As I travel across the country conducting seminars on hunting with a muzzleloader I get asked many questions.  One of the most common questions I hear is do I really need a magnum charge for my muzzleloader.  Granted there is a time and place for magnum charges but for most whitetail hunters hunting out of a treestand they can avoid shoulder pounding recoil of a magnum charge and still get great bullet performance.  This last year I have had the opportunity to test and try one of the best muzzleloading bullets I have ever used, the PowerBelt Aerolite.  The knockdown power was incredible and the accuracy was some of the best I have ever gotten out of a muzzleloader.  The great thing is that the bullet is designed for 100 grain charges.  The AeroLite technology is fine-tuned to perform best at “standard charge velocities” (1800 FPS or less on impact) – providing “magnum performance” without the “magnum recoil.”  So how does it work?  The AeroLite has a much larger hollow point cavity than either the PowerBelt Platinum or Copper Bullets. This larger cavity maximizes expansion capability while eliminating weight from the core of the bullet, allowing the bullet to be substantially longer than standard projectiles of similar weight. A longer bullet length produces more stability in flight and therefore, greater accuracy. A super-hard polycarbonate AeroTip fills the void of the oversized hollow point and serves to both optimize aerodynamics in flight and control expansion on impact.

This does not mean, however, that magnum charges can never be used with AeroLites. In hunting situations where long-range shots are the norm, Aerolites may indeed be the best choice – even with a 150 grain load.  We took a number of mule deer at ranges over 150 plus yards with magnum charges and had excellent results last year.

So what will I be shooting this season for hunting whitetails out of a treestand.  A CVA Accura V2 Model PR3116SM with a thumbhole stock in Realtree APG, equipped with a Quake Claw sling, topped with a Konus 3×10 scope, and loaded with 100 grains of IMR WhiteHots powder and a 250 grain PowerBelt Aerolite Bullet.

The bottom line is with this new bullet you can shoot less powder and still have great knockdown power with your modern muzzleloader.  Try this new bullet and your shoulder with thank you.

Editor’s Note: Roger Raglin of “Roger Raglin Outdoors” on the Outdoor Channel on Saturdays has hosted the TV show for 10 years. Raglin, who lives in Coweta, Oklahoma, has been in the outdoor industry for 24 years and is one of the most-recognized faces in the outdoor fraternity.

Question: Roger, tell us about your moose hunt.

Raglin: This past year, I drew a Maine moose tag. To me, getting that tag for a moose was like winning the lottery. I went all the way up to Maine to hunt this moose. The weather didn’t cooperate with us, and it was a really-tough hunt. We hunted for 4 days before we even saw a moose. But the guide I was hunting with knew how to call a moose. When he started calling on the fifth day, I’d never heard as much racket coming from an animal as I did when that moose started responding to that guide’s calling. He was coming through the brush and knocking-down everything in sight. The area was fairly thick, and we couldn’t really see him. He was beating-up trees and grunting and sounding like an army of men charging through the brush. My cameraman whispered, “Is that him right there in the brush?” I said, “I’m not sure.” I had no more than gotten those words out of my mouth than that moose stepped-out in front of me at 25 yards.

Now, a moose is a big critter, and at 25 yards with your adrenaline pumping, he looks even bigger. That’s when you’ve got to have the faith in your rifle to do the job that it was built to do. I was hunting with the CVA Accura with a PowerBelt bullet, and when the moose turned broadside, I aimed and fired quickly. When I fired, I didn’t know what was going to happen, because the moose was so close. But he took the PowerBelt bullet, and only went about 50 yards before he piled-up. I’d hit him right behind the front shoulder and double-lunged him. When you take a deer with a muzzleloader rifle and a PowerBelt bullet, that’s a great accomplishment. But when you test the rifle, powder and bullet on an animal as large as a moose, you really can see what a blackpowder rifle can do. For that moose to only go 50 yards was incredible. I thought this was one of the most-exciting hunts I’ve ever had. But the story gets better.

 Question: How hard was it like getting that moose out of the brush and back to camp?

Raglin: This is the neatest part of the story. There was a right of way (clearing) that ran down through the timber. I drive a Ford Excursion with a winch on the front. I told my outfitter, “I think if I’m really careful, I can go get my trunk and drive down that right of way.” I went back and got my trunk, but driving to the right of way took me awhile. I got the front-end of the truck pointed in the direction where the moose was laying. We started pulling the cable off my winch. When we got to the end of the cable, there was about a foot of cable left on the winch, once we wrapped the cable around the moose’s antlers. But once we got the cable around his antlers, I was able to winch the moose to the right of way where my truck was. I started backing-up, and I was able to drag that moose out of the bush all the way up to the road.

 Question: Life doesn’t get any better than that right – not having to butcher the moose in the field or carry the meat out.

Raglin: Yes, life does get better than this. When I got the moose to the road, one of the guides had a device on his truck that allowed him to run the cable from the winch on the front of the truck, over the truck to where he had a crane-like device. We unhooked the moose from my winch, took the guide’s winch from the front of his truck over the top of the truck and through the winch device, brought it down and put it around the antlers of my moose. The guide was able to winch the entire moose into the back of his pick-up truck. We took the moose back to camp, hung him up and skinned, dressed and quartered him with little or no hassle. That’s when life was as good as it could get for a hunter.

