’s been developed specifically for inline muzzleloader rifles and works extremely well.

Question: Mark, how much powder should we use in sighting our rifles?

Hendricks: All the CVA rifles are magnum capable, meaning they can shoot 150 grains of powder. But in my opinion, 150 grains of powder is a little excessive in most circumstances, unless you’re hunting moose, elk or bears. When you’re hunting animals that big, you want every bit of power that a muzzleloader gun can produce. However, for typical deer hunting, I feel that three, 50-grain pellets equaling 150 grains of powder is somewhat excessive, since you get so much more recoil and smoke from 150 grains of powder than you do from 100 grains of powder, not to mention the expense of shooting another 50 grain pellet. Two, 50-grain pellets are usually best under almost any other circumstance than the ones I’ve just mentioned. Those two, 50-grain pellets equaling 100 grains of powder will give you good accuracy and plenty of knock-down power out to 200 yards.
Question: What bullets should we use?

Hendricks: The PowerBelt bullet is our favorite. There are three-different types of PowerBelt bullets: the standard PowerBelt, the PowerBelt Platinum and the new PowerBelt Aerolite. The traditional PowerBelt bullet is a good, solid performer. The Platinum PowerBelt bullets have been developed for longer-range shooting and have a longer profile and a reduced ogive on the front of the bullet to increase ballistic coefficiency and accuracy, which makes these bullets better for those long-range shots. The new Aerolite PowerBelt bullet has been specifically designed for 100-grain powder charges and close-range shooting. With a much-bigger hollow cavity and a much-bigger polycarbonate plug at the end of the bullet, these bullets are devastating with 100-grain loads at close to moderate ranges. This bullet is my choice for deer hunting.

Question: Ok, Mark, now that we know what best cap, powder and bullet we need to shoot, if our gun is shooting a little high at 20-25 yards with open sights, what do we need to do to make it shoot more accurately?

Hendricks: You always move your rear sight in the direction you want your bullet to go.  Therefore, if you’re shooting high, and you want that bullet to come down, then move your rear sight down. If you want your bullet’s strike to move to the right, you move your rear sight to the right. This is a very-simple rule of thumb to remember.

Question: How tight a group should we expect to shoot at 50-100 yards?

Hendricks: The tightness of the group primarily depends on the skill level of the shooter – about an inch at 50 yards and 1-1/-2- to 2-inches at 100 yards.

Question: How many times should we shoot a target before we clean the barrel?

Hendricks: I typically like to run a cleaning patch through the barrel after every shot.  You want that patch to be just barely damp. That one patch removes the bulk of the fouling, especially in the chamber area of the barrel, and it preps the barrel for the next shot. When you’re out hunting, and you have to make a fast follow-up shot, you won’t clean the barrel after every shot. But when you’re at the rifle range and trying to shoot tight groups, consistency is very important. Therefore, I tend to run a slightly-damp patch down the barrel between each shot.

Get information on what to do with your muzzleloader rifle at www.cva.com, and see a  free-streaming video called “Muzzleloader Basics” that’s very helpful for any type of muzzleloader.

Editor’s Note: Avid muzzleloader hunter Terry Oertwig, a pro staffer for CVA, a bullet manufacturer of Thor Bullets and a strong proponent of the CVA Electra, hunts all over the world with black powder.

Question: Terry, why did you decide to hunt an American bison (buffalo)?

Oertwig: When you think about the muzzleloading hunters of America’s history, especially in the days of the Old West, you think about the men who went along with the railroad workers and the military and used their muzzleloaders to provide food for the camp. I’ve found a place in western Nebraska with several-thousand acres where buffaloes roam. I wanted to take up the challenge for the CVA Electra and the Thor bullet and see how my bullet and my Electra would perform when I tried to take one of the biggest game animals in North America. A buffalo can weigh 1900-2000-pounds, and are very-compact, thick animals. I was able to get within 67 yards of the buffalo I took, and the bullet passed completely through that buffalo.

Question: Terry, tell us about the hunt.

Oertwig: The place I hunted had rolling hills and lots of sand. We’d spot the buffaloes with our binoculars and then try to use the terrain to get in close-enough to get a shot. We made four-different stalks before we found the buffalo I wanted to take. One of the problems we had on the first three stalks was that when we’d approach the buffalo I hoped to shoot, the buffalo would be gone. I was amazed at how quickly and easily the buffalo could move-out of sight before we could get to him. The many rolling hills and little gullies hid the buffaloes well. By the time we could get to a place to shoot a buffalo, the buffaloes would be gone. Then we’d have a hard time finding them.

Question: Terry, who hunted with you?

Oertwig: We were hunting with Dismal River Outfitters in western Nebraska on their 60,000 acre ranch that had 8,000 acres fenced-off for the bison. With that much land inside the fence, you didn’t really feel like you were hunting in an enclosure.

Question: How big was the bison you took?

Oertwig: He weighed between 1900 – 2000 pounds and had a horn circumference of 13-1/2-inches at the base. So, he was an older, mature buffalo.

Question: What happened when the bison took the bullet?

Oertwig: He ran about 15 yards and hunkered-down. Two other buffaloes were around him, so I waited until they left and took a second shot with my CVA Electra. He fell-over dead. My Electra performed just as I needed.