Editor’s Note: CVA Pro hunter Tony Smotherman discusses the value of using deer calls when hunting with your CVA muzzleloader rifle.

Question: Tony, let’s talk about deer calls. Do you use them or not?

Smotherman: I use deer calls quite frequently, but my experience has been that they only call in deer about 30 percent of the time.

Question: Tony, what’s your favorite deer call to use?

Smotherman: By using a deer call, you have a 30-percent-better chance of calling-in a buck than you have if you don’t use a deer call. If I was playing the lottery I’d be really excited if I had a 30-percent chance to win. But that 30-percent increase only applies if you’re using a grunt call. I believe that using the snort/wheeze is far-more effective then the grunt call. I’ll always have a snort/wheeze call in my pocket when I’m hunting. I consider the snort/wheeze a challenge call that says, “I am the toughest guy in the neighborhood. If you think you’re tougher than me, come over here, and prove it.” When a buck hears a snort/wheeze, he assumes that the buck that’s made that call will run him off, if he doesn’t leave. But if you use that call, and there’s a buck in the area that thinks he’s the dominant buck, then he’ll to come to that snort/wheeze call. To put it simply, Ibelieve that the snort/wheeze call works on any greedy buck that doesn’t mind banging his antlers on another buck. Therefore I think that the snort/wheeze call is more effective in the Midwest and West, where the buck-to-doe ratio is closer to 1:1, than it is in much of the East. Too, the bucks in the Midwest seem to enjoy fighting more then the bucks in the Southeast do.

For some reason, the bucks in the Midwest just seem to be tougher, perhaps due to age and size. In the Midwest, a 4-1/2-year-old buck will weigh around 250 pounds. Any deer that lives that long and gets that big will think he is dominant and tough enough to whip any deer that intrudes into his area. Remember that in a lot of instances, bucks are often like hunters. Some bucks are just a little-bit greedier than the other ones are. I took a buck in western Kentucky last year that was 3-1/2-years-old. He didn’t have terribly-big antlers – 120 range on the Boone and Crockett scale. But I have video-camera pictures of this buck pushing 4-1/2-and 5-1/2-year-old bucks out of the food plot that he thought belonged to him. This buck was fighting and whipping bucks that had 150- and 160-class antlers. This younger buck was just bad to the bone and more dominant than the older, bigger bucks he was running-off. I’ve learned that the snort/wheeze works on an aggressive buck, regardless of his age or the size of his antlers.

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.

We’ve explained earlier the need for predator hunters on lands being managed for deer and turkey and have provided the latest research by biologist Cory VanGilder on the effects of coyotes on deer populations. Now, let’s look at some tips for taking coyotes from one of the nation’s top predator hunters, Steve DeMers of Whitehall, Montana, a wildlife specialist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). DeMers hunts coyotes to decrease coyote populations and reduce the damage they do to crops and wildlife. Here are some tips that will help you take more coyotes this season with your CVA muzzleloader rifle and a .22-250, a .243 or a .223 Bergara barrel.

When you’ve fine-tuned your rifle so that it’s driving tacks, you really don’t want to change anything about the gun, because accuracy depends on consistency. Regardless of how far you can shoot accurately, if you don’t have a target, accuracy won’t count. Although Steve DeMers can shoot at distances out to 300 yards or more, he’s developed coyote-calling tactics that consistently pay off for him. “I use an electronic call,” DeMers explains. “But I won’t tell you the name of the call because I don’t want other people to start using the same caller. I’ve learned from experience that the more a particular brand-name call is used with coyotes, the less-effective it becomes. Hopefully I’m utilizing an electronic caller that many other predator hunters don’t. To be effective, you have to give the coyotes different sounds than what they’ve heard previously.”

DeMers prefers the coyote howl call, the pup squeal and other coyote sounds rather than prey-species calls in his area, except in the dead of winter. “We have plenty of mice, deer and agriculture in the region I hunt,” DeMers advises. “So, the coyotes here rarely search for food. When I use a coyote sound like a howl or a pup squeal, I’m triggering a territorial response from the coyotes. The animals in my section of the country are much-more interested in protecting their territories than finding meals. To stop the coyotes when they run-in to the call, I yell at the coyote with my natural voice or howl to it.  If you let a coyote get too close, he’ll often come running-in and be much harder to stop, so you can take a shot. Many predator hunters make the same mistakes as others because they get the same information from similar sources. I buy many instructional predator-hunting videos to see how other predator hunters teach people who buy videos to hunt. I want to learn which types of callers and sounds the video instructors are recommending. Then I can avoid using the same callers and sounds everyone has seen on the videos. Too, I try to insure that the sounds I buy for my electronic callers are made by animals and not by hunters blowing through mouth calls. The best sounds you can purchase are new sounds from different live animals each year.”

Another secret DeMers has learned is not to alert the coyotes of his presence. He prefers to use electric hunting vehicles when hunting coyotes, because they don’t give-off emissions or noise, other than the sound of the tires rolling over the ground. “I’ve been looking at using an electric motorcycle, because I believe it will be far-more quiet than an electric hunting vehicle,” DeMers says. “You have to remember that coyotes are highly intelligent, they learn quickly, and they’re excellent at dodging hunters without being seen. So, when the coyotes hear a gas-powered ATV, they know that a predator (a hunter) is on the prowl. Even though I try to keep the coyotes from hearing or seeing me, I still may make a long hike into the area where I’ll be hunting and stalk and crawl quietly to reach a position where I can set-up to hunt the coyotes. The more stealthful you are in your approach to the site where you’ll call the coyotes, the greater your odds will be for taking a coyote.”

Predator hunting is now easier than ever. Using an electronic predator caller and a remote and understanding how and why coyotes come-in to predator calls and decoys can provide plenty of off-season hunting for the muzzleloader enthusiast. You can take predators with your muzzleloader rifles and shotguns or convert your CVA Apex to a centerfire rifle with a .22-250-, a .243- or a .223-caliber Bergara barrel. If you have a Savage 110, a Remington 700 or a Thompson/Center Encore rifle, you also can purchase a Bergara barrel in these three calibers to take predators.

Editor’s Note: The owner of M.A.X. (Muzzleloader Accuracy Xperts, LLC), in South Carolina, former U.S. Marine Corps sniper Russell Lynch 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. Russell has recently been working closely with CVA Muzzleloaders to help its customers improve there shooting experience.

Some muzzleloader hunters believe that having really-big bullets and shooting magnum charges will result in more game taken. But hunters used muzzleloader rifles for many years before we had 209 primers and breech-action muzzleloaders. Those early hunters took a lot of big game, often with not much more than 100 grains of black powder or blackpowder substitutes. The idea of shooting 150 grains of pellets (magnum charge) helps to sell a lot of rifles, and that magnum charge certainly has its place in the muzzleloader industry where folks will use a magnum charge. There are even some circumstances where I may use a magnum charge, but the only place in North America where I’ll hunt with that big of a powder charge is when I’m hunting in thick areas. I have been in some really-thick places before where I may hunt with a magnum charge when I know I’ll have to shoot through some brush and take a big animal at close range (120 yards or less).

On most bear hunts I’ve ever been on, a 100-yard shot is a really….

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