Custom Smokeless Muzzleloading Rifles

~3000 feet per second, over 5000 foot pounds energy with a 275 grain .45 caliber bullet + m.o.a. accuracy!!!

Custom long range smokeless muzzleloaders can be as accurate and powerful as your centerfire and just as easy to clean. These muzzleloaders are built in .45 caliber only. They are built on a Remington 700 short action or custom action with a custom barrel. The ignition system is capable of over 5000 f.p.e. at the muzzle and over 3000 f.p.s. with a 275 grain bullet. Recoil can be tamed with one of our muzzle brakes because we use copper jacketed bullets and no sabots (muzzle brakes CAN NOT be used with sabots), all this while maintaining m.o.a. accuracy to 600 yards or more. For the hottest ignition possible we use a 215M primer which is a large rifle magnum primer. The action assembly uses the locking lugs and a modified case with the 215M primer to hold the pressure just as the action was designed to work. Pressure is kept below the maximum when using the recommended 275 grain bullets that are sized to match each particular barrel. These muzzleloaders are designed to shoot smokeless powder and bare copper/copper jacketed bullets that have been correctly sized. Recommended loads must be used to ensure safe pressure levels.

   No sabots are used. We’ve found sabots to be the weak link when trying to achieve velocities above 2600 fps. Sabots weaken or fail and velocity gets erratic even when adding sub-bases and such. Hot and cold temperatures affect the way a sabot performs as well. Hot weather makes a sabot more pliable; cold temperatures make them more brittle. When these things happen, accuracy with sabots suffers. It does not matter what the velocity or energy is if it cannot be made consistent.

  These custom built muzzleloaders are very consistent and highly accurate at ranges of 500 yards and beyond and are not nearly as susceptible to changes in temperature as those using sabots. A Head Hunter Custom muzzleloader enables you to hunt at ranges impossible for other muzzleloaders to obtain. People are amazed that these rifles will shoot  3 shot groups under 2 inches at 300 yards consistently!  If a custom muzzleloader is not made very similar in design to these, it does not stand a chance of matching the ballistics or accuracy that make ours rise above the rest. I have either owned or been around most of the muzzleloaders out there and am not afraid to say these are in a class of their own in both accuracy and hunting performance. *Note: hunting laws vary from state to state and it is up to you to know whether they allow smokeless powder to be used.

*Prices start at $1750.00 for a custom muzzleloader built off of your action.*

Customers ask: What is my idea of a Custom Long Range Hunting Rifle?

My idea of a custom long range hunting rifle is a Remington 700 type action or custom action based on the 700, like a Stiller. I like a barrel with a contour similar to the Remington Sendero (about .830 diameter at 26” usually #7 contour) and about 27-28 inches long, threaded at the muzzle for one of my custom muzzle brakes. McMillan is my choice for stocks with the A-4 and A-5 and others offering quite a few nice options as well as a multitude of custom and standard colors molded in.  These stocks have nice, wide forearms and sit well on almost any rest and are great when shooting off  bags. I'll take my stock pillar bedded with Acraglass. I would also put a good recoil pad on it. The ideal rifle should have a Shilen or Jewell trigger set at no more than 2 lbs. I'd top it off with a good variable power tactical scope with at least a 30mm main tube, at least 20x  magnification on the high end, at least a 50mm objective, and a reticle with multiple hold-off points. If I had to pick one scope it would be the Nightforce NXS 5.5-22x56 and the NP-R2 reticle. A  sturdy  Mil. Std. 1913 Picatinny rail with an 8-40 screw conversion for bases and a set of four or six screw rings would be my choice for scope mounts. I’d also add a good detachable bipod and comfortable sling. The weight of this rifle without the bipod is going to be around 11 lbs. Fluting the barrel would shave a little weight off.  

   One of the biggest decisions would be what to chamber the rifle in. I like the .300 RUM. It’s .308 caliber, so it has one of the widest varieties of bullets available with high ballistic coefficients. There is a wide range of bullet weights as well in the .308 diameter. The .300 RUM is beltless so it headspaces off of the shoulder which gives it an edge in inherent accuracy over the belted magnums. It has ridiculously high muzzle and down range energy to go along with scorching velocity. That said, there are a number of good rounds out there, i.e. .264 Win. Mag., 7mm Rem. Mag., 7mm STW, .300 Win. Mag., .338 Lapua, the 7mm short mags., 300 short mags., Lazzeroni, Jarrett, Ackley, and many more. I’m not purposely leaving any out, and the sky is the limit, but there are a few that do stand out (at a distance). As I mentioned before, the .300 RUM is my favorite for more reasons than I have mentioned, but the magnum offerings in 7mm, .308, and .338 are the best choices for long range hunting of game the size of whitetail and any other North American big game species. Some people swear by smaller calibers, but I wouldn’t recommend them simply because the energy needed at longer ranges simply is not there with bullets as light as 120 grains. Larger calibers will retain more energy with the heavier bullets, but ballistics and accuracy can become a factor when you get larger than .338 caliber.

  Wildcat rounds are becoming more popular. There are probably more wildcat rounds than factory chamberings, but most are variations or “improved” versions of factory rounds. They have their place, but you better be handy at the reloading bench and be ready to do some research because you won’t find reloading data in many of even the latest reloading manuals for these wildcat rounds.

My thoughts on long range hunting

Long range hunting changes range--depending on who’s telling the story. For me, from in-my-face close to about 200 yards is short range, 200 to 500 yards is medium range, and 500 to 1000 yards is long range on whitetail size game. A favorite Browning A-bolt 300 Rum has proven effective at all of those ranges for me. I have spent a lot of time shooting that rifle under the same conditions I hunt in at ranges out to 1000 yards (and a little farther just for the challenge and to smell that powder burn). It takes a good rest to make a long range shot, and I will not attempt it without a comfortable and steady rest or without knowing the range to the target. Knowing the range to the target is a must. I’ve never seen anyone who can judge distances past 500 yards without a laser, not with the degree of accuracy needed to make the adjustments in elevation required for making clean kills at that range. I sure can’t do it. There are a lot of variables that can come into play at long ranges, and the farther your target is, the more perfect the shot has to be because minute movements are magnified. The more accurate the rifle is, the less perfect you have to be. I really believe...no, I know that it is possible to take both varmints and game at extremely long ranges and do it cleanly with one shot if you take the time to make sure everything is right and you are comfortable. It all starts with a super accurate rifle, and that is what we have to offer.

Prices starting at $1000.00 for rifles built on your Remington 700 action, $1950.00 and up for custom hunting rifles built on most custom actions.