Questions Before Shooting New Huntsman

[noleman]

I have a new SS Huntsman coming next week.  I'm very new to muzzleloading and have only shot a couple of my buddies guns.  Is there any special cleaning or prepping that needs to be done before shooting the gun the first time?  On another forum someone mentioned shooting some conicals through the stainless barrel to help smooth out any burrs in the barrel.  I had not planned on that.  I was planning on using Pyrodex pellets and saboted bullets.  Any info will be appreciated.  There is a lot of good useful information in this forum.

[Busta]

Just clean the bore good before you shoot. Put a good anti-seize on the breech plug, I use pink teflon tape pushed into the threads then coat lightly with breech plug grease.

It wouldn't hurt a bit to run some copper plated PowerBelts through it to smooth things out a little. The conicals wouldnt hurt a thing either, but if you shoot them you will want loose powder, don't use pellets with conicals. These are some good barrels and seem to get better the more they are shot. I have had mine for 3-1/2 years and it is my favorite out of seven muzzleloaders, also the least expensive.

I have done some mods to mine though, such as the .25 ACP breech plug, stock, peep sight. I don't think you will find another muzzleloader that will shoot such a wide array of bullets as accurately as the Huntsman/Sidekick.

[mangulator]

Like Busta states, make sure you use a good breach grease and only finger tighten after every five shots loosen the breach plug and finger tighten. When you go to the range invest in a range rod to seat the bullets the rod that comes with the gun is not the best. I only use it for hunting. If, you use the rod do not extend it until you have the bulllet part way down the barrel then extend it and seat the bullet on your charge.

[Busta]

Good point, mangulator on the ram rod. I also did some mods on my standard breech plug tool so a 13/16" spark plug socket with extension slides right over it for easy removal.

The sorry excuse for a jag that is on the supplied ramrod will not reliably work for spit patching or much else for that matter. To make matters worse the industry standard sized jags wont fit. I had a couple custom jags made to fit my Huntsman ramrods that will push pointed bullets without deforming, spit patch and thread into the rod in it's closed (locked) position. They are awesome. Get yourself a range rod for all your load development, range shooting and cleaning. Like mangulator says, use the supplied rod for hunting situations only. I bought another standard rod to have a back-up for my elk hunt last year, only $8 from Customer Service. You can also get an adapter for the common sized jags and accessories.

[RipOne]

Noleman: New barrel, run patches with a little J-B on them through about 50 times and it's ready to go.


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