Finally got Drawn for Az. Muzzle loader Antelope, thoughts on rifle?

[leadman]

I moved to Az. in 1981 and applied intermittently for antelope in the early years, then later every year. I had 20 points (1 point a year) to work with in the draw this year so applied for a rifle and a muzzleloader hunt. Got drawn for the ML hunt.
At one time all I had for a rifle was my Early 1970s H&R Huntsman in 58 caliber that I bought brand new. Killed my first elk here in Az with it. Good gun with an old Lyman 2 1/2 power scope on it.

I now have another Huntsman in 58 cal, no scope and a right and left hand Bass pro shops Hawkins 50 caliber rifles. The Hawkins' barrels are not very good quality as there are chatter marks in both barrels.
Both of the H&Rs show some pitting in the bores. The scoped H&R got this way from believing the new at the time Pyrodex was not corrosive. The other H&R was this was when I purchased it used.

I may lap the barrel on the scoped H&R just to smooth it some and see what happens. I haven't shot it in well over 15 years.
Back in my younger days in Michigan I could hit the 300 yard rams off-hand but they never did fall over.

I have been looking at some of the new inlines and the T/C Impact has caught mt eye. I do have 2 Encore frames so could buy a barrel for it also. I do feel I will need all the accuracy at range I can get for this hunt because I am hunting in an area that is high plains and being old and wore out I can't do as much walking as I used to.

I have read good reviews on the Impact but am looking for some input from someone who either has one or maybe seen someone shooting one of these.

The cost of projectiles for the inline is not a factor since I do cast several boolits that will work for this purpose.

[triggerhappy243]

get a guilli suit and practice. antelope vision is equal to a mans while using a 9 power set of binoculars.

[Dhammer]

Congrats on drawing, I got goose eggs across the board. Figured that anyways. Bad luck walking doesn't equal first timer's luck in my case..

I love the Savage ML. I have been using mine for years on deer.

I upgraded from a Thompson Thunderhawk? (Ugly safe queen now in my herd) that my dad bought me after I got out of military to get me started for our MZ season's. We can make arrangements for you to play with my Savage if you'd like.
It is a tack driver and does distance extremely well. ;) one of my favorite hunting weapons hands down. It's spent a lot of deer shotgun seasons in my lap over a shotgun ontop of MZ season.
What I had planned on using had I got drawn for Mz Elk or Antelope. But maybe, I'll break it out for the Midwest deer season if I don't draw here at all for anything. Either way it won't be seeing a lot of use from me this season as it stands.

[varsity07840]

I'd look for a rifle that is designed to shoot a full bore, long lead bullet that retains energy at longer ranges common to antelope hunting. There are a number of traditional rifles in .45/.451
cal. that fit the bill. The Pedersoli Gibbs and Mortimer Whitworth, Parker Hale Volunteer or Whitworth. They can all be fitted with a scope, although a modern type would certainly look out of place. You could also rebarrel or reline an existing gun with a fast twist shallow groove rifling
suited to a long heavy bullet. Bob Hoyt could do that job for you at a very reasonable cost.
Certainly a lot less than the cost of a new or even used rifle.

Duane

[Rick Hodges]

My hunting buddy drew a New Mexico muzzle loader elk tag a few years ago. He used a TC Omega with the 250gr. bonded TC saboted bullet. He took a very nice 6x6 bull at some 225+ yds. He said he got almost no expansion with the bonded bullet and would never use them again...the standard would do just fine.
I have hunted antelope twice...two nice bucks taken at 140 yds. and 265 yds. Antelope are not hard to kill. As flat a trajectory as possible is your friend. Just my opinion.

[johnson1942]

if your going to buy a good inline consider one with a 1/28 twist in .45 cal. it will shoot a 400 grain paperpatched bullet as far as you want like a freight train coming. if you want to learn paperpatching read the stickies here and also go to ramshot.com then to their blog section and they have a good article on paperpatching the inline muzzleloader. have fun.

[pietro]

.

I would suggest the .50cal Encore barrel.

