Season End – Planning for next year

So I have to share a picture of my buck from this year, shot at our ground in Southern MN during the second weekend of gun season. Myself and my dad have been hunting southern Minnesota the last couple of years with a savage 7mm-08 pistol as a legal way to shoot a fair distance and it has been working very well, however for next year I am thinking of changing it up. I am thinking of purchasing a muzzleloader for next year, put a scope on it and use this for longer shots (more stable, hunting out of a box blind so I have two guns with me) during our slug season. I have no experience with muzzleloaders and hear great things. Could someone point me towards two or three that are great products and known for having the “reach” I hear they are capable of. I am not looking to take 300 yard shots, but my thoughts are next year I could also try the Muzzleloader season if I am unsuccessful during slug season. Thoughts?

Really depends on how much you are looking to spend! There are some great long range muzzleloaders but at a price (2200)! I think one of them is from ultimate firearms inc.

For something more reasonable-

Knight Long Range Hunter – $650

CVA Optima Elite – $350

Honestly, there are a lot of good muzzleloaders that will perform excellent. TC Omega is another one to take a look at!

The gun is only a quarter of the battle in making a tack driving muzzleloader. The other components are finding a bullet and powder load that agree with the gun. Consistency is also very important, in terms of loading, seating etc. For the Knight a great combo is two 50 grain TripleSeven pellets and a 285 grain Barnes Spit-fire MZ BT and Winchester #209 777 primers.

Badbull will shoot like a 7mm. But you couldnt use it during the mn muzzleloading season legally as it uses smokeless powder.

I love my T/C Omega. With open sights, I have no problem to 150 yds. and probably farther, but that is my max practice range. I am guessing with a scope, you will be good to 200 if you practice with it.
I shoot 100 gr. 777, using 2- 50 gr. pellets, pushing a 240 gr. cheap shot sabot (all lead). I like the all lead sabot because you get great break up on a deer. Plus, they are half or less of the price of something with a ballistic tip. I didn’t have luck with those ballistic tips when I used them on a whitetail.
If it’s me- I would be a T/C. You can go a different model- I have heard great things about the Bone Collector as well. The Encore could be a possibility- you can even buy other caliber barrels, if that is your sort of thing.
Any more specific questions, let me know.

TC OMEGA X2, 100gr 777(2 PELLETS), 295gr hollow pt PowerBelts.Very accurate 150-200yds.Higher end TC’s have the twist out breech plug,nice option.

I shoot the TC Omega also and love that gun!!! One tip though, with TC guns the tech at the company told me only shoot TC bullets with them. I had a bad experience with the power belts and called them. They said TC guns are designed to shoot TC bullets. I have never had an issue since. 2 50 grain pellets of 777 and a shockwave bullet is a killer set up out to 200 yards.

I am with Ben on the Knight combo. I have been shooting 285gr Barnes MZ’s with 3 50gr trip7 pellets out of my KRB7. The bullet fit is VERY snug. I run a spit patch between shots(even while hunting). The gun out performs me. I just picked up 6 more boxes from cabelas. They are on sale right now. I am going to mess around with black horn 209 loose powder (90 to 120gr) & different primers. Not because I feel the need to have better accuracy but I want to make my setup a bit more user friendly for my mom. She was going to use it this year but after 3 shots with it this fall she decided to pass. I am comfortable out to 200. I know I could shoot farther but where I hunt I am lucky to see 75 yards.

I’m in a similar situation as you (looking for a new MZ). Plan to start hunting the gun season at my inlaws next year (SE MN), rifled barrels are not an option for my shotgun (discontinued model), a descent in line MZ is by far the less costly option than another slug dedicated shotgun, well at least the slug gun I’d get. Heard lots of good things about TC, more than one person recommended the triumph, I have a TC percussion cap side lock MZ for when I want to ‘really’ muzzleloader hunt. That being said, when I add up what I would do with the triumph I’m right back at that dedicated slug gun price. So, I’m going to go with a CVA Accura V2, also heard very good things about that. My plan is to get the blackhorn breech plug and give the blackhorn 209 powder a try and I’m leaning towards starting off with the powerbelt HP’s and probably picking up some barnes and/or TC sabots to fiddle with till I find the best combo.
Will be a different experience for sure than my TC and 70 grains behind a patch and roundball. I plan to pick it up this weekend so hopefully I can report back on how it shoots in a week or so if I can get out to the farm to shoot it.

Here is what I ended up choosing. CVA Accura MR (mountain rifle). Composite stock, stainless barrel with weathershield coating. The Bushnell DOA scope I wanted to pick up went off sale the day before, didn’t feel like dropping 2x the money on it so went with the Cabelas powderhorn scope, time will tell if that was a mistake. Picked up the Blackhorn breach plug for it and plan to run test trials with Powerbelt hollow-points and also TC hollow point sabots with blackhorn powder and either run with whichever patterns best or try out other loads if I don’t like results.
If the forcast holds I’m planning to go to the farm and give her the first test run on Saturday.

I’m looking very hard at this rifle Poo. Let me know what you think of it if you get to shoot this coming weekend. I’m looking at the Accura V2 thumbhole though.

So far it handles and points real well, I’ll make sure to update if I get to shoot it on Sat. I had thought about a thumbhole one too, but this one just felt ‘right’ when I was test driving them at the store.