Wife said go buy yourself a birthday present...........so I did Gun is simply top notch for anyone in the muzzleloader market......Bergara Barrel and fits me like a glove. Been toying with some loads and settled on a heavy 90 grains of Blackhorn pushing a 245 grain Barnes Spitfire TMZ with a Winchester 209 shotshell primer. Never used any of the above on a deer before. WOW!! I have shot a bunch of deer in my life and seen a bunch more get hit but man, she just went over like a sleeping cow. Shot was about 120 yards and I piped her right behind the shoulder. Thought I spined her by the way she dropped but just clean through both lungs. Here is the exit of that Barnes, look close and you can see the small entrance hole. Talk about rapid expansion and wicked damage. I'll never shoot another ML bullet after seeing that. Barnes Spitfire TMZ.........Wish I would have used a reference as it's about the size of a pop can. Nice big doe..........gonna do the whole deer as sausage.
BTW, I have the same gun but I did not top it....I have yet to hunt with it ... I may take it out this coming Saturday .... deer have been hard to come by in my area...
LOVE the gun. Thumb hole stock is sweet and solid. Easy take down and clean, especially shooting Blackhorn. You got some serious catching up to do bro!! I put a Bushnell Elite HD 4300 on it I got on clearance at optics planet for $99 last year. Bright, clear and solid scope that is a steal at that price. Make sure you get the Blackhorn breech plug if you are using that powder. I'm done with pellets after seeing what this powder does. Good luck dude, I'm rooting for ya to post one up.
Agreed 100%. No scope on mine, I use it for still hunting. I use 100 grains of blackhorn, hornady sst's and cci 209 primers. This will probably be the gun my daughter starts deer hunting with. Fantastic gun.
I didn't see that you had the thumbhole stock ... I went with the regular stock as it holds just like a pistol grip .. this gun is amazingly balanced Boy, that is the understatement of the year ... I want to switch to Blackhorn ... thanks for the heads up with the special breech plug ... I didn't know they made a special one for it Thanks, Bro ... you sure set the freekin bar high this year! :D
If I were to buy a ML, this would be the one. I did all the research last year and liked what I saw. Congrats on the deer!
I borrowed and shot a Savage ML-II, loaded with 48.5 gr powder, 200 gr bullet. 1" high at 100 yards only dropped 3.25" at 200. Off the lead sled both shots at 250 were touching. IF i were to buy one tomorrow, it'd be that Savage. I'm not a big gun person, I have 8 or 9 rifles/shotguns, but in your research were there any drawbacks to the Savage?
Even cooler is the stock is ambidextrous so my dad who is a lefty can use the gun as well. He's such a hardcore buck hunter again that he went and bought a ML tag Yup, they were having ignition trouble due to the properties of the powder. The new plug has a cupped face for the powder to crowd the flash hole as well as shotgun 209 primers and not the ML ones............goes bang every time and the accuracy is superb. Other stuff I recommend is the video and load data sheets from maxmuzzleloading.com and chiefs cleaning jag (it has metal teeth that run in the rifling and get out every last bit of plastic left behind by the sabot.
Congrats on the deer and your year so far Atlas! I'm also looking at adding a ML to the safe soon. I had an old junker inline traditions that I bought in College but it's got a lot of corrosion and was never really accurate. I've been eyeballing the Accura MR just because of how light it is, and the long distances we cover up north.
Well, I honestly didn't know about that ML at the time. It seems to be pretty popular. It looks like as of 10/22/12, they are no longer making this gun. I read that they stopped production at one time, demand increased like crazy, and they started making more. Now they are not making more, right?
Not gospel, but the guy told me a big Whig at savage separated from the company, then wrote a article on how the gun would blow up. I'm telling you, if the smokeless law doesn't apply, it's worth a look. I've got a encore and a Rossi, if I hadn't already booked a hunt this year I'd add one to my safe. They can be had on gunbroker pretty close to MSRP.
I don't think the smokeless law applies here in Virginia anymore. I found an old article stating that smokeless powder was illegal during the muzzleloader season but legal when used during firearms season. Why would it be illegal for a couple weeks of the season and legal during the other part? A law that I would most likely choose to ignore if I wanted to use smokeless powder. Sue me! Sorry for the hijack, Atlas.
Congrats man. You are living the dream. I have used those bullets for years and they are awesome. I have shot Blackhorn 209 for three years now and it is the best powder I have ever used. (once you figure out the breach plug thing). I have tried everything from black powder, Triple 7, Shockeys Gold, Pyrodex granular, pellets,etc, etc,. I am shooting 115 grains out of a Knight Long Range Hunter .50 cal and using the Nikon Omega BDC scope. On Friday I went out to a friends range and was pounding the target at 200 yards with that thing off a bench. I have 5 muzzleloaders and have shot them for over 20 years and love it. It is so much fun finding just the right recipe for each gun. They can be a crazy accurate weapon and lots of fun. As a note, do not use the kleanbore or other muzzy specific 209 primers with the Blackhorn 209. You need to use a regular primer to get the best ignition results. I just swab between shots and dont even clean the gun until the season is over. That powder has zero corrosion issues.