Editor’s Note: Longtime muzzleloader hunter Chad Schearer of Great Falls, Montana, host of the TV show “Shoot Straight with Chad Schearer” on the Sportsman Channel, tells us about the trophy mountain caribou he took with his CVA Accura V2.

Question: Chad, tell us about the really-big mountain caribou you took this season.
Schearer: On this hunt with McKenzie Mountain Outfitters in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, my guide, Stan Stevens, was very picky about the caribou he wanted me to take. Because I’ve been a guide and an outfitter for many years, I’ve learned that to take the best animal you can, you have to listen to your guide and do what he says. On the first day of the hunt, I saw a beautiful mountain caribou. I was ready to take that animal, but my guide said, “No, let’s not shoot this caribou. I think I can find you a better one.” On the second day of the hunt, I had a good chance to take a Boone & Crockett caribou. When I saw that caribou, I told my guide I wanted to take it, but he said, “No, we can do better than him.” I turned to him and said, “Hey, I’m an outdoor writer and a TV host, and I don’t really need to be passing-up Boone and Crocket size caribou.” The guide looked back at me, smiled and said, “Chad, trust me.” Another hunter in camp took that caribou which scored 383 inches. Of course, I kidded my guide about not taking that caribou afterward. Two or three more days passed, and I didn’t see a caribou that was as big as either of the two I’d already passed-up. Finally, on the fifth or the sixth day of that hunt, using a spotting scope, I spotted a huge caribou about 5-miles from our hunting site. Through the spotting scope, we could tell that this particular bull was a monster. When the guide saw the bull in the scope, he announced, “Now that’s the caribou you want to take. When you can tell the size of the caribou from this far away, then you know you want to take him.”

We spotted this caribou at 4:00 pm and then started walking 5-miles across the tundra to reach this big bull. Walking on tundra is like having to walk on 10 or 20 bowling balls resting on top of a waterbed to reach your destination. We were carrying our rifle, packs and camera gear. We didn’t reach the spot where we could take the caribou until about 10:30 pm. In northern Canada, where I was hunting, darkness didn’t fall until about 11:30 pm. As we got-in close to the caribou, he went over a ridge and bedded-down below us. When we reached the top of the ridge and looked-down at the caribou, all I could see was this massive rack. Although we moved-up to about 120 yards of the caribou, there still was no way I could take the shot. All I could see was the big bull’s rack. My guide said, “Get ready to take the shot.” The guide made a caribou call, the big mountain caribou stood up, and I took the shot with my CVA Accura V2. The caribou took the PowerBelt Bullet and went about 40 yards before he dropped. We green-scored the caribou’s rack at more than 400 inches. I don’t have the official score on this caribou yet, because to have a rack officially scored, it has to dry for a certain period. However, from his green score, we believe this mountain caribou will be in the top-five all-time B&C record book for caribou taken with a muzzleloader.

Question: What did you learn from this hunt?
Schearer: I learned that to get the best results from your guide, listen to him and do whatever he recommends. He knows the animals in his area far better than you do and the type of animals he can produce. So, if you follow his advice, you drastically increase your odds for taking that animal of a lifetime. My guide was the outfitter’s son, so he’d hunted this area most his life. Even though we weren’t spotting large numbers of caribou bulls, we did see extremely-large bulls. When I finally put my hands on the rack of this monster caribou, I was so excited. When I went up to Canada to hunt the Dall’s sheep, deep down I really wanted a big caribou. When I took this bull, he more than met my expectations. My CVA Accura V2, 270-grain PowerBelt Platinum Series Bullet and 150 grains of IMR White Hots Powder delivered the hunt of a lifetime and two trophies of a lifetime.

To hunt with McKenzie Mountain Outfitters, visit www.mmo-stanstevens.com, call 1-250-786-5118, or email mmostanstevens@gmail.com.

Editor’s Note: Longtime, avid muzzleloading deer hunter and TV host Chad Schearer of Great Falls, Montana, tells us about hunting an axis deer on the island of Maui with Hawaii Safaris.

When I went to Hawaii, I’d never hunted axis deer before. I learned that axis deer were very wily, and that hunting axis deer was much like hunting big white-tailed deer. I also learned that axis deer had an incredible sense of smell and could pick-up human scent from great distances. We hunted with Pat Fisher of Hawaii Safaris after leaving our resort at about 4:00 am. Fisher said we needed to reach a transition area where the deer were traveling from their feeding to their bedding sites. We got to the place where we wanted to take a stand, and at first light, we saw axis deer crossing this open area. The deer were in full rut. We saw a really-nice buck chasing a doe. I moved to a fence post on this old ranch site and set-up to take the shot. When the buck was clear from the doe, I took the shot with my CVA Accura at about 85 yards, and the axis deer fell.

The axis deer not only has a good nose, but unlike the hog, he has incredible eyesight. So, you have to be extremely conscious of the wind and your movement, since these animals spook easily. Taking the axis deer was a great thrill for me, and our accommodations at the Four Seasons Resort in Lanai was set-up just for hunters. You can experience some of the finest free-range hunting for axis deer in the world there. I have to admit that although I took a really-nice axis deer, 2-days later, my wife Marsha took an even-bigger deer. If you’re looking for a memorable hunt at an exotic destination, you can’t beat hunting in Hawaii. This was a great hunting experience for my entire family.

To learn more about Hawaii Safaris, visit www.hawaiisafaris.com, or call (808)-640-0755.

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.