9-28-25 - Tony Smotherman, The Travelin' Hunter

Tonight Jim and Scott interview Tony Smotherman, "The Travelin' Hunter" of TV fame. Tony is an icon in the firearms industry. He currently works for CVA Muzzeloading Company and BERGARA Rifles. Check him out on Instagram at travelinhunter.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (01:00):
Good evening, everybody, Jim Straighter here and Scott Cronin and
I have a great program lined up for you all tonight.
We're gonna be talking tonight with Tony Smotherman, The Traveling
Without the G T n R a v E l
I N Hunter, who a lot of you probably has
fallen through the years.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
It's very active on television. Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
He was with Night Rifles, Born to Hunt TV, Summit's
High Places, Moultries, that hit list in his own show,
of course, which was The Traveling Hunter. Tony is a
very very iconic figure in the firearms industry in many regards,
and he'll talk to us here in a little bit

(01:45):
about his career path there and the things he's currently
involved in. We're going to talk about all kinds of
things firearms tonight because he is an experts expert. I
think he'll really enjoy the knowledge and longtime expertise he
brings to the program. So I'm gonna go to quick

(02:07):
break here and we'll roll Tony out and sit back
and grab you a cold lemonade and whatever type of
coverage you'd like to.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Wet your lips with, and we'll be right back after
this break, which presented by SMI Marine eleven four hundred
Westport Road. Go see them they'll take great care of you.
And remember you never get sooked by my friends at SMI.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
And again we're talking tonight with Tony Smotherming. Tony, welcome
aboard the light of your taking time from your very
busy schedule to visit with us, partner. What's going on
begin Well, we're rolling around here, buddy. You know, I
was really struck by the similarities in our career paths

(02:54):
when we did the interviews about coming on the program,
where we both started out as outdoor writers. You got
into doing outdoor TV like I did. I got into
radio as well, and then we have a similar background
in publishing where you published Tennessee Outdoor News, Tennessee's biggest daily,

(03:17):
and I wrote for the Curer Journal for many years.
But I also had Jim straight to Kentucky Outdoors the
magazine for a number of years. And it's just an
amazing career path. Tell folks a little bit about yourself,
Tony and what you're currently doing, if you will.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
Well, you know, when you was kicking off there, I
was obviously on the phone here on hold listen to
the kickoff of the show, and you said a word
there that I don't know if I'll be able to
live up to. And you said something about being iconic,
and it may be a mighty tall order for me
to stand up to. So I appreciate you introducing me
the way you did. But the current time in my

(03:58):
world right now, I work full time for BP Outdoors,
and our listeners here today tonight, they may not understand
what BPI Outdoors is, but BP Outdoors is black Powder Incorporated,
and BPI is a parent company for CBA and Bigar Rifles,
which I'm sure everybody knows those names pretty well. The

(04:19):
CBA side of things has obviously been around for a
great long time and everybody knows this. That's a muscloading manufacturer.
We've been around since nineteen seventy one. And then on
the Bagar side of things, Bigar has been around since
twenty fourteen. As far as inside the public eye of
who we are and what we do as a farms manufacturer,

(04:42):
but we're two amazing leading brands, one obviously very strong
on the muzzloading side of things that has jumped into
the center fire world in the last couple of years.
And then of course Bigar is known for its barrel
manufacturing and high end Affordable Center, fire bol tax and
rifles we manufact actor today. But for both of those
brands I have the opportunity to work for, and oddly enough,

(05:08):
I get to work with folks that I used to be.
And I know that sounds a little bit odd to
say that, but my actual title is Head of Influencer Relations,
and that's kind of a fancy title, but basically what
I get to do is work with how the writers
and bloggers and podcasters and YouTubers and TV show hosts
and magazine owners, editors and publishers and basically all things media.

(05:32):
So it makes it really, you know, to follow the
past that I have followed in my life after high school,
and of course sounds like a very similar path two
years there, Jim, that I get to work with people
now that have the passion that we have and that
we have had for a very long time to promote

(05:55):
the outdoors in some media, shape, form or fashion. So
it makes it very easy for me to hold my
position at CBA in Bagar or VPI Outdoors just because
I understand the vision and the wanton desire these folks
have to promote the outdoors. So it's a wonderful spot
to be in today.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yes, sir, and it doesn't stop there. You wear a
lot of hats. Share some of your other activities with
us if you will.

Speaker 4 (06:23):
Yeah, So outside of the DP outdoors stuff, you know.
As far as head of influencer relations and media side
of things, my background is, I guess if there is
a specialty, it would be muzzleloading. I started working for
night muzzleloaders back in nineteen ninety three. I believe it's

(06:44):
the kick off.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Date of that.

Speaker 4 (06:46):
And the gentleman who is kind of the modern innovator
of modern inline muzzloaders as you and I and our
listeners today know it. Tony was the gentleman that kind
of started that evolution enough mussloading from the sidelock era
that we all started with back in the seventies and eighties.

(07:07):
In nineteen eighty five out of year in necessity because
he was a big elk hunter in Colorado, or spent
a lot of time in Colorado, but his home base
was Kirksville, Missouri, and he kept going to Colorado to
elk hunt and dealing with inclement weather that they experienced
out there during El County seasons and snow and things
like that, and was always having issues with mussloaders and

(07:30):
not going off in foul weather. So he come back
to his machine shop in Kirksville, Missouri and created the well,
the inline that we know today, and that first model
that he built was model called the m K eighty five.
Eighty five stands for nineteen eighty five, of course, so
I got to work with Tony side by side for
quite a long time, and that just really, I guess,

(07:54):
super sparked my interest in love for mussloaders in general,
then also hunting with mussloaders, and it all kind of
comes to pass for the sheer fact that basically, as
a young outdoor writer at nineteen twenty years old, I
needed something to write about. And I didn't grow up

(08:15):
in a deer hunting family. I did grow up an
outdoors family. My dad was a very large coon hunter,
traveled the country coon hunting and was a very competitive
coon hunter in the World hunts and Little World hunts
across the country for a long time. And so obviously
outdoors has always been in my blood, but deer hunting

(08:37):
was not. And I think number one for the sheer
fact of when I was a young man, there was
no deer in my portion of Middle Tennessee, in the
area that I live at here currently, and so I
had to kind of teach myself how to deer hunt.
And I was able to do that through reading publications,
different magazines and Deer and deer Hunting, Buck Masters, North
American white Tail, and those articles that really pulled me

(09:00):
in number one on the educational factor basically teach me
to work my way through the woods in a deer
hunting scenario. But also the ones that really intrigued me
were the educational ones that talked about harvesting big deer.
And so I needed information or material to write about
in my articles to generate interests. Basically, get to read

(09:25):
my articles and my columns that I was writing. And
I quickly realized here in the state of Tennessee at
that time, we were not known for big deer. So
you know, it's a kind of common scenario that if
you're going to harvest the big deer, you need to
hunt them where they live scenario. And I knew that
Tennessee wasn't the place, but I did to understand by

(09:46):
reading all these publications that I had been reading that
the Midwest was the place. Kentucky also being an amazing
place which you guys are based out of. And I
realized that through the Midwest that you were not allowed
to hunt with a centifire rifle at at time during
rifle seasons the Ohio, Illinois, Ioware, so on, and so forth,

