justtracytrolling

There is quite a community of smokeless long range muzzleloader guys out there and with a little research you will find what you need for parts. I'm not comfortable with advising anyone on where to go for savage mlII parts n accessories, but I can honestly say I've had no issues getting parts and I usually buy everything in bulk and stock up once I figure out what I like. I learned back in the early 90's when I found a particular slug that shot awesome in my rifled slug gun AND gave me a blood trail. The next year they changed the design and load. I was lucky to find a case of them leftover and all the same lot#. I still have several seasons worth left and no longer hunt with a slug gun, but if I decide to Im not scrambling. If you keep ammo absolutely arid dry and sealed in proper storage it seemingly lasts forever. I know it's a pia these days, but if we all exercise a little patience and plan way ahead of time politics and supply chain shortages from Covid shouldn't affect us much. Everyone just has to learn to plan ahead and anticipate struggling to find inventory of what were common items. We as sportsmen should be setting the example in overcoming problems and now more than ever unify on issues we agree on and put aside our differences as we are a self sufficient lot that shouldn't need much from our politicians and should flourish with or without them. Vote your conscience at election time and the rest of the year take care of you and yours...arguing with each other is absurd behavior as what we see going on can't be solved in that matter.

Good choice Kevin! I'm not a fan of the pellets due to cost. I don't think velocities are as consistent with the pellets either. The other thing that always bugged me was that the pellets can break seating the bullet/sabot depending on how hard they load. I've never actually used the bh209 but I would try it if I didn't do smokeless.

thought so...you aren't the buy a whole new set kinda guy! You should really consider adding a core setup or two. Works quite a bit better than the clip weights on spoons especially...Segment the core and it's not hard to add a half color or color and just as easy to remove even on the water and then you just need a reel or two and share the rods you have with the extra reels. I have an event or two in Auburn this winter at bass pro I could probably show you there quite easily.

Probably gonna give it go in the am if it doesn't crust up bad. We will be running just outside the pen...the corners make it bout as easy as you could hope for and roads thru the pen make it so we can get to the other side quicker than the yote which doesn't happen anywhere else down here.

The tournament upgrade kits make the church's pretty easy and they are bullet proof with the micro line clamp and stainless rear pin. granted they are expensive but you already have the church's...I'm surprised you guys aren't running big boards nearly 100% of the time. I run inlines if I feel I'm not dialed in and I'll have to make adjustments, but if I'm on em I'm running my otters. I use bands and then weeds don't pull the lines off and I pop em off with fish so it doesn't happen at an in opportune time. I can run twice as wide and go alot faster if I'm trying to circle quickly before someone else can get there. You guys probably pull a train of boats too I'm guessing! PIA

Quite different when you only need to get 30-35 feet down for eyes like John and I tho versus salmon fishing. 2 oz weight method is pretty useless below 35 maybe 40 feet.

John are these the same boards you were running? Seems like you must have something different or figured something out...I didn't think you were that happy with them before?

I wouldn't run inlines on kings unless they released...good chance they will pull it under and it's a **** when a big tiger does it and they don't hardly run compared to a king! Remember it's supposed to be fun fighting the fish! Copper pulls very easy for the depth it gets. I only pull 150-165 feet tops but my walleye boards have no trouble.

We use walkers as well with a bit of beagle in em...pound for pound beagle is awfully gritty! Before we built in our own coyote pen other pen owners would have us bring our gun dogs in before big trials so the coyotes would run from the soft trial hounds. I'm not implying your walkers are trial dogs at all....sounds like they stay on em and make em run fine!!! I'm sure you know how those track switching fox hounds run especially if they only run in pens.

Everything circles when followed... everything! Doesn't matter if you walk the track or put a dog on it...always think circles. No critter wants to leave it comfort zone people included. They also try to run a contour line as it's just never good to go down hill as they will end up in place where it's all uphill to escape eventually and going uphill means to many calories burned. We were deer hunting once and a buddy was with me and he missed out on a shot at a yote. It was windy and unlikely to see anything else till dusk which was hours away. He was dejected and really wanted a yote and he was like I'll never see that one again. I said I'll bet you I can have that yote back here on that same trail before dark. He thought it would be impossible to drive it back...Didn't take me 3 hours and he dumped it walking its own tracks exactly. He still thinks it's ridiculous when everything does that if you just keep following long enough and have enough land with permission...I didn't take a gun and just followed

I'll bet the xtps shoot well with the 3 pellets of triple seven but there is only 1 way to find out! My parker productions match grade hunters are much higher ballistic coefficient and designed to be a 500-600 yard bullet, and pricey... I'll have to find time to do a lot more shooting to buy more of em!

I ordered my first savage new for $500...got the second one used last year and it was double that, but I got an extra Boyd's thumbhole stock with it... I may very well buy another one if I stumble into one. Still need to send my ballistic info to leupold and get my custom turrets, but I wanted to make sure I was thrilled with the loading first as the first set of custom turrets are included in the purchase of the vx5hd's I bought. Another set is like $250 more

I'm using 44 grains of Accurate Arms 5744. This is SMOKELESS powder do not use it in any muzzleloader not designed for smokeless powder. I would use my crossbow before I went back to black powder. My savage holds 1.25 moa accuracy out to 400 yards and under 1 moa to 200. Powder is free compared to triple seven or pyrodex. Box of 50xtps is cheap. I have to get special sabots and magnum primers, but they aren't any more expensive. The gun itself is the expensive part if you can find one. Savage can no longer make them as part of a lawsuit settlement. The gun is safe, but apparently people couldn't follow the simple instructions and there were accidents.

I've hated every muzzleloader bullet I've ever tried until I tried the parker productions 275 grain match grade hunters. This year I tried a new loading in my other smokeless, the hornady xtp 300 grain and my results were awesome. I shot an 8 point and 3 doe between 150-300 yards and every one was in the ribs not the shoulder and every one sprayed a phenomenal blood trail. Bullets designed for longer ranges will open up at lower speeds and so will pistol bullets. 40+ inches of snow is no joke to get around in and miserable to drag deer thru! Snow was so deep when I came to the end of each blood trail I had to scuff my feet to find the deer...they disappeared under the powder. I can't say enough good things about my savage smokeless muzzleloaders with the XTPs. My second savage came with this loading and it blows away the one I was using.

Me too! Just don't think you are going to easily make any difference in your predator/prey numbers hunting them