Ultimate Muzzleloader......

Pretty amazing for a Muzzle loader and the gun isn't even broken in. Are you doing a throrough cleaning on the rifle, nipple and such at the end of the range session? How's does that cleaning go compared to a rifle?
 
Pretty amazing for a Muzzle loader and the gun isn't even broken in. Are you doing a throrough cleaning on the rifle, nipple and such at the end of the range session? How's does that cleaning go compared to a rifle?

According to Ultimate and all the other owners I've talked with, there's no cleaning of the "nipple". That's actually a pretty unique design and different for a muzzleloader and what we're used to. I looked over the spent .45 Win Mag cases very well and they're as clean as before being fired. When discussing it with Ken, he stated that if I wanted, I could clean around the breech but, cleaning the flash channel/hole was completely unnecessary and never needed.

As for cleaning, its easier and faster than any other muzzleloader I've ever owned. I remove the brake and put that in a container of Butch's BP Bore Shine. Then using two (2) patches with the bore shine, run them into the barrel and spin each around at the breech. A third dry patch came out as clean as it went in. Lube the inside of the barrel with another patch and its cleaned. Remove the brake from the container, wipe it off dry, lube and reinstall it. The whole process, even though it was the first time, took less than 5 minutes, which included a light coating of corrosion protection to all outside exposed metal. The entire action was COMPLETELY SPOTTLESS.

This weather in northern MI has limited me to just the one session so far, it doesn't look very good for the next few days either. I lightened the trigger pull when I cleaned it and am excited about trying that next time.
 
If I get a membership at the local gun range your welcomed to come down and shoot here in the great state of Nebraska! Range is good to 600 yards. As of right now shooting in my grandparents corn fields only good to 400. :) you could shot there if you want also. ;)
 
Hey Guys, I'm an inch away from pulling the trigger on either a black widow or a carbon barreled one. I want it drilled and tapped for sights as I will potentially hunt colorado with it, but also will use it mostly with a scope. What is your take on the fluted steel barrel vs the carbon barrel? I will be mountain hunting with it, so weight is an issue, but I don't think the weight difference is that big. Any reports or accuracy/durability on the carbon barrels? I'm leaning away from the thumbhole as I dont like the ergonomics of it, is the regular mcmillan stock as good as the thumbhole?
 
Hey Guys, I'm an inch away from pulling the trigger on either a black widow or a carbon barreled one. I want it drilled and tapped for sights as I will potentially hunt colorado with it, but also will use it mostly with a scope. What is your take on the fluted steel barrel vs the carbon barrel? I will be mountain hunting with it, so weight is an issue, but I don't think the weight difference is that big. Any reports or accuracy/durability on the carbon barrels? I'm leaning away from the thumbhole as I dont like the ergonomics of it, is the regular mcmillan stock as good as the thumbhole?

I didn't handle either the carbon or widow, so I'm out on answering that. How much weight difference there may be, I don't know. As far as the thumbhole McMillan, I'm happy with it. I have a Leupold VX6 with a 50mm scope and my cheek is in the proper position on the stock.

Ergonomics........... Well as a retired Ergonomist, if I were working with McMillan I would ask them to move the thumbhole forward about 1/4". It would then be anthropometricly closer to the 50th percentile males thumb base (purlicue) to trigger finger position.
 
Hey Guys, I'm an inch away from pulling the trigger on either a black widow or a carbon barreled one. I want it drilled and tapped for sights as I will potentially hunt colorado with it, but also will use it mostly with a scope. What is your take on the fluted steel barrel vs the carbon barrel? I will be mountain hunting with it, so weight is an issue, but I don't think the weight difference is that big. Any reports or accuracy/durability on the carbon barrels? I'm leaning away from the thumbhole as I dont like the ergonomics of it, is the regular mcmillan stock as good as the thumbhole?

The fluted barrels are more for aesthetic appeal, it will save a few ounces but not a big difference. The carbon wrapped barrels are much lighter but come at a price. Make sure you get a brake if you get the carbon barrel. I'm not a fan of thumbholes, I have the McMillan HTG on my current Ultimate. I've owned or shot every version they have and I really like the HTG the most, The Lazzeroni Hunter is my second favorite.
 
So I heard rumors that remington bought out Kens company. I was going to order a black widow this week but I saw this:

[ame]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5_dM55a6FHY[/ame]

Looks like it will be available in June and the msrp is $750. Now I don't know what to do. I'd love a ultimate version but I could do a LOT of stuff to this one with the $3000 I'd save by waiting. Any thoughts? Thanks
 
Thought it would be a great day, when it turned out a little worse than expected. I went to the club and the drive to the range was closed. I had to make three trips, carrying the rifle and equipment 100 yards to the bench. The road was just to muddy to drive down. It was muddy and with wet sand. It was tough carrying all that through the mud. Anyway after that, I also had to walk back and forth to the backstop to hang targets, through the mud and if it wasn't mud, it was wet sand. Quite the jaunt for an old out of shape fella.

According to the weather cast, it should have been a much better day with the wind. It was much worse then expected and also the direction. It was blowing about 30° from left to right, swirling and coming from the target to the bench.

  • Sustained wind.......... 15 mph
  • Gusts....................... 22 mph
I shot a couple rounds at 200yds to set the custom turret. I needed about 2" left also from my 100yd shooting at home. Then I made the trip to the 400 yard backstop and stapled up a target. Walked back to the bench and settled down a little, then turned the turret to 400yds, loaded it up and started shooting.

Not to shabby for the first 400yd shoot.

 
Last edited:
NOTE:

After supper this evening, it was time to clean the rifle. Long story short, I found that the rear scope ring was lose at the mount. It has the Leupold SD bases and rings on it. It appears that the recoil is loosening up those windage screws at the base. I'll try fixing that problem by putting the Leupold QR Cross Lock system on it this weekend.

I got to wondering, how good could that group have been, had the scope not been lose?????
 
Warning! This thread is more than 11 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.
Top