Single Shot Muzzleloading Rifles Blog

Editor’s Note: An avid outdoorsmen, John Vaca works for Bushnell and Final Approach and enjoyed hunting with a Muzzleloader and taking his first blackpowder turkeys in the spring of 2010.

Question: John, I understand you had a good hunt with the CVA Optima Pro.

Vaca: I was taking a couple of dealers who never had before been hunting on a turkey hunt in central Kansas. The weather was super windy. The first day we hunted, we only hunted half a day, because we had 40-mile-per-hour sustained winds, which weren’t conducive to turkey hunting. When we got up the next morning, I put out hen decoys and a Primos B-Mobile strutting tom decoy with a real turkey fan in it. We were set-up within 80 yards of the roost of a flock of Rio Grande turkeys. I was almost in a ditch, but I could look over the edge and see the field where I expected the turkeys to fly-down. A fence ran along the edge of the ditch. At first light, 7 mature toms and 11 jakes (1-year-old gobblers) flew-down to the field. The turkeys started fighting each other, so I called them. Those birds all decided to come over at one time and try to whip the strutting decoy that I’d set up. Finally, the biggest gobbler in the flock separated himself from the other turkeys, giving me a clear shot. I took that gobbler at 12 yards with the CVA Optima Pro, and he didn’t even flinch.

Question: What barrel did you have on the Optima Pro?

Vaca: I had a 12-gauge shotgun barrel with a turkey choke on it.

Question: How did you load?

Vaca: I used 90 grains of Triple Se7en powder and 1-1/8 ounces of No. 5 shot.

Question: Why do you like No. 5s for turkeys?

Vaca: No. 5 shot is a happy medium between the large numbers of pellets you get when you shoot No. 6 shot and the heavier pellets when you shoot No. 4 shot. So, I prefer No. 5s. I think it’s probably a mental thing that I have. I’m sure No. 4s or No. 6s are just as good – but I like No. 5s.

Question: How long have you been hunting turkeys with the CVA Optima Pro?

Vaca: This was my first blackpowder turkey season and my first hunt with this gun.

Question: Why did you decide to hunt the turkeys with black powder?

Vaca: Chad Schearer, Nate Treadaway and Terry Eby – all with CVA – are all good friends of mine, and they kept encouraging me to try blackpowder turkey hunting.

Question: What did you think about the performance of the Optima Pro?

Vaca: The gun was unbelievable. It patterned as good as any conventional 12 gauge I’d ever shot. When I patterned it out to 35 yards and still got an excellent pattern, I patterned the gun from 12 to 35 yards, and it held such a tight pattern that at 12 yards I shot one of the turkeys’ beaks off.

Question: Wait a minute, what do you mean, “one of the turkeys?”

Vaca: As soon as my turkey went down, the other turkeys started to flog him. They didn’t know what had happened, so they started kicking him and beating him with their wings. I was lying on my side, and I thought to myself, “I can kill two turkeys in the same day here in Kansas. If I can get this muzzleloader reloaded, I can go ahead and get my second bird right now.” Then I thought, “This strategy is never going to work.” But I decided I had nothing to lose by trying to reload while lying on the ground.

I pulled-out a CVA speed loader, poured my powder down the barrel, put the over-powder patch in and rammed it home with my rod. Then I put my shot cup down the barrel, filled it up with No. 5s, put my over shot card on top of the shot and got it all stuffed down the barrel. I put a primer on the Optima Pro and started calling to the turkeys again. They came right back to my decoys. The second longbeard separated from the flock, and I took him at 9 yards. I took two gobblers with the Optima Pro that day, after reloading in-between the first and second gobblers. My first gobbler went down at 6:20 am, and I took the second tom at 6:40 am.

Question: So you limited-out with two turkeys in 20 minutes on the first day you hunted with the CVA Optima Pro. Is that right?

Vaca: That’s right. But we had arrived where we planned to hunt well before daylight and set-up, because we knew we’d be hunting close to the roost tree. Within 20 minutes after the turkeys flew to the ground, I had taken both of my birds.

Question: What did the friends you were hunting with think of the CVA Optima Pro?

Vaca: They couldn’t believe how accurate it was. The landowner, who’d accompanied me on the hunt, said, “I’ve never seen the like of the fireball that came out of the end of that barrel when you pulled the trigger.” We had guides to take my other hunters who’d never been hunting before to places where they could call them up turkeys. However, since I’d hunted this property before, knew the land, the guides and the landowner, the landowner decided that he’d take me to a place where I could hunt by myself. But, when we got to the spot I was to hunt, the landowner decided to go with me, just to see what was going to happen when I pulled the trigger on that blackpowder shotgun. He said, “John, when I saw you bring-up that gun to shoot at that first turkey, I knew you meant business. But when that gun barked, fire came out of the end of the barrel, and feathers flew.” He kept telling everyone at the lodge over and over about how the CVA Optima Pro barked, spit fire and blew feathers.

