- Joined
- Oct 26, 2016
- Messages
- 67
- Reaction score
- 17
Equipment:
Knight Ultralite
#11 RWS Caps
Triple 7
Thor Bullet
Traditions black muzzle covers
Hunted hard for a week here in the Oregon Salad on my first muzzle loader deer hunt.
Passed on a dozen or so does from 30 feet to 30 yards, still hunting, but never saw a buck. Filled the tag on a doe on the last day. 30-ish yd shot and the doe ran about the same distance.
Weather was mostly 33 degrees, windy, and with, a rain/snow mix. Even when it wasn’t raining the slush on the trees would rain on you. Rough conditions for an action that must be “exposed to the elements,” but typical for the Cascades in the fall.
On day 4, I was starting to get worried about how much moisture I had subjected the rifle to. So at the end of the day I found a nice big stump at 100 yds with a good knot to aim at in the fading light, and touched one off. Fired without delay and still zeroed; not too shabby!
I had noticed that as I changed elevation, the muzzle cover would balloon out, or contract in, so I was hoping the action was literally air tight. I can now say that it’s certainly water tight.
At night I left the rifle on the enclosed, unheated, porch, and removed the muzzle cover to let the bore breathe. No idea if this was correct, but it felt like the right thing to do.
Hunted 3 more days in the same wet conditions, and the UL fired off right when I needed it to.
I think the tightness of the RWS 1075 cap deserves some credit, and the muzzle cover deserves the rest. I normally just put black electrical tape over the muzzles of my centerfire rifles, but I believe, in my very limited experience, that for a ML, the roll down “condom covers” are essential.
I did not wrap the action in plastic film, because I thought it would rip and catch on the brush. I figured I’d do it if it didn’t fire off after the first exposure period.
The weather tightness of the action was a big concern I had prior to purchasing a muzzleloader to hunt with. The only time I seem to see Blacktails is during terrible weather. So I needed a rifle that could deal with it.
This is just a sample size of one, and your mileage may vary, but I am confident in the system I’m stuck with.
Regards,
Buster
Knight Ultralite
#11 RWS Caps
Triple 7
Thor Bullet
Traditions black muzzle covers
Hunted hard for a week here in the Oregon Salad on my first muzzle loader deer hunt.
Passed on a dozen or so does from 30 feet to 30 yards, still hunting, but never saw a buck. Filled the tag on a doe on the last day. 30-ish yd shot and the doe ran about the same distance.
Weather was mostly 33 degrees, windy, and with, a rain/snow mix. Even when it wasn’t raining the slush on the trees would rain on you. Rough conditions for an action that must be “exposed to the elements,” but typical for the Cascades in the fall.
On day 4, I was starting to get worried about how much moisture I had subjected the rifle to. So at the end of the day I found a nice big stump at 100 yds with a good knot to aim at in the fading light, and touched one off. Fired without delay and still zeroed; not too shabby!
I had noticed that as I changed elevation, the muzzle cover would balloon out, or contract in, so I was hoping the action was literally air tight. I can now say that it’s certainly water tight.
At night I left the rifle on the enclosed, unheated, porch, and removed the muzzle cover to let the bore breathe. No idea if this was correct, but it felt like the right thing to do.
Hunted 3 more days in the same wet conditions, and the UL fired off right when I needed it to.
I think the tightness of the RWS 1075 cap deserves some credit, and the muzzle cover deserves the rest. I normally just put black electrical tape over the muzzles of my centerfire rifles, but I believe, in my very limited experience, that for a ML, the roll down “condom covers” are essential.
I did not wrap the action in plastic film, because I thought it would rip and catch on the brush. I figured I’d do it if it didn’t fire off after the first exposure period.
The weather tightness of the action was a big concern I had prior to purchasing a muzzleloader to hunt with. The only time I seem to see Blacktails is during terrible weather. So I needed a rifle that could deal with it.
This is just a sample size of one, and your mileage may vary, but I am confident in the system I’m stuck with.
Regards,
Buster