BigBoxaJunk
Grandmaster
After many years deer hunting with my 1985 TC Hawken, I had decided this year to get an in-line muzzleloader. I mostly wanted a rifle with a scope, and it always seemed sacrilegious to mount one on my old TC. I decided on a CVA Optima that came with a scope on it. I figured it would also be nice to have a lighter, stainless steel rifle that’s faster loading and easier to clean.
Before I go to the range to sight in a scope, I usually start with my poor-man’s bore-sighting technique. That involves taking out the bolt (or breech plug in this case) and laying the rifle on my desk, pointing down the hallway, towards the wall in the front room about 45 feet away. I don’t have a gun vise, so I set it up on my shooting rests, shimmed up with books or magazines as needed. I make a spot on a post-it note and stick it on the far wall, moving it until it’s centered in the bore, looking through from the breech. Then, without bumping the rifle, I look through the scope and see where the reticle is. If you’re careful you can adjust the reticule to zero on the dot, going back and forth, looking down the bore, then the scope, making adjustments as needed. I’ve found that I can usually get it close enough that my first group is on the paper at 50 yards.
At the range, I set up to shoot, and my plan was to start with patched round balls, since I have a bunch of those, and save the expensive conical bullets for the final zeroing. I know, they say the rifling isn’t ideal for round balls in an in-line muzzle loader, but I figured if I used half-charges, they might not strip out too badly. Turns out, they ain’t kiddin’ when they tell you not to shoot round balls in an in-line. They were all over the place; on the paper, off the paper, way left, way right, way low. I could have gotten tighter groups if I was throwing them. At first I figured it was me, then maybe the scope was loose, or defective. Then, at the height of my frustration, I decided to put in a conical bullet with a full charge, and see how that would do. That one hit right where I was aiming. Feeling better, I loaded up again and took aim at a clean target, and hit near dead center. I loaded another, and another, each time expecting a “flyer”, but the end result was six shots, in a group less than 3-inches, just off the bullseye, and I hadn’t even taken the caps off of my scope.
So, one thing I learned was to save the patched round balls for my old TC Hawkin, and the other thing is that I’m getting darn good at bore-sighting with a post-it note.
Before I go to the range to sight in a scope, I usually start with my poor-man’s bore-sighting technique. That involves taking out the bolt (or breech plug in this case) and laying the rifle on my desk, pointing down the hallway, towards the wall in the front room about 45 feet away. I don’t have a gun vise, so I set it up on my shooting rests, shimmed up with books or magazines as needed. I make a spot on a post-it note and stick it on the far wall, moving it until it’s centered in the bore, looking through from the breech. Then, without bumping the rifle, I look through the scope and see where the reticle is. If you’re careful you can adjust the reticule to zero on the dot, going back and forth, looking down the bore, then the scope, making adjustments as needed. I’ve found that I can usually get it close enough that my first group is on the paper at 50 yards.
At the range, I set up to shoot, and my plan was to start with patched round balls, since I have a bunch of those, and save the expensive conical bullets for the final zeroing. I know, they say the rifling isn’t ideal for round balls in an in-line muzzle loader, but I figured if I used half-charges, they might not strip out too badly. Turns out, they ain’t kiddin’ when they tell you not to shoot round balls in an in-line. They were all over the place; on the paper, off the paper, way left, way right, way low. I could have gotten tighter groups if I was throwing them. At first I figured it was me, then maybe the scope was loose, or defective. Then, at the height of my frustration, I decided to put in a conical bullet with a full charge, and see how that would do. That one hit right where I was aiming. Feeling better, I loaded up again and took aim at a clean target, and hit near dead center. I loaded another, and another, each time expecting a “flyer”, but the end result was six shots, in a group less than 3-inches, just off the bullseye, and I hadn’t even taken the caps off of my scope.
So, one thing I learned was to save the patched round balls for my old TC Hawkin, and the other thing is that I’m getting darn good at bore-sighting with a post-it note.
