How much powder

Are you hunting elephant? Grizzly? If not, too much powder.

Back down to about 75 grains. Try it again. Shoot at least four shots

I shot my Dads CVA Hawken with him yesterday to work up a good load, and ran 65-70 gr. using 175gr PRB with a nice grouping. 95gr. seems high to me. Some of the powder is probably not burning! Also is this 95gr. using FFg or FFFg?

Rusty..thanks a ton but I got no idea what you are talking about 95 grain goex powder w/ a 250 grain sabot...honestly think i just need to shoot more often to get better at this.

zimmer..thanks... i will try that tomorrow, huntin on saturday.

Available powders for most flintlock are FFg and FFFg. FFFg is a smaller granual, and flashes faster. Both can be used, but you reduce the amount by 15-20%. For easy understanding, if you are using 80gr. of FFg powder, then you reduce volume of FFFg to 80-85%, or approx. 65gr. I used 65-70 gr. of FFg with a 175 gr. patched round ball (PRB). If you have your manual, check what CVA recommends for max. powder load, and dont exceed that max! But even using sabots, 95gr. seems a tad high! If there is too much powder (especially FFg which is a slower burn than FFFg) then some blows out the barrel without igniting.

What CVA are you using? Most CVA side lock barrels are deep cut for round ball shooting (PRB means patched round ball) A deep cut round ball barrel usually can't hold a decent group with sabots.

Have somebody watch you carefully to make sure you aren't flinching. Your follow through needs to be rock solid.,

i'd start with 75 grains of FFg at about 50 yards. look on the Goex can and it will say whether its FFg FFFg or FFFFg. you really want to understand the difference. 4F is the stuff you put in the pan and it looks like sand. 2F is the stuff you put in the barrel and it looks like coarsely ground pepper. you don't want to mistake them for each other. also, try different bullets. my t/c firestorm likes 100 grains of pyrodex pellets and CVA powerbelt 245 grain bullets. it also likes the 180 grain round balls with the same load but is not as consistant. with sabots and maxiballs it throws them all over. you also want to make sure you are starting with a clean bore. mine shoots great for 1-7 or 8 shots and then not so good.

Thanks guys...didn't know these muzzloaders were so finicky.

I've been using 90 gr. of FF Goex black powder since the 1970's. Never had any problems. I shoot that load in all 3 of my 50 cal. muzzleloaders.

I agree with Zimm.Too heavy a charge along with getting blowby with that bullet.

try the cva powerbelt too. you might be pleasantly surprised. rifling has a lot to do with it. if its one of the older cva's it may only like patched round balls. i had a late 70's t/c hawken that shot round balls and big maxi balls great. when i got my firestorm i tried the maxi's and thought there was something wrong with the gun. bullets were hitting the target sideways. these flinters like what they like, you just have to figure it out. if you know the age and model of cva you may be able to google and find what others have found works for them.