Editor’s Note: Russell Lynch of South Carolina, owns M.A.X. (Muzzleloader Accuracy Xperts, LLC), which produces videos and customizes muzzleloader rifles to determine the best primer, shot and load for each individual muzzleloader rifle he’s asked to evaluate and to improve shooting accuracy. A former sniper in the U.S. Marine Corps and shooter in matches and trainer of personnel in shooting for the Armed Services, Lynch learned to shoot accurately from 300 yards out to 1,000 yards.

No one bullet is best for all muzzleloader rifles. A muzzleloader hunter wants to pick the bullet that not only gives him the most accuracy in that rifle but that’s designed to be the most efficient for the game you’re hunting. Now, some people will want to argue about my theories, but here are some principles I’ve been successful with, and what I’ve learned. The number-one thing I look for in choosing a bullet for a muzzleloader rifle, regardless of whether I’m shooting at 100 or 250 yards, is the bullet’s ability to maintain its integrity after impact (I want the bullet to stay together after it hits the animal and goes all the way through the animal). Physics helps me determine a bullet’s integrity. At Muzzleloader Accuracy Xperts (M.A.X.), we test all the muzzleloader bullets on the market for their integrity (ability to stay together after impact) by shooting them into ballistic gel. Our company went to the FBI, and the FBI told us where to buy the gel, how to mix it, cool it and make the gel, so it’s consistent all the time. To test different bullets’ integrity fairly, you have to make sure you shoot them all through the same medium (in this case, gel) that’s formulated and created the same way. We shoot blackpowder bullets into ballistic gel, so we can compare three-different components of the bullet’s integrity.

First, we want to see if the bullet’s designed to be an expanding bullet. If it’s designed to be an expanding bullet, we want to determine how long or how far it will go through that gel before it begins to expand. Second, we’re looking for the wound channel (displacement of material – how much tissue or gel the bullet destroys as it goes through the ballistic gel). There are two ways a bullet downs an animal by:  soft-tissue tearing, which is generally determined by the diameter of the bullet when it goes in the medium or animal and how much the bullet expands as it passes through the medium (ballistic gel); or by soft-tissue displacement, which is explained by the amount of kinetic energy the bullet produces as it goes through the animal to move tissue. If the bullet passes above, below or to one or the other side of the heart but doesn’t actually hit the animal’s heart, we want to know how far the kinetic energy that bullet delivers as it passes through the animal will move the heart, even if it doesn’t tear the heart. For instance, if you push my heart 5 or 6 inches from where it’s been sitting in my body for 52 years, I’ll have a problem. An artery can twist, fold or possibly erupt. So, a bullet can do a lot of damage with kinetic energy, even if it doesn’t touch the soft tissue around the organ.

From all the good bullets we’ve tested, we’ve learned that when the bullet goes into an animal, if it’s a ballistic-tipped bullet, the bullet will lose that ballistic tip, which is the solid piece ofplastic on the end of the bullet, within the first 2 inches of the entry point. An expansion usually starts within that first 2 inches from the entry point. As the bullet hits resistance, the bullet starts to slow down. So, the wound channel starts out at bore diameter and then suddenly increases to 6 to 7 inches at its maximum. Then, when the bullet expends all its energy, it will begin to slow down and stop. I look for a bullet that will go at least 6-inches deep into a block of ballistic gel before it stops. As the bullet begins to slow down, it moves down (the wound channel tapers-down). The energy reaches its maximum point and then begins to slow and stop.

Third, we look for how far the bullet travels after it hits the animal and releases the maximum amount of energy it can deliver. This information tells us what the potential total penetration of that bullet should be on a game animal. We measure from the front of the gel to where the bullet stops to determine total penetration. The penetration we feel is most important in a bullet is 16 inches or more of penetration into that gel. In most big-game animals, if a bullet penetrates 16 inches, more than likely the bullet has passed all the way though the animal or has the ability to penetrate all the way through the animal. Now, that’s the type of penetration a hunter needs, based on the type of animal he’ll hunt and the range from which he’ll shoot. Most of the bullets we test are 240 to 260 grains. We use this information when we’re developing load data. We recommend at least 900-foot pounds of kinetic energy when the bullet hits the animal. Most of this is based on velocity. We want 900-foot pounds of energy left when the bullet impacts the target. In other words, we want that bullet to carry 900-foot pounds of energy into the target. We can formulate loads that can deliver 900-foot pounds of energy out to 200 yards. We also create some loads that will deliver that same foot pounds of energy out to 250 yards and, in some cases, up to as far as 250 yards, but that’s as far as we’ve formulated loads with our data. It takes a really-good shooter to get the bullet on target at 200 yards and to get the bullet on target at 250 yards with a muzzleloader.

