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Wolf 50Cal Muzzleloader question

2K views 18 replies 9 participants last post by  Mad Trapper 
#1 ·
I was at a big event tonight with door prizes and ending prizes. 300+ people and to my surprise
I got the last prize a Wolf Muzzleloader 50Cal with Simmons scope.

My problem is I know nothing about muzzleloaders but gladly accepted the prize at the event.

Please help with any ideas on learning this new rifle! I Have watched several Youtube videos
and have a basic idea but what are the main in and outs of this type rifle?

Thanks!

SDF880
 
#2 · (Edited)
I've got the same model that I use for early deer season. Pick up a box of 209 primers, 209 is a primer size not a brand and can be found in many sporting stores and a few packs of roughly 300 gn 50 cal bullets. Modern muzzleloaders use pyodex tables instead of black powder. I like to use the 50 gn size since one "pellet" works well for target shooting for short ranges and two 50 gn tablets will easily take a deer at 80 yards. Your rifle can handle up to 3 "pellets" but one heck of a kick with that heavy 300 gn bullet.

"Black powder" rifles require frequent barrel cleaning. After a shot or 2 you will find it's harder to push the ram rod all the way down, usually 3-4 shots is all I can get before I need to clean the barrel. Accuracy will suffer if you don't fully push the bullet all the way down the barrel so plan on bringing a bit of water to the range to swab the barrel out with a bit of water often to help you fully seat the bullet.

Cleaning the barrel is easy, the cheap and easy way is just to pour some water down the barrel in the sink and swap it with a dry cloth before running an oil patch to minimize rust. There are several cleaners like "Bore Butter" to help but plain old sink water works fine dissolving the powder residue.

CVS Wolf rifles are poorly blued so wipe the barrel down with a fairly heavy oil, especially the muzzle, before storing.
 
#3 ·
I've got the same model that I use for early deer season. Pick up a box of 209 primer;, 209 is a primers, size not a brand and can be found in many sporting stores and a few packs of roughly 300 gn 50 cal bullets. Modern muzzleloaders use pyodex tables instead of black powder. I like to use the 50 gn size since one "pellet" works well for target shooting for short ranges and two 50 gn tablets will easily take a deer at 80 yards. Your rifle can handle up to 3 "pellets" but one heck of a kick with that heavy 300 gn bullet.

"Black powder" rifles require frequent barrel cleaning. After a shot or 2 you will find it's harder to push the ram rod all the way down, usually 3-4 shots is all I can get before I need to clean the barrel. Accuracy will suffer if you don't fully push the bullet all the way down the barrel so plan on bringing a bit of water to the range to swab the barrel out with a bit of water often to help you fully seat the bullet.

Cleaning the barrel is easy, the cheap and easy way is just to pour some water down the barrel in the sink and swap it with a dry cloth before running an oil patch to minimize rust. There are several cleaners like "Bore Butter" to help but plain old sink water works fine dissolving the powder residue.

CVS Wolf rifles are poorly blued so wipe the barrel down with a fairly heavy oil, especially the muzzle, before storing.
Thanks!
 
#8 ·
I don't like those "new" "muzzleloaders". made mostly for those hunters who won't learn traditional ML so they can take advantage of "ML" deer seasons.

I use a flinter or traditional sidelock. Real powder, once you go black, you won't go back. Snake oil crap about newer powders is just that. If you can't get black (goex USA made, Swiss one of the best, or Kik Chezk ) try hogdon 777. They always go off and open sights to 100 yds deadly.......patched RB or traditional conical. Traditional match ML shoot 1000 yd matches......

For those newer "muzzleloaders" , find the correct "suppository" for you caliber. You need to know the twist of the barrel, find that by running a patched jag down your barrel and count the turns. Most newer "ML" are fast twist to use saboted pistol/special bullets. As EACH load is a handload you need to try powder amounts, suppository, and primer. You vary one at a time to find the sweet spot. The real lazy loaders use 50 gr non-black "pellets", that you cannot fine tune.

And cleaning? depends on your powder. Real black and warm water is all you need. You also need to clean between shots. POI will vary from clean to dirty barrel. I sight in on a spotless clean barrel, as it won't rust and it will hit what is aimed at.

Don't have a link to "suppository"MLs, but google up Toby Bridges, he is a sniper rather than hunter, and has pissed off the traditional MLs with his rantings about inlines
 
#9 ·
If you use loose powder 90-100 grains is fine. If your receiver is rated for magnum charges up to 150gr. will work. Most people like Blackhorn 209 because it burns cleaner than Pyrodex or black powder. I just drop two Pyrodex 50gr. pellets down followed by a 250gr. TC Shockwave sabot and cap it with Winchester 209 shotgun primers. My NEF Sidekick goes boom every time. If you use saboted rounds the plastic sabot acts as a lubricant so you don't need bore butter. If you plan to hunt with it, and you should, you have a great setup and congrats on the win!

