Editor’s Note: Chad Schearer of Great Falls, Montana, former owner and operator of Central Montana Outfitters, guided clients to mule deer and elk each season as well as hunted on his own. Today, Schearer is host of the “Shoot Straight with Chad Schearer” television show presented by CVA that airs on the Sportsman Channel, Fox Sports South, the Lonestar Network and CBS Montana.

 Question: Chad, which CVA rifle are you hunting with now, and how are you loading it?

Schearer: The situation and the game I’m hunting dictate the rifle I use. I hunt with the CVA Apex quite a bit, because it allows me to change barrels and keep the same rifle frame. With the Apex, I can hunt for deer or varmints, just by using different barrels. But when I’m using the Apex as a muzzleloader, I’ll load with either 100- or 150-grain PowerBelt bullets. I like IMR White Hots pellets. If I’m doing a whitetail hunt, I’ll use either a 245- up to a 295-grain PowerBelt bullet. If I’m hunting elk and shooting a .45 barrel, I’ll use a 275-grain bullet. If I’m shooting the .50 barrel, I’ll use either a 295- to as large as a 348-grain bullet. I like either the PowerBelt or the PowerBelt Platinum bullets the best, and I really like the Winchester 777 Primer. I’ve experimented with all different types of primers, and the Winchester primers give me the most-consistent ignitions. I’ve been extremely successful using that primer the last several years.

 Question: One of the selling points with the CVA rifles is the Bergara barrels and the accuracy they deliver, even out to extended ranges. What’s the longest shot you’ve ever taken successfully with a CVA rifle?

Schearer: The longest shot I’ve ever seen with a CVA rifle was made by….

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Editor’s Note: Carlos Vilorio of Vass, North Carolina, is an avid Muzzle loading shooter and hunter who truly loves the CVA Accura Muzzleloader.

Question: Carlos, in previous blogs, you’ve mentioned the types of groups the CVA Accura and the Bergara barrels deliver. But the real test of a blackpowder Muzzleloading rifle for most hunters is how well the rifle performs in the field. What type of results have you and your customers had with these rifles and barrels?

Vilorio: I was hunting last deer season here in North Carolina, and one morning, while sitting in a tree stand, I saw a number of does early. At 9:55 am, I decided to leave my tree stand and go home. But I thought I’d give the stand at least 10-more minutes. In a few minutes, I looked to my left and saw this really-nice-sized buck coming out of the woods in a shooting lane. I ranged him at about 250 yards. I made the decision not to shoot that far. The buck started to cross the shooting lane, but then saw the does, stopped and started walking down the lane straight toward me. When he was at 225 yards, he started feeding. All I could see was his rear end. I thought, “Carlos, either you’ll let this buck walk off, or you’ll have to take the shot through his rear end.”

About that time, the buck turned around and faced me. I checked him with my rangefinder and learned the buck was at 220 yards. I knew from shooting the CVA Accura on the rifle range that I could make the shot at that distance. I cocked the hammer and was ready to shoot when a doe stepped in front of the buck. I waited until she cleared the buck and then pulled the trigger. When the smoke cleared, I didn’t see my buck lying on the ground. I thought, “I can’t believe I missed that deer.” I got out of my tree stand, went to the spot where the buck had been standing and found a blood trail. The buck had run 50 yards and piled-up. He was a really-nice-sized 9-point buck. The bullet went through the left shoulder, destroyed the heart and came out the right shoulder. I didn’t hesitate to take the shot, because I’d seen the types of groups the Accura could produce at that range. So, I learned that the Accura not only would punch tight groups on paper on a rifle range, but that same rifle would deliver the same accuracy in the woods when a deer was in front of you.

Question: Carlos, you spend a lot of time on the rifle range developing loads and sighting-in rifles. Have any of the customers at Ed’s Gun Shop, where you’re the assistant manager, taken deer with CVA Accura rifles you’ve sighted-in for them?

Vilorio: Yes, they have – quite a few actually. I had a customer who said he’d be hunting central North Carolina when muzzleloading season started in November. The season began on Saturday, and this customer came in on Tuesday. I showed him the different muzzleloaders I had, and the patterns they’d shoot. He chose the CVA Accura and the Bushnell Dead On Arrival (DOA) 250 riflescope. He asked me to set-up and sight-in the rifle for him. I’m off on Wednesdays, and that’s generally when I go hunting in another area of North Carolina where the season starts early. I didn’t really want to give up a day of hunting to sight-in this guy’s rifle, but he wouldn’t buy the Accura, unless I put it together with the scope, sighted it in and had it ready to hunt. So, I decided to hunt Wednesday morning and then sight-in this customer’s Accura. Then he’d have it ready to hunt with on Saturday. The rifle was shooting a three-bullet group at 0.485 at 100 yards. I took it back to the shop on Thursday, the customer picked it up, and I told him to shoot the rifle himself before he went hunting. He came in the following Monday with a picture of a huge buck he’d taken at 180 yards with the CVA Accura I’d set-up for him. I asked the hunter where the bullet hit. He said, “Well, the deer wouldn’t turn sideways, and he was facing me head-on, so I shot him through the front. You can see where the bullet hole went through the front of his chest. When the bullet hit him, he dropped dead in his tracks.”