(10:09):
you had to hunt with a muzzloader. So I picked
up hunting with a mussloader just out of seering necessity,
and it basically infatuated me because of my mechanical mind
and how my mind works. Is, you know, hunting with
a centipire, which is kind of what I first stepped
into doing when I started deer hunting in Tennessee. You
basically take a well, my caliber of choice at that

(10:31):
time was the two seventy, So you take it to
seventy and you buy the box at Walmart and you
put it in the gum and you get ready to
site the gun in or you put it in the
gum and you get ready to go hunting. And that's
basically the mechanics of it. The bullets already loaded, the
powder is already fixed, you pulled out of the box.
It's kind of plugged in place scenario. And they didn't

(10:51):
really intrigue me as much as hunting with a musloader
did number one, because I was hunting in amazing states
that had really amazing whitefield hunting opportunity, but also for
the fact that I was doing it with a firearms
that I was having to weigh and measure the powder,
figure out my projectile weight, figure out which primer worked

(11:12):
better in different scenarios. So there was a lot of
mechanical pieces that fell into hunting with the muzzloader that
really captivated my mind. And also the ability to use
a mussloader to hunt armadillas in South Louisiana, or take
that same gun and a different powder charge and a
different projectile and head the Colorado or Wyoming to elkont With.

(11:34):
I liked it versatility of a mussloader also outside the mechanics,
so it just basically it was out of sheer necessity
because I needed information to write about in the Midwest.
Midwest wouldn't allow me to use a centiphire, so I
had to pick up a muzzloader and it basically took
over my life to where of it. From nineteen ninety
three until twenty sixteen, I've had the opportunity to travel

(11:57):
across the country every Canadian Province and so on and
so forth, and from three to twenty sixteen I used
only a musloader throughout those entire years, and my tenure
with Night lasted until two thousand and nine. They went
out of business or closed the doors in two thousand
and nine, and thankfully I was able to have an

(12:20):
opportunity to start with CVA the next morning after the
closure of Night. Also working in the Muslim you feel
through the CBA side of things back in nine and
Musleter for me is the thing, Jim, to be honest
with you, I just love him for so many facets.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
Yes, sir and Tony, you also have a passion for
wildlife management, which again there's a parallel between us and Scott.
You know, Scott loves wildlife management and is very very
good at it as well.

Speaker 4 (12:52):
You know, Jim, I think I think with kind of
casting casting that here a little bit. I think in general,
most outdoors from across this great country, I have a
bit of respect enough for whitetail and wildlife in general
that managing their properties is of upmost, upmost priorities. So

(13:12):
I think a lot of people have that interest in
managing ground. And yes, it has become a passion of mine.
And and again it started because I was spending time
in all those Midwestern states that had such great hunting
opportunities for white tail and ended up buying several farms
over the years in Illinois and tweaking them to make
them the best wildlife habitat that I could possibly do.

(13:34):
And of course my home farm here in Tennessee been
doing the same thing for years on it. And yeah,
the management side of things is and I think it
again comes back for me personally, it's the mechanical side
of things. As you know, you for a muscloader, your weigh,
you powder, your picture projectile, so on and so forth.
And for white hill management or wildlife management in general speaking,

(13:58):
you know, there's a process, there's an account process to
making your hunting properties better, and that's figuring out how
to manipulate the wind on ind dress egress, figuring out
which stand locations are better for which wind directions, which
football locations will be better than others. That's a lot
of mechanical process of that, and I think that's a

(14:19):
big point of outside of just making ground better for
wildlife in general. I think that's why it suits my
mechanical mind so well as I just like the process.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
Yes, sir Scott, you have a question for.

Speaker 5 (14:33):
Tony here, Well, Tony, I appreciate everything he's done over
the years. He's always been a person to help others
get out and advocate for not only muzzleoders, but just
hunting in general. But to get the name the traveling hunter, Tony.
A lot of times folks get really scared and worried

(14:55):
about traveling with a firearm, especially when it comes to flying.
Give us some of your tips and techniques for folks
that are going to be traveling with a muzzle over
or center fire To go out on a trip when
it involves an airline.

Speaker 4 (15:12):
You know, that is always a question of high topic
and priority. A lot of folks traveling across the country
today to get to other places, especially US South guys
and these guys, we all want to go westward, and
traveling to Wyoming or Montana places like that is pretty
difficult by a vehicle just because it's twenty four or

(15:33):
thirty hour drive. Airlines it's much easier, and everybody's a
little bit skeptical about walking into an airport no matter
where they're at. With a farm in hand to give
it to the folks there at the carousel to get
it put on the belt, to get it put on
the plane. And years ago it used to be I

(15:54):
felt like it was more complicated years ago than this
is today. I think more people travel with firearms today
that they've ever had before. So it used to be
it used to be quite an ordeal basically to get
through that process, and they made you jump through forty
seven hoops to be able to declare that farm and

(16:16):
get it put on the plane. But today you know
folks that are pat pending l hunts right now out west.
Whatever you do, don't let walking into an airport with
a case farm be a concern or a topic that
causes you stress and anxiety, because today's world, it is
really nothing to it. And it's basically the biggest thing

(16:38):
is to make sure that your your projectiles or your
ammunition are in a separate checked bag that will actually
go on the plane and be totally separate from your
gun case, as long as you have a gun case
that has TSA approved locks, meaning that they have a

(17:00):
general key that will fit your gun box and allow
them to check it if they so desire to do. So,
but like I guess, over the last two or three years,
I've probably flown twenty or thirty times with ARMS, either
to a pr style event for Bagar a CVA, or
actually a trip a hunting trip to work with some

(17:23):
of the TV shows that I work with through our brands.
It's literally no different than walking up with golf clubs.
You walk up to the counter as a young lady
or man they're working. You just say hey, I have
a fire them to declare, and then they immediately know
exactly what's going on. At that point, you open up
the case for them to see. They will give you

(17:46):
a card to sign basically saying you know there's no
ammunition in that box. They put that little card in
the gun case with you, ask you to close it
and lock it up with your ts. They approve key,
the key, give them the gun box, and it's They
throw it on the conveyor belt to go on the plane.
And I'll tell you it takes just about as long

(18:10):
to do that process as it did me telling that
to you guys and the listeners tonight. It is a
very short and quick process and like nobody even blinks
an eye anymore at that So if you have something
coming up that you do got to fly the vard,
do not let that stand in your way or cause
you anxiety because it is nothing to it today.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
Well, deeply appreciate your clarification on that toy.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
Back in the day, when I was shooting internationally, I
was detained along with my firearm and Spain in Mexico, Africa.

Speaker 3 (18:44):
It was crazy back in the day.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
And they have definitely streamed lined this and made it
much much easier.