My Son has an Encore with 2 barrels, one in .300 Winchester Mag, and the other the .50 frontstuffer - both scoped with Nikon scopes that are identical, excepting the BCD reticle setups (one for the CF rifle, the other for the .50) - which are deadly accurate at all sorts of ranges (He took a Moose @ 400 yds with the .300 & a Caribou @ 250yds with the .50, a few years ago)

http://www.nikonsportoptics.com/Nikon-Products/Riflescopes/INLINE-XR-3-9x40-Matte-BDC-300.html

http://www.nikonsportoptics.com/Nikon-Products/Riflescopes/PROSTAFF-3-9x40-Matte-BDC.html


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[leadman]

Crawling is not an option due to 31 surgeries, chronic pain and severe arthritis. Not supposed to shoot but do so off a Leadsled. I can handle a few shots off of it.
I have taken 3 Wyoming antelope. first was a buck at 255 yards with my contender pistol in 6.5TCU. One shot, one kill. Same with the 2 does I took except these were with my Encore with 28" Pro Hunter in 7mm RM.
I did take my first elk here in AZ with the H&R at about 80 yards. I was back in Phoenix by 1 pm opening day. wife didn't believe I got one until my son pulled the head out of the vehicle. I have taken several deer with it in Michigan and here, along with javelina.

Relining a current gun is not something I will do just due to the cost. I recently traded into an old Meriden single shot 22 and quotes to reline it were around $350 and up to a year wait. I did it with the loan of the tools from a member here.
There is a gun show next weekend here so I may go and see what I can find there. On Gunbroker used Encore barrels are reasonable but I would rather inspect one in person.

Dhammer, looked on the Savage website and could not find the muzzler loader. I remember them and also about some people that were involved in Darwinism with them.
All good suggestion so far so keep them coming.

[varsity07840]

Crawling is not an option due to 31 surgeries, chronic pain and severe arthritis. Not supposed to shoot but do so off a Leadsled. I can handle a few shots off of it.
I have taken 3 Wyoming antelope. first was a buck at 255 yards with my contender pistol in 6.5TCU. One shot, one kill. Same with the 2 does I took except these were with my Encore with 28" Pro Hunter in 7mm RM.
I did take my first elk here in AZ with the H&R at about 80 yards. I was back in Phoenix by 1 pm opening day. wife didn't believe I got one until my son pulled the head out of the vehicle. I have taken several deer with it in Michigan and here, along with javelina.

Relining a current gun is not something I will do just due to the cost. I recently traded into an old Meriden single shot 22 and quotes to reline it were around $350 and up to a year wait. I did it with the loan of the tools from a member here.
There is a gun show next weekend here so I may go and see what I can find there. On Gunbroker used Encore barrels are reasonable but I would rather inspect one in person.

Dhammer, looked on the Savage website and could not find the muzzler loader. I remember them and also about some people that were involved in Darwinism with them.
All good suggestion so far so keep them coming.

Not trying to sell you, But Hoyt will do a reline for half that price in about two months. A reline on a muzzleloader is not as labor intensive as for a breechloader.

Duane

[koger]

Johnson 1942 & R Hodges both gave good advice. I would get a TC Omega, one of the most accurate inlines I have ever seen/sold/used. I have taken a ton off deer w sidehammer an traditional custom rifles I built, and am a serious shooter on a state and national level, I cuurently hunt w/Omega, have done serious load development, an have set 8 up for folks, w readily available compoments, that shoot incredible groups @ 100 & 200yds, have taken some big body deer ou to 250 yds. I am typing poorly, just had rotator cuff sugery 24 hrs ago. call me on my cell #606-307-2079 or home 606-348-4920, can save u a lot of time, money and get u on a killer load/gun setup, U can benefit from my work for free! Glad to help.

[Dhammer]

Savage isn't making them anymore. Seems like they run them in spurts and stop for a number of years.
Savage 10ml or 10ml2. I wouldn't buy one just for one hunt though. ;) I don't remember what my load was for pyrodex that I used though. Once IL, let us start using modern powder I switched to IMR. Been a lot of years of just IMR diet which AZ won't allow. So that info you would have to research a bit.
But, I guarantee someone on one of forums where its main topic of discussion has found the perfect pet load in black powder subsisture. I've got the book with what Savage says performed best, I just new to go find it. Only thing she don't like is the ballistic type tips. I guess could say it still groups good but it has clover leafed just a regular HP so I didn't play with the BT's when I was getting amazing groups with just an HP bullet.

[johnson1942]

kroger, hope you get well soon. probably you will sleeping in the big chair for a couple of weeks. i had a friend who had a bad car accident a couple of years ago and broke his pelvis. when his wife rushed to the hospital the first thing he said was, i guess this means no ------- tonight, huh? got to maintain a sense of humor. when i was 6 weeks in the hosp 2 years ago for west nine and really out of it i remember every time my wife was their but i dont remember one nurse. im a old nurse also and i know i was a cranky patient.

