Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders ML for 16 year old girl?

My daughter should draw a ML bull tag this year in CO, so we have a few rules to play by. No smokeless powders, no pellets, no optics, and full bore .50 caliber projectiles or larger diameter. I would also prefer her not to use a sidelock rifle, opting for a inline ignition system. To me I'm not worried about traditional, I'm wanting her best chance to drop a bull at 100-150 yards before she graduates high school.

I'm not real experienced with ML rifles, I've only killed a couple does with patches round ball out of a cheap synthetic sidelock rifle. I did try to upgrade a few years ago to an NEF sidekick, but accuracy has been less than stellar, +3" at 100 from sandbags. I've considerd going to a shorter front post and aperture rear sight trying to improve accuracy, but a new rifle isnt out of the question. I simply chose ML for her due to higher % of elk at that time, longer days, and better weather.

TC Impact, believe midway has them on sale for $199. The use 209 ignition, has a built in stock spacer you can remove to shorten LOP. Good sights from the factory, made by Williams, fiber optic.

3” at 100 yards isn’t that bad given the size of an elks vital area.
My daughters use 80 grains of BH209 with a saboted 250 grain bullet for deer, that works fine out to 100ish yards. A full bore bullet would be somewhat heavier than that I think?

For Colorado I for sure would stay away from TC brand.

I'd highly suggest a non thumb hole - CVA Optima or a CVA Wolf with the shorter 24" barrel. These are not heavy rifles and they are excellent open sight shooters and most importantly, CONICAL shooters.

Good info on the CVA’s. I hadn’t really thought about the need for a dedicated conical shooter and twist/rifling. I have shot the Hornady Great Plains conical out of mine, mainly b/c that’s what I use in my Great Plains hunter, and they did pretty good out of the TC. A bugger to get seated though.

taylorce1 pm me and I will send you some 50cal bullets to try

This

Oops

PM incoming

She couldn't handle the recoil of that load, it was 125 grains of BH209 and a 250 grain Aeroflite bullet. At 90 grains that bullet had a lot larger grouping closer around 5" at 100 yards. Plus I maxed out my elevation adjustment and still the group was about 16" low at 100.

Pure BS.I have three. Hawkin, a Black Diamond, and and Impact.I have killed several elk with each of them. For a youth, it's hard to beat that Impact that has the removal 1" of butt. It's light weight and can shoot better than most hunters can.Price isn't bad either. 80 gr of BH209 and either 295 or 348 gr Powerbelt or your other choice of bullets.I have shot 3" or better at 100 yards with that load and I have pretty bad eyes. They all work

sadly its not pure BS. Its all over the web and even TC recommends shooting sabots in their rifles. Will some shoot them? Yes, but due to lack of quality control when they machine the QLA, these are often off center and with conical bullets, the result is an inaccurate conical shooter.

any 50 cal she likes, and 80 grains of 777, with a saboted 230gr (45 acp ) bullet. Yes it will do the job so have your knife sharp.

I don’t think they are allowed to use sabots.

Ok, sorry I missed that part. Try the 50 cal lee real bullet cast from their moulds. 300 grains, 50 cal. Powder charge will be a balance of power, accuracy and recoil tolerance.

Gee,I wonder how all the elk I killed died since TC's are so terrible. All of them have the QLA. Of the the htree I have not one piece of their literature that recommends sabots. When the Hawkins came out, and the QLA, sabots were not even on the market. I am on the third barrel of my Hawkin and they all shot conicals just fine. I have only used sabots once since 1977 for a deer hunt in Nebraska two years ago. If it is all over the web, I sure don't see it on here and a few other sites I visit.

BTW.TC is now part of S&W.

One thing to remember about Pyrodex or 777,they degrade after opening. Don't save any from year to year unless you find a way to seal the canister really well.. Use black powder or BH209

well theres plenty fellers that have issues with them. Its a coin flip, take your chances or go with something that has a good reputation at shooting conicals.

Thank you for the generous offer!



Thank you as well for your generosity!

I bought an old stainless Knight at an auction. Does the deed.

Have you ever actually shot full bore bullets out of a T/C..... or are you just regurgitating crap you heard on the web?

My wife clobbered a CO bull at 90 yards last year with a T/C Impact. The load was 90 grains BH209 under a 295 grain Powerbelt. Interestingly enough.... I killed a bull about 3 minutes before that, also at 90 yards, with a 350 grain Hornsby FBP.... also fired from a T/C Impact (100 gr BH209 behind that one).

My daughter, who’s almost 15 now, has killed several deer in CO with a T/C Triumph... again, shooting PB bullets.