Speaker 4 (18:52):
Yes, sir, go ahead, go ahead, I'm gonna say, back
in the day there, like you're saying, it was much
finicker than what it is. And we got detained one
time when we were crossing over in Toronto, Canada, and
we were detained over Memorial Day weekends, so we were
detained for three days and basically a white, padded room
like we was there to do international terror work, and

(19:16):
it was just the lack of one signature on a
piece of paper that slowed things down.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
Or crazy, crazy, yes, sir, crazy, All right, folks, got
to go to the news.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
We'll be back after this.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
We're back and we're talking with Tony Smotherman traveling hunter Scott.

Speaker 3 (19:33):
You had some questions there for Tony.

Speaker 5 (19:36):
Yeah, Tony. Over the years and getting to have the
opportunities that you've had to utilize different techniques and hunt
with different people. What's your favorite species? And overall, I
guess your most you know, I guess as far as

(19:57):
memorable hunt that you that you've had.

Speaker 4 (20:02):
God, that is a fine question.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
You know.

Speaker 4 (20:04):
The in the in the great country that live in today,
there's an amazing amount of opportunities in many states. But
obviously you can tell by my country slang that I
am from the South, and uh, the West has always
been a hard push for me. And there's growing up
in the air that I did. One of my dad's
and my favorite activities when we weren't working on the

(20:26):
farm was watching gun smoke.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (20:29):
And it's something about that cowboy Western lord that's always
been strong to me. And Uh, the Midwest holds a strong,
powerful connection to where I'm at today because I spent
so much time there gathering data for articles and hunting
with muzzloders that the Midwest is special. But there's just
something about those Western mountains that draw me, uh that

(20:52):
direction all the time. And I've hunted in a lot
of the Western states for elk and mil beer and
antelope and pretty much everything in between. But I will
have to say, without a shadow of a doubt, and
uh any question or doubt in my mind, that mile
deer is by far my favorite species. And it's like,
if you spend time around guys that are fly fishermen,

(21:15):
you know they love the process of working that fly rod.
But the one thing that I hear all the time
about fly fishermen and why they do what they do
is because the place that they do it is never ugly.
And in the area of the western United States where
you hunt mule deer, it's never an ugly place to be.

(21:37):
So if the hunting is good or the hunting is bad,
your mindset is still, I guess, amazed and flabbergasted by
the amazing beauty that the man upstairs is created out
there in that portion of the world. Somle deer by
far my favorite species. I like where they live. I
like being able to, uh excuse me, hunt those guys that,

(22:03):
in my opinion, is really hunting. Obviously love to hunt whitetail,
but it's a lot of white tail hunting. It's a
lot of sitting and waiting, so it's more waiting, that
is hunting, where in a Western scenario it's boots on
the ground, burning shoe leather, beaten feet, covering ground, spot installed,

(22:23):
working to wind, working the draws, the mountain, terrain changes,
all that kind of stuff, the different saddles of different elevations.
All that comes down to out there, you're for real
being a hunter in my opinion, to the to even
to the next level, to where it is it is
about you and only you to make your hunt out

(22:46):
there at success. And again it's always a beautiful location,
but hunting meal deer by far is my favorite. And
I end up meeting my wife Missy there in Wyoming
on a mile deer trip twenty something year ago. So
even out path that hunting meal deer basically change the
path of my life by meeting my wife out there

(23:09):
and building a family based off of honting meal deer.
So that place is always special to me no matter where.
It's that out there, but it is just a gorgeous
place to be and it's just something romantic about that
portion of the world.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
No doubt.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
Though.

Speaker 5 (23:24):
One thing about hunting in the Western States and living
up to your name with the traveling hunter is I
don't think folks understand when they start to negotiate the
ideas of leaving their back forty to go hunt, whether
it's for mule deer, turkey, or elk, or whether you're

(23:44):
using a muzzlo or a center fire. Sometimes it's overlooked
about how important it is to get prepared and to
be familiar with your gear to chase animals. Tell us
a little bit from your perspective over the years, what
system and strategies you've used to keep yourself in good

(24:08):
physical shape and to keep your gear organized to where
you've you've got a system that's working for you now.

Speaker 4 (24:16):
You know everybody approaches these kind of trips adventures differently,
for sure. But I think my biggest my biggest thing
is is especially today and we'll talk about common times
or current times that we're in right now, and what
I see that that is the biggest hiccup for us
that do travel and try to experience great adventures in

(24:39):
other states is that rules and regulations in these states
change often. I think that is the biggest thing that
I have to stay up on and keep myself sharp
on is utilizing the World Wide Web and watching these
rules and regulations change so rapidly that if you're not careful,

(24:59):
you can and get caught off guard by doing something
that you thought was right and clear and clean last year,
but maybe not be this year. So it's I think
it's super important, uh, to stay on top of these
rules and regulations because, like I said, they are ever
changing right now, and I don't I'm not sure. I'm

(25:19):
not sure why they seem to be changing so much,
but you know, the weapons are changing, and different commissioner
boards come into play and they have different ideas, and uh,
it's just an ever changing thing. So you've got to
stay on top of that. Of course, we have the
tool called Google, which is a wonderful thing. When it's
when it works, it's good. When it don't work, it's
not so good. The technology is a great thing and

(25:41):
allows us to keep on top of this, but you know,
talking about the different tools that it takes and preparation
to travel to some other location, I think that I
wrote an article about this many times. I felt like
I wrote one every year for a long time, especially
my tenure. Tenure is ownership of Tennessee Alder News was

(26:04):
the most forgotten tool of any hunting trip in my opinion,
it seems pretty simple, but it seemed to be a
topic that always come up with a knife and when
you get out there in those forces of the country
or where it is you're going, obviously as a sportsman
with a tag in our pocket, we want to try
to fild that tag and not have the situation of

(26:26):
eating a tag sandwich. But you know the you've heard
this too, I'm sure this kind of one liner is
once you pull the trigger, that's when the work really starts.

Speaker 5 (26:36):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (26:37):
And there is one truth to that, especially when you're
after big game stuff you know, elk and meal deer
and things like that. You're your typical in location where
that you can't just drive to them and pick them
up like he was hunting on the back forty. Like
you had mentioned, there's Scott so preparation. Uh, pull when

(26:57):
you pull the trigger, I think is high on the
radar of importance outside of sighting your gun in and
being a biscal shape. Yes, you do have to do that,
But when you pull that trigger in that animals hit
the ground, you really got to go to work and
you've got to get that meat preserved and taken care of.
Because myself and people in my core group of my

(27:20):
sphere of influence of folks that I circulate with. Often
we feed our family totally with the wild game that
we harvest, So preparation, having a good sharp knife, having sharpeners,
having tools maybe to build yourself a fire in that
situation out with, and then course ways to get that

(27:41):
game back home. And with the technology and manufacturing processes
that we have today, coolers are readily available everywhere and
they're not junk anymore. There are some amazing high end
coolers on this market today. So having a good cooler
to be able to transport that meat, keep it cool,
keep it taking care of so when you do get

(28:03):
back home, you have an opportunity to feed your family
with wild venis and a wild game that has we'll
say it's the world all natural, there's no preservatives in it,
there's no hormones in it. It is the best red
meat that you can put in your system. And that's
what I try to make sure that I have all

(28:25):
the tools once the tag is filled and the animals
on the ground, that I can be able to get
that back home and share that with my family and
my friends to make sure we eating the best need
that we possibly can.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
Very good, Tony, I'm gonna go to a quick break here,
come and break back from this break. I got a
couple of quick questions for you around that conversation out.
This break is presented by SMI Marine. They're at eleven
four hundred Westport Road, just north OF's Gene Snyder. Check
them out and remember you never get soaked by my
friends at SMI. Okay, Tony, continue that conversation about the species.