Traditionalists scoff at me all the time for using an inline. If I were going to the rendezvous and dressing like a mountain man I'm sure I'd have the finest flintlock money could buy from Dixie Gun Works. I hunt. I want the most accurate, lethal and WEATHERPROOF option available to me. To each his own. I'm still waiting for one of those old codgers to challenge me to a 300 yard shootout. Their smooth bore flintlock VS. my Austin and Halleck .50 caliber.
 
#10 ·
Last few I went to the traditional shooters outshot the inlines by far. My friend Bill, who won absolute marksman (off hand 50 yds, one ragged hole, jager flint he built himself), commented on the inline category winner, "You would not have placed 3rd in traditional, and you had a scope!".

I laugh at black rifle "sprayers" at 100 yds with my hawkens ( .45 cal 1-18 GM barrel, lyman peep, FFg swiss or .54 TC 1-66 w/prb).

In the woods my traditionals have been in nor'easters and rains, they still go BOOM! Not like some fiends suppository fed inlines..... I have learned how to feed them and take care of them.

If you want to shoot against one of those "old codgers", try a 1000 yd match shoot , with open sights, against a withworth or gibbs rifle. That would be a .45 cal shooting a 550 gr lead pill over F or FF FFFg, real black.

Dixie Gun Works muzzleloading, blackpowder and rare antique gun supplies.

Gibbs Deluxe, Rifles Gibbs (1865) .
 
#12 · (Edited)
i'll add some tips.

Flinters need a calf for hunting to keep yer prime dry. Change it if compromised (you'll get to know)

Prec: grease or never-sieze your nipple, when you cap have a wax candle to seal the base of the nipple and edge of your cap, carry one with you handy when you do an overnight, or might be a real hunter whom stays days, a other things you need like a compass (GPS is a crutch for weaklings, military surp compass are nice) . Put a piece of duct tape over the bore when loaded, not PC but keeps all dry.

keep yer powder dry and fires warm
 
#13 ·
Congratulations on winning the door prize. I know a bit about muzzle loading yet I am unfamiliar with inline muzzle loaders. I am most familiar with flint lock and percussion BP rifles. I've always used non petroleum based lube and cleaner on my BP guns, such as bore butter. They seem to work better than conventional cleaners on keeping down the corrosion/rust.
 
#16 ·
Sorry I have been a piss ant so far.

Yes , be careful. ML is a whole new game. I'm sure that gun gun safely used will treat you well.

IMHO real BP is the best. Use what you want. BP stores many hundreds of years, properly.

look into sabots/bullets, I don't use those. Each will shoot different with a different load. Each load will shoot different , clean, or dirty.

When you find a good load for what you want, buy up and keep that.

I hope sometime, after using your new rifle, you might consider a cap- or flint-lock.

Many will well come You at Muzzeloader Forum.

Traditional Muzzleloading Forum Flintlock Musket Reenactor
 
#17 ·
I only use traditional black powder guns. Mine is a custom made .50 caliber Pennsylvania flintlock rifle, and I only use black powder. I don't have any experience with inlines. That being said, muzzleloaders require more load development than modern centerfire rifles. I always started with one grain per caliber (.50 caliber= 50 grains of powder) and work up to the most accurate powder charge in 5 grain increments. It is usually below the max load of 1.5 times the caliber. My .50 shoots amazingly well with a .490 ball and 65 grains of 3F powder. I have shot clean through every deer I have killed with it.
 
#18 · (Edited)
Folks, Please keep in mind that SDF880 won an inline muzzle loader that uses modern primers and doesn't require patches or black powder.

His rifle, like mine uses pyodex tablets, not black powder and is an easy way to learn muzzle loading rifles without the long study and trial and error learning needed for the historic black powder rifles with their open powder pans. He can't measure powder in 5 gn incraments nor does he need to worry too much about keeping his powder dry.

Personally I have respect for those of you who use the more traditional flash pan type muzzle loaders but I don't have the time to learn the idiocryncies of a black powder rifle so some of us stick with the easier to become proficient with inline muzzleloaders.
 
#19 ·
If you learned a bit, you'd find each individual load of your inline is a custom load, that can be adjusted. Just like a flintlock. If just want to shoot and kill, maybe not even dress your own meat, I see your point. The same attitude is seen with modern rifles, practice, and proficiency.

I started handloading cartridges many years ago, not because a box of remimgton would not do the job on a deer, but because I started to shoot better than what was in the box. That took many thousands of rounds.

When I was learned a bit about MLs, the same is true. I was already into my teens then.

That "new fangled" ML will benefit from load development, proper cleaning, and practice the most on the shooters part. Different brands of primers powder and suppositories will shoot different. Only way to sort that is range time.

Reminds me of the fellow "sighting in" his rifle at the range, took one shot, off the whole target, at 50yds. He proclaimed "I just flinched a bit, gun is right on". Then he left.
 
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