NEF Sidekick--My thoughts so far

[carbineman]

First off I am more of a hunter than a muzzleloader as I enjoy hunting with my NEF Tracker II and my 30-30 Topper than I do muzzleloading. My purchase was only a way to extend my hunting season into December here in Wisconsin. With that in mind I purchased my Sidekick 24" Stainless w 7/8" breechplug on a closeout sale from a dealer that ordered 12 and had three left that didn't move. I have yet to make a kill with it as I have only group hunted with it one day. We had a family member with a tag leftover from gun season for the late muzzleloader season (the only one we currently have in Wis.) and another hunter filled the tag the first day. Other than that the Sidekick has been a safe queen.

I started out with just using the sights and the Sidekick seemed highly inaccurate. Upon installing a 1x Sightron scope I now find the Sidekick fairly accurate shot to shot. I have the scope set to be "on" with a clean barrel, as that is the way I use it. I have the .25 ACP primer breechplug that I used from the get go.

To me this rifle is a pain to clean, though I go all out to do so. I shoot two maybe three shots with T7 loose powder and then I remove the breech plug and clean it up . On the breech plug I use Tetra grease by applying a thin covering at the start of the threads before turning in the plug. I clean with Precision rifles black powder cleaner and then use Ballistol as a lube/rust preventer. A 12 ga. bore brush is used to clean the threads that the hold the breech plug in, and I use Qtips to clean out the ACP primer holder in the breechplug. I use Precision Bullets 200 grain dead center bullets, the .40 caliber with the large sabot they are supplied with. My load is 90 grains T7 FFG with the DC bullet and the brass is primed with a Remington 7 1/2 primer. The recoil is almost nil, and easily controllable from the bench.

I am considering making a breech plug or modifying the PR plug to use a 209 primer with Blackhorn 209. Lots of irons in the fire here, but if I succeed I'll post the results. Anyway, Good Luck and Good Hunting.

[Swampman]

Clean it with Windex.

[Keith Lewis]

Why do you remove the breechplug after only three shots?  That is a lot of extra unnecessary work.  I usually only take the breechplug out after a range session while the barrel is still hot and then only just loosen it to be sure it is not going to lock up when cool. I have not shot a lot of T7 with my Huntsman but it certainly should be able to handle more than three shots without breechplug removal. I would expect that the crud ring will form after a few shots but that can usually be handled with the windex or 50-50 windex 91% rubbing alcohol mix for swabs between shots.

[Swampman]

I too only remove the breechplug at the end of the day.

[carbineman]

Why do you remove the breechplug after only three shots?  That is a lot of extra unnecessary work.  I usually only take the breechplug out after a range session while the barrel is still hot and then only just loosen it to be sure it is not going to lock up when cool. I have not shot a lot of T7 with my Huntsman but it certainly should be able to handle more than three shots without breechplug removal. I would expect that the crud ring will form after a few shots but that can usually be handled with the windex or 50-50 windex 91% rubbing alcohol mix for swabs between shots.

Keith I remove the plug to make sure of ignition and to keep from pushing the crud into the opening of the breechplug. It happened once and the rifle would not fire until the plug was cleaned. So now after three shots I remove the plug and swab the barrel and clean up the plug. No problems. To me putting a patch down the barrel just pushes the crud in further. So does seating a new charge and bullet, but one is then not compounding the problem by pushing the crud down with a patch first.

[Swampman]

I wonder how they shot muzzleloaders before breechplugs were removable?

[nrb]

Carbineman, I have an early 24 inch Huntsman with the 7/8 breech plug. At range sessions, I will fire up to 24 loads and not remove the breech plug. I will run a water wet patch down about every 4 shots to remove crud followed by a dry patch to ease reloading. Also, before packing up to leave, I turn the breech plug half a turn open so it does not seize. After the Huntsman cools, the breech plug can get stuck but comes out ok with hot water and Simple Green cleaner.
When I started with the Huntsman, only black powder and Pyrodex were available so extensive water cleaning to remove the salts was necessary. This is not necessary with 777 and other bp substitutes.
I find 45 or 44 cal bullets with sabots work very well and give me 1 to 2 inch groups at 100yds with 80 - 90 gr of loose 777 and 209s. This rifle has a 4x scope and is very dependable.

best,         nrb