(29:04):
What are your favorite caliber for whitetail, meal, deer and elk?

Speaker 4 (29:08):
And why, oh boy, man, we need like three radio
shows for this one.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
Here, I got you, and it'll probably carry over after
the break, but I can't help but ask you that.

Speaker 3 (29:20):
Question because you've got your choice obviously.

Speaker 4 (29:24):
You know, sure enough, you know, and we've talked about
how things are ever changing and rules and regulations and
hunting states today. What changes faster than that is new
calibers hitting the market. And you know the different ammunition
manufacturers across the country, you know, their goal in life
is to build new calibers, to create a new buzz

(29:45):
around what they're doing, uh, and to be able to
push that caliber along. And you know, working with two
different power manufacturers. My goodness, we see and hear new
calibers that are being talked about that have different all
different characteristics and ballistic coefficients and all this kind of
stuff that gets come into the weeds of different caliber

(30:09):
choices today. But I think by far the most talked
about caliber and the world today is a seven p
r C and horning to come out with that CALIBERN
introduced it last year. We didn't chamber in it last fall.
We did start chambering our CBA Cascades and then our Bagara,

(30:30):
both action rifles. We started chambering those in the seven
p r C back at the first of the year.
So one of the things that we get to do
working in the media and marketing side of things that
I do for our brands is we get the opportunity
to attend trade shows for about three straight months January,
February in March. And these trade shows are all across

(30:54):
the country and we touch a full gamut of outdoorsmen
that come through these and it's always a hot topic
of different caliber choices, and you know, you have different
age structures of individuals that that that I have the
opportunity to be around, and you got the guys that
are tried and true dug into the well of the

(31:15):
thirty all sixes of obviously caliber we all know well
that has probably killed more deer than anything in the world.
But they're all always these new shiny toys that gets
people's attention. And these PRC calibers. That's kind of in
the world today is what is gathering and garnering all
the tension from outdoorsman, you know, and it kind of

(31:38):
comes down to really dive into that question of yours.
There is species and different calibers, and of course, working
in the farms industry, I'm quarter I guess my self
identified hoarder of firearms. I'm the guy that likes every caliber,
every shape, form and fashion. So if it was me today,

(32:00):
I was going to pick a caliber to hunt from
mule deer caliber, body size animals and down, it would
be a sixty five PRC. And then if I was
going to go into the elkhunting world, I would do
a three hundred PRC. And you know, you get into
these Western states out there with long shots, big wind
pushes due to the thermals and the mountains, it's channel

(32:23):
these winds out there. Sometimes it can be pretty brutal,
so always like a thirty caliber. So I've always been
a three hundred wind mag person for the sheer fact
of three hundred win mag like the thirty OT six
has been around for a long time, thirty caliber is
typically better for bucking winds when you're in a long
range windy scenario. And that three hundred PRC is basically

(32:45):
a modern updated three hundred wind mag to where it's
a longer, sleeker, higher ballistic coal fisher projectile. And by
blissed coal fishing, I mean it's basically DC or blistic
coal fishing is a measuring format measuring how that projectile
a bullet cuts through the wind. And the higher the
number on a ballistic coal fishing or BC, the better

(33:08):
it cuts through wind. Almost think about it like how
a NASCAR is. You know, a Nascar is low and
sleek and long and smooth lines. It's designed for ballistic
coefficient basically to cut through the wind. Versus a minivan.
It don't have high VC because it's a big box.
So the three hundred PRC would be my choice that

(33:28):
I was gonna go in a Western climbing to hunt elk,
But that also is because I like a lot of
different farms. If I was a guy that I wanted
to hunt whitetail here in the South, but one day
I hope to draw that famous Montana ELK tag or
New Mexico ELK tag, and I only wanted one gun,

(33:49):
or my budget was only set up for one gun,
and I had to pick one caliber. I got no
doubt that I would go with that seven PRC that
the world is claiming. It's just the best all around
caliber or and it's basically, if you don't know the
seven PRC, you heard much about it. It basically is
a modern day suited up seven millimeter magnum or two

(34:10):
eight four, so it has a high BC and basically
it's just a it's just a better mouse trap over
the top of the seven bag. So it's it's big
enough for white tail but not too big, and it's
big enough or elk but not too small. So it's
just that great crossover caliber great.

Speaker 5 (34:30):
More important than caliber's. Tony explain to the listeners how
important it is to get your firearm to the range
and to experiment with different am and try to become
a better shooter before you try to worry about coming
up Walking Ballistics Encyclopedia.

Speaker 4 (34:51):
Oh man, hey dude, I'm gonna tell you Scott, that
is a serious, serious scenario that we as hunters don't
I don't think we give our farms enough attention in
doing Again, working in the marketing side of what we
do at Biguar Rifles, typically two to three times a

(35:13):
year we hold events across the country in different different states,
different big cities that have good gun ranges. We hold
an event called the Bagar Experience and basically we invite
the general population through a Facebook marketing campaign to come
out to this Bigar Experience and we have one hundred
local outdoorsmen to come out and basically run and shoot

(35:36):
our guns at long range out of a thousand yards
over a course of a day. We cater these events
and we hang out with them and we shoot long range.
And the number one thing that I see, and this
is repeat whether I'm in Pennsylvania or in Wyoming at
an event, the biggest thing is watching people how they
step up to the gun, how they cradle the gun,

(35:58):
hold it put their going to get the proper cheek, well,
what their grip is is super important. And some of
these folks are not accurate out to two or three
hundred yards, even though their gun has the capability of
running to a thousand. That's just because these folks are
are stepping up to that gun and doing a few

(36:19):
missteps per se and their grip and their cheek well
and things like that. But if you, if you guys
that are listening today, if you're an archer, you know
how important shooting your bow is every day for repetitious
muscle memory. Proper grip on the riser of the bow,

(36:41):
proper grip on your release, your proper knocking point, whether
it's at the pip of your nose, at the corner
of your mouth. All that is repetitious muscle memory stuff
that you have to be able to do to make
you a proficient archer. And they don't. You don't think
about that in the gun world. But that is the
same exact same scenario. I have personally sit down with

(37:04):
many people of these biguar experience events we put on
and watched them when they grabbed their gun and that
they're going to shoot, and they cradle up to it
and they get your cheek well on and they're trying
to find out what they're.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Tony I got to go to break here, partner, don't
mean to cut you off, and we'll continue that after
the break. The news has brought to you back Bossie.
Old Property's heartworthy. Paul Thomas is a broker. There got
all kind of outdoor listings for you to look at.
Check about m O p a k a r T
realty dot com. Okay, folks, we're continuing our conversation with

(37:38):
the traveling Hunter Tony Smotherman and uh, Scott, you wanted
to ask Tony about what actually makes for a good gun?

