magnatecman
Member
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2010
- Messages
- 188
Sweet Redemption
I have never felt the need to write a review of any product that I’ve ever used before , that is until I found my new Redemption from LHR Sporting Arms. When I decided to buy a new muzzle loader this year I agonized over the decision for months. I have a hard time spending my hard earned cash for anything that is an unknown. So with that being said I had every intention of going with a TC Encore or something similar that has a proven track record.
On the other hand I am a sucker for wanting to have something that is not already had by everyone else. That’s when I came across the website for LHR Sporting Arms. I took one look at this new rifle and thought, geez, that thing looks different! The more I looked it over the more I liked the fact that it didn’t look like anything else on the market. I already have a muzzle loader with a black synthetic stock and another one with a camo stock. That’s when I knew I had to have one with Walnut!
My next concern was due to the fact that I would have to order the rifle either online or through a firearms dealer. This meant that I would not be able to look the wood over prior to my purchase. So I emailed LHR and voiced my concern about this. I was surprised that I got an email right back from one of the founders of the company, Patrick Hanley, and he assured me that they only use high quality black walnut on their stocks. So I decided to take his word for it and ordered a walnut Redemption through my local gun shop.
When it arrived about a week later, I was pleasantly surprised to see the quality and beauty of the wood and was happy with my purchase, so long as it would prove accurate on the range. I was a little concerned about the shorter barrel, being only 24”, and I didn’t want to lose too much velocity. I was willing to give up some for the better handling and balance that was achieved through the shorter barrel.
So I decided to shoot over the chronograph to see just how much velocity would be lost. Again I was pleasantly surprised to see that with a 300 grain Hornady XTP inside of a Harvester Crush Rib sabot, on top of 100 grains of Blackhorn 209 being ignited by a CCI 209M primer, I got over 1900 fps.
Just for reference, my TC Omega, with its 28” barrel and the same load, except using a 250 grain slug was only getting about 80 -100 fps more. When I get a chance I am going to shoot the same load out of both guns just for comparison. I’m sure that the difference is not that much and the better balance of the Redemption is worth any loss of velocity you might experience.
In Utah we have a restriction on optics for muzzle loaders, in which you cannot have any magnification. 1 power rifle scopes or red dot type scopes are the usual sights of choice for most hunters. I have always been dissatisfied with my 1x rifle scopes, mainly because the cross hairs cover up so much of the target.
Not to mention that objects in the scope appear farther away than they really are. Another reason I dislike the 1x rifle scope option is the fact that you can see your barrel in the scope because of the wider field of view offered by the 1x optic. So again I began to agonize over the decision of what kind of sight to put on this new rifle. I finally decided that a red dot was the way to go, but only if I could get a smaller moa dot, with a quality optic.
I went with an Aimpoint 9000 sc, because of its solid reputation and because of the way that it mounts to the rifle using two rings instead of one, like many red dots systems use. I decided to mount the Aimpoint on my rifle using the rings that come with the sight. I also used the weaver style base that came with the rifle, even though I’ve never been a fan of this mounting system. I mounted the scope as far forward as I could get it so that the collar for the breech plug was easily accessible. The rings provided from Aimpoint put the scope as low on the rifle as you could possibly mount it.
Once again I was pleasantly surprised to find that when I put the rifle up to my shoulder, I could only barely see the tip of the barrel in the bottom of the scopes field of view and that disappeared with a good cheek weld. I guess the combo of mounting the scope more forward on the rifle than you can mount a typical rifle scope, and the fact that the barrel is shorter makes this work.
Another benefit of this is that the balance point of the rifle is right under the word Aimpoint on the scope. (See pic above.) This balance point is almost center of the rifle and makes carrying in the field easy and comfortable. I went to the range to sight in the new rifle and see how my chosen load would perform. I was excited to see that in the sight in process I was shooting some great groups for using a sight with no magnification.
In fact I had two , three shot groups that measured just 1 ¼” inch fired from 100 yards. Keep in mind this is the first load and bullet combo that I tried out of this rifle.
The load:
100 grains of Blackhorn 209 powder
Hornady XTP 300 grain, .452 caliber bullet
Harvester Crush Rib sabot
CCI 209M primer
Hornady XTP 300 grain, .452 caliber bullet
Harvester Crush Rib sabot
CCI 209M primer
Chronograph showed an average velocity of 1910 feet per second.
Now I was really getting excited for my muzzle loader deer hunt to get here because I had a system that I had total confidence in.
I hunted hard for many days and I did not see anything that I wanted to take even though I knew that there were some good bucks in this area. I took a couple of days off looking for muley’s so that I could go tag along with my nephew who had drawn a Once in a Lifetime , Rocky Mountain Goat tag. I had to take another day off from hunting to try and recover from the previous day packing a goat off the mountain.
Then finally on the last day of my hunt I was able to find a great buck, one that I would be truly pleased with. First I came across this big track, so I began to follow it up a small canyon. When the buck began to side hill up the right side of the canyon, I left the track and began to side hill up the left side of the canyon. I was not sure that this track was fresh, since we had not had any rain in some time. But I figured I better see if I could find what was making this big track just in case.
As I climbed the hill I looked across the canyon every couple of steps and scanned for any sign of the buck. After I had climbed about 40 or 50 yards out of the bottom, I looked across the canyon again only this time I see this buck looking right back at me. I still can’t believe that he stood there long enough for me to get positioned for the shot, but he did.
I ranged him at 189 yards, and from my practice with my steel targets, I knew exactly where I needed to hold the 2 moa dot. At the shot he turned and ran about 30 yards and through the smoke I was not sure I had hit him, then 20 seconds later I hear him crash to the ground. What an exciting rush it was to walk up to this great buck !
I could not be any happier with the way that this setup has performed for me, and I know that I will be carrying this rifle on many more hunts in the future. On a side note, I was pleased to find my slug in the deer as I was doing the chore of butchering.
When I shot the buck he was facing me head on and I hit him in the neck just above the left shoulder and I found the mushroomed out slug lodged right next to the bone on his left rear leg. The bullet had passed under the left shoulder, broke thru 3 ribs as it entered the chest cavity, then continued the entire length of the buck and finally came to a stop on the bone of the back leg.
I was amazed to find that when I weighed the mushroom, it weighs in at 293 grains. That means the original bullet only shed 7 grains of its weight, even after nearly passing thru this buck from one end to the other.
I believe that the reason I like this setup so much is because of a combination of things. The quality red dot from Aimpoint, which allows for both eyes open, is perfect for the thick pinion and juniper that I like to hunt out west. It also allows for a precise shot at extended muzzle loader ranges with the smaller 2 MOA dot.
The overall balance and feel that makes for quick handling is great too. Then take into account the other features of the rifle that just set it apart from anything else on the market today. This is the easiest rifle to clean that I own and for a muzzle loader, that is saying something.
UPDATE: I had decided that I did not want to hunt the Utah spike only elk hunt this year. I decided that instead I would try the General Season any Bull muzzle loader hunt that was to take place in early November. I was lucky enough to connect on a unique 4pt rag horn bull towards the end of this hunt. Once again the rifle performed great and I am pleased with the results.
I did encounter one issue with this rifle that was cause for some concern. I was out in a snow storm one day and the rifle had gotten wet with snow during this day. Then at the end of the day, after dark I put the rifle in my gun rack on the front of my atv for the ride back to camp.
It was a very cold 3 or 4 mile ride back to camp, when I got there I noticed that the rifle had iced up in the action. I was able to open the action, but there was some resistance, then it didn’t want to latch closed again. So I brought it inside the camper and warmed it up and soon it was working just fine again.
It was the next day when I shot my bull and I had not unloaded the rifle, so I was a little concerned about whether or not I may have a wet powder charge from the ice buildup earlier. This proved to be not the case as I got excellent ignition when I took that shot. Overall very Happy !
