I shot the CVA Optima Pistol today. Upped the charge from 50 grains to 80 grains of loose pyrodex. I was hitting well enough to kill a deer at 50 yds. Going to spend more time hunting with the pistol next season. I really want to kill a deer with this gun. I will tell you shooting a pistol well is much more difficult than shooting a rifle well. I have a 2x red dot on it. May swap to a scope. The red dot gives more eye relief but is harder to hold steady at 50. I think 80 grains is going to be my deer load and I'll drop back to 50 and do a little squirrel hunting with it. Put this gun up for sale briefly last year but I'm glad I didn't have any takers now.

That's just about the exact load I shoot out of mine.

80gr's of blackpowder and have it sighted in at 50 yards. Put a halo sight on mine, and like you, wanting to kill a deer with it soon.

Sounds good

sounds like fun!

Cool,is loose easier to load than pellets?

Pellets are actually more convenient but you'd need a 50 and a 30 to get the 80 grain load. It's a little easier to experiment with load with loose. I haven't shot 100 grains out of the pistol. I don't think it would all burn in 14 inches of barrel and it would be considerable wallop on the shooter's end. I first started shooting this I used a single 50 grain pellet but it drops or it did for me anyway when I moved from 25 to 50 yards.

Footnote to the pistol shooting: My dad lives across the road and heard me shoot the pistol. He thought I'd been patterning a turkey gun. He said, "whoowee. That thing sounded like a cannon going off." The short barrel and 80 grains no doubt.

In case anyone is interested in buying one of these, I have a new one in the box for $250.

I may try two 50 grain Triple 7 pellets just to see what it is like. Probably won't be that rough. I don't think pullers have as much umph as loose Pyrodex.

I did 2 triple 7 50gr pellets in mine. Little thump but not too bad.