Speaker 5 (37:50):
Yeah, we got caught up there and in calibers and
in form and putting time in on the range. But
once people have made it decision to go with a
certain caliber and say they're going to dedicate time to
learn the firearm before they buy it, what is making

(38:13):
the farms that you represent stand out to be so
much better than the competition? And what is it that
we can help listeners with that maybe haven't bought that
many firearms when they're looking for a good rifle. What
makes a good rifle?

Speaker 4 (38:31):
Well, you know there's in fires manufacturing today. If if
the folks that are manufacturing these guns today are not
great at what they do, they wouldn't be in the
game anymore. But I for the brands that I work for.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
You know, if you.

Speaker 4 (38:46):
Think about a firearm, there are multiple pieces of that
to go together to make one complete working package. And
if you think about it and really micro it down
to the minutes of things, the last thing that you're
bullet or projectile seas before it gets into the wind
and goes to hopefully harvest and the animal. Effectively, it

(39:08):
is the barrel. So that's where we kind of shine
through the CVA and Biguar side of things is number one.
We manufacture pretty much everything that goes on these guns,
so we don't we don't outsource a lot of pieces
and then bring them back and manufacture them or put
them together as symbol in together. We make everything on

(39:28):
these guns for the most part in our Bagar B
fourteen line and then also in the entire line of
the CVA, So we control all the manufacturing aspects of
everything on it from the butt path all the way
to the crown of the barrel with the threat protector
over the threaded mold. Today, but most important thing is
having a great barrel assembly, and our background is barrel manufacturing.

(39:53):
A little history about the Bigar side of things is
that we went to Bagar, Spain many years ago because
the barrel manufacturer that we were using at the time
for our CVA mussloaders had went defunct and we lost
our manufacturing process or barrel supplier to build our mussloaders.
So instead of going out and trying to find somebody

(40:14):
else to build barrels for us, we went to Bagara, Spain,
which is known for the best steel iron ore in
the world and manufacturing of swords and knives and firearms
go back to the sixteen hundreds in the community of
Bargar of Spain in that region of Spain, the Basque region.

(40:35):
So we went over there years ago to build a
barrel manufacturing facility just to supplement our needs for our mussloaders,
and then we started doing a lot of OEM manufacturing
for different other companies, building barrels for them. So our
specially kind of the foundation of who we are as

(40:55):
our quality high end barrel manufacturing, which I say again
I kind of uh lean towards is that's the most
important piece of that gun, because that's what you're that's
what's gonna make you accurate. Yes, you're you're fit and
feel in your form as a shooter personally, it's gonna
make you accurate. But if you have a bad barrel
assembly or not a really top end barrel on your gun,

(41:19):
then you're not going to be accurate. You're you're limited
to what that barrel is, and that is our specialty,
uh in manufacturing, is that barrel assembly. So outside of
the barrel, I think that secondly, the trigger assembly is
probably the next piece of that puzzle. You know, you
can go to the gun store and every gun today
is capable of dry firing the gun, meaning you can

(41:41):
work the bolt, take the safety off, squeeze the trigger
as long as it's unloaded, of course, and check that
trigger simply to see if it's a smooth, crisp trigger assembly,
because the last thing you want to do is have
a trigger assembly that's four or five and six pounds.
It's very hard to pull. I call it white and
nuckling it. When you have to white knuckle a trigger assembly,

(42:03):
you're inadvertently going to jerk the gun left or right,
depending on which hand shooter you are. But I'm a
right handed shooter, so if I'm having to pull a
five pound trigger back, I'm automatically going to pull that
gun a touch to the right. Versus if you have
a high end trigger assembly that is smooth, crisp, fully adjustable,

(42:25):
breaks at two pounds four ounces or whatever, that specific
choice that you have is you're going to be a
better Shooter's going to be a more accurate shooter with
a really good trigger assembly than you would be if
you have one that's tough and nasty. So I think
when you go to the store, number one, do your
research before you go to the participating gun store that
you're going to go and try to purchase a firearm.

(42:46):
But I also feel that trigger assembly and understand what
that trigger's like once you get on side, before you
actually kick that guy and put it in your box.
Because if the trigger's bad, you can't do nothing to
overcome it, because if you pull that trigger too hard
your gun to the right of sixteenth of an inch,
which is minuscule, you're going to be off on your
imprint down the target four inches to a foot depending

(43:10):
on the distance. So clean Chris trigger simply, this is
just as important in my opinion to make you a
better shooter as your form and fit and also a
good quality barrel on top of that. So it's multiple
pieces that kind of go in to make a quality
figh on today, but they're definitely on the market.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
Yeah, I told you that. That's very very well said
too many folks. I think I realize the importance of
the quality in a firearm is in regard to accuracy.
And when you get into talking about barrels that's in
Bergara And I'm not saying this to shine your shoes

(43:53):
or the company shoes with their world renown for their barrels.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
Why is that what we are special?

Speaker 4 (44:03):
Well, so it kind of goes into you know, when
we first went to Bagar Spain, people talked about, oh man,
why are you guys not making here in the United States,
Why are you guys going over there? You're going over
there to be cheap and things like that, which is
a common I guess gathered opinion from the outside looking in.
But the reason we went to that portion of the world,

(44:24):
like I touched on just a bit, is is they
have Bigar Spain. That region of the world has the
best and purest iron ore steel that is known in
the world today, and that history of manufacturing steel items
dates back to the sixteen hundreds, and that's when people

(44:47):
hunted with spears and swords and knives. They manufactured in
that region of the country because that's where the best
material that they could find to do that. So Number one,
to make a barrel, you gotta have steel. And if
you're gonna make a steel barrel, you need to go
to where the best steel exists. So we went to Bagar, Spain.

(45:07):
And minds you that we didn't we didn't have a
lot of background in barrel manufacturing because we had been
using somebody else to build our barrels for a long time.

Speaker 6 (45:18):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (45:18):
So we hired a gentleman as a consultant from here
in the in the US, and his name is Ed Shilling.
Ed Shilling, if you know a little bit into the
farms manufacturing world or barrels. Shilling Barrels is by far
also a very top rated barrel uh and mister Ed
Shielding himself at the time held more long range world

(45:42):
records than anybody. So if we're gonna build a barrel,
we want to do it with the best steel that
exists in the world, and that was in Bigar, Spain.
And if we're gonna build a barrel manufacturing facility. We
need to have the best man in the world to
do that for us and with us, and that was
Ed Shilling, And so we hired him, took him over

(46:03):
to the region there in Maguar, Spain, and say hey,
this is this is what we want to do, this
is where we want to do it at and we
need your help, guidance and assistance to make this come
to pass. And and basically we just put a plan together,
found the location or found the best material, found the location, uh,
and then found the best man to assist us to

(46:24):
build the best barrel manufacturer in facility in the world.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
Well, that's definitely a blueprint for success. I must say,
let me go to break here real quick and uh.
This break is presented by Malfield Properties, Heart real Tea.
Check out their listings at m O p h A
r T Realty dot com. God, I know you wanted
to talk to Tony about optics.

