First I want to apologize to the traditionalists here, but I am talking about an inline muzzleloader with a scope.

Muzzleloader season starts here in MN in 10 days and I plan to hunt it this year.  I have a CVA Optima V2 topped with a Nikon P3 Shotgun scope. The scope was previously mounted on a Mossberg 12 gauge but I have all but quit using a slug gun since I started going to Wyoming and bowhunting here in MN. If I hunt the regular firearms season in Southern MN where I live I will most likely use a revolver of some sort. Anyway, the CVA is about 7 or 8 years old. Ive only shot it a hand full of times. Ive shot it more in the last 2 weeks then I have since I bought it. I am using 100 grains of IMR White Hot and 777 pellets. Both give me about the same accuracy. I am using Barnes TMZ 250 grain Copper and Hornady 250 grain SST. I do have some 250 grain Powerbelts, but these bullets are trash. I get shotgun pattern for groups with the powerbelts. I will probably use the Barnes for my hunt as they were more accurate than the Hornady. I zeroed the scope for 1" high at 50 yards. I went out to the range today just to see how the muzzle loader is with todays weather. At noon today it was 38 degrees with a 20 mph winds with gusts to 40+ mph from the west. The shooting lane at the range goes to the SW with a large wooded area to the west, so it was fairly protected. Probably a 10-15 mph wind on the range. My clean, cold bore and the second shot were right on top of each other using the Hornday and the Branes was right next to them on the third shot. Cleaned the rifle and then went to 100 yards. Started with Hornday. Here is where it gets interesting. The Hornady shots were 2" low and 2" right with 2" group. The Barnes were 2" left and 2" low with 3 shots right on top of each other.

The reason I brought this up. If you were preparing for this hunt, would you re-zero for 100 yards? If was low and left with a 50 yard zero, how would you expect that to change with a 100 yard zero. Would you expect the shoots to be high and left (or right) now? I know this question can be answered by just doing it. I am looking for your thoughts on it. I have 6 Barnes bullets left. My local Scheels did not have any in stock yesterday. I will look again here in a bit, but I may have to venture up to the Twin Cities or Rochester.  I know where they are shooting currently so adjustments to the scope should be fairly simple and be close.

Most shots will be within 100 yards. There is a place on the property I am going where I could reach out to 200+ yards, but it would have to be a really big buck for me to even consider a long shot with a gun I have little trigger time with. Thanks for your input. I plan on hitting the range one more time on Tuesday before the season opens to get this figured out. And maybe I am putting too much thought into this and should just use some old fashioned Kentucky windage.

Resight for 1.5" high at 100yds.  Also make sure and stick with whatever bullet seems the most consistent.  Different bullets of even the same weight can have significant changes in POI. I have a CVA Optima V2 as well and get great accuracy with the Scorpion PT Gold 300 grain bullets.  Going to try 260 grain ones next.