Hi I'm Ethan and I love muzzleloading and this is your muzzleloading news from the 2023 NRA show.

Percussion Caps

First up the availability of percussion caps. I was able to meet with a representative from CCI at the NRA show they did confirm that percussion caps are going back into production here sometime in June. Based on what I heard from the CCI representative here, caps typically go into production for a run of some quantity around the same time in June each year but the amount that gets produced is what varies and this amount is dependent on the demand of the market, from muzzleloading enthusiasts as well as the center fire and modern firearms market. So in the past few years here we've seen really incredible demand for primers and modern Centerfire cartridges, so the production runs of number 11 percussion caps have been severely limited due to the amount of time a production capacity needed to try to keep up with the modern demand.

Now the CCI representative did say that they are hearing the requests and really the cries for help from the muzzleloading community here, they said they cannot believe the amount of demand that they're hearing from the muzzleloading community and will be factoring that into the amount of caps that get produced this year. CCI wasn’t able to give me a concrete number or even a ballpark about the number of caps that will be produced this year but they did say that they hope to see it return to a pre-2019 quantity and price point for percussion caps. Sadly, there's a lot of things happening in the world, so it's going to be another wait and see here.

I do feel nice knowing that at least they were able to tell me that they are hearing the cries for help from the muzzleloading market here, I understand that the representatives could have just been being nice to me asking about muzzleloading because muzzleloading is super small compared to their broader market, but I do feel hopeful that we we'll see an increase at least in the number of caps from last year.

Moving forward here we should start to see this year's production of percussion caps be available at retailers in July and August primarily and they will be stocked through the summer and through the fall.

Hodgdon and Blackhorn 209 Update

Next up in muzzleloading news from the NRA show here I was able to speak with a few Hodgdon Representatives at the NRA show here about some of the concerns that muzzleloading enthusiasts have about Blackhorn 209. I understand the public opinion of Hodgdon right now isn't very good but they they were understanding of the issues that muzzleloading enthusiasts are facing at least in the conversations that we had here and I was able to get a little bit more information here about why Blackhorn is a so expensive and why it’s so hard to find.

First up we were able to confirm something that many of us already knew really about Blackhorn 209, but it is produced in Canada and the manufacturing facility isn't really owned by Hodgdon based on what I was able to find out here. The powder line is manufactured and sold through Hodgdon but Hodgdon themselves don't have any control over the actual production facility, it's not like a Hodgdon facility with a Hodgdon sign out front.

It’s not confirmed by Hodgdon here but based on what I've kind of gathered, that production line is almost rented out or or accessible by Hodgdon for a run of powder but it's not under Hodgdon's control.

Second here is that Blackhorn 209 powder is a double based, double extruded powder according to Hodgdon. It's a complex powder to make it's also very chemically similar to a powder that's in high demand from the military and other military contracts. And while they weren't going into that information fully in depth here we were able to kind of confirm that the powder is in demand and powders near it chemically are in demand by Western militaries.

I think as far as Blackhorn 209 goes we're going to see kind of another year of high prices at least really based on what I'm seeing in the muzzleloading enthusiasts I'm talking to across the country we are seeing at times a dozen or more Black Horn jugs on the shelves of Sporting Goods retailers here kind of since the first of the year. If you've got a Muzzleloader tag or if you've got a guided hunt coming up where you've really put a lot of money in I recommend that you try to pick up that Black Horn now in preparation because it's only going to become in higher and higher demand as we head through the summer.

CVA reccommends finding Blackhorn209 and Large Rifle Primers BEFORE buying a Paramount

Connected to a little bit of the the percussion cap shortage and the Blackhorn 209 issues that we've seen we saw a statement released before the NRA show from CVA muzzleloaders recommending that if you are interested in picking up a CVA Paramount Muzzleloader, their premiere long range muzzleloaders they recommend that you find a supply and and purchase your supply of Blackhorn 209 and large rifle primers before you purchase your Paramount. We're seeing really an unfortunate amount of people that have saved up for a Paramount Muzzleloader and then they come to find that they cannot find Blackhorn 209 and they cannot find the large rifle primers needed to really use the Paramount Muzzleloader effectively.

Traditions Shedhorn Release Planned for June

I was able to talk with Traditions at the NRA show this year about the availability of the shed horn and actually see one in person which was really exciting we've only kind of seen those side view photographs of the shed horn since its launch.

Traditions was able to confirm some of the theories that we had about the development of the shed horn it was designed and kind of targeted towards the Western Heritage or historic muzzleloading enthusiasts to be a bridge for somebody that had hunted in those States like Idaho or Montana with a center fire rifle or with a modern Muzzleloader that was now looking to get engaged with a more traditional side of things.

I know the last time that we talked about the shed horn one of the main questions was when it was going to become available. According to Traditions the shed horn is currently in production and they hope to see it released here in the United States sometime in June in preparation for the late summer and fall hunting seasons here in the United States. We'll be keeping on the shed horn release here to let you know when we start to see it in stores.

Hornady Bore Driver ELD-X Bullet Goes into Production

Last up I was able to talk with Hornady about the ELD-X muzzleloading bullet and its release time frame. Representatives from Hornady did say that they've got finally the final tip mold for these bullets to go into production. They say that the mold process has to be so perfect that it takes so long to get a quality mold made, but they've got the mold for the plastic tips that go into these bullets now and they're ready to go in production here in May and June and we should start seeing them on shelves pretty quickly after that.

I appreciate everybody from each of these companies who was able to sit down and talk with me and was willing to share really and discuss the the needs and and the requests of the muzzleloading Community. I think as much as we can get frustrated with these Brands and the businesses at least the people at these shows were willing to sit down and talk with somebody like me that was interested and wanted to talk about muzzleloading even though for many of these companies it is nothing but a small section of their brand and their market share. As always if you have any questions or you have something that you want me to take to these manufacturers the next time I have a chance to talk to them shoot me an email I love muzzleloading (at)gmail.com or leave it in the comments.

I really do my best to aggregate all these questions and I take a little notebook in when I'm able to meet with these folks so that I can answer the questions that you all have to the best of my ability.