Derrek Sigler 12.04.20
Muzzleloaders continue to gain in popularity as a great way to extend your hunting season. They are also a lot of fun to shoot. Whether you’re looking for a muzzleloader for yourself, or for a gift, there are a lot of options and price ranges to choose from. And speaking of gifts, muzzleloaders make outstanding gifts, especially around the holidays. Here’s some of our favorites to help you in picking the best muzzleloader.
A quick run down on muzzleloader basics. Most modern inline muzzleloaders all use the same standard elements. For powder, most have switched from using loose powder, to compressed pellets that are precisely measured for repeatable accuracy. You can still use loose powder, as it keeps the tradition alive. Classic, sidelock-style muzzleloaders are a great example.
For primers, inlines tend to use the hotter 209 primers, which are the same used by shotgun shell reloaders. Bullets tend to fall into three groups – Solids, sabots (pronounced sah-bo) and hybrids. Solids are simple. They are a chunk of metal, like lead, copper or other material. These include lead balls, and conical bullets that have a cupped base. When the gun goes off, the base expands to grip the barrel’s rifling. Sabot bullets have a regular bullet that sits in a plastic shoe. The plastic grips the grooves of the barrel and then leaves the bullet as it flies toward the target. Hybrid bullets include the extremely popular Powerbelt. This type of bullet usually has a plastic base on a large bullet, often a mix of copper and lead. The plastic cap makes sure that the gasses pushing the bullet down the barrel don’t escape, giving you an accurate bullet with a lot of oomph behind it.
1. Thompson/Center Bone Collector Triumph
Leave it to Thompson/Center and my buddies over at Bone Collector to come up with a serious inline muzzleloader for the hard core hunter. The Triumph series has a Speedbreech plug that can be removed by hand for easy cleaning. It has a FlexTech stock with a built-in Limbsaver’s recoil pad and overmolded grip areas for a solid grip in your hand regardless of the weather. Speaking of wether, the metal parts of the Bone Collector gun have Thompson/Center’s WeatherShield, making them impervious to rust. This is easily one of the best muzzleloaders on the market, period.
Pros/Weather proof and accurate
Cons/Costs more, but you get more
Bottom Line/If you’re serious about hunting with a muzzleloader, this is the one to get.
2. Traditions Tracker
If you’re completely new to muzzleloader shooting and hunting, one of the easiest ways to gt started is with a ready-to-shoot kit, like the Traditions Tracker inline. This kit comes with everything you need to get started except the bullets, primer and powder.
If you’re looking for suggestions, we recommend Powerbelt bullets for starters. We’d also use Hodgdon Triple7 pellets, too.
Pros/Ready to shoot kit
Cons/No scope in this kit
Bottom Line/Perfect for beginners
3. CVA Wolf
The CVA Wolf is one of the most popular muzzleloaders on the market, and with good reason. These easy-to-use smoke poles pack a lot of value into an affordable package. In chatting with local retailers, the CVA Wolf is easily the most popular gift package for muzzleloaders by far. The best package is the scoped, stainless model. It comes with a 5.50 cal. Wolf with a 3-9×40 Konus scope and CVA’s DeadOn scope mounts, which are among the best ML’er scope mounts available. It even comes with a soft, padded case. This gun is simple to operate, easy to shoot and clean. It is easily one of the best muzzleloaders available for the money.
Pros/A great package for any level hunter
Cons/None
Bottom Line/An easy to shoot package.
4. Traditions Buckstalker
Traditions muzzleloaders cover the entire spectrum of black powder guns. You can get modern inlines all the way to traditional side-lock rifles. The company even makes specific models to meet select state requirements. The Buckstalker is their most budget-friendly model of inline and they pack a lot of cool stuff into this gun. It has their Accelerator Breech Plug that makes quick ignitions as well as being easily removable for cleaning. It comes with a mounted and boresighted 3-9×40 scope and is a sweet deal at around $250. It also has a dual safety system, making it one of the safer muzzleloaders available.
Pros/Safe, accurate and reliable
Cons/Be aware of rust
Bottom Line/Possible the most bang for the buck
5. CVA Optima
The CVA Optima V2 rifle is an outstanding value. You get a lot of features, like a weatherproof finish, T-handle ram rod, Crushproof recoil pad and easy cleaning. The barrel is fluted to cut down on weight, while still providing all the accuracy you need and expect. It comes with CVA’s Dead-On scope mounts, which are among the best you’ll find for a blackpowder gun. Simply mount your scope of choice and be ready to hunt anything. I have a Vortex Diamondback scope mounted on mine.
Pros/Premium rifle without the premium price
Cons/Would be better with a scope package
Bottom Line/A great rifle at a great price. Perfect for the serious hunter and beginner alike.
We are committed to finding, researching, and recommending the best products. We earn commissions from purchases you make using the retail links in our product reviews. Learn more about how this works.