Speaker 3 (46:48):
Share. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (46:50):
When it comes to optics, Tony, it seems that we've
had a big up beat and not only people considering
what's important about how to properly mount their optics, but
it seems like we just get better and better glass
all the time, almost like some of these specialty calibers

(47:11):
that are coming out. Where is it that we can
help people when they buy a rifle, just from listening
through the radio, what process they should go through to
put a new rifle on that purchase and or replace
their current optic that they've got on a rifle they've

(47:33):
they've had many years with to get into some better
glass and more accuracy. Uh, not just with clarity, but
with some of the innovations that's happened with our optic choices.

Speaker 4 (47:46):
You know, Scott, that is a great That is a
great question and one that is sometimes a tough decision
for folks that they pick up that firearm that they've
been wanting forever. Uh, and they've studied it horror, and
they've studied the caliber choice horror and what they're going
to do with it and how they're going to do it.
But then when it comes to actually put in the

(48:06):
credit card of the cash on the table to buy
that gun, then they have to come up with the
choice of picking that scope or that piece of glass
that goes with it. And like you had mentioned, there
has been a huge uptick in quality of scopes this
day in time. I remember back in the day when
we hunted with three by nine by forty millimeters scope
with no adjustable turrets and no hash marks on the

(48:30):
radicals to understand windage and drop and things like that.
To what we have today, I feel like we went
in the last I think like just maybe when the
last five or six years we went from Volkswagen's to
Ferraris very quickly in optics. But in my personal opinion,
here's what I think we need to look at is.

(48:52):
You know, I remember going through one hundred safety class
when I was young man, and one thing that stuck
out to me that has been basically burnt in my
mind all these years, and it's talking about a trigger assembly,
and mainly and more importantly, the safety and safety in
a firearm is obviously always keep the firearms pointed in

(49:15):
the safe direction. For the sheer fact that even though
that you have the gun on safety, it is still
not necessarily safe because the safety on a trigger assembly
is a mechanical device that can sail. It's what I
remember very specifically, and now that we're into the optics
age that we're in right now, these scopes are much

(49:38):
different than they were back even ten years ago when
I talked about the three by nine by forty milimeters
stuff with no adjustability. I mean, these scopes that we're
running today are WICKI mechanical, not just good glasses. And
there's a lot of mechanical moving parts of the optics
that we see on a store shelf today, and that
is from adjustable parallax, adjustable wind, it's adjustable elevation gained

(50:03):
with the tactical turrets and so on and so forth.
There's a lot of moving parts in them. And all
those moving parts, even the best SPA or the best
optic manufacturer out there because of all those moving parts.
It kind of comes back to that safety that I
learned in Hunter's safety class was an optic today is
a mechanical device that can fail, no matter who it

(50:26):
is that's manufacturing it. So I think, in my personal opinion,
when a man puts his hard earned dollars on the
line to get the farm of his choice, obviously he's
doing that because there's many facets that leads up to
that decision. But he needs to do the same thing
when he's looking at a piece of glass put on
top of it. And I think the number one most

(50:47):
important piece, per se is not the brand name that's
on top of it, because all of them are going
to have an issue at some point just because it's
some mechanical device today. But the number one piece of
information that they need to understand is who has the
best customer service and the best warranty that is going
to back you up when you're at the range or

(51:07):
you're on that hunt of a lifetime, whether it's on
the back forty and you're hunting the biggest view you've
ever seen in your life, or you're in Wyoming hunting
meal deer, you want to make sure that you have
an optage company that is going to back you up
with their glass if something goes wrong with that office
that you have. And there's a lot of great manufacturers
out there today, and there's a few of them that

(51:30):
exceed in customer service, and those are the ones you
need to look at hard in my personal opinion, and.

Speaker 5 (51:36):
Before we go to break, it's really important too. And
we keep going back on, you know, Tony the traveling hunter.
When folks, whether it's for their local state season, or
they're getting off an airplane or they put six or
seven hundred miles in driving somewhere you can't trust the

(51:57):
folks how important it is before they arrive to the
hunt to be prepared to have some time or some
window of managing their hunt, to double check not only
the working mechanism of the farm, but also the everything
that goes back to the scope and making sure it's

(52:17):
held at zero one.

Speaker 4 (52:19):
Hundred percent, yes, sir, the constant vibration of a car
going down interstates and flying through the air, beating and
banging and rattling and all that kind of vibration. Because
a gun is a scope is designed for recoild. It's
pushing back, whereas if it's in a gun case, you're
beating across the highway, which you know today if you
drive any road in America right now, you know how
roads are not that great here lately. They're getting beat

(52:41):
and banged and rattled in a different motion that they're
designed to do. So, so to reiterate what you said,
no matter what you're doing when you get the location,
whether you're going to hunt the farm tomorrow, you need
to verify today before you go hunting tomorrow, or if
you're traveling across the country, no matter what it is,
you need to verify that gun, that optict before you
sit into a hunting murde. For sure.

Speaker 2 (53:05):
Yeah, I think all of us have been through some
nightmares on that scenario. I know I certainly have and
really couldn't fault to my own. I remember one particular
hunt where somehow or another that was really crazy. The
scope on my muzzle lad was knocked off and I
had a really really nice buck at fifty yards and

(53:30):
it was a nightmare, It's all I said. And I
knew I had fired the rifle before, somewhere along the
line they got knocked out of place, and to this day,
I don't know why, but sure made me sick.

Speaker 4 (53:45):
Oh, I guarantee you man, and you know that you
can have the best bullets or best ammo that you
can afford, the best gun that you can afford. But
if that scope goes down or gets knocked off some
shape on or fashion, then all the time and effort
that you have this buck in particular gym as you're
talking about, you know, everything comes to the climax, and

(54:05):
when that animals you're looking for is standing there in
your optic and that optic is bad or goes bad
or knocked off, you don't spend time checking it. You know,
you've got one opportunity to make that hunt a success
or a failure, and you want to make sure that
you capitalize on everything that you can do to make
you the success, and that's having the best farm, the

(54:26):
best opt that you can afford, and always double check
and verify that baby's in working condition.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
You know, Tony, you touched on something earlier, and I
think it is an important aspect. Folks when they go
to putting their heart on dollars down on average, tend
to be more concerned about the money that's coming out
of their pocket than they are about the consideration that
this very could and well should be a very long

(54:57):
term investment. Your quick thoughts on that, Yeah, No, I
agree totally.

Speaker 4 (55:07):
You definitely got to think about the long haul of it.
You know that this's you know, obviously, again, everything that
we do today is expensive. So if we're planning something,
I mean, I know there's a lot of guys right
now in the world today that are just now getting
their l tags in place, or I think Iowa just
released their non resident draw tags last week, So there's

(55:31):
a lot of people right now planning and prepping this
far in advance for stuff that's going to be happening
in December. So I think that you know, the due
diligence comes into play is if you've got to start
planning for the hunt today. Uh. And whether like Scott
mentioned earlier, whether it's getting yourself in shape or spending
time behind your boat or spending time behind your gun.

