BPI Longshot shoot (image courtesy JWT for thetruthaboutguns.com)

BPI picked a hell of a day to showcase their rifles. The night before the shoot, a huge thunderstorm moved through North Texas. At least one tornado touched down, golf ball-sized hail was scattered along a 50 mile area, and it was the start of three days of hard rain.

Image courtesy JWT for thetruthaboutguns.com.

Still, along with Bergara, one of BPI Outdoors’ major brands is CVA, makers of some of the best modern muzzleloaders in the world. If you want to show off the reliability of your front-stuffers, firing them dozens of times in a row without cleaning during a downpour is the way to do it.

Despite the weather, all the CVA guns ran all day long. I was impressed.

Image courtesy JWT for thetruthaboutguns.com.

I’ve always considered the modern muzzleloader an abomination to God. The muzzleloader I hunt with was made shortly after the Bill of Rights was ratified. As for the new front-stuffers, with their primers and working actions, well…I found their lack of flint…disturbing.

That was then, however. This is now. After center-punching 400-yard steel targets in heavy rain and wind — repeatedly — with the CVA Paramount HTR, I’m hooked on the modern muzzleloader concept. It’s just a different kind of shooting, and a fun one.

It’s also extremely effective. That rifle launches a 225 grain .40 caliber bullet at over 2,700 fps. That’s plenty for any animal in North America, and probably in Africa as well, depending on the bullet construction.

Image courtesy JWT for thetruthaboutguns.com.

I had to admit to the company’s CEO that I had never shot a CVA rifle before. We changed that by shooting every single gun they had available, centerfire and break action muzzleloader alike. I’m very much looking forward to reviewing more of them.

Image courtesy JWT for thetruthaboutguns.com.

The biggest news at the shoot was the smallest gun offered. The new Bergara Small Batch Sidekick. For those of you who have followed TTAG’s own Jeremy S. and Chriss Heuss, this is going to look very familiar.

The Sidekick features a Black Collar Arms Pork Sword chassis under a Bergara barreled action, chambered in 6.5CM or .308 Win, both with a 10.5″ threaded barrel. We were shooting the 6.5CM version, fitted with a suppressor and mounted on a tripod. With a micro red dot optic, I pushed the hits out to 400 yards.

Image courtesy BPI.

The Sidekick is the first in a pretty interesting project by Bergara, their Small Batch Series.  Each Small Batch Series model is entirely different, and will never be repeated. Only about 300 of each model will be created and sold. With the Sidekick, a branded Eberlestock pack is included, as well as a challenge coin cut from the barrel blank.

Bergara Premier Competition (image courtesy JWT for thetruthaboutguns.com)
Image courtesy JWT for thetruthaboutguns.com.

The Bergara Premier Competition rifle was also on site, and coincidentally enough my review of that exceptional rifle had posted on the same day as the shoot. We pushed it out to the range’s limit of 800 yards with multiple shooters. It was just as much fun to shoot at the event as it was to review. I miss that rifle.

Image courtesy BPI.

Bergara also featured several of their rimfires, in .22LR as well as .22WMR. These included left and right-handed versions of their Bergara Micro Rifle. I shoot a .22LR rifle almost every day, and I was more than happy to spend as much time as I could using all of their ammo on these excellent rifles.

Image courtesy BPI.

It’s pretty rare that I go to these kinds of events, and even more rare that I enjoy them. Not this time. BPI showed off some interesting guns, with a very wide range of applications and price points.

I’ve already requested several of the CVA and Bergara rifles for full reviews. I’m looking forward to shooting all of them, and if it gets here in time, you’ll be reading about a hunt with a CVA muzzleloader in the near future.

Image courtesy BPI.

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15 COMMENTS

  1. I wish someone made a traditional-looking modern ML. I guess I’ll have to add that to my ever-growing build list🙁

    • Dixie Gunworks.
      Got just about anything you want in the way of traditional black powder.

      • Possum,
        Thank you, and I quite like Dixie, but I meant a modern muzzleloader with a traditional appearance. I.e. inline-ish (but just off-center enough to facilitate iron sight usage) 209 priming, rifling twist for modern bullets; but also walnut, traditional stock and hammer shape, in the white or blued (or a reasonable modern equivalent, maybe black nitride), unobtrusive retention system for the primer, etc. I don’t see anything like that on their site.

        Just kind of a pipe dream. I no longer have access to land where hunting with a muzzleloader would really work anyway.

        • Yeah I got to thinking how you phrased that after I posted. I thought, ” possum didnt get what I said.”

  2. They missed the boat on the Sidekick. The 308 should of been in 300 BLK. Then I would of been in the market for one.

    • If that’s what your looking for get one from Black Collar Arms, linked in the review.

  3. cva makes a great muzzleloader when you buy a single shot 45.70 and thread the chamber for a hankins breechplug that uses large rifle magnum primers and 65 grains of 4198. they can keep that paramount. that thing was outdated the day they thought of it. I’ll keep my submoa hankins conversion that launches a 275gr .452 fury star tip 2 at 2600 fps.

  5. For a moment there i thought that top photo was a bushwhacker 46 on a paramount .40 or .45.

  7. Glad Bergara is getting some well-deserved airtime on TTAG. Now that JWT has some reviews on interesting bolt actions and muzzle loaders maybe he’d like to give us some feedback on some semi-auto brands at mid- to long range.
    Here’s hoping he gets lucky and the rest of us get the benefit from his time.

  8. “ระบบออโต้รวดเร็วจบในที่เดียว สมัคร เว็บคาสิโนออนไลน์ อันดับ 1
    เว็บคาสิโนที่ดีที่สุด เปิดให้บริการ 24 ชั่วโมง ไม่มีหยุด เล่นได้ไม่มีเบื่อกับเกมที่หลากหลาย คาสิโนส่งตรงจากบ่อน ถ่ายทอดสดแบบเรียลไทม์ ไม่มีกระตุก ภาพสวย คมชัด ด้วยระบบ HD ด้วยระบบฝาก-ถอน Auto รวดเร็วทันใจ ฝาก ถอน เงินเข้าภายใน 10 วินาที”

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