243 shots with the Pro Hunter muzzleloader- in one day

[Ian M]

Yesterday my friend and I shot the new Pro Hunter in a sort of torture test of the new breachplug and stock. 243 shots, one dead gopher at 250 yards, new Nikon Omega muzzleloader scope got seriously tested, my LV Steel Targets stood up to a lot of abuse perfectly, sore arms today from seating so many boollits, perfect weather - northern Montana was kind to us.
That is the most shooting I have done with muzzleloaders, could have run up an even higher number but we got to playing games with the targets, lots of standing shots and such.
Around the 100 shot mark the breach plug is pretty dirty but it keeps on tickin'. Takes a special kind of fool to inhale so much smoke... Wind was usually in our favor but not all the time. Story for the NRA.

 

[ol mike]

"Takes a special kind of fool to inhale so much smoke"--->>> Ian you're way funny!

I shot a muzzleloader 2+4+3=9times and that was enough for me. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gifMike

 

[ourway77]

Am not familar with the Pro Hunter other than having a barrel in 243 on my Encore, also have a 209x50 barrel for it. I do know that repeated firing with 209 primers some blow back occurs and gets into the trigger mechanism, and if left uncleaned will corrode the trigger and at some time it could fail you. I all but elimated that problem by buying the 45 acp conversion. (Stay away from the Wakeman conversion) it's a piece of crap. No blow back at all. And accuracy has improved over the 209's 10 fold, Put a patch on your jag run it all the way down thew barrel, fire it and watch the ram rod move sometime as much as 2" with the conversion hardly any movement. Be very careful if for some reason the primer doesn't ignite the charge make sure you reseat the bullet as it has move off the powder charge, and this could ruin a new barrel. Just my 2 cents worth hope this shines some light on potential problems

 

[Ian M]

77,
The Pro Hunter has a different ignition design, the 209 fits flush now so there is very little blow-by. Same goes for the amount of residue that gets into the threads since there is now a set of 3 stainless steel gas rings in the front of the breech plug, similar to the rings on the pistons in the engine of your vehicle. Plus a large O-ring at the front rear.
I just took a new Pro Hunter, cleaned the threads in the breech dry, inserted a new breech plug without any lube and shot 25 times with 3 777 pellets and a 250 Shock Wave. Breech plug removed no sweat. Almost no fouling on it because of the new breech plug with the gas control rings. Then I cleaned the threads very thoroughly and inserted another brand new breech plug again with no lube on it, and shot 25 shots with 3 Pyrodex pellets and the same bullet. No problem to remove the breech plug and a bit more residue but not a whole lot. Very little blow-by evidenced by almost no smudge on the bottom of the scope. Plus the new Flex Tex stock reduced recoil so that shooting 3 pellets is very comfortable - we fired 100 consecutive shots with Pyrodex, then 100 with 777 and not even a red mark on the shooters shoulder. This is a significant improvement over the Encore. I see no reason to mess around with ignition, this one works as well as most guys could want. They lengthened to the flame path in the new breech plugs, no need to use low-powered 209's or other types of primers. Personally I see no logic in reducing the amount of flame during ignition, I prefer as much flame on the propellant as I can get. Particularly in cold weather. I shoot a lot of Encores, they make for a fine muzzleloader but the Pro Hunter model is far superior.

 

[Brown Dog]

Ian,
Absolutely unrelated: Did you get near any mailing locations? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[nelson]

I had never thought of the blowback/trigger group corosion problem what do you use to clean the trigger group. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[Ian M]

Just use some pressurized cleaner, I use the stuff from Shooters Choice. Give it a blast and wipe clean, not difficult to keep it clean. Not many parts involved. We did not encounter a problem until over one hundred shots as far as residue hanging-up the trigger and lock, not likely the average guy would shoot that much in a day. Triple 7 pellets are much cleaner than Pyrodex.