Federal Premium Trophy Copper Muzzleloader Bullet Review in a Cva Optima

Back in November I had the kind of opportunity that doesn't come along all that oftentimes. Information technology was the ultimate "twofer" — a run a risk to hunt a tremendous piece of intensely managed individual property endemic in State highway County, Illinois, past the Metcalf family unit for decades and managed by big-buck fanatic George Metcalf, and hunt it with a muzzleloader loaded with an all-new hunting bullet. This bullet — the Federal Premium Bays Copper Muzzleloader Bullet with B.O.R. Lock MZ Arrangement — changed the way I think about loading a muzzleloading rifle for hunting.

Commencement, some background. Muzzleloaders have evolved profoundly over the by ii decades, with today'due south best capable of accuracy rivaling many centerfire rifles at distances approaching 2½ football fields. Misfires are most a thing of the past, and modern propellants are reliable, consistent and relatively easy to make clean upward. And all the same, projectiles have remained much as they take been for decades in that the mode they are tightly loaded in the barrel has inverse little. In the very old days, lead circular balls were wrapped in a tight-fitting cloth patch — essentially a archaic sabot. The patch formed a relatively tight seal and gripped the lands and grooves of the rifling to impart spin as the bullet left the butt. Then came Claude-Etienne Minié, a French army officer who in 1847 created a bullet design that would ultimately behave his proper name. The cone-shaped lead projectile, the Minié Ball, was built smaller than the rifle diameter to ease loading, merely its concave base expanded during ignition. This sealed the diameter and engaged the rifling, resulting in accuracy and ease of loading that was unprecedented at the fourth dimension.

Despite the passage of nigh 170 years, the bullets most muzzleloaders use today basically still follow one of these 2 principles, using either a plastic sabot or expanding base to seal the bore. "Most muzzleloader bullets use a sabot or a soft plastic belt to seal the bore. The problem with sabots is the force required to load them. To work correctly, a sabot needs to fit so tightly that it's actually hard to button downward the bore," said Mike Holm, Federal's Ammunition Product Line Director. "And information technology only gets worse if you're taking repeated shots through a muddy barrel. Then there's legality. Hunting regulations vary quite a bit, but many areas don't permit sabots.

"Belted bullets are immune for hunting in more places, but we've plant that, sometimes, a loaded bullet can separate from the belt and slide down the butt if the gun is jarred," Holm said. "The plastic of the belt can also rupture during the shot, which means lower velocity and less consistent accuracy. Almost of these bullets are too fabricated of soft lead, which can mean poor weight retention and penetration. And, some states no longer allow the use of lead bullets for hunting, a trend that may grow over time."

And so Federal decided to attack the issue in a different way. "We used our ninety-plus years of armament manufacturing expertise to create something that would allow muzzleloaders hunt legally in more places, with better accuracy, dependability and ease," Federal's J.J. Reich told me on the shooting range only prior to our Illinois hunt. "It's a true 200-grand muzzleloader bullet while remaining easy to load, providing consistent seating, and helping scrub fouling from the breech." The .fifty-caliber bullets weigh 270 grains.

The result, J.J. told me, is the exclusive B.O.R. Lock MZ system. "Dissimilar sabots or belted bullets, it features a polymer loving cup permanently attached to the bullet base," he said. "The unfired bullet and loving cup are slightly smaller than the bore, but the strength of ignition pushes the cup forrard onto 2 raised bands along the bullet shank, which substantially increases the bore of the projectile. This engages the rifling and seals the bore, optimizing velocity and accuracy.

B.O.R. stands for Bullet Obturating Ramp. What the heck does that mean?, I asked.

"It's really kinda simple, simply besides a fleck complex," J.J. said. "The walls of the polymer cup get pushed upwards and out, into the rifling, and so yous get an excellent seal — and that means better ballistics and downrange performance."

The rear of the B.O.R. Lock cup features a difficult, fiber-reinforced polymer ring that scours fouling from the breech every bit the bullet is pushed into place. This decreases the need to make clean between shots and makes it easy to seat the bullet at the verbal aforementioned depth. Because there'south no beefy sabot (only the fouling-cutting ring of an unfired bullet engages the rifling) the required loading force averages about one-half that of nigh sabot bullets.

The bullet itself is also a step forward in muzzleloader applied science. The Federal Premium line already has a successful Trophy Copper rifle bullet and shotgun slug, and information technology was a natural evolution to incorporate that technology into a new muzzleloader bullet. This 100 percent copper bullet features a polymer tip and a deep, hollow cavity and skiving that provides consequent, devastating expansion. It besides has a relatively loftier ballistic coefficient of 0.168 that results in a apartment trajectory that too bucks the wind.

Of course, the proof is in the pudding, so we spent some time on the range earlier heading to the field. My setup included a Traditions Vortek StrikerFire with 28-inch barrel topped with a Bushnell three-9X scope and using 100 grains of Blackhorn 209. Once the telescopic was dialed in, I did quite a bit of shooting to see how this rifle/propellant/bullet combination would perform. For me, the all-time accuracy was achieved with a slightly dirty barrel, meaning I would fire a fouling shot, run a clean patch downwardly the butt, so shoot ii shots for group in an endeavour to simulate how things might play out in the real world of deer hunting.

I did non shoot more than 3 shots without cleaning the butt, but regardless, I found that the new bullet loads extremely easily, without the need of a bullet starter and using the standard ramrod that comes with the rifle. Despite a light crosswind, this combination produced excellent accuracy. My final 100-yard group produced two shots that were touching, and sighted in at 2 inches loftier at that distance — which put me dead-on at 150 yards — I was ready to head for a deer stand.

The conditions this November calendar week essentially sucked. One morning temperatures hovered near x degrees and the current of air was stiff. A few days later we were greeted with a freezing pelting. Our grouping was hunting from elevated shooting towers that Mr. Metcalf has spread over his incredible property, and as part of his management plan he encouraged us all to shoot a doe while holding out for bucks at least 3½ years of age. So on the morning of mean solar day iii, a fat doe presented herself at 150 yards and I decided to brand some meat. The deer ran just 50 yards after the shot. The autopsy showed a nice half-inch entrance hole at the shoulder. The bullet passed through the scapula, imbedding itself on the far side hibernate. It was a perfect mushroom. This was the showtime deer e'er killed with this bullet, and the results were impressive.

The next evening I was gear up in a shooting firm overlooking a very narrow powerline cut that passed between 2 woodlots. When a doe entered the cut at about 140 yards at 5 p.m., I got backside the rifle, hoping a buck would follow. When he did I had less than three seconds for my brain to register, "Shooter!," place the crosshair behind the shoulder, and touch the gun off. Down he went, and again, the autopsy found a perfectly mushroomed bullet upward against the offside hide.

Our grouping shot 5 deer on the hunt from distances ranging from ten to 150 yards, and every bullet was recovered equally a perfect mushroom on the offside hide. Terminal performance just doesn't get any improve.

The new Trophy Copper Muzzleloader Bullet with the B.O.R. Lock MZ System carries a suggested retail cost for $24.99 for a fifteen-pack. Federal has produced a quick video that shows you lot a lot more than most them; and  more than information on the entire line of Federal Premium ammunition tin be constitute at www.federalpremium.com.

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Source: https://www.grandviewoutdoors.com/big-game-hunting/whitetail-deer/ammo-test-federal-premium-trophy-copper-muzzleloader-bullets-with-b-o-r-lock-mz-system

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