Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Inherited Savage 10ML-II...input?

Inherited 50 cal stainless. I know these will run smokeless, but it sounds like Blackhorn or Triple -7 works well too. Going to load it up for elk this fall. Any input on this rifle? Thanks

Big trick will be to do it all to meet CO regs.
Used to limit smakepole season to muzzleloaders, but may have caved into pressure to allow other things.

Yeah, they banned in lines for a year in the 90's, but they got sued by Knight I believe, and it got overturned. You can't use sabots, pellet powder, or scopes though...

And yet it is fine to smoke dope?

Weird place.

Mike

Look into the Thor bullets and Blackhorn209 powder. The MLII will ignite it just fine. The main thing to remember with the Savage is to keep the flash channel clean with a 5/32 drill bit and replace the vent liner when it get to .035 or larger. The 1-24 twist in the Savage will also work great with big lead conicals. Bullshop and No Excuses offer some really nice ones in 460gr. Check your bore dimensions first before order them though. The Savage bore can run a little on the large side.

Thanks for the input. I'll check out the flash channel. This gun looks basically new, don't think it was fired much.

It does not take much shooting to get carbon the the flash channel and its gets very hard. If a 5/32 wont start use a smaller bit first. I keep a 1/8 and a 5/32 in my box all the time.

When you get tired of replacing vent liners you can buy a breach plug that uses a tungsten carbide bushing. In a 50cal the bushing should last a super long time before it wears out.Shooting Blackhorn you may get 200 shots from a vent liner..Smokeless will be well under 100 shots usually. Smokelessmz.com sells the plugs and vent liners when you need them..

Appreciate the help. I looked through some stuff that came with it, and there were some new vent liners. I guess my buddy knew enough to buy extras.

You will like it, I shoot 300 gr Dead Centers with 5744 powder. 1" groups are pretty easy. Lots of fun to shoot.

Hope you have good luck with yours.

Good idea to put a witness mark for safety against double charging. You probably already knew that.

Yeah, I currently have a 54 cal sidelock. Never messed with an inline though. In my 54 I just shot maxi-balls, but its a slow twist.

5744 is a dog when it comes to speed and its dirty for smokeless. Blackhorn can pretty much match it in speed, 5744 though is dead nuts reliable and easy to use. I like SR4759 better as a all around powder and N110 if shooting 250gr bullets. 4759 is no longer made and N110 is pretty expensive. There are several slower powders that work fine with 300gr-325gr bullets. They just dont work that great with a 250gr bullet. N120 and Reloder7 are great choices for a 300gr or even a 325gr. A couple other slower powders work too but you will pretty much be in T-Rex load area. Recoil can get pretty brutal when you start using 70gr+ of powder and a 300gr bullet at 2400fps+