I am sold on the Optima Pro with a 12-gauge barrel. I had a Bushnell Trophy Red Dot scope on the gun. At that close range and with the gun shooting that tight of a pattern, it would have been easier to miss a turkey, than if the bird had been at 30 yards. But because of the accuracy of the scope and the rifle, both those two birds took almost the whole pattern. I had an absolutely-awesome hunt. The first turkey had a 10-inch beard and 7/8-inch spurs and weighed 19-1/2-pounds. The second bird had a 10-1/2-inch beard and 1-inch spurs and weighed 20.8 pounds.

Question: Why would you recommend that other hunters try the CVA Optima Pro with a 12-gauge barrel for hunting next season?

Vaca: I think this blackpowder gun takes turkey hunting to an altogether-different level. You don’t get a second shot usually. I was really lucky to be able to reload and take the second bird. Many blackpowder hunters are purists and prefer to hunt with primitive weapons, and that’s fine for the folks who enjoy that. But the CVA Optima Pro is right on the leading edge of blackpowder technology. What I like about black powder is I can completely control the ballistic chain, including the pattern, the velocity and the recoil. I can hunt with whatever combination of shot, shot cup, powder and size of shot that suits me. I found hunting with the CVA Optima Pro the most fun.

Editor’s Note: Outdoor TV personality Chad Schearer of Great Falls, Montana, has guided clients to mule deer and elk each season as well as hunted on his own. Today, he’s the host of the “Shoot Straight with Chad Schearer” television show presented by CVA that airs on the Sportsman Channel, Fox Sports South, the Lonestar Network and CBS Montana.

Question: Chad, you hunt all over the West. When you owned Central Montana Outfitters, you guided hunters to elk, as well as mule deer. What gun and powder charge do you recommend for taking elk?

Schearer: I suggest using either the CVA Accura V2 or the CVA Apex. But if you’re looking for a less-expensive Muzzleloaders, you can take elk with a CVA Optima or even a CVA Wolf. One of the advantages CVA has over many other Muzzleloading-rifle companies is CVA has quality, accurate rifles to accommodate every hunter. The load I suggest for elk is 150 grains of powder. However, I once took a moose with only…

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with Mark Hendricks

Editor’s Note: Mark Hendricks, vice president of Technical Development for CVA, helps with product design, manufacturing, production, quality control and bringing new products to the market for CVA. This week, Hendricks will tell us what to expect from CVA’s new 2010 products.

Question: Mark, what CVA muzzleloading rifles have been redesigned this year, and what has CVA done to improve them?
Hendricks: The CVA Optima has been the most-exciting gun we’ve ever introduced. We’ve learned that our hunters want simple guns that are easy to operate and clean, and they want to buy them at a reasonable price. We’ve listened to our customers and implemented the changes throughout the line that our customers want. For instance, the original Optima had a deep-cut pistol grip, but the new 2010 Optima has a more-traditional stock. The stock and the receiver have been redesigned, so there are no pins and screws showing, making it a much-more attractive gun. The old Optima was available in a blued-steel or a nickel-plate finish. The 2010 Optima will be available only in stainless steel and only in .50 caliber.

Question: Why did CVA decide to change to stainless steel?
Hendricks: Historically, black powder has been very corrosive, and our customers wanted a gun that was easier to clean and maintain. Although stainless steel will rust if it’s neglected, it stands up better to corrosion and stains than the nickel or the blued guns do. Our customers also wanted a quick-release breech plug . In the past, breech plugs have always required a special tool to remove them from the barrel. When you were hunting or in a hunting camp, you could rarely find the special tool. For this reason, many of our hunters didn’t remove the breech plugs of their guns, so they weren’t able to maintain the breech plug like they should have. As a result, breech plugs often rusted or seized into the barrel. When this happened, the hunter had to send his gun in for repair, which took the gun out of his possession for a couple of weeks and was costly.

With the new CVA Quick Release Breech Plug (QRBP), you don’t need a special tool to remove your breech plug. You can remove it with your fingers. The QRBP is a gnarled ring at the back of the barrel that you quickly and easily can twist. We weren’t the first to introduce the quick-release breech plug. We watched as other companies developed and released quick-release breech plugs, and at training shoots, our competition demonstrated the breech plugs and bragged about how simple and easy they were to remove. However, after firing 20 shots or more through the gun, a tool was needed to release the other companies’ quick-release breech plugs, which negated the purpose of the quick-release plugs.

