Well I am new to the forum hunt with handguns allot.

I decided to try something new. I purchased a CVA Optima muzzle loading pistol 50 caliber.

First the range session:

I like the Hogdon Triple Seven black powder substitute for inline style muzzle loaders.

I had three styles of bullets. Power Belt 295 Grain HP, TC 300 grain sabots, and the pure lead 350 grain muzzle loader deer slayer bullets. I mounted a Bushnell Halo site on the pistol. The reviews I read mostly said that 90-100 grains by volume to be the most accurate. I decided to start with 90 grains. After the initial site in at 25 yards I moved back to 75. I did clean between each shot but shooting three shots with each bullet I had a total group of 4" total. Yes with three different weight bullets. The Power Belt is a HP and felt the reduced velocity of the pistol the HP would give me the best performance on deer.

Tale of two stories.

Wisconsin deer hunting is in full swing my daughter who has never seen a deer while hunting over the last 8 years decided to hunt with me and I give her allot of credit. We settled in at 2:00 on a very warm Thanksgiving day 62 deg F crazy warm for northern Wisconsin this time of year. But with cold front approaching I was excited for her. Sure enough late in that day a deer appears.

The following is a description of the events as they unfolded;

"Get your gun up there's a deer."
"Where dad I don't see it"
" right down in front of us by that dead log 75 yards out."
" OK I got it but I can only see the head."
"Keep your gun on it get ready behind the leg one third up from the bottom."

The entire time I have the pistol on the deer.
By now the deer is getting nervous and starting the I am going to bolt jitters.

"Rachel do have shot you gotta shoot that deer is going to leave."
"All I have is the head I cannot make good shot its moving too much."
"Dad do not let get away shoot it." "All I can see is the head."

Boom I drop the hammer.

"Sorry honey it was going to leave."

"Did you get it?" "Wow dad that's allot of smoke"

We got down I was not feeling good but she again said; "Dad I finally saw a deer and we got it you hit it ............right?"

"Pretty sure I did honey."

She says;
"Wow this is great."

Well story long enough we got the deer she helped me get it dressed out and we got the deer cart got it back to the truck and we where 1.5 hours late for dinner. Nice little spike horn and as I type this it is already cut up and in the freezer my daughter is stoked and ready to hunt again next year on her college break.

This muzzle loader pistol did an great job and adds great dimension and I was sad I had to use it on this hunt but Rachel assures me it was the right thing she only had a head shot and the deer was not standing still enough for her to shoot it.

The bullet devastated the lungs and top of the heart the distance was a little over 75 yards.

Want to add a great option look at his CVA Optima Pistol to your handgun hunting.

Well I will be the first to say welcome. Sounds like a good day in the field with your mini smoke pole. Pics are very welcomed here.

Hi Ramjet-SS,

WELCOME! And Great Job! Great challenge and you met it in spades!

I also enjoy handgun hunting with my T/C Encore muzzle loading pistol in 209X50. I took this 3 year old 6X6 bull elk with iron sights and a T/C 320 grain Maxi-Ball and if I remember correctly, 95 grains of Triple Seven. That was back in 2001.



Keep up the good work! And congrats on getting your daughter into hunting! Good luck with that in the future!

Gregg

Great story, congrat's!

Congrats! I also took my first with a smoke pole handgun this year.

That is a great story. What granulation of powder did you use? I have discovered that 3 F granulation of loose H777 provides the greatest velocity in specialty pistol barrels. Believe it or not there is a difference of more that 2-300 fps with 2 f and 3 f with the short barrels.

When using 3f H777 you are in a hot 44 mag/445 Supermag catagory.

Bigbore, that's some good info. I've never tried the 777; does it burn cleaner than standard pyrodex?

What I found with 777 is it leaves a dry crusty residue. Cleans easy enough and with Powerbelt bullets loading number two is easy enough. Funny every talks about follow up shots. I guess once in awhile but animals usually get the heck outta there at the sound and resulting smoke from these guns.

