What are your thoughts on this rifle. I have read complaints about it hard to clean and hard to insert cap. I like the feel of the rifle but I do not want to buy a headache. Any thoughts pro or con on this rifle would be appreciated....Tim

PS: The local shop has both .50 and .54 caliber. Thoughts on this too please.....................Thanks

Tim50

I have had mine for several years now. It is a stainless .54. It is very accurate, but did take some shooting to figure out what was the best combination to make it shoot.

I love the rifle. It may be because I shoot a bunch of other Remington rifles and it seems very familiar to me. I have owned a lyman great plains rifle, several CVA swing hammer and one of thier inlines. I like the Remington best.

I have found it is easy to clean, expecially if you have the stuff Remington sent with the rifle. The breech plug comes out easily and if you put the plastic tube that screws into where the breech plug goes it cleans very easily.

As for putting caps on I shoot Triple seven behind a cast Lee .535 improved minnie ball. I recommend you get some musket caps from Remington, Use Remingtons as several others I tried would not work well. I have much better ignition this way. I use a Thompson Center clear plastic musket capper and have no problems putting caps on.

I scoped this rifle just to see how accurate it was. I was consistantly getting 1.5 inch groups at a hundred yards with 150 grains of triple seven and that Lee cast improved minie ball. It also shoots good groups with Remingtons round balls patched with a gob of bore butter. I did not have good results with after market sabots, though tried only a few before I gave up on them.

Being that I elk hunt with this rifle I want the large bore improved minnie.

I have heard that Remington is going to discontinue this rifle in 2005. That is a shame as it has proven a very good gun for me.

Used mine for 6 years. It has fired everything that I stuffed down the barrel accurately. It is very easy to clean. Converted mine to musket caps although I never had a misfire with the original setup, even in the rain. Highly recommend it.

Have also had mine for 6 years, and as the people before me stated, it will shoot 1.5" groups with anything stuffed down the bore. The only thing you need to be carefull about is disassembling the bolt after use, as gas blows into the bolt between striker and bolt body. Many people neglect this area, and as a result, your spring gets all corroded, and in severe cases, the striker locks up. Probably the biggest complaint about the 700ML. But one that is easily rectified by proper cleaning. All in all, a GREAT muzleloader.

Excellent suggestion C&B, was at gunsmith friends shop when one was brought in. Guy said he missed the biggest buck he had ever seen because of a misfire. Gun looked clean, when bolt was disassembled it was frozen solid with fouling. He had never cleaned it in four years.

I was browsing thru the 2005 Remington catalog today and noticed that the 700 ML is no longer offered. Sad to say it has went the way of the yearly classic. Better get them while there still out there.

I'm going to put a nice wood stock on mine this summer and get away from the plastic. I put a set of fire sights on it last year and think I will add a nice peep sight before hunting season to make it even easier to shoot. We can't use scopes or dot sights here in Idaho.