Question: Tony, you mentioned earlier that two of the biggest differences between hunting in the East and the West are that you may have to shoot at long ranges, and you have to deal with thinner air, which will change the ballistic coefficient of your bullet. Once you’ve sighted-in your rifle in the East, how do you know where the bullet will hit while shooting in the West?

Smotherman: I use a Bullet Drop Compensating (BDC) reticle on my CVA rifle to view my sight-in spot at different ranges. Then I make a chart that tells me how-much bullet drop I have at different ranges with the load I shoot. I print-out that chart and cover it with clear packaging tape to waterproof it, and I tape that ballistic chart to my rifle stock. Having this reference on my stock enables me to range an animal and, based on the chart, know exactly where I need to aim. When I hunt in the West, I use the Leupold UltimateSlam riflescope with its BDC reticle on my CVA rifle, because I may have to take a long shot.

Question: How accurate is your BDC reticle, once it’s set?

Smotherman: Generally, most BDC reticles are set-up for 150 grains of powder and a 250-grain bullet, which is the most-common load for muzzleloading hunters. But, I use a 300-grain bullet with 150 grains of powder. So, the BDC reticle doesn’t match-up to the load I use. I have to shoot a lot before I go hunting out West to better understand how those dots in the scope translate to the charge I’m shooting. When making my chart, I make sure I know the hold-over and the hold-under, as it relates to my particular gun and those BDC reticle dots. Taking a ballistic chart when I’m hunting out West is important, because when I see a big bull elk, a monstrous mule deer or a long-pronged antelope, usually I’m much further-away from that animal than I will be from a white-tailed deer. Therefore, I have time to check my ballistic chart before I take the shot. When I range this animal and prepare to take the shot, I don’t have to guess at what dot in the scope I should shoot, or how much hold-over I need, if I need any. That information is right on my stock in black and white.

with Terry Oertwig and His CVA Muzzleloading Electra

Editor’s Note: Terry Oertwig, a member of CVA’s Pro Staff, hunts all over the world with blackpowder weapons. His muzzleloading rifle of choice is the CVA Electra, because  it requires less cleaning, gives more-reliable ignitions than percussion caps and has unmatched accuracy out to 300 yards. While on a recent trip to Africa, he took a kudu and a warthog, and this week he tells our readers about his kudu hunt.

The kudu is known as the gray ghost of Africa. This animal weighs about 800 pounds and has horns that are often 50-plus-inches long. My kudu had 52-inch horns. Even as big as kudus are, they’re very elusive and can disappear in the bush very quickly. On one morning of my hunt in Africa with Mafigeni Safaris, we got up early to go out to hunt specifically for kudus. Finally, we spotted a kudu near a lake and planned a course for our stalk. We had seen this kudu before, and he was really a nice trophy. There were several kudus in the bunch that we were stalking. As we got within about 150 yards, fate dealt us a joker. A family of baboons spotted us, got up in the trees and started screaming and shaking branches. The action by the baboons spooked the kudu. My guide, Claude Kleynhans, said, “The kudus were coming to this lake to drink, and this is a relatively-small lake. So maybe they’ll come back here once they think the danger has passed. Then we’ll get another chance at the big kudu.”

We waited for about 2-1/2-hours, and even though I had plenty of opportunities to take other animals, we had decided that this kudu was the hunt for that day. Because we’d been sitting in the blind for so long and trying to stay as motionless as possible, my legs and back were beginning to ache. I decided to stand up. I made sure there was nothing in front of me before I started to stand. When I stood up, I leaned my CVA Electra against the tree. As I started to stretch my back and arms, I spotted the kudu coming toward our blind from behind us.

Apparently, when he had spooked because of the baboons screaming, the kudu ran all the way around the lake and now was approaching the lake from directly behind the blind. I picked-up my CVA Electra to try to get-off a shot, but African animals are not like white-tailed deer. They don’t stand in one spot, eat, move on and grab a bite of grass or bushes, while they’re walking. They keep their motors running and their engines in gear. At the slightest sign of danger, they can throttle-down and escape. As I tried to find an opportunity to take the shot, the kudu kept moving through the bush. Although I was within range, I never could get an opening to shoot. Before I could take the shot, the kudu winded us, shifted to high gear and left.

We sat at the waterhole for a while, hoping he might come back, and finally decided to leave, circle the area, and arrived at another location where we had spotted this kudu previously. However, before we got to the place where we planned to look for the animal, we spotted him standing about 400 yards from the place, where we had seen him earlier. He was eating and moving, so we moved in the direction he was going and got to within 70 yards before I took the shot. We had started hunting this kudu at 6 am, and when the gray ghost went down, I looked at my watch and it was 5:15 pm. The kudu weighed around 800 pounds, and the CVA Electra put him down very efficiently.

To learn more about African muzzleloadin safaris with Claude and Jill Kleynhans, go to www.mafigeni.com.