Question: Do you have another customer story?

Vilorio: I sure do. I have a customer who helps me out at gun shows sometimes. He selected a stainless-steel, camouflaged Accura with a thumbhole-type stock. I took it home, mounted the scope and sighted-in the gun for him. That gun shot a three-shot group that measured 0.3085. This customer took the gun home and shot it to make sure it was dead-on before he went hunting. About 2-weeks later, he took a monster 10-point buck with his CVA Accura at 150 yards. The shot went through the buck’s shoulder. The customer told me the buck only traveled about 10 yards before he piled-up. The Accura certainly can prove itself on a bench at a rifle range, but the real test of the gun is in the woods when you have a monster buck standing in front of you. I’ve learned, as my customers have, that you can bet-on the CVA Accura when that buck of a lifetime appears in your sights.

Editor’s Note: Carlos Vilorio of Vass, North Carolina, an assistant manager and salesman at Ed’s Gun Shop, sights-in CVA muzzle loader rifles for customers.

Question: Carlos, you’ve mentioned that you can shoot 1-inch groups at 200 yards with a CVA Accura. You’ve also mentioned that you can shoot groups tighter than 1 inch at 100 yards with the Accura. How do you load the CVA Accura to get groups that tight?

Vilorio: I use 110 grains of Blackhorn 209 powder with a Barnes Spit-Fire T-EZ bullet and a Fiocchi primer.

Question: Why do you like the Fiocchi primer?

Vilorio: I read an article by Russell Lynch where he reported that primers can develop a lot of pressure when they’re fired and push the load forward before the powder ignites, which can affect your accuracy. Since I like to try to shoot as accurately as I can, I decided to conduct my own primer test. I put the ramrod in the barrel without a bullet or a powder charge and placed some packing behind the rod in the barrel. I wanted to measure how far the primer would push that ramrod up, which would tell me how far the primer could push the powder before the powder ignited. The Fiocchi primer only pushed the rod out of the barrel about 3 inches. The Winchester primer pushed the rod out of the barrel 10 inches. The Remington primers pushed the rod out 13 inches out of the barrel. No other primer I tested pushed the rod any less than the Fiocchi primer. So, through my primer test, I learned that the Fiocchi primer had enough fire to light the powder without pushing the powder charge too far out of the barrel before the powder ignited. I also learned that I could shoot much-tighter patterns with the Fiocchi primer than I could with other primers and that by using the Fiocchi primer, I could shoot consistent patterns shot after shot. That’s the reason I now exclusively shoot the Fiocchi primer.

Question: Why do you shoot 110 grains of Blackhorn powder instead of 100 or 150 grains?

Vilorio: For me, 150 grains delivers a heavy recoil and kicks too much. I shot 120 grains of Blackhorn powder and still got a little kick. With 110 grains of Blackhorn powder, I could get between 2,000 and 2,100 feet per second, which allowed the Bushnell Dead On Accurate (DOA) 250 scope to be accurate at 100, 150, 200 and 250 yards. I formulate my powder so that the multiple crosshairs in my scope are dead-on at 100 and 200 yards.

Question: So, what’s your opinion of the CVA Accura and the Bergara barrels?

Vilorio: I can’t believe you can take a factory-made gun out of the box and consistently shoot tight groups, like the CVA Accura and the Bergara barrels will, especially when they’re loaded with 110 grains of the Blackhorn 209 powder, the Barnes Spit-Fire T-EZ bullets and the Fiocchi primer.

with Mark Hendricks

Mark Hendricks, the vice president of Technical Development for CVA, helps with product design, manufacturing, production, quality control and bringing new products to the market for CVA.

This year, the most-exciting new product to come from CVA is the Scout, an entry-level, single-shot, centerfire muzzleloading rifle. It has a very-simple barrel catch in front of the trigger guard. This back-to-basics gun will retail for around $300 and will be available with a black stock and either a blued or a stainless-steel barrel. The Scout will be offered in .243, .7mm-08, .270, .30-06 and .35 Whelen calibers. I’ve been asked, “Why did CVA come out with a basic single-shot, break-open rifle in the $300 range?” The answer is simple. Our customers demanded it. In states like Mississippi and Louisiana, there’s a huge demand for the single-shot, break-open rifle due to the new primitive-weapons’ seasons. Mississippi, in particular, is allowing any single-shot rifle in the .35 caliber or larger to be used during the primitive-weapons seasons, which formerly was a blackpowder-only season. This primitive-weapons’ season has created a tremendous demand for cartridge rifles, because they’re easier to load and care for than CVA’s muzzleloading rifles.

