Feed all frontstuffer: savage's ever versatile 10 ML-II

Guns Magazine, Feb, 2007 by Holt Bodinson

It's the world's most versatile muzzleloading rifle. It likes black powder. It likes black powder substitutes and it thrives on smokeless. Savage's latest Model 10ML-II is the refinement of a design originally produced and patented by Henry Ball, a North Carolina gunsmith, in the 1990s. It's an amazingly simple and practical design and it's as accurate as a centerfire rifle. If you've shied away from the sport of muzzleloading because of the smell and messy cleanups necessitated by black powder and some of its substitutes, the latest Savage just might change your mind.

I've been playing with muzzle-loaders since age 10 when l decided to recommission the family's 1863 Springfield mantlepiece. I still enjoy hunting upland game with an original 14-gauge percussion fowler, small game with a 32-caliber Pedersoli, and big game with a variety of flint and percussion big bores. I've been intrigued by the Savage ever since it first appeared in 2000 and this year I broke down and bought the stainless steel/camo stock version known as the 10MLSS-II CAMO fitted with an AccuTrigger. It's been a 50-caliber revelation.

Heart And Soul

From the outside, the action of the 10ML-II looks like a stock Model 110 centerfire. Most of it is. It's a solid bottom action fitted and Savage's superb AccuTrigger can be safely adjusted from 2 1/2 to 6 pounds. The bolt has been modified extensively. The front locking lugs are gone. The root of the bolt handle now fills that role and locks down into a deep notch in the right side of the receiver. At the front of the bolt, a small, cup shaped primer holder accepts a regular 209 shotshell primer seated into the rear of the breech plug when the bolt is closed.

The heart-and-sole of the 10ML-II, allowing the use of smokeless powder, is the breech plug. Consider for a moment the pressures involved. Depending upon the projectile and the type and weight of the smokeless powder charge, pressures in the Savage can easily hit 40,000 psi. As a common comparison, a 150-grain charge of black powder or an equivalent, like three 50-grain Pyrodex pellets, will generate 18,000 to 20,000 psi.

Controlling pressures while concentrating the primer flame into the powder charge is a small Allen head machine screw with a .030" hole running down its center. Savage also supplies a design with three tiny holes. Called the "vent liner," it's screwed into the front end of the breech plug and is in contact with the powder charge. The vent liner is considered disposable because the vent hole does erode over time. Savage suggests replacing it at least every 200 shots or when velocities and accuracy drop off.

The earlier model 10ML was a more conventional bolt action loaded by primer-holding, cartridge-like "ignition modules" into the barrel chamber. BATFE insisted the design could easily be converted into a conventional rifle and required buyers to fill out a Form 4473. The latest model 10ML-II meets the classification of a muzzleloader and is exempt from Form 4473.

Smokeless Muzzleloading

A parallel development making smokeless powder muzzlestuffing possible has been the advances made in sabot chemistry and molding tolerances. Savage specifically recommends the high-pressure black colored, HPH/12 sabot made by Muzzleload Magnum Products (MMP). It's a 50-caliber sabot designed for .451" to .452" diameter bullets weighing in the range of 250 to 450 grains.

The MMP high-pressure sabot is also generally found factory packaged together with Hornady, Barnes, Nosler and Precision Rifle muzzleloading bullets. It's easily recognizable. Looking at the cup base of a black MMP sabot, you will see a series of concentric ridges and in the center of the cup a squiggly looking letter or number. Don't take any substitutes. The MMP sabot is formulated to handle the abusive pressures dished out by smokeless loads.

One of the frustrations I did have when working with sabots and smokeless pressures was the heat factor. Plastic sabots don't perform as well when the outside temperature is 100 degrees and the barrel is hot enough to be uncomfortable to the touch. It's the nature of plastic. In the Arizona summer, it was either shoot at dawn, wait 15 minutes between shots and/or reduce the powder charge. As the temperatures rose, a typical pattern would be two shots in an inch or so at 100 yards with the third shot spreading the group out to 4". Invariably, I would find the offending sabot down range with one of its four petals missing. In short, when you're shooting sabots, be aware of the heat factor. It does affect the integrity of the sabot and its obduration qualities.

One MMP product designed to protect and reinforce the base of a sabot is their "Ballistic Bridge Sub-Base (BBSB)." The BBSB is a short base with a front section formed to fit perfectly inside the cup base of the MMP sabot. Savage does not recommend them. Talking to the folks at MMP and to Cecil Epp at Precision Rifle, I was informed many shooters are using subbases with great success and with improved accuracy in their Savages. (I might add Cecil Epp, who makes the Dead Center and other precision muzzleloading bullets, is a great resource for Savage shooters. His firm, Precision Rifle, even offers a complete accurizing package for the Savage.)