Ultimate Muzzleloader......

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Ken's working on mine right now and he is putting a Leupold VX-6 with the firedot reticle and his turret as we speak. He told me it is his favorite setup and his guys at the Nationals are using the same. He is pretty serious about his muzzleloaders, I am really happy he's doing a build for me. Can't wait to see the end product.

I grew up and worked a hop, skip and jump from Ken. I'm happy about the chance to visit and shoot with him or Randy when all this snow melts. I've actually put off buying one until I couldn't stand it anymore. I don't know if the wife is accepting it either...... she seems to think I'm spending money, yet I've been selling firearms that I don't use or want to finance it. Wives just look at it as $$$$, rather you're replacing or not. I've been considering the VX6 3-18? I don't know what Ken asks for the scope?... but, I may have a way to get a "PRO DISCOUNT" through a friend. Bad thing about the pro discount, they inscribe the name of the pro.... Its all about price.

 

[Wyfox]

The VX6 3-18 is an excellent choice, very highly regarded optic for hunting. Ken builds a great firearm, I've had 5-6 different Ultimate's over the years and have been shooting his muzzleloaders for 15 years now, time flies!!

 

[etisll40]

I'm actually paying the price on the VX-6 as he said it comes with rings, he is installing it, sighting it in and putting his turret on it, if I like that scope as he does for hunting and his gun, I may put them on my other rifles. And those I'll get at competitive prices. I decided to go all out custom with him, I think he is getting paid what's he's worth and I believe I'll be getting an absolute keeper. That's kind of my direction with firearms going forward. This is sort of rest case for me. I'll save here and there, but I hate tinkering too much, I want to shoot and hunt mostly.

 

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You'll be happy with it for sure. I've been shooting Ultimate's for over 10 years now ..............

Ok, the money question, well sort of:

Are you ONLY using the .45 Winchester Magnum brass that Ken sells or.... are you buying bulk?

I'm not into de-prime and re-prime using just hand tools and I have a set of RCBS .45 Win Mag dies. I'd really like to have 500 cases primed as much as I shoot.

 

[Wyfox]

Buy bulk from anywhere just make sure you get Starline, Starline brass has more uniform primer pockets then Winchester. Some of the Winchester brass has tight primer pockets and a primer not seated all the way screws up the head space.

I have one of the hand depriming tools they sell and then use an RCBS hand primer to reprime. Brass never needs to be resized or polished. After firing the inside of the case is as shiny as it was new. I have 200 that I've been reusing for years.

 

[ENCORE]

Buy bulk from anywhere just make sure you get Starline, Starline brass has more uniform primer pockets then Winchester. Some of the Winchester brass has tight primer pockets and a primer not seated all the way screws up the head space.

I have one of the hand depriming tools they sell and then use an RCBS hand primer to reprime. Brass never needs to be resized or polished. After firing the inside of the case is as shiny as it was new. I have 200 that I've been reusing for years.

I pretty much suspected that. If possible, I prefer to have 500 by the time things come around and I can say "I'm all settled." When I decide to shoot, I might shoot 50 or more rounds per setting. I can shoot 200yds at the house but, I'll have to run to the club to shoot the 500yd range. THANK YOU for the tip on the Starline brass.

 

[Wyfox]

50 rounds or so at a setting is alot!

Just be advised the recoil on these things is pretty heavy with 150-200gr loads. You would be much better off shooting 10-20 times per range session to prevent developing a sore shoulder or flinch. Make sure to run a damp patch through it every 2-3 shots. Do not use over soaked patches, just swab once flip the patch and swab again. You can completely clean the barrel with 4-5 patches when your done shooting.

 

[ENCORE]

50 rounds or so at a setting is alot!

Just be advised the recoil on these things is pretty heavy with 150-200gr loads. You would be much better off shooting 10-20 times per range session to prevent developing a sore shoulder or flinch. Make sure to run a damp patch through it every 2-3 shots. Do not use over soaked patches, just swab once flip the patch and swab again. You can completely clean the barrel with 4-5 patches when your done shooting.

