Two new shooters/ready to go!

[CliffordN]

Went to the range this morning, with two buddies who had never shot a muzzleloader before. One had a NIB CVA Wolf that had been in storage at another friend's house for untold years. The other was toting a Traditions Pursuit Pro, which he had borrowed.
There were no scopes and we were starting from scratch with loads. But we tried two pellets of Triple Se7en and 295 grain Powerbelts, and both rifles liked that combo...
The Wolf was dead on right out of the box. The Traditions only needed a slight adjustment, and both shooters are ready for the woods next weekend...
Neither of my friends are what one would call a deer hunter, and they are both really excited about all of this.
I did note that the Wolf had a much tighter bore, requiring quite a bit more pressure to get the Powerbelt started in the barrel. The two rifles are very similar, and both shot tight groups.
Following the trip to the range, we came back to the house and they learned how to clean the rifles. And now we wait!!!

 

[CliffordN]

A little more... I know this is old news to most of you, but someone else might be new to the smokepole game and find it informing. The CVA Wolf has a nice knurled knob to unscrew the breechplug. The Traditions Pursuit has a beastly thing which requires some tool we did not get during the lending process, making removing the plug a giant pain in the butt. That was the most significant difference between the two rifles, which otherwise performed equally well.
If you neglect to lubricate the breechplug (I used Bore Butter since I have it in abundance) and shoot a few times, you will find removal requires considerable effort. We used needlenosed pliers to get it started, then followed up with a small wrench to finish rotating it to the point where it would turn freely with your fingers. This one feature was enough of an issue to keep me from wanting another one of these rifles...
Kudos to the engineers that designed the Wolf!

 

[MUP]

Definitely get some anti seize for those threads. Clean and reapply after every range session would be my advice.