(55:53):
It's it's super important to not wait till the last minute.
I remember back in the day just writing articles about
you know, don't wait till the last minute scenario, get
that gun out and get that bowl out right now,
and plan on a long term investment in you yourself
to be a more successful hunter so that you're prepped

(56:15):
for when that time comes when it's time to release
the era or flip that safety off, because that white
tail of your dreams is standing in front of you.
So there's no time like the present. Is the best
way to save.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
Absolutely got to go to break here, folks. Just break
is just sending by s By Marine eleven four hundred
Westport Road.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
Remember you never get soaked to the SMI.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
And Scott, how we're getting into one of your favorite subjects,
which of course is buzzloaders and it's definitely one of Tony's.

Speaker 5 (56:49):
Yeah, it's uh. I don't know if Tony will remember
or not, but really, where my paths across Tony's or
where I had this, I'd swipe him at an intersection.
Back in the day was I was asked to train people,
you know, how to use modern muscleloaders, inline muzzloaders. And

(57:10):
I'm seeing a big change too now Tony with the
amount of saddle hunters, how popular the wolf's be coming.
But I want to talk just a little bit, and folks,
if they'll listen, we'll be able to relate to this
and we can get your insight and professional opinion, and
then also just as a common man, help us out.

Speaker 6 (57:33):
A little bit.

Speaker 5 (57:33):
But it seems like modern muzzleoading still surprises people with
how simplistic it can really be and how accurate these
firearms can be. But we're all battling finding black horn
two O nine. We're all battling still finding two o
nine primers. We debate in muzzleloading almost as much as

(57:58):
people debate and archery whether or not a fixed blade
is better than a mechanical But when people start looking
at volume versus weight that their powder, what's your favorite
muzzle loading bullet. I want to just give you the
mic and say, Tony, tell us what we need to
know to be the most effective deer hunters with a muzzleloader.

(58:20):
Help us pick the right bullet and tell us is
there a big difference between measuring by Pellett?

Speaker 6 (58:26):
You know, should we be shooting pellus, should we be
shooting loose? Should we be going on volume? Should we
be going on weight? So open the Bible of muzzloader
hunting to us and talk.

Speaker 4 (58:39):
Well, you know, so, I think I think this topic
here kind of goes under the scenario. Man, you better
pull up a chair because we're going to be here
for a minute. But definitely muzzloading has changed today of
what it was when I first got into game and
when I first started hunting with a muzzloader, was shooting
loose powder back then in the early nine and was

(59:00):
shooting so we'll started out with go X black powder,
which was for real and black powder. What we used
today is a black powder substitute, and whether that is
Pirate Decks Triple seven or the very popular like you
had mentioned black Horn Twoll nine, which is kind of
the era of propellants. It went from the black powder

(59:22):
to pyrodex is Gen one substitute Gen two was triple
seven and now the black Horn twoll nine. And I
think that you know, uh, what what got me into
two being so wound up and wrapped up into the
fascination of muzsloading was was, Yes, it had the opportunity
to hunt other states in amazing seasons out there. I

(59:46):
think the one thing that held me up that still
holds people up today is if you look at it,
it looks like a very in depth process and can
be a bit overwhelming for folks. It's never hunted with
a muzzloader, but at the end of the day, it's
kind of it's kind of like the scenario the bark
is worse than the bite. If you have never been
into mussloading yet. Yes, it does look like there's a

(01:00:08):
lot of pieces to make this puzzle come together, but
once you step into it, you realize that there's well,
it's a whole lot simpler than what you think. And
we're doing our best at CBA to make sure that
we shoot new informative videos so that you can go
to YouTube and dig into mustloading one oh one per

(01:00:28):
se if you will. I know that I was at
the office there in Launceville, Georgia about a month ago. Now,
we shot a whole bunch of video stuff talking about
UH and updating the ways of musloading that we know
today for new users to come into play and pick
up that kind of tool to go to work. And

(01:00:49):
we also shot some UH well, I actually shot a
qut of it here on my farm in Tennessee. Ways
of mussloading in different powders, projectiles and and there's a
lot of stuff on the market. That's why I think
it's a bit overwhelming for people. But if today we
were gonna sit down and build a recipe for the
best and perfect muzzloading set up, it definitely has to

(01:01:13):
lend itself to As far as powder goes, black Orn
tool nine and there's a there's several reasons that blackhorn
is amazing UH and the most modern propellant that we
can use is number one. You know, everybody talks about
and thinks about mussloading is being very dirty and nasty,
and the powder is corrosive and eats the guns up

(01:01:34):
and makes the rust and all that kind of stuff,
And that is there's a lot of truth to that.
Back in the day. But again modern propellants and modern
advances and what we use has changed. So black horn
Tuol nine does not have any sulfur in the makeup,
so it's much less corrosive and basically non corrosive UH

(01:01:55):
today compared to the powders from years ago. One of
the biggest problem with mussloading, and that's the reason twenty nine,
like I mentioned earlier in this radio show, is that
twenty nine built the modern inline mussloader, the NK eighty five,
out of necessity because of hunting with a sign like
mussloader and inclement weather made it pretty much impossible unless

(01:02:17):
you just wrapped it in sullifane kind of scenario to
protect it from the elements. But black Corn tull nine,
there's a subject matter around black Corn tull nine that
makes it much makes it much more friendly for hunting
in the fall, which is going to be rain and
snow and things like that depending on the portion of
the country live in. But black corn tull nine is

(01:02:38):
not hygroscopic, meaning that it will not absorb moisture. So
whether that's humidity like we have here in the South
or moisture of inclement weather, that does not bother black
rn Tuill nine, So that has definitely stepped up to
the game and advancements for musloader hunters today to be
more I guess understanding that success is more capable and

(01:03:05):
weather does not harm their setup like it used to.
But you mentioned pelotized powder and weighing powder loose wise
or volumemetric measuring. So a lot of people do use
pelotized powder today. And when it first came out of
the market, it was the bee's knees man. You didn't
have to measure anything, you didn't have to mess with

(01:03:26):
a loose powder, granulars spilling on your countertop when you
were measuring your loads and all that kind of stuff.
And it does. It is very effective, it's very easy.
But the downside to pedotized powder is number one, when
you're loading your bullet and you push you down, if
you can give it a little bit of a bump
to make sure it's seeded, and you break one of

(01:03:48):
those pellets. You know, if you're thinking about you, oh,
I broke the pellet. Per se it just turns into
loose powder at that time. Well, pelotize powder is put
together and held together with binders and basically one of
the say in layman's terms, it's a glue. And if
you break that pellet when you're pushing your bullet down
and you're seating that bullet, you break that pellet, that

(01:04:11):
load is totally jeopardized and will make that load a
very inaccurate load. And you fishically can't see it. You
can't tell if you broke it or not. So there's
that little bit of a hiccup that you gotta be
very careful with. So you don't want to break a pellet.
But one thing too about a pelotone powder, it's not
consistent in the nature of loading. And what I mean

(01:04:32):
by that is is so basically, let's think about this.
So you have a pelletized piece of powder, you drop
it down the barrel. That slides very easily and freely
down the barrel, and it does that because the outside
diameter of that pellet is smaller than the inside diameter
of the barrel. So basically, when you load three or
two or three pellets, two being one hundred grained, three

(01:04:54):
being on fifty being you're match on charge. When you
load those pellets, they sit in the bottom of the
b which is called the powder column. That bottom portion
of the barrel you cannot physically see. So those pellets
stack up differently every time you load the gun, So
there's air pockets around those pellets change every time. Key
point is they're not consistent in nature because you can't

(01:05:17):
tell where the air pockets is and how they shift.
And those air pockets are going to cause you to
have a little different, a little bit different chamber pressure
every time, which is going to cause you different muscle
velocity every time. Uh and meaning every time every time
you squeeze the trigger. So it's going to give you
some inconsistent muscle velocity, which is going to give you

(01:05:37):
inconsistent grouping on your target. Will they be good groups?

