First Looks at the LHR Redemption

I know. This is about 5 years too late. However, a good fellow at 24hourcampfire.com saw I was asking about the Thompson Center Strike and offered me a NIB LHR Redeption at a remarkable discount. It was too good of an offer to let it go by.

Just so you understand. Thompson Center bought out LHR a while back, specifically to get its hands on the LHR Redemption and sell it as The Strike. Ironically, they turned around and claimed they “revolutionized the world of muzