SAFE, CLEAN, and SIMPLE: THE SAVAGE 10ML PROJECT
You dont have to know Henry Ball very well to realize that the mantra behind the 10ML is Safe, Clean, and Simple. That is why it was designed, thats how it was designed, and that is how it is made. Anything that violates this basic credo necessarily detracts from the 10ML as a commercial product, as that is the true beauty of itaccording to the man who designed the gun.
It is certainly overbuilt, nothing marginal about the design at all. According to Del Ramsey, the majority of his current formulation sabots can take no more than 40,000 PSI under optimum conditions. That gives the current Savage 10ML a service factor of some 300%. People are free to do what they want, naturally, but to diminish that 300% safety factor is to diminish what the gun has been both designed for and tested to. No powder manufacturer, no reloading manual, and no bullet manufacturer recommends DUPLEX loads. In fact, most warn AGAINST any co-mingling of powders, period. Del Ramsey, who has made more muzzleloading sabots than anyone on the planet, Savage Arms, who produces the rifle, and Henry Ball who designed it are all LOUDLY, clearly opposed to it. Duplex loads are not published by powder manufacturers, and have not had the benefit of laboratory controlled testing. Savage does not test duplex loads, nor do they recommend them. It is a clear misuse of the Savage 10ML-II product: so says designer and manufacturer alike.
It violates the SIMPLE motto by which the gun was designed, as there is nothing simple about needing to order, store, measure, carry, or use two powders. According to Chris Hodgdon of Hodgdon Power (and the Hodgdon warnings on every box of Triple 7 and Pyrodex pellets), 100 grains of pellets is maximumbeyond that, you are on your own. That clear stance is hardly by accident. If you use propellants NOT recommended by Savage, you are also completely on your own. Youll get nothing but disdain from Henry Ball, and all it does is give credence to the awkward, mindless attacks from such disreputable companies such the star of 60 Minutes, Remington Arms, as they have elected to engage in on their website. You dont have to look very far though the Remington recall list to see Remingtons continuing problems just grow and grow. Thanks to the extensive testing by Henry Ball, Toby Bridges, MMP sabots, and Savage Arms, the Savage 10ML user never had it so good. The sabots have never been better, the powders have never been better, and in a sub-100 yard hunting sportnothing cannot be accomplished with Safe, Clean, and Simple use of Accurate Arms 5744, Vihtavouri N110 and N120, SR4759, or Alliant Powders Reloder 7. Make that 200 yards if you choose.
While any gun can be improved, sometimes it is good to remember that if it was not for Savage Arms, most would never have the opportunity to hunt with the Henry Ball designed rifle in the first place. Savage alone took that step, and has already proved that the 10ML project is Safe, Clean, and Simple. Savage could have held this project in stasis, letting it decay like Remington and Ruger already have done with their me-two muzzleloading entries. Savage has not, as the redesign of the 10ML to make it a non-4473 arm, the improved safety, and the addition of the AccuTrigger all took effortand further improved the product. If there is a better, or safer trigger on a production muzzleloader todayplease tell me where it exists.
There is always room for fault finding, and it is far easier to find a problem than to fix it. If there is one constant that does get the attention of any business, it is money. It should be no surprise to anyone that Hodgdon Powder is not going to go out of their way to promote the Savage. Why should they? The bulk of their sales and profits are from synthetic blackpowder alternatives. It would be irresponsible of any Hodgdon employee to erode the profit dollars from the products that put food on their table, in a genre of product where they are the market leader by an astonishing margin.
Money talks, though, and there are companies that have never sought to de-rail the 10ML product, and have produced products that compliment it. Accurate Powders, Alliant Powders, and Vihtavouri are three powder companies that have never lobbied against the Savageto the contrary, they have been both helpful and encouraging in its testing. Though the lack of official partnering and cross-promotion has been lamentable, is there any good reason why these three companies should not be thanked for their help in 10ML development? Why would anyone truly committed to the 10ML buy any product from a company that does not support it? The same goes down the line. Remington has actively discouraged the 10ML project. What is the excuse for buying Remington anything? CVA / BPI has as well, I can tell you that from first hand experience. Why would anyone that believes in the 10ML support anti-10ML import companies like CVA?
More recently, consider MMP sabots, a company that necessarily takes a generally neutral stance, and has never attacked the 10ML project. In fact, the testing, costly tooling, and the subsequent introduction of the MMP sub-basehardly their largest selling product, is to the benefit of 10ML users far more than any other group. They should be thanked for that. PR Bullets, most recently, has commented more on the Savage than ANY other muzzleloading projectile makerintroducing a bullet specifically designed for use in the 10ML. Something to keep in mind the next time you buy either sabots or bullets. Some may say, but that wasnt always the case. That of course, was thenthis is now.
Though there is a tendency to gloat a bit when a game department changes course and clearly allows smokeless muzzleloading; that is hardly constructive. To the contrary, the DNRs that display the open-mindedness, and in some cases, courage to clearly allow smokeless powder muzzleloaders to be used to help manage their game populations should be loudly praised and thanked. Not cat-called because of their former positions in times past, but lauded because of their more knowledgeable, ethical positions they have at the present.
SAFE CLEAN SIMPLE. That is what the 10ML project was all about when Henry Ball embarked on it some 12 years ago, and that is what it remains. Anything that enhances that clear set of concepts will ensure that the 10ML project flourishes for years and decades to come.