To order a CVA Electra for you self go to  http://www.cva.com/rifles-electra.php#tab-additional-models

Editor’s Note: Many southern and western states permit coyote hunting year-round. In other states where there’s a coyote season, you can talk with a landowner, who can apply for and receive a crop depredation permit, which will allow the removal of predators out of season. Here at CVA, we want to inform you of more ways to use your CVA Muzzleloaders and Center-fire Rifles and the latest research that can provide more days of hunting for you.

But rather than tell you the whole story, let me introduce you to Cory VanGilder and let him explain his research project and the results to understand why if you’re not a predator hunter with your CVA rifle, you should be.

VanGilder of Exeter, Missouri, has a master’s degree in wildlife management from the University of Georgia and specializes in managing land for wildlife. Currently he’s the ranch manager and wildlife biologist for Big Horn Ranch in southwest Missouri (http://www.thebighornranch.com/old/). His job is to identify factors that affect the game populations on the ranch and determine the most-effective ways to influence those factors to produce more and bigger deer, turkeys and other game animals for his hunters. VanGilder has learned that predator hunters can be an effective tool in deer management, especially trophy-deer management. Most hunters don’t realize the impact of coyotes on their deer herds, because the coyotes do the most damage during the spring of the year when few, if any, deer hunters are in the woods. At this time of year, young, helpless fawns are born across much of the United States, although many southern deer aren’t born until August. Female coyotes also have tremendous needs for a large quantity of food to recover from birthing their pups in the springtime and to feed those pups as they begin to grow in the spring. VanGilder’s study has revealed a definite need for more predator hunters to take more coyotes, especially in areas where landowners and hunting clubs manage their deer herds for quality or trophy bucks.

How and Why VanGilder Conducted His Research:

VanGilder’s conducted his research on 2,000 acres of deer-rich territory in northeast Alabama. VanGilder collected information from trail cameras and hunter observations to estimate the ratio of fawns produced by the does on the property before implementing an intensive predator-removal program. The predator removal resulted in an increase in the fawn-to-doe ratio by 189%. Before the removal of predators from the property, the fawn-to-doe ratio was low, which might have been caused by the 10-year intensive management of the property based on quality deer-management guidelines. During that time, the landowner had held a major doe harvest to reduce the deer density on the property, which although normally advantageous to growing bigger and better bucks, caused the fawn-to-doe ratio to drastically decrease. “This drastic drop in doe-to-fawn production may have been the result of having both high deer and coyote-predator densities on the property,” VanGilder explains. “When the landowner reduced the number of deer on the property, he still had a high number of predators, primarily coyotes and bobcats, taking the same number of fawns as when the deer numbers were higher, causing the doe-to-fawn ratio (the number of fawns that survived after birth) to drop dramatically. After the predators were removed, the doe-to-fawn ratio increased, with each doe producing at least one fawn per year and some does producing two fawns per year.” From studying the scat collected from woods roads on the property, VanGilder and his team of scientists named the coyote as the number-one predator of the fawns with some bobcat predation. “We found very-little deer hair at all in the bobcat’s scat,” mentions VanGilder.

How the Predators Were Removed:

To remove the predators from the study area, the landowner hired a professional group of predator trappers, who trapped the property for predators after trapping season. In 6 months, 22 coyotes and 10 bobcats were removed from the 2,000-acre study area.

“Coyotes can replenish a region really fast, especially when there are many transient coyotes in an area and not much empty space without coyotes,” VanGilder comments. “Our study was conducted from February to July, and the fawning period in this section of the United States (Alabama) was in August. We wanted to time our trapping to just before the fawns were born to have the greatest positive impact on fawn production.”

The landowner continued the trapping program, asking hunters to take coyotes on sight. VanGilder returned 1-year later, and a camera survey revealed a large new crop of 1-1/2-year-old bucks and does on the property. “Our study had a positive impact on deer production on the property where we removed the predators,” VanGilder reports. You too can enjoy coyote hunting with your CVA rifle and keep your hunting skills sharp for the upcoming deer-hunting season.

Editor’s Note: Carlos Vilorio of Vass, North Carolina, an assistant manager and salesman at Ed’s Gun Shop, knows the targets he shoots with CVA Accuras for customers and the groups he gets when shooting sell the guns.

Question: Carlos, you told us that the first time you ever shot a CVA rifle, you got a three-shot group at 100 yards that measured 0.485. How did you convince your customers to start buying CVA Accura rifles?

CVA Accura Target

Vilorio: I took the Thompson/Center rifles, the CVA Accura and the Thompson/Center with the Bergara barrel to the range and shot three-shot groups with each. I put the targets in a notebook and labeled them with their respective gun names. When a customer said he or she wanted to buy a blackpowder gun, I’d ask if he wanted a gun with interchangeable barrels or a plain Jane 100% blackpowder rifle. If they wanted just a plain Jane blackpowder rifle, I’d tell them they either could buy a Thompson/Center that cost $700 at that time or a CVA Accura, which cost much less. Then I’d show the customer the targets I’d shot. They could see from the targets that the Accura shot a much-tighter group than the T/C. If they wanted a blackpowder barrel to go on an interchangeable platform, I’d show the customer the three-shot group produced by the Bergara barrel. My customers are always amazed when they look at those targets in my notebook and see how tight the patterns are for both the Bergara barrels and the CVA Accura. When our customers learned how lightweight and comfortable the CVA Accura rifles were, the Accuras started jumping off the shelves, as did the Bergara barrels. I don’t really sell CVA blackpowder rifles or Bergara barrels in our store. The targets in my notebook that show the groups the Accura and the Bergara barrels produce sell them.

