HELP! New to muzzleloaders

[Hunter9396]

So I just got my first muzzleloader ever. It’s a traditions buckstalker xt combo with scope. I have no experience with muzzys ever and this is all new to me. I usually only rifle hunt. My question for you guys is how do I go about sighting it in? The scope is 3-9x40 scope.. how far do I start sighting it in from? The manual tells me the gun is accurate up to 200 yards.. but I don’t know how far I should fight sight it in for. Thanks in advance 

[mowin]

I'd start at 25 yrds. You can take the breach plug out and look through the bore at a target, then the scope to see if it's "close". Adjust as necessary. Then move out to 50 and dial it in. Once dialed in at 50, you should only need to raise the POI at 100yrd+.

What powder, bullet do you have? 

Do you have a bullet starter? Definitely a helpful tool. 

Edited September 8, 2021 by mowin

[left field]

Go through this thread. It will have the answers to the questions you don't know you have yet.

 

[G-Man]

47 minutes ago, Hunter9396 said:

So I just got my first muzzleloader ever. It’s a traditions buckstalker xt combo with scope. I have no experience with muzzys ever and this is all new to me. I usually only rifle hunt. My question for you guys is how do I go about sighting it in? The scope is 3-9x40 scope.. how far do I start sighting it in from? The manual tells me the gun is accurate up to 200 yards.. but I don’t know how far I should fight sight it in for. Thanks in advance 

I sight in for your average shot distance.   And I use loose powder as it allows for greater accuracy.    On average 50 cal start with 50 grains of powder to get you on paper at 25 yards move back to 50 and work on your left and right. Don't worry about height yet if your a little low.  Once you get left right set you can increase by 5 grains which on average will raise point of impact 1 in.   You find your max efficiency when you hear a loud sharp crack when fired with minimal smoke and no flame out the barrel.. some guns shoot great at 85 grain, some 90 or 95 or 100 or 105 or 110 .. every gun is different. 

[DirtTime]

I also offer a little more insight on what @mowin suggested if you down own a bore sighter. It's old fashioned bore sighting and can be done with any break action or bolt action firearm that you can see all the way down the barrel with the scope lined up.

 

Get a sheet of paper and mark a dot ( bulls eye ) about 1-2" big in the center. Tape it on a wall, fence post, door, w/e where you have about 10-20yards. Secure the gun so it can't move with the dot in the middle of the barrel. Adjust the scope so the cross hairs line up with the dot. This isn't as accurate as an actual bore sighter but, you should be on paper at 50 yards and then you can dial it in. This saves a lot of headache and bullets ( in this case powder, primers, and cleaning the gun after every few shots ). Once your dialed in at 50 yards, get it dialed in at what ever distance you plan to be shooting.

[mowin]

1 hour ago, DirtTime said:

I also offer a little more insight on what @mowin suggested if you down own a bore sighter. It's old fashioned bore sighting and can be done with any break action or bolt action firearm that you can see all the way down the barrel with the scope lined up.

 

Get a sheet of paper and mark a dot ( bulls eye ) about 1-2" big in the center. Tape it on a wall, fence post, door, w/e where you have about 10-20yards. Secure the gun so it can't move with the dot in the middle of the barrel. Adjust the scope so the cross hairs line up with the dot. This isn't as accurate as an actual bore sighter but, you should be on paper at 50 yards and then you can dial it in. This saves a lot of headache and bullets ( in this case powder, primers, and cleaning the gun after every few shots ). Once your dialed in at 50 yards, get it dialed in at what ever distance you plan to be shooting.

You definitely explained it much better than I did, lol. 

[DirtTime]

1 hour ago, mowin said:

You definitely explained it much better than I did, lol. 

Been using that method for a lot of years. I don't own a bore sighter and I have put a lot of scopes on myself. I just did this with the CVA I bought.

One of these days I'll invest in a laser bore sighter. Or maybe not, I'm old and I don't think I'm going to live for ever, so there's that.

[mowin]

25 minutes ago, DirtTime said:

Been using that method for a lot of years. I don't own a bore sighter and I have put a lot of scopes on myself. I just did this with the CVA I bought.

One of these days I'll invest in a laser bore sighter. Or maybe not, I'm old and I don't think I'm going to live for ever, so there's that.

Sighted many a rifle in with this method to get it on paper, along with a few ML. 

[sbuff]

Agreed with all the above, but one of if not the most important things to do is add a witness mark to your ram rod to assure your load / charge is seated properly every time .

Keep in mind you'll need to swab the barrel after each shot unless using BH209 powder . T7 will give you a crud ring and make it very hard to load continuous shots when sighting in with out cleaning the barrel. Pyrodex will be the same but if much more corrosive.  Clean it up good after a day of sighting in.

[Daveboone]

Sighting a ML scope in is the same as a regular centerfire rifle. Absolutely be sure to fire from a rest to minimize needed shots and be as still as possible. Dont worry about the "200 yard accuracy". In real life, damn few folks can hit squat at 200 yards with a centerfire, and big fat ML rounds drop alot faster. Worry about what you actually hunt for distances. 

Start at about 25 yards, unless wildly off, two or three shot groups then adjust. I sight mine in out to fifty, but I am strictly open sights with patch and ball. 

[wolc123]

I can usually get off 3 or 4 shots between cleaning using a little bore butter on the plastic sabots with 100 grains of 777 powder (2 pellets) in my 50 cal.  I set it 1" high at 50 yards.

Edited September 9, 2021 by wolc123

[Gobbler Chaser]

 I've seen guys shooting dirty hot ML barrels and setting their crosshairs to that at the range, just to be surprised at the next range visit with that first shot thru a clean cool barrel landing on a different spot on paper. The shot you take at a deer will be with clean cool barrel, just something to remember. I leave my smokeless center fire rifle barrels uncleaned for the season because that where they were when sighting in. But you can't leave a ML uncleaned for any period of time.

[PraiseDiana]

1 hour ago, Gobbler Chaser said:

 I've seen guys shooting dirty hot ML barrels and setting their crosshairs to that at the range, just to be surprised at the next range visit with that first shot thru a clean cool barrel landing on a different spot on paper. The shot you take at a deer will be with clean cool barrel, just something to remember. I leave my smokeless center fire rifle barrels uncleaned for the season because that where they were when sighting in. But you can't leave a ML uncleaned for any period of time.

I have the traditions deerhunter and solved this by firing a couple of primers and then swabbing the barrel before the first shot. Gets that first shot to group with everything else by dirtying the barrel, but with non-corrosive primer residue that you can let sit.

[Gobbler Chaser]

4 hours ago, PraiseDiana said:

I have the traditions deerhunter and solved this by firing a couple of primers and then swabbing the barrel before the first shot. Gets that first shot to group with everything else by dirtying the barrel, but with non-corrosive primer residue that you can let sit.

Great idea