Raider2000
New member
Well I done went & did it, I bought a Traditions Yukon .50 muzzleoading rifle for strictly hunting & let me tell you so far I'm impressed with this weapon that only cost me $119.00.
For over a week I've been toying with the idea of getting a strictly hunting rifle but not wanting to spend a lot doing it being that I allready had 2 fine rifles "Repro Remington Zouave .58 & a near 50 year old Hawken rifle .54" but to me a .58 caliber is a bit much for Deer & maybe an occasional Bear & I'm a little leery having my Grandfathers Hawken out in the weather possibly getting dammaged, so this is where I have come to..
I settled on the Traditions Yukon for the basic inline ignition design which makes it that much more sensible for a hunting weapon & ofcorse the price.
First look was some what impressive with good lines & fairly tight tolorences in the action the only deterent was the PLASTIC OPEN SIGHTS but being that I had thought of installing a good scope on this rifle I didn't give it much thought at all till I shot it yesterday.
Since this rifle had come with 15 saboted .44 caliber Hornady 240gr. XTP's I thought to get another pack to see what it'll do along with some Hodgdon Triple Seven .50 50gr & .50 30gr. pellets & some Winchester 209 primers, & out to the range I went.
I started out with just the open sights "because I wanted to see what I can do open before I installed a scope" & started with a 80gr. charge at 50 yards & amazingly from the bench I was hitting just slightly left & slightly low!
Thinking that I want this to hit dead on at 100 yards I set the rear up to the next large notch & tried my luck at that range, amazingly I was hitting just a touch low & ofcorse slightly left so after a little adjustment I had this baby hitting pretty dead on at 100 yards, & I'm thinking that this isn't bad with just 7 shots!
So I changed my targets & shot these...
Yeah I screwed up on my first shot by not drying the barrel with a second primer like I should have & got the ever familiar POP then BANG telling me I should have did better, but the other 2 shots were right at the X just a little right which may have been me "at that distance my eyes aren't that sharp even with my glasses on."
This one I aimed right at the X to see how high it was going to hit from the bench & then the third shot I managed to put it right at the X by just slightly aiming lower, the red tape I placed there to see if I could hit what I was aiming at off hand & to my surprise I hit it exactly & the next shot was slightly right which was my doing, admittedly.
Well as you can see, the Traditions Yukon is a pretty good inexpensive muzzleloader & even with the PLASTIC open sights it is a pretty good shooter, I may wait to get a scope for this one & see how my season this year turns out...
BTW I've decided to stick with the 80gr. charge of Hodgdon Triple Seven & the Saboted 240gr. Hornady .44 XTP's because since they shoot so good for me yeasterday & by Hodgdon's web sight this rifle should be in the range of 1600fps. 1360ft. lbs. which should be plenty to take on a Deer &/or Black Bear out to 100 yards.
For over a week I've been toying with the idea of getting a strictly hunting rifle but not wanting to spend a lot doing it being that I allready had 2 fine rifles "Repro Remington Zouave .58 & a near 50 year old Hawken rifle .54" but to me a .58 caliber is a bit much for Deer & maybe an occasional Bear & I'm a little leery having my Grandfathers Hawken out in the weather possibly getting dammaged, so this is where I have come to..
I settled on the Traditions Yukon for the basic inline ignition design which makes it that much more sensible for a hunting weapon & ofcorse the price.
First look was some what impressive with good lines & fairly tight tolorences in the action the only deterent was the PLASTIC OPEN SIGHTS but being that I had thought of installing a good scope on this rifle I didn't give it much thought at all till I shot it yesterday.
Since this rifle had come with 15 saboted .44 caliber Hornady 240gr. XTP's I thought to get another pack to see what it'll do along with some Hodgdon Triple Seven .50 50gr & .50 30gr. pellets & some Winchester 209 primers, & out to the range I went.
I started out with just the open sights "because I wanted to see what I can do open before I installed a scope" & started with a 80gr. charge at 50 yards & amazingly from the bench I was hitting just slightly left & slightly low!
Thinking that I want this to hit dead on at 100 yards I set the rear up to the next large notch & tried my luck at that range, amazingly I was hitting just a touch low & ofcorse slightly left so after a little adjustment I had this baby hitting pretty dead on at 100 yards, & I'm thinking that this isn't bad with just 7 shots!
So I changed my targets & shot these...
Yeah I screwed up on my first shot by not drying the barrel with a second primer like I should have & got the ever familiar POP then BANG telling me I should have did better, but the other 2 shots were right at the X just a little right which may have been me "at that distance my eyes aren't that sharp even with my glasses on."
This one I aimed right at the X to see how high it was going to hit from the bench & then the third shot I managed to put it right at the X by just slightly aiming lower, the red tape I placed there to see if I could hit what I was aiming at off hand & to my surprise I hit it exactly & the next shot was slightly right which was my doing, admittedly.
Well as you can see, the Traditions Yukon is a pretty good inexpensive muzzleloader & even with the PLASTIC open sights it is a pretty good shooter, I may wait to get a scope for this one & see how my season this year turns out...
BTW I've decided to stick with the 80gr. charge of Hodgdon Triple Seven & the Saboted 240gr. Hornady .44 XTP's because since they shoot so good for me yeasterday & by Hodgdon's web sight this rifle should be in the range of 1600fps. 1360ft. lbs. which should be plenty to take on a Deer &/or Black Bear out to 100 yards.