New CVA Optima

[hunter]

Just picked up a CVA optima and will be trying ML for the first time yhis year. Any advice will be appreciated. My brother is experienced and will help me out but doesn't have the same gun so any suggestions on loads and powder or pellets welcome. Can't wait to get out in the woods with it. Good luck to all going out for ML

[YFKI1983]

I have the same gun. When I sighted it in this year I put the ramrod extension on it and broke it trying to reload after the 4th shot. when your sighting in just pass the brush through after a few shots to make it easier to load. Im waiting for a new ramrod now. very annoying lol. Not the guns fault just me not knowing what I was doing.

[Elmo]

hunter,

I bought the CVA Wolf a month ago. Also a first time muzzleloader. I use 777 pellets with 250 grain TC Shockwaves (.50 caliber). I only drop 2 pellets in. With only a fix 4 power scope, I was hitting within a inch of my targetted bullseye at 100 yards. I believe if I break the barrel in further, had a cleaner barrel (those hits where after over 10 rounds at the range), and had a more powerful scope, I could have achieved an even tighter group.

The muzzleloader has become one of my favorite rifles to shoot.

[G-Man]

For truly accurate shots loose powder is the way to go and speed loaders, 90 grains to 120 will prolly work best. you don't have much time to work up a load so you'll prolly go with pellets this year(they never weigh 50gr)) but it will get you close enough to hunt with. sabot with 240- 300 grain bullets will work as well, your barrel twist is too fast for roundball. do not buy hot 209 primers, look for remiingtons or 777 primers. a hot primer will push your charge down the barrel before it can ignite resulting in inaccuracy as well as a potential "pipe bomb effect". best of luck and get out there and sight it in!!!

[phade]

For truly accurate shots loose powder is the way to go and speed loaders, 90 grains to 120 will prolly work best. you don't have much time to work up a load so you'll prolly go with pellets this year(they never weigh 50gr)) but it will get you close enough to hunt with. sabot with 240- 300 grain bullets will work as well, your barrel twist is too fast for roundball. do not buy hot 209 primers, look for remiingtons or 777 primers. a hot primer will push your charge down the barrel before it can ignite resulting in inaccuracy as well as a potential "pipe bomb effect". best of luck and get out there and sight it in!!!

777 pellets and 777 primers are easy, but certainly not the best as mentioned.

Easy and readily available loads are Hornady SST low drag, the XTP, or Shockwave variants.

I strongly suggest BH209...if it is local, buy it and send a few shots downrange at 90 and 100...chances are one of them will group well with your choice of projectile. Use CCI209M primers with the BH209, which is a hot primer. Many BH209 users go with the 209M.

[hunter]

Thanks for the tips guys.

[Jeremy K]

Shooting a CVA Apex , i had zero luck with those white hott pellets ,did some research on some muzzleloader sites and came up with 100g of Blackhorn 300g shockwave and a federal 209 shot primer .

[kirch]

I shoot a CVA accura V2 and am shooting 2 white hots with barnes TXZ 250 gr and CCI mag primer. I tried black horn, was getting decent groups ..... not much better than my current whitehot load.......but experienced a hang fire with blackhorn on a buck and hit him low and will not be going back to it. If you want to use blackhorn I think you need to run their breach plug and really HOT primers. Most of my shots are less than 100 yards so I'm sticking with what is currently working good for me.

[sbuff]

CVA has a different breach plug then the factory breach plug if you plan on shooting bh209.Many people have modified the orginal plug to shoot bh209 if one doesn't choose to purhcase it.