newbyhunter

i barely know anything about muzzleloaders and i have a cva in-line buckhorn .50cal. i got the supplies for it except i bought the wrong size sabo for the .50cal hallow pointed bullets i bought. i heard of traditional ways of using cloth so i try that but the bullet would not go in the barrel with the cloth under it. so i think with the cloth that is thinner than a sabo, how would i be able to put in a larger sabo. another thing, when i just put the bullet in by itself, i notice it doesn't go all the way on the bottom of barrel, it stop at about 2, 21/2 inches above the bottom of barrel. any suggestions?

cayugad

WOW!! suggestions... read your manual carefully and understand what is in it. Then go out somewhere and purchase the correct sabot for the bullet you want to shoot.

What you might want to do in the mean time is purchase some bullet/sabot combination packs. You can also shoot maxiball, and other conicals like powerbelts out of the rifle without a sabot.

Cloth patches are for roundball, not for sabots. You need the correct sabot to shoot the projectiles you purchased. Also do not just drop them down the barrel as they are too small. Why it only went a few inches down the barrel I have no idea.

Go to a wal mart or some other sporting goods and get some .50 caliber 250 grain Shockwaves if you want to shoot sabots. Load 90 grains of loose powder, and then a sabot bullet combination at the same time. Do you have a short starter as well, to get sabots into the barrel far enough?

Underclocked

And absolutely get with someone with muzzleloader experience to coach you along. Asking here is great but we can't directly keep you fromharming yourself.

newbyhunter

yes i have a bullet starter but it didn't go only a few inches down the barrel, when i pushed the bullet in towards the bottom i couldn't push it down anyfurther and it was about 2 inches away from the bottom as if the bullet was a little big

Semisane

This is just a guess based on that little bit of information. ButI'm guessing the gun is not new, that it's been shot before and not cleaned as well as it should have been, and there's a rough/rusted/dirty spot down near the breech that's stopping the bullet from seating completely. We need a little more info as to which specific bullet and sabot you bought.

batchief909

Worse yet,,,if it was used,,,there might be a hot one already in there!

jayman035

you gotta get someone who knows what there doing with your gun. especially if its a second hand gun. like batchief said it could have a double load in it, if i was you, when i got my muzzleloader it was second hand i striped the entire gun down and scrubed the hell out of it before i even thought about loading it myself.

good luck and be careful.

corey012778

newbyhunter,

you can remove the breech and push the ram rod thou maybe you will push out what is in the barrel. and clean the rifle.


you be surprised how many people give up a mlers with a load in it. just in my area I know of 2 in shops right now.

UncleNorby

I'm glad you are asking these questions instead of blindly proceeding. Heck, I got nervous just reading your post.

As others stated, first thing to do is confirm the gun is not loaded. Then thoroughly clean it. You do need to resolve the issue at the breech area. Could simply be accumulated fouling and perhaps some rust, but some time and effort will probably cure it. When the gun is clean, put it aside and read the owner's manual. You can probably download one from CVA these days.

Then proceed to the range with proper components. I don't recommend that you improvise patches for sabots, or anything else for that matter, until you have a lot more muzzleloading experience under your belt. I really like Hornady FPB bullets. They are a bore diameter conical so no sabot is needed. They load pretty easily once started, and they are very accurate in my gun.

batchief909

DO NOT attempt to shoot it until you have done everything posted above!! I'm still leaning on the "already loaded" aspect.[:-]