The Research & Development (R&D) Department at CVA began to work on a quick-release breech plug that could be unscrewed with only finger pressure and didn’t require a tool to remove it, even after firing numbers of shots. CVA developed a specialized sealing system in the nose of the breech plug that actually kept the fouling out of the threads of the breech plug, the problem that caused the quick-release breech plugs produced by other manufacturers to not operate properly after shooting multiple rounds through their rifles. The CVA Quick Release Breech Plug, however, can be removed from the barrel after one shot, 20 shots or 100 shots, 5 minutes or 2 weeks after shooting.

Question: What else has CVA done to the Optima?
Hendricks: The unlocking system, or the breech and the lever, is at the end of the trigger guard, making it much-more convenient and attractive than the old Optima. All of our stocks come with a CrushZone Recoil Pad, which is extremely effective in reducing the amount of recoil you feel when you shoot. Too, we put in new ramrod thimbles lined with Delrin, a nylon material that serves two purposes. Delrin holds the ramrod in place better than the old ramrod thimble did without scratching or damaging the ramrod. Too, it keeps the ramrod more silent than a metal thimble by quieting the buzz you often hear if the ramrod hits or taps the barrel.

The new Optima is available in the standard and the thumbhole stock. The thumbhole stock comes with the DuraSight integral scope mount and is really a scope-shooter’s gun. It has a higher comb, allowing your eye to lineup with the riflescope much easier. The higher comb elevates your head a little more than a standard stock does, so you don’t have to readjust your cheek on the stock to get proper eye alignment when looking through the riflescope. The standard stock is more of a compromise between the open-sight shooter and the hunter who prefers to aim with a riflescope.

Question: How have all these improvements affected the cost of the new Optima?
Hendricks: No, they haven’t greatly affected the cost. Suggested retail for the Optima with a stainless-steel barrel and a black FiberGrip stock is $281.95. If you chose the Realtree HD camo stock, the suggested retail is $331.95. The version with the black FiberGrip thumbhole stock sells for $313.95, and the camo version is $376.95.

Question: How do these prices compare with the older version of the CVA Optima?
Hendricks: The old base price for an Optima nickel gun with a black thumbhole stock was $273. The stainless-steel version with a thumbhole stock sold for $313.

Editor’s Note: Dudley McGarity is the chief executive officer (CEO) for Blackpowder Products, Inc., that owns the CVA brand. Although he’s only been the CEO for 3 years, McGarity has been a part of CVA/BPI for many years.

Question: I bought a CVA muzzleloading rifle a few years ago, and now I’m ready to step-up to the next level. What’s the next level of muzzleloading gun up from a beginner’s rifle? I don’t want to buy the top of-the-line gun yet, but what’s a good in-between model?
McGarity: I’d suggest the CVA Optima. This gun will be different from the Wolf in several ways. It will have a few-more deluxe features than the Wolf. For example, the Wolf’s barrel is 2-inches longer, and the stock is more of a deluxe-type stock. Also, the Optima is considered more comfortable for most users to shoot and is available with a thumb hole in the stock, which many shooters prefer. But I can’t say that the Optima will be any more accurate to shoot than the Wolf. The Optima features a long stock with a cheek piece and a more modern-looking design to it. But the Wolf and the Optima are both great-performing guns. Where you really see a difference between guns is when you move up from the Optima to the Accura. The Accura has a Bergara barrel, which is made in Bergara, Spain, and is known for its quality workmanship that makes it perform as though it’s handmade.

Question: What will CVA’s Optima cost?
McGarity: The Optima, only about $50 more than the Wolf costs, has a starting price of about $200. You may be able to find the Wolf for about $150. So, for that extra $50, you’re getting 2-more inches of barrel length, which will increase your muzzle velocity somewhat, a more-deluxe stock and the possibility of getting a thumb-hole stock.

Question: Does the Optima come in a package like the Wolf, with everything except the percussion caps and the powder that I will need to start hunting?
McGarity: Yes, it does, and you can get the package with or without a scope. To receive the most-complete offering, the riflescope package probably is what you’ll want. This package will have all other cleaning equipment, bullets and loading equipment that you’ll find in the other CVA packages.

Question: With the scope kit, what kind of scope do I get, and does it come with the rings and the bases?
McGarity: Absolutely. You will have to set the scope up yourself, but it’s so simple to do that you won‘t have a problem. The base is very easy to use too. It has the DuraSight ring system, which is made out of Z2 alloy, making it appear to be aluminum. In these packaged guns, we put some of our best high-quality products, not just inexpensive materials. The scope is a Bushnell Sharpshooter, which is one of Bushnell’s less-expensive scopes, but it’s still a very high-quality scope for the dollars you spend. The Bushnell Sharpshooter riflescope is 3-9X. With this scope, you can shoot 1-1/2- to 2-inch groups at 100 yards.  If you move up to our Accura equipped with a Bergara barrel, then your groups will tighten-up quite a bit. And, your 200-yard groupings will be superior to what you’ll get with the Wolf or the Optima.