It would be safe to say that the typical muzzleloading hunter in the U.S. and Canada very likely fires fewer than 100 shots with his or her muzzle-loaded rifle each and every year. At North American Muzzleloader Hunting, I easily correspond with several thousand muzzleloader hunting fans every year, and would say at least half share with me that, at most, they'll put about 50 shots down range prior to the hunting seasons, and possibly shoot another dozen or so through the season, shooting at game and occasionally to check and make sure the rifle, scope and load are still hitting where they're supposed to hit.
It is indeed the rare muzzleloader that is shot so much that the bore becomes "shot out". In fact, most rifles are rarely shot 1,000 to 2,000 times in the lifetime of the typical muzzleloading hunter. Quite honestly, many rifles aren't even well broken in after ten years of use!
I guess it would also be safe to say, "I am not your typical muzzleloading hunter."
Even when I was a kid, I loved to shoot. Every time I managed to amass 40-cents in my nearly worn out jeans pocket, I'd jump on my bicycle and ride over to a small town gas station and buy a box of Winchester "Super-X" .22 Long Rifle ammo, race home and sling my old .22 Marlin lever-action Model 39A across my back and head out for an afternoon of plinking...serious target shooting...or perhaps to bust a few bushytails or groundhogs. Most weeks, I'd put at least a hundred rounds through that old rifle. And I continue to average more than a hundred rounds a week - only now, it's with a variety of muzzle-loaded rifles.
Since 2005, one rifle has stood out as my favorite - and that's a .50 caliber Knight "Long Range Hunter" model that has become my No. 1 rifle for testing modern muzzle-loaded powders, sabots and bullets. I acquired that rifle in July of that year, and during the past 6 years, I have averaged more than 1,600 rounds annually through that one rifle. While I have always feared the day I would wear out the bore on this rifle, I'm happy to say that it seems to have at least several more years of service to offer, even though in late July (2011) I surpassed the 10,000 shot mark with Long Range Hunter, Serial No. S000243.
Of all the testing I have done with this particular rifle, one of the more interesting was a 4 1/2 hour shooting session with the rifle back on a cool June morning in 2008. Keep in mind, this is the rifle out of which I shot my first loads of Blackhorn 209, during the fall of 2007 - before the powder even had a name. And, I took several deer with the rifle and pre-production run powder that fall, including one fine 8-pointer at 186 yards. By the time Western Powders brought Blackhorn to the market in mid spring 2008, I had already burnt more than 10 pounds of the stuff - mostly out of this Long Range Hunter.
Curious to see if the final production run of this new black powder substitute was as consistent as the earlier powder I'd shot, I decided to fire 50 consecutive shots on the same target. And to check the clean burning properties of Blackhorn 209, I decided to shoot the entire string without wiping the bore once. Before firing the first shot on the test target, I put three shots on a separate target, to insure that the rifle and load was still on - then, giving the rifle about 5 minutes of cool down between shots, I proceeded to punch 50-shots into a 1.6" group at 100 yards. (See group in top photo.)
The load shot consisted of 110-grains of Blackhorn 209 behind a saboted 300-grain Harvester Muzzleloading .451" diameter polymer tipped "Scorpion PT Gold" bullet, using CCI 209M primers for ignition. The load averages 1,968 f.p.s. at the muzzle, with 2,580 f.p.e.
The rifle had just over 5,000 rounds through it at that time, so when I topped the 10,000 round mark this summer, I decided to repeat the test to see if the muzzleloader had lost anything in the accuracy department. When I conducted the first 50-shot test in 2008, I had loaded with the standard black .50x.45 Crush Rib Sabot that comes packaged with the Harvester Muzzleloading bullet. However, over the past couple of years, I had come to prefer the slightly tighter fitting red version of that sabot, and chose to load with it. Likewise, for ignition, I decided to use the Federal 209A primer for ignition - if for no other reason, it's what I had on hand.
A cool and drizzly 50-degree morning the first week of August offered the perfect opportunity to conduct the shooting test. To keep the rifle out of the damp weather, I set up my portable shooting bench inside an open sided hay barn, and pulled my pickup inside so I could use the tailgate as a loading bench. First, I put 6 clicks of elevation on the Leatherwood/Hi-Lux Optics TB-ML muzzleloader scope, to prevent from obliterating my aiming point in the center of the self-adhesive bullseye, and three shots confirmed that the rifle would group 1 1/2 inches above point of aim. Then, I went to the test target...and 4 hours later, fired the last shot of the 50-round string. As during the previous 50-shot test, the barrel was not wiped between shots, and the rifle was allowed to cool 4 to 5 minutes before being reloaded and fired again. The temperature had only risen into the low 60s, and the barrel cooled fairly quickly.
Center-to-center, the two outside holes were exactly 1.5" across. (See group in bottom photo above.)
The rifle was then given a full 20 minutes to completely cool down, and a new target was stapled to the target board. The next three shots punched a great .615" center-to-center hundred yard group. Looks like ol' No. 000243 has a lot of life left in it.
The only other rifle I have ever shot past 8,000 rounds has been the Knight .50 caliber "Grand American" presentation MK-85 rifle that Tony Knight awarded me back in 1992. That rifle was the first of the "Master Hunter Award" rifles, and while many felt I should hang it on the wall and never shoot it...I don't own rifles I don't shoot. The rifle is somewhat in semi-retirement now, used only when needed to check out loading components in an older No. 11 percussion cap plunger hammer model. It now has almost 8,500 rounds fired through it...and when shot last fall, the muzzleloader produced several sub 1-inch groups.
Today's modern saboted bullets, clean burning black powder substitutes, and non corrosive No. 209 primers are a heck of a lot easier on rifles than most of the loading and shooting components of 10 to 20 years ago. If there's any secret to taking a rifle past 10,000 rounds, it's to keep it clean. Also, when loading at the range, and when cleaning the bore, use one of the heavy duty range rods with a bore guide/protector. This will keep the rod from rubbing against the rifling, especially right at the muzzle. While it may take some doing to actually "shoot out" a barrel, many a good rifle has lost its accuracy due to ramrod or loading rod wear on the rifling. - Toby Bridges, North American Muzzleloader Hunting
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