[leadman]

Took all 4 of the guns to the garage today and using lapping compound on a large patch wrapped around a shotgun brush to smooth them out some. They actually look pretty decent now.
I found the sabots for my 58 cal. to use with 45 caliber boolits. I have the Lee 200gr SWC and RFN, 255gr SWC, and the 300gr RFN. I'm thinking I will try my old load of 90grs FF Goex with a roundball and Crisco first, then try the Lee 255gr and 300 gr in the sabots. Some of my roundballs have a coating of the dreaded lead oxide on them!
I do have some Pyrodex RS and Clearshot, along with FF and FFF. The FFF is Goex and an old can of Hodgdon from I think the early 1970s.
I have a new Nikon Buckmaster with the BDC I am going to install on the H&R 58 cal.
If I have the energy I may go to the range tomorrow so I will know if I need to go to the gun show next weekend.

[johnson1942]

when you hunt antelope and if it is dureing the rut as it is here in nebraska it is much easier than deer. the bucks are thinking only about one thing and they will walk right by you to get at a doe or chase a small buck away. the does are very wary and watch out for them spooking the bucks. if you put up a antelope silhouette make sure it is not overly masculine and it looks like one the bucks can kick the **** out of. hide behind it but be careful as my friend did this and he got run over by a mad big buck wanting destroy that antelope he was hideing under. when i hented muzzle loader antelope 2 tiem here in western neb i got my buck with in the first hour of the first day each time. my son and i just saw a herd of 100 of them just 5 miles south of our place. we also fopund a huge very old dead buck. how he died we dont know. the state let us take his head. his horns are so big im going to make powder horns out of them. their meat is better than deer. you want to cool it right away. when we get ours we gut them right away and head to town and put a couple of bags of ice in the body cavity. you can also attract them by putting out a big flapping flag. i like them alot better than deer. man can they run, like the wind. remember the does are the watchers and the bucks are dumb with wanting to mate.

[idahoron]

I have hunted Antelope a few times. My last one I shot I got him from a blind. Like Roger said I got mine the first few minutes of the hunt.

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd294/idahoron/Antelope%202010/9-25-10Lsmall.jpg

My son drew and we went a different route. We wanted to use a decoy. Since it was his first time hunting them he jumped the gun and shot a small one but it was okay with me.

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd294/idahoron/Antelope%202012/Jacobshunt06.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd294/idahoron/Antelope%202012/Jacobshunt11.jpg

[crossxsticks]

leadman ifin you got a huntsman ya got more than or all that you need for a antelope , i paper patch my nef huntsman 50 cal all the time and its great at 200-225 yards simply down power your scope and use the top of the post for sight old school range finder lol.

[Geezer in NH]

SWEET!!!!!!!!!!! Try a Flintlock for the complete satisfaction factor.

[leadman]

Still haven't gone to the range to shoot my guns. Been busy working on the truck and fishing.
Just got back from 4 days on the White Mountain Apache Reservation fishing the primitive area of the Black River with my oldest son. caught so many Smallmouth bass that my arms and back ached. Most went back into the river. It was busy this year on the river, saw one group of 3 people and another of 6 people. These were about 2 miles apart so left us lots of room to fish.

[OverMax]

Having not the legs of years past and hunting antelope in the open. That sir is a challenge with (any) rifle. But no matter. It still can be accomplished with the use of B/P weaponry. Take mr. Dhammer's up on his offer would be my advice. No better rifle for the purpose than the one he possesses. Some tutoring with that Savage and you have certainly reduce the odds of your going home skunked. Since the B/P drawing is so seldom. I know (I ) would be reluctant to purchase a new rifle just for that one hunt when having the option to borrow one of the best rifles made for such purpose.

[rancher1913]

dang antelope are a real pain around here and don't hear to many hunters talking about even wanting to hunt them, its so bad one neighbor had a year-round permit that let him or anybody on his land shoot all they wanted.

[DougGuy]

I wasn't too good with a ML until I got an inline and started using pyrodex pellets. I could never hand load and get consistent compression and the pellets cured that right off the bat. White .50 using Knight sabots and White 405gr hp came in pretty good for me.

[leadman]

The Savage ML is a great gun BUT here in AZ we are restricted to black powder or black powder substitutes only. If my guns don't pan out I'll buy a barrel for my Encore.
This weekend the temperature here is supposed to top out around 107'. Maybe I can get out to the range in the morning.