I was reading about your experiences with your son on muzzleloader hunts and video of the hunts. It is wonderful you are sharing the experiences only a father/son hunt can produce, and you will have lifelong memories about those hunts. I have hunted with a group of fellas on muzzleloader hunts to Manitoba Canada for whitetails, and most of us have used smokeless Savage ML 10 muzzleloaders. We have had no problems with accuracy, and have taken three deer at distances of 200 to 210 yards. At first we tried various loads, powders and bullets, until Savage told us what other hunters were using with great success. A high success rate followed on our annual hunts to Manitoba, even with wide temperature swings of from minus 20 to a high of 70 degrees. In our preparation, we discovered the Hornady SSt 250 grain bullets, which we used were not penetrating more than 1 inch into 2 inch wooden planks at 250 yards, so we restricted any shot distance on a deer to 210 yards or less. We used Accurate #5744 powder and we got the bullet plastic sabots for 50 cal muzzleloaders from Muzzleload Magnum Products in Arkansas. The reason I am telling you this is the wonderful view you will have of your shots to video, without having to deal with the blackpowder smoke screen. I know these guns are no longer in production, and there are many stories reported of dangers of this type/kind of muzzleloader for various reasons, however we have not had any problems and have had these guns for almost 15 years, have shot hundreds of rounds, and have taken buck in the 150 to 165 class, with very few cripples, which were not recovered. On one trip about 10 years ago, my eldest son flew into Winnipeg, and out of 10 hunters on the plane, 7 had the Savage ML10. I hope this info is helpful for you and son using muzzleloaders for big game hunts, and wish you many years of success in the field with your son. Bearmagnet
