Recommended Loads for CVA Wolf

smokin'stoegie

smokin'stoegie

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So my son and I are going to try the late season Black Powder Deer hunt in Southern Ontario. I went out and have purchased the CVA Wolf and will be getting a second one soon.
I've been doing the research on where to start when it comes to bullets/powder/pellets/primers.
It seems to be all over the board and what I don't want to to is drop a small fortune on a variety of products to find something that works.
Not trying to be cheap or lazy but what are peoples thoughts (hopefully from someone who shoots the CVA Wolf) on a starting point to hit the range ?

CVA really pushes White Hot Pellets and Power Belts but a few forums barely mention using them.
 
Stay away from the powerbelts, there are much better bullets out there.
I have a cva optima,same gun as the wolf but it has a longer barrel than the wolf. I shoot 44 cal Hornady 240 grain XTP out of mine being pushed by 90 grains of blackhorn 209 powder.
 
Brother had a CVA Wolf and had nothing but issues with Powerbelts and I can relate several more. Convenient yes, reliable and accurate no.
Start with any good sabot bullet combo and the TC bullets work well and are simply rebranded from a major company. 200-240 grn is my suggestion 80-100 grains of any good black powder or substitute.
Triple seven is my choice as I won't pay for Blackhorn. Don't like the XTP as it works just as designed, to stay in the body mass and cause extreme damage and they do. Just don't leave much blood has been my experience.
To throw a curve, I shoot a double saboted 357 pure lead Precision Rifle bullet, 100 grns of triple seven lit with a small rifle primer out of my Encore and shoots flat 0-200yds
It is usually not that hard to find what the gun likes for bullets but roll you powder charge up or down 5 grns and a bullet you think will not work suddenly cloverleafs.
Foul your barrel with a couple caps or 10 grns of powder and wipe with a spit patch. Spit patch after every shot, needs to be reasonably clean(slightly gray patch), let cool and shoot again. Biggest mistake I have seen is sighting in and not cleaning and after 2-3 shots the gun starts to climb and the frustration begins. Clean it and it drops 12 inches and the head scratching really begins.
My reasoning for a fouled barrel is two fold. Firstly, before loading you should always fire a couple caps to ensure all the oil is gone. Secondly, while hunting I am not going to clean my gun until done for the day and sometimes it will be loaded a couple days. My gun also shoots 6" high and left on a clean barrel and will pound at least eight before the crud effects my shots.

Enjoy shooting muzzleloaders as the tinkering can never stop
 
BH209 powder coupled with Hornady SST ML 250gr (high speed/low drag) sabots generally tend to produce excellent results out of most in-line MLs.

Price of the powder has now gone up to around $80 +/- before tax. There may still be retailers selling for less.

Advantage is, you can use oil based solvents to clean the same as your smokeless firearms. Biggest advantage is the BH209 powder doesn't involve swabbing the bore and/or cleaning the breech plug between shots. Obviously, this may vary from rifle to rifle. In fact, last week, I sent 30 shots downrange using Federal BOR Lock bullet and did not swab the bore or clean the breech plug a single time! This non-saboted bullet seated consistently (based on marked ramrod) and without the aid of a short starter.

Saboted bullets such as the Hornady SST, I had shot 9 bullets without swabbing the bore. My rifle is a TC Triumph with a tight bore and TC Superglide or Barnes T-EZ 250gr sabots are very tight to load after three shots.

If you do buy the BH209 powder, use the recommended CCI 209M or Federal 201A primers. FYI, depending on the amount of charge used per shot, a 10oz bottle of BH209 yields +/- 40 shots.
 
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110 Blackhorn by volume ( I weight mine so 77 grains I believe )
250 Hornady SST for target or sighters.
250 Barnes blue sabot for Hunting.
Same poi for the two but Hornady is cheaper.
Use a good Primer. I use Cheddite.
CVA Accura V2. I have the Blackhorn breach plug but the original breach plug has always worked anyway, is its a spare if the Blackhorn one gets too dirty.
 
My setup (with the Blackhorn breech plug):

Powder: Blackhorn 209, 63 grains weighted (eq 90 grains volume)
Sabot: Harvester Crush Rib 44/50
Bullet: Hornady XTP .44 240 grains
Primer: CCI 209M Shotshell Magnum

Getting 0.5 MOA at 50 yards

Using a Bushnell Banner 3x9 scope.
 
Call me frugal or cheap doesn't matter but 2 lbs of T7 for the price of 10-12 oz of Blackhorn. I can get at least 8 shots while hunting before even considering a clean. Just don't see the advantage other than cleaning but less than 6 patches mine is clean ready for the oil. I also forget small rifle primers make way less mess and blowback. To each their own is why BP is so much fun.
 
Absolutely nothing wrong in trying to save money when an alternate solution may offer similar satisfactory results.

Personally, I switched from T7 to BH209 mainly due to the simplicity of cleaning and better performance (in my rifle). Image is that of the very first group I had shot using BH209. Started with 80gr and found that 110gr works the best in my rifle.

I had since then adjusted windage and left the elevation as it was. TC 250gr Superglides (yellow sabots) perform the best in my rifle - that was a five shot cluster without swabbing or cleaning the flash hole but that specific bullet is very tight to load after the 3rd shot. Anyway, the way I figure, if I needed that many shots in the field then the problem is definitely me and not the rifle! :)

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hunter148 said:
Call me frugal or cheap doesn't matter but 2 lbs of T7 for the price of 10-12 oz of Blackhorn. I can get at least 8 shots while hunting before even considering a clean. Just don't see the advantage other than cleaning but less than 6 patches mine is clean ready for the oil. I also forget small rifle primers make way less mess and blowback. To each their own is why BP is so much fun.
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Lots of variables in play. Depends on how tight that bullet and sabot goes down when clean. If its a bit tight, you would notice a difference with BH powder. Easy to clean, nice to handle and weigh. It IS terribly expensive however. I only shot 3 shots with mine last year, or a Tim Hortons coffee and breakfast sandwich.
 
I have been using Hornady 6750 sabots and a 240 gr. XTP 44 cal. bullet with 2 White Hots in my CVA Wolf.
they work for me.
For practice I have used used Cheap Shot Sabots, they are a 45cal lead hollow point and a Sabot.

They hit the same place at 100 yards.

Can't wait for ML season.

David
 
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