Having 900-foot pounds of energy when the bullet hits the target for most big-game animals at whatever range you’re shooting is essential. I’ve developed some loads that only deliver 850-foot pounds of energy at 150 yards, which is one of the loads I recommend for white-tailed deer hunting. If you have a bullet in the 240- to 260-grain bullet, and you think you have a shot at 200 yards, the bullet needs to come out of the barrel at 1,850- to 1,950-feet per second. To get that speed, you’ll probably be loading 100 to 110 grains of either Hodgdon Triple Se7en or Blackhorn 209 powder.

I’m often asked why I don’t want a larger powder charge. The answer to this question relates to accuracy. There’s a point of diminishing return in the amount of powder you use. If you shoot 150 grains of powder, you’ll take some punishment. You don’t improve your accuracy by taking that beating (recoil). We’ve formulated plenty of 140-grain powder loads that deliver accuracy, but after 120 grains of powder, you start blowing your shot groups out (increasing the distance between each shot in the group). You can push a bullet too much and too fast to consistently produce accuracy. When you push a bullet faster than it’s designed to go, you’ll decrease your accuracy and, more importantly, your consistent accuracy. The best load for when you’re hunting deer is around 120 grains or less and more often between 100 and 110 grains of powder with a 240- to a 260-grain bullet. Now, if you’ll be hunting elk and have a fairly-close shot, you can increase your bullet to 300 grains and still use 100 to 110 grains of powder. Out to 100 to 125 yards, you’ll knock those elk off their feet. If you want to reach out to 200 yards to take an elk, consider using a 250- to a 270-grain bullet. You’ll have to work-up some loads using from 110 to 120 grains of powder, but you’ll still be shooting less than 150 grains of powder.

There are some exceptions to these rules, just like there are to any other rules. For instance, if you’ll be shooting a black bear or a hog or a big feral hog at close range (100 yards or less), you can use a 300-grain bullet and 160 grains of powder, not loose powder, or pellets on game like that at that range and knock that bear or that hog off its feet. Now, when you’re shooting a big animal like that, you’ll only be able to shoot about a 3-inch group. But on big animals, like a big boar hog or a big black bear, that degree of accuracy should still be enough to get the bullet into the vitals. So, pick your bullet and your powder charge based on the game you’ll be hunting and the distance you expect to shoot.

Puzzled by why a big buck would come to a scent he’d never smelled before, CVA interviewed deer researcher Dr. Karl Miller, professor of wildlife management at the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Dr. Miller explained, “A deer will come-in to check-out any strange smell he finds. He wants to know what that new odor is, and what’s causing it.”

Many hunters are aware that deer will respond to strange smells. Some hunters use:

* shaving lotion;

* the smell of fresh paint;

* the smell of fresh earth;

* fox urine;

* doe urine;

* buck urine;

* tarsal gland and

* a wide variety of other scents and lures to bring deer to within bow or gun range at various times of deer season. Sometimes when you find a buck in a place you can’t reach, such as a clear-cut or a thicket or across a property line, you often can use deer lure to bring that buck to you.

Not all deer lures work equally well, and you’ll find some more effective than others. Dr. Larry Marchinton, retired professor of wildlife biology at the University of Georgia and longtime deer researcher, says, “Lures will work sometimes. Often I think deer react to a lure more out of curiosity than anything else. They may be responding to a strange scent in their environment.” Michael Cartwright, former wildlife biologist for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, mentions that, “During the breeding season, the communication between the bucks and does is very strong. That’s why the behavior pattern of a buck changes, and he begins to make scrape lines and deposit scent through urine over his tarsal glands on his hind legs. The urine mixes with the scent on the tarsal gland, leaves a very-strong smell and communicates information to other deer in the area – both does and bucks. The bucks can tell by the scent a doe leaves whether or not she’s receptive to breeding during the breeding season. Scent communication is much-more developed in deer than in humans.” Lee Christianson of Wisconsin, an avid deer hunter, explains that, “Basically lures are a sex lure that initiates a breeding response, a food lure that calls deer to eat or a curiosity lure that stimulates a deer to come and investigate. You’ve heard the old saying that curiosity kills the cat. I believe curiosity has killed more deer than it has cats. Deer are gregarious herd animals and very social. Because they want to meet and greet new individuals in their herd, they’ll investigate the smells of what they perceive to be other deer.”

