Ethan Grotheer
32 Cal.
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2009
- Messages
- 49
- Reaction score
- 0
Hi all,
Close friend of mine the other day informed me that his boy who's 11(And who's very acquainted with firearms) told him that he's very much like to get a muzzleloader and was fascinated by it all. I told him not to worry about trying to hunt down something affordable because I already have one that he can have.
So today,
I pulled the old(to me) CVA Mountain Stalker out of the closet and took to the range. I've never really sighted this rifle in to begin with so after snapping a few caps and confirming breech clearance with a false charge, I loaded 70 grs of FFG with a .490 round ball and a .018 patch and took a shot from 25 yards.. It impacted nearly ten inches low and the next shot agreed with the first, so down to the neighbor's house I went to file down the front blade. Well, being my usual hurried self, I decided "why not just use the belt sander?". This would have been fine had it not been for my lack of attention while I was chatting(yelling at over the noise) with my friend and inadvertently took far more off than I had intended. Back up at the range I found that with both 60 and then 50 gr charges that my round balls are now impacting 4" high at 25 yds.. So here's my question(s):
How can I build the blade back up to accommodate these charges(besides replacing the whole thing)?
Or, how low is too low of a charge to try and compensate for the blade and get the kid started out just shooting(supervised of course)?
I appreciate any input given,
Ethan
Close friend of mine the other day informed me that his boy who's 11(And who's very acquainted with firearms) told him that he's very much like to get a muzzleloader and was fascinated by it all. I told him not to worry about trying to hunt down something affordable because I already have one that he can have.
So today,
I pulled the old(to me) CVA Mountain Stalker out of the closet and took to the range. I've never really sighted this rifle in to begin with so after snapping a few caps and confirming breech clearance with a false charge, I loaded 70 grs of FFG with a .490 round ball and a .018 patch and took a shot from 25 yards.. It impacted nearly ten inches low and the next shot agreed with the first, so down to the neighbor's house I went to file down the front blade. Well, being my usual hurried self, I decided "why not just use the belt sander?". This would have been fine had it not been for my lack of attention while I was chatting(yelling at over the noise) with my friend and inadvertently took far more off than I had intended. Back up at the range I found that with both 60 and then 50 gr charges that my round balls are now impacting 4" high at 25 yds.. So here's my question(s):
How can I build the blade back up to accommodate these charges(besides replacing the whole thing)?
Or, how low is too low of a charge to try and compensate for the blade and get the kid started out just shooting(supervised of course)?
I appreciate any input given,
Ethan