Thanks for all the compliments and my daughter is not hard core but she does enjoy the few days we have together hunting she appreciates the sights and sounds of the outdoors. Squirrels roughed grouse, owl, bear den (bear was not home but on several occasions they were), deer birds and just the quite and peacefulness .

Sorry about the pic I did not take one as it was getting late and we were late for Thanksgiving dinner as it was. Gotta pick our poison.

Greg I to had the Encore ML pistol I have to say and this is based on many factors the CVA is a better ML pistol. This based on the cleaning ease, accuracy and the fact that it will handle heavier charges. That not being the biggest factor because of diminishing returns in the short barrel of both guns. But they sure are effective and owning an Encore already that would be the way to go.

Thanks for the feedback.

One other thing Greg.

I was surprised how well the TC maxi hunter shot from this gun and the fouling was softer because of the lube on the bullet.

Thanks again guys two more tags and all of next week for hunting with ML.

Congrats on a great kill. Great to read your daughter was with you.

I will,post a pic later scored another nice Wisconsin Whitetail nice doe she dressed out a 155 lbs one shot center punched the heart at 40 yards. She ran a small circle and that was it. She did the classic heart kick.

I absolutely love shooting the Optima ML Pistol.

I have one more buck tag to fill.

I see the pic needs a link can we uplink the pic?

I bought a CVA Optima pistol today for $229 at R&R Arms. Hope I get it before muzzleload season that starts this weekend in the Florida panhandle.

Nothing like spending qaulity time in Gods great outdoors with family. Congratulations and good hunting!

You are going to really like it the load I settled on for now and was very accurate and fatal on deer is

90 grains Triple Seven
Power Belt 285 grain hollow point.
Federal 209 primer.

The groups at 100 yards from this combination is impressive.

The price for these guns is certainly without any doubt the best value in handgun hunting I have ever run across.

I prefer the red dot over a magnified scope just a personal preference.

I had a Bushnell Halo sight and for some reason it fits this setup for me better than any other gun I have mounted that sight on.

Enjoy the Optima let us know what you think once you start shooting it.

Another thing the gun is capable of heavy charges I found they are not really needed. The 90 grain load did plenty of internal damage on both deer I shot. It was accurate as far as I shot it out to 100 yards.

The suggestion of using FFFG over the FFG I think is good one and I ordered some to try but will load 90 grains like I am now and give you some feedback.

The other thing I am going to try are the 170 grain bullets from Dynamic Research in a sabot.

I will have to look at my data but I did some testing before again I shot the Shooting Chrony with a sabot. Smack right in the display.

I shot H777 3 f out of a 14 inch barrel, and 18 inch barrel( I had Gordon Kahnke make up a custom tapered barrel so I could use it during the Massachusetts muzzleloading season with a detachable stock. Unfortunately, my detachable stock creation broke when I shot it and in the process the recoil slammed me in the face knocking a lens out of my glasses and plain hurting as well. ) In addition I shot it out of my G2 barrel that has been cut down to 19 inches.

There seems to be a point of diminishing returns at 90 grains or so. I noticed that there wasn't much if any increase at 100 grains. Also, there did not seem to be much increase with the different barrel lengths at that point using H777 3 f. They were all within 75 fps so you really aren't hampered using a 14 inch barrel vs a slightly longer one.

This winter I plan on repairing my grips and then have the Shooting Chrony fixed so I can do some testing. I want to experiment with weighed charges to see what I can do for accuracy.

Holy stuff going wrong bigbore does not sound like great turn of events.

Thanks for input what might be interesting would be FFG vs FFFG same barrel length.

I have been shooting the FFG have no idea what the velocity is but the bullets certainly perform as advertised and expansion looked to be great.

My experience is load for accuracy the velocity will work itself out.

This ML handgun stuff is really allot of fun.