Too, for scents to pay buck dividends, you must match those scents to the amount of hunting pressure in an area. As one hunter explained to me, “At the beginning of bow season, deer are in full-rut mode hardly anywhere in the country. So, you may not want to use a sex scent at this time of the year. You may prefer to choose a different type of scent. If you’re hunting in a high-pressure region on opening day of deer season, and everybody hunting is putting-out some type of deer lure, then any deer lure probably will be counterproductive because of the large amount of lure being put-out by hunters.” Many hunters consider the words, buck lure, a misnomer. A buck lure probably contains hormones a doe will give-off when she’s ready or getting ready to mate. These hormones attract the buck because of his natural mating instincts.

Dr. Marchinton believes that, “Many things are labeled buck lures. If the tarsal scents are made from tarsal glands, and if that scent is representative of the actual smell of a deer, then we think this lure can communicate the individuality of the animal. That scent may be able to communicate the sex of the animal that has produced the scent. We strongly suspect that the scent probably even communicates the social position or rank of that deer in the herd. This theory is not proven and is not scientific fact. Biologists only have some circumstantial evidence to support this idea.”

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.

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.

 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, why did you choose the CVA Optima as your open-sight muzzleloader  rifle?

Raglin: I was getting emails at my TV show from muzzleloader hunters who were traditional hunters, and they were complaining that nobody ever hunted with muzzleloaders with open sights. They’d say, “Everyone seems to hunt with those high-powered telescopic riflescopes and that’s not traditional muzzleloader hunting.” So, I decided to leave the sights off my Optima and use it as my open-sighted blackpowder rifle. I still use my “open sight” gun – the Optima – from time to time when I’m filming. I never did put a scope on it. I wanted to show my viewers that yes, you can take deer with a muzzleloader rifle with open sights.

I used the Optima on several wild hog hunts the first year I had it. Hog hunts are different than deer hunts. When you’re shooting feral hogs, usually you’re going to be relatively close, often less than 30-yards away, so there’s very-little chance you’re going to miss. But when you’ve got a whitetail that would score 170 on Boone & Crockett at 100 yards or more, and you’re shooting open sights, you may start sweating a little more than you will when shooting a hog at 30 yards. But I really don’t. The big talk in the blackpowder industry is muzzleloader rifles that will shoot accurately at 200 yards, as though the 200-yard mark is some big accomplishment. However, I’ve got a video called “Roger Raglin Black Powder Magic” that I filmed in 1989. In that video, we showed taking mule deer and antelope at 200-plus yards way back then, and we were shooting with open sights.

I’m kind of a historian, and I love to read and research guns and shooting and how they performed centuries ago. I know that back during the Civil War days there was a recorded shot made and kill inflicted at 1 mile with a muzzleloader. I know that if you find out what kind of powder a particular muzzleloader likes, and what type of bullet performs best in the muzzleloader you’re shooting, you can make some phenomenal long-distance shots. History records many phenomenal shots at long distances with muzzleloaders in the hands of men who knew how to shoot them. And, don’t forget. Those old timers were shooting with open sights.

The first year I had the Optima, most of my shots were within 100 yards. But a year or two later, I went to Ohio on a deer hunt. The weather wasn’t that great, and the hunt was tough. We were hunting coal pits (strip-mine areas). As I came-over the top of one of those coal pits, I saw this buck bedded-up in some brush below me. I had a 75-yard shot, so I leaned-up against the tree. When the buck stood-up, I fired the Optima, and that buck grossed 195 B&C. That buck still remains my best buck ever with a muzzleloader. So, I’ve proven to myself that I don’t have to have a scope to shoot accurately with a CVA muzzleloader. The open sights that many of the guns come with can be just as effective at long range as a muzzleloader with a scope on it, if you take a good rest and spend enough time on the range to know how your gun will perform at different ranges with various powders and bullets.

I think we all know that the CVA rifles are as accurate as a muzzleloader rifle can be. But we usually base that knowledge on how the rifle performs with a scope on it. Even though I was a little irritated at the viewers complaining, because we didn’t show any TV shows with CVA rifles shooting with open sights, I relearned a very-important lesson when I started shooting my open-sight gun. That is, if you learn to shoot with open sights, and you spend time learning how that rifle shoots and what bullet and powder it shoots best with, you can be accurate with open sights out to 100 yards or more, if you learn to shoot with open sights. I think sometimes we forget that you don’t have to have a riflescope to be an accurate muzzleloader shooter.