Speaker 3 (01:05:42):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (01:05:43):
Can you do better with loose powder? Absolutely? And the
key thing about loose powder is is yes, it is
a pain in the ear. You do have to measure it.
And there's two ways to measure powder. Either volumetric meaning
you pour it in a little tube and it tells
you that you're at one hundred grains or one to
one or whatever that specific lead is that you want
to use, or you do it by weight and weight

(01:06:05):
and volumetrically is totally different. When you do it volumetrically. Yes,
you get it to one hundred and twenty grains per
se in this little measuring vial, but it could be
two or three different grains off and you can't see
that because you're doing it in a volume form. Two
or three different grains don't make a big difference, but
it's not as consistent as measuring and accuracy in a

(01:06:29):
muzzleloader is doing the same thing identically every time, consistency
in whatever you do. So if you're running a loose
powder aka to today's modern standards black Orn two nine,
weighing it on a little scale is by far the
best process because you get it to the tenth of
grain every time you squeeze the trigger, so you're going

(01:06:53):
to have consistent muscle losty, consistent chamber pressures, very much
consistent grouping on your paper down range. But the key
thing about that loose powder outside the minute ability to
measure to the tenth of grain, it also is very
consistent in the powder calling portion of your barrel, meaning
that loose powder fills up every air pocket, every little

(01:07:18):
dent and being in your barrel in those grows and
lands or riflings as we know. Then it fills up
those voids identically the same time, so there's no different
air pockets like it is in a peltized powder. So
loose whatever, whatever powder choice you choose, whether it's black horn,
pirate ex or triple seven, loose form is always going
to be the most accurate because it's consistently the same

(01:07:41):
every time you pour it down the barrel. If that
makes sense to you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
It makes all the sense in the world. That's excellent information.
Let me go to another quick break here. This break
is presented by asking my marine or eleven four hundred
Westport Road, Tim Addington. The staff will do a great
job for you. Remember you never get soaked by my
friends toning.

Speaker 5 (01:08:03):
With so many people being out there pursuing North America's
number one game, the white tail deer, tell us, from
your experience and your knowledge of testing stuff, what is
our best bullet to utilize for hunting white tail deer
with a muzzleloader?

Speaker 4 (01:08:26):
You know, man, you're exactly right that white tail deer
is absolutely the number one critter in the world today
that people pursue, and we're blessed to have an abundance
of them in many different states. And I think that
that number one thing to think about is obviously projectile weight.
You know, the projectile that comes out of the front

(01:08:46):
of that mussloader is what's going to make your hunt
a successful one or one that you have nightmares about.
That we talked about earlier there, Jim, And so obviously
when you're picking a bullet, always you want to try
to leanards the heavier side of things. You know, the
most common projectile in the world today for weight, he's
two hundred and fifty grain bullet. Just because people think

(01:09:07):
it's faster and huge flatter, but at the end of
the day, a muscleloader still is a slow projectile scenario.
And we harvest not with muscle velocity, or we harvest
with kinetic energy, and that's basically how hard the projectile
hits an animal. So typically I always lean towards a

(01:09:27):
three hundred grain bullet or heavier to make sure that
when I hit my quarry, my animal that I'm after,
that I hit him with this much kinetic energy that
I possibly can number one to put him down very
quick and effective. But I think if I had to
pick one projectile today, I would be shooting a pirate

(01:09:49):
belt e l R three hundred and thirty grain, it's
almost going to be shooting a fifty caliber, which we
all know. Fifty caliber is the most common caliber for
a muscloader. But I'm a very big fan of forty
five caliber muscloaders because the bullets are typically a little longer,
a little sleeker, they have a higher ballistic coal efficient

(01:10:09):
that we talked about in the center fire that people
look at center fire stuff, and we've never talked ballistic
coal fishing of a must boating projectile until the last
two or three years. And when pire Belt come out
with their el R series, they are a very long,
small missile looking, very aerodynamic projectile that is very sexy

(01:10:34):
to look at. And then their forty five caliber, they
make a two eighty five or two hundred and eighty
five grain e l R, which is unbelievably high ballistic
coal fishing. So depending on my caliber choices, I'm going
to always lean towards that three hundred grain mark, And
if it's a fifty caliber, it's going to be a
pire Belt el R three thirty, and if it's a
forty five caliber, it's going to be that Pire Belt

(01:10:55):
e l R two eighty five. Just because they're so
amazingly aerodynamic and the internal makeup of the E l
R line and the fire Belt series it is far
superior than it ever has been and so effective it's
unbelievable and accuracy today with those projectiles and mussloading. You know,
in most most cases everybody talks about m A or

(01:11:19):
minute of angle. It's sub m o A and sub
m o A at one hundred yards. For you guys
that's listening today that don't really dig into that, uh,
sub sub m o A at one hundred means it's
less than one inch of a group or sub one
inch group. And with these projectiles that we're talking about,
this E l R series UH, and the combination of

(01:11:40):
of a good muscloader with a black Horn TWOL nine
that's been weighed out on a scale, it is very
easy today to get half m o A, which is
a half inch three shot group out of a mussloader,
which we've never been able to do that before. But
modern technology is allowed for newer powders that are arrows,
faster twist rates, and then better projectiles at the end

(01:12:04):
of the day to make our trip our hunt a
super success. So I always lean towards that three hundred
grain mark. No matter what caliory is, but that the ELR
series is something pretty special today.

Speaker 2 (01:12:16):
Absolutely ton it hund grain versus one fifty? Your thoughts.

Speaker 4 (01:12:24):
So mechanical speaking, If you're in your car, you drove
to the radio station this afternoon to air this broadcast.
Looking at your sphenometer, it says that your car will
run one hundred and twenty miles an hour? Does it
handle better at one twenty or about sixty five? Always
going to handle better about sixty five? And the reason

(01:12:46):
I say that is, and I give you a comparison
here is Yes, it is musloads today capable of shooting
one hundred and fifty grains of powder. Absolutely, do they
handle better at one fifty? Absolutely not in cases because
you can push a muzzleting projectile too fast and it
becomes more erratic in flight. No different than your car.

(01:13:08):
If you're running one hundred and twenty, it's gonna be
much more erratic in its path down the highway than
it would be at sixty five. So it's all said,
well said, always just the sky away from those magnum
charges and get more towards and hug around that hundred
grain mark.

Speaker 2 (01:13:25):
Well said Tony, thanks so much for visiting with us.
You've been a real fine of information. We'll see you
next week, folks, God bless everybody.