A normal day shooting for me normally ends up being 50 rounds. I shoot just about year round, except when I turn my attention to ice fishing walleye. I've shot 4,000 rounds one year, however that wasn't with an Ultimate. Cost with the Ultimate, or the recoil, may put a damper on the 50 a setting though. The wife states that I shoot to much and hates it when I'm at the computer with the credit card. My last purchase for bullets cost me $500. Now I have more and different bullets to purchase.........

This past year has been pretty tough and I limited my shooting to around 100 or so rounds and then just hunting. I was lucky that a torn and detached retina in my shooting eye was healed and I was allowed to hunt. I have been plagued with eye problems that resulted in four (4) surgeries, two on each eye and I'm still recovering from the last surgery. Heck, I've had people ask me if shooting recoil caused all my eye problems. I just told them that I didn't shoot with the rifle on my forehead.....

Mine will have the muzzle break which should help some. The Lead Sled will help with recoil also. I don't put weight on the sled, as its heavy enough. I'll actually run down to Ken's to shoot the rifle after its built and the snow is gone so we can shoot it on his range. Its a 3.5 hour drive but, I have family there to stay with. Its like waiting for Christmas morning........

 

[Wyfox]

When you head down state to pick it up you'll probably go to Howell gun club to shoot with Randy. Tell the two old farts Ryan said Hi

 

[etisll40]

With White hot, is there really a need to clean it that much between rounds. On another subject, can you use smokeless powder of any kind? So many people are using smokeless and it being a Remington single shot action, I wonder why not smokeless of some sort?

 

[Wyfox]

White Hot still fowls the bore, swab with both sides of the patch every 2-3 shots for best accuracy. Your going to have the rod out anyway and it takes seconds to swab, def worth the extra little effort for best accuracy.

They were not designed or tested for smokeless, your at your own risk if you try it. It didn't fair to well with some Savage owners using smokeless that ended up with guns that detonated.

Use what is recommended and you'll be much happier and safer. The design has been around for 20 years, use what is proven. If anything ever happens to the rifle while using smokeless you'll be out of luck getting support from Ultimate.

 

[etisll40]

Good advice, I'm not one to experiment with explosives so I don't see myself playing around. For me, if it hasn't been tested and approved, it's not for me. Just asking that's all. On the whitehot specifically, have you actually seen a degradation of measurable accuracy through say a 5 shot routine, 3? I guess I'm mostly thinking about accuracy in the field. Not that muzzleloading is a repeater type of hunt, but I am thinking like going through the day of a hunt where 4-5 shots might happen.

 

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Its best to NOT bring up the subject with Ken about shooting smokeless.

There's a certain group of shooters building and getting into smokeless and trying to promote the heck out of it. I did quite a bit of research on smokeless and talked with two well known smokeless builders. Scary some of the custom barrels that have blown with that stuff, one just about a month ago. The shooter was lucky with that one... You can read reports of bulged barrels quite frequently from shooters using smokeless in smokeless designed rifles. They're sensitive to how much pressure seating the bullet, duplexed loads are sometimes needed for cold weather, knurled bullets, wool wads and an extremely limited bullet selection. When Savage first came out with the smokeless, MI looked into allowing smokeless, then determined it could not be used, short of during the regular firearm season and only in the rifle zones. It CAN NOT be used during ANY designated muzzleloading season in MI. After finding out more about smokeless shooting and the fact that smokeless is NOT legal in my state, it didn't take long to rule them out.

 

[etisll40]

I won't bring it up with Ken. His site says it doesn't shoot smokeless and I'm not buying for that type of shooting anyway. He would know if anyone and I'm sure would build one if it were fool proof. I like hunting at moderate ranges mostly anyway, I am buying this as I think his system and the quality of parts and smithing is second to none in muzzleloading. Some states have long muzzleloading seasons and I want something that will last and be used almost exclusively for muzzleloading seasons. Thanks for chiming in as a user and such. I've talked with Ken over the phone and think he's a real straight shooter with experience in this area that is very difficult to find. Not many shops specialize in this area and he hunts and shoots a lot himself. His guys shooting his stuff are winning in competition too. Just the ability to get special order single shot actions directly from Remington to his specs is pretty impressive. With his name on the gun, it will retain it's value and I think this muzzleloading area will grow in time.