 Question: What have you learned about bullets?

Vilorio: I like to shoot the Barnes Spit-fire T-EZ 250-grain bullets. I set-up a CVA Accura with the Bushnell Dead On Accurate (DOA) 250 scope and took it out to the range with the Spit-Fire bullets to test it for a customer who purchased it. It shot 0.271 groups. So, if I’m really shooting for accuracy, I like the Barnes bullets. But for most hunters, the difference between 0.485 and 0.271 is not that important.

Question: Do you set-up all the guns you sell from your store and take them to the range and shoot them?

Vilorio: Most guys prefer to sight-in their own rifles, which really is the best way to sight-in a rifle. But if a customer wants me to take out his rifle and sight it in for him, I will. I really don’t like to sight-in someone else’s rifle because even though it’s driving tacks for me, the customer needs to sight-in his own rifle, so he can make it shoot accurately for him. When I do sight-in a rifle for a customer, I bring the target back and show it to the customer. Then he knows the type of group the rifle, the scope, the bullets, the powder and the cap can deliver. I can’t guarantee that the customer will be able to shoot that type of group, but the gun can.

Question: Do you sight-in these blackpowder guns for 100 and 200 yards, and if so, what types of groups are you shooting out at 200 yards?

Vilorio: Yes, I sight-in for both 100 and 200 yards. With the CVA Accura, I can shoot a 1-inch group at 200 yards. But if I can take the human factor out of the shot and shoot the Accura in a vice with a mechanical trigger pull, I can shoot a 1/2-inch group with the Accura.

Question: Have you shot the Accura at 300 yards, yet?

Vilorio: No, I haven’t. But I’ve just received a new CVA Apex, and I’m going out today to sight-in this rifle. I not only want to see what this gun will do out at 200 yards, but I want to test it at over 200 yards.

 Editor’s Note: Carlos Vilorio of Vass, North Carolina, works as an assistant manager and salesman at Ed’s Gun Shop. When Vilorio sells a CVA rifle, he often will take the rifle out, sight-in the rifle for the customer, bring the targets back to the shop, and show the customer the group the CVA rifle has shot. Then he lets the targets speak for themselves.

Carlos with CVA Accura

Question: Carlos, how did you get started hunting with blackpowder rifles?

Vilorio: I watched Jim Shockey on TV take a number of big-game animals shooting a Thompson/Center. So, I decided to try blackpowder hunting and purchased a T/C Encore Endeavor. The first deer I ever took with a blackpowder rifle was at 225 yards, and I’d never seen a blackpowder rifle that would shoot accurately at that range. I never was too excited about CVA because in the early days, the company only had low-end rifles that weren’t known for accuracy at long ranges. But a couple of years ago, the factory representative for Browning and CVA, Tillman Britt, approached me at Ed’s Gun Shop where I work after he’d heard me talk about blackpowder rifles. He started telling me about CVA rifles and the new Bergara barrels. I said, “Listen, Tillman, I’ve heard about CVA rifles, but I’ve never shot one. If you’ll let me shoot one and see what it will do, I’ll tell you what I think.” Three days later, I received a package from Blackpowder Products, Inc. (BPI), CVA’s parent company, with a CVA Accura muzzleloader and a Bergara barrel for my T/C rifle. I tested the Accura and the Bergara barrel on my T/C Encore Endeavor at the range. I couldn’t believe the accuracy of both products and how easily the Accura loaded. I also was very impressed with the trigger on the Accura. Most of the T/C triggers I had tested had 4- to 5-pound pulls, and most of the Accuras I have in the store have 2-1/2-pound pulls straight from the factory.

Question: Tell me what happened the first time you took the CVA Accura to the range to shoot it.

Vilorio: I didn’t know what to expect from the Accura. I’d never shot a CVA rifle, so I didn’t have very-high expectations. The first time I shot a group of three shots, it measured 0.485. I hoped these target results weren’t an accidental fluke – the first three shots out of this Accura were at 100 yards. So, I fired that gun 40 times that day, and every time I fired three shots, I consistently got 0.485 groups. What’s even more amazing is that I didn’t clean the CVA Accura, until I took it home after firing it those 40 times.

CVA Accura at the range

Question: What scope did you use?

Vilorio: I used a Bushnell Dead On Accurate (DOA) 250.

Question: What powder did you use?

Vilorio: I shot Blackhorn 209 powder, which was one of the reasons I think the Accura kept delivering those types of patterns without having to be cleaned. When I saw the unbelievable accuracy from the CVA Accura, I called Tillman Britt and said, “Hey, we’ve got to start doing business. We need to get these CVA Accuras in our store.” I was truly amazed at the accuracy of this rifle right out of the box.