# new traditions buckstalker M.L.



## toph513 (Feb 17, 2009)

I have ben looking at possibly purchasing the traditions buckstalker M.L. and am wondering if any of you guys have any comments on it. All pros and cons will be very helpful to me and greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Chris


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## txvstar (Dec 10, 2009)

I just purchased the black/nickel buckstalker from cabelas, it is supposed to arrive tommorrow so I will have more to tell you in the next few days after it gets range and woods tested. 

What I can tell you is what I have learned in my research leading up to my purchase. There is alot of articles smearing import ML's and the companies behind them, there also seems to be alot of satisfied owners of said products. 

People are quick to associate Traditions with CVA because both are american trade names of compaines based in Spain, best I can tell from my research thats where any similarities end, they are competing mfg's of both entry level and some high end ML's. CVA has caught flak and even litigation due to sub-par barrels however im not sure that is still warranted today. My father-in-law owns a cva optima and both he and his 13yr old son have taken a deer a piece with it, I have fired it as well and seen it as nothing but a quality product getting sidetracked but figured I would throw that out there.

Price was the laregest factor in my decision, I wanted a break-open ML that wouldnt break the bank but still give me plenty of bang for my buck...dollars and deer. Cheesy jokes aside its seems it has some of the build technology of their flagship vortek line in the lines of of their award winning pursuit product. It has a short enough barrel and decent weight that will allow me to get through some of the dense thickets and underbrush that I hunt as well as fit my 5'7 frame well. Thats my .02 + plus a few extra dollars but I will give you more when I get my hands on it.


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## knockoff64 (Oct 14, 2001)

toph513 said:


> I have ben looking at possibly purchasing the traditions buckstalker M.L. and am wondering if any of you guys have any comments on it. All pros and cons will be very helpful to me and greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
> Chris


I just bought one. $200 with a cheap Traditions (branded) scope, from Dick's.

I was not happy at all with the scope, even with the scope all the way forward, I could not get proper eye relief to keep the scope from touching my forehead. The problem is the gun jumps up, not so much back, so the top of the scope touched above my eye, after 15 shots it finally cut me.

The gun did however group pretty well out to 80yds.

I gave up on the scope and reinstalled the fiber optic sight.

With (2) 777 pellets and 245gr powerbelt hollow points, I have a nice tight grouping at 55yds. 4" with one flyer (I flinched).

The gun is super easy to clean, short and light, decent trigger.

So far, I am reasonably satisfied, but if I had it to do again, I would have gotten it without the scope and used it with the fiber optics or bought a different scope.

BTW, if you read the owners manual about 3 times, you may pick up the fact that the Traditions recommends 777 pellets and Winchester 209 primers along with sabot rounds.


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## txvstar (Dec 10, 2009)

Got it in this evening, after unboxing first impressions are it is true to its name and description, it is a lightweight woods rifle, havent fired her but I can see why the previous poster said it would jump its very light and thin for its size, recoil pad may be getting replaced or augmented as I find it a bit hard for my taste.

Overall the nickel finish is excellent, no tooling marks or blemishes that i could find on the barrel, only found one slight blemish in the finish behind the hammer. Stocks fit tight and flush.

Cant wait to get some range time, probably going to have to settle for pyrodex pellets as I cant get my hands on BH209 local, thinking about pushing 270gr powerbelt aerotips, going to have to see how it reacts to that load until I can get the powder I want and fine tune a load. BTW you can register your purchase for warranty purposes on Traditions website.


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