CVA Optima Pro

[BIGBADSTU]

I bought an Optima Pro a couple of years ago and after I fired it a couple of times it developed a ring of build up about an inch above where the bullet seats( between the bullet and muzzel).I've scrubbed and scrubbed but I can not get it all out,it's so bad that after 2 shots I cant get the bullet to go past it when reloading.It is a .50 cal. and I use 150 grains (3 pellets) of triple7 powder and power belt bullets,with 209 primers.
Any Ideas or tricks for cleaning,or advice if I'm doing something wrong would be appreciated.
That load is what the manual called for,Thank You.

[arcticap]

That crud ring is caused by using the older "hotter" 209 primers with 777 pellets. Winchester came out with lighter 777 primers that were supposed to help prevent that crud ring problem.

http://image.basspro.com/images/images2/95000/95316.jpg

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&partNumber=81301&hvarTarget=search&cmCat=SearchResults


Also, Hodgdon's loading notes states to use 15% less volume of 777 to equal black powder loads. So using more than 130 grains of 777 pellets may be exceeding the 150 grain limitation for the rifle and making the crud ring even worse.
That may be the reason they sell 50 and 30 grain .50 caliber pellets combined togther in a single package. And using a lesser volume of loose 777 should help to reduce the crud ring risk even more.

Triple Seven is a high energy product designed to provide the muzzleloading hunter with higher velocities when used in the same VOLUME as blackpowder. To duplicate a blackpowder load velocity using Triple Seven, you must decrease the powder charge by 15%. *See WARNING below.

http://www.hodgdon.com/loading.html

See the package of 50/30 pellets:

http://www.hodgdon.com/tripleseven-pellets.html

Using a bronze bore brush after soaking in TC's "T-17" 777 solvent for an hour or more may be necessary to remove the crud ring. That should work but if it doesn't, keep trying using other household or BP solvents.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0040864216229a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntt=thompson+center+solvent&Ntk=Products_liberal&sort=all&Go.y=12&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&_D%3Asort=+&Nty=1&hasJS=true&Go.x=33&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form1&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1