We also are offering this rifle, since a number of our customers want to purchase rifles for their youngsters without having to miss a house payment. The .35 Whelen caliber gun will be extremely popular in Mississippi and Louisiana, but the other calibers will have nationwide appeal. You can’t find many deer rifles for young hunters in the .243 caliber at reasonable prices. This rifle is very simple and cost effective. The single-shot rifles have become more popular in recent years. Many hunters want a good quality, basic rifle they can use to take game. Too, because it’s a single-shot, the Scout’s a safe rifle for a young hunter’s first gun. Because the hammer is exposed, an adult easily can make sure the hammer isn’t cocked. The internal mechanism of this rifle also prevents the barrel from being closed, if the hammer’s cocked, which adds to the safety of the rifle.

CVA also offers the Scout Compact model in a .243 caliber that’s designed specifically for young hunters. The stock in the Compact version is an inch shorter than the Scout Standard, and the barrel is 2-inches shorter. You have the option of open sights or mounting a riflescope on it. The Scout Compact is lightweight and easy to handle, and you can purchase a sling for the Scout Compact, just like for the Scout Standard. The suggested retail for the Scout Compact with a blued finish with open sights is $331.95, and if you want the rails for a scope mounted on the rifle, the suggested retail is $340.95. We know there’s a large demand for this gun because it’s lightweight, simple to operate and extremely comfortable to shoot. Remember that the Scout Compact is only available in the .243 caliber. However, the Scout Standard is a full-sized gun and comes with the scope mounts already in place. We believe this gun will allow more hunters to purchase a rifle they can use to hunt deer and other big game at a reasonable price.

The Scout and the Scout Compact are available with a rifle/scope/case outfit that includes the gun, a KonusPro 3-9×40 scope mounted with DuraSight integral mounts and a CVA padded rifle case. This outfit, including a Scout Standard (7mm-08, .270, .30-06 or.35 Whelen) or Compact (.243) with black FiberGrip, is $470.95 in stainless steel or $430.95 in blued steel.

by Mark Hendricks

Editor’s Note: To learn why CVA began building the old .35 Whelen barrels for its Optima and Optima Elite rifles, we talked to Mark Hendricks, vice president of technical development for CVA. A movement is afoot to revive old calibers and allow modern hunters to hunt with them. When the State of Louisiana decided to allow primitive firearms hunters to use the .45-70 caliber, and the State of Mississippi allowed the use of the .45-70 and the .35 Whelen, a trend emerged that enables antique gun enthusiasts to use some of these old traditional rifles and calibers during primitive weapons season.

When asked if the .35 Whelen would be appropriate for hunting big game in Africa, besides hunting white-tailed deer in Mississippi, I explained that in the past, the Colorado Custom Bullet Company, which later became the Barnes Bullet Company, offered a solid-copper bullet for the .35 Whelen. I wouldn’t hesitate to use it on a buffalo. If an expanded bullet was used for the .35 Whelen, it would be appropriate for African big-game from the antelope to the lion. The .35 Whelen would put African big game down efficiently.

To successfully use antique rifles during primitive weapons season in Mississippi the rifle must be .35 caliber or bigger in a single shot, break-open type rifle like CVA’s Optima or Optima Elite. Other rounds that may be used are the .356 or the .375 Winchester. I hope to see the day when antique cartridges and calibers make a comeback to modern-day hunting. CVA muzzleloaders must remain clean and maintained by the owner. Most of the repairs that come into our customer-service department aren’t caused because the gun has failed, but rather are due to the hunters’ failing to keep the guns clean and use the proper accessories. So, bringing back the antique cartridges for primitive weapons season may solve many problems for hunters. I’d like to see some of the other true antique cartridges brought back for hunters to use during this season. Some of the pre-1900 cartridges were a lot of fun to shoot and extremely efficient at taking deer. Too, I’d like to see the .38-55, the .444 Marlin and several other antique cartridges reappear. There’s no disadvantage to shooting these antique cartridges, other than being able to find the ammunition and the gun with which to shoot them.

I’d pick the .45-70 against any modern cartridge for bringing down white-tailed deer. Another disadvantage to these antique cartridges would be the range, which might legitimize them to be used during a primitive weapons season. However, when you’re considering antique cartridges for a season that deals primarily with antique guns and primitive weapons, having a 300-yard shot isn’t necessarily the goal or the intent of that season. Therefore, the range at which these antique cartridges will be effective shouldn’t be a problem. The purpose of many primitive weapons seasons is to allow the rifle hunter to take game up close and personal, much like the bowhunter does, with weapons used by our forefathers.

If customers want more antique-caliber rifles, just let us know at CVA. CVA will respond to the customers’ needs, like we did when the hunters in Mississippi wanted the .35 Whelen barrel. To learn more about the .35 Whelen, call the CVA customer-service desk at 770-449-4687, or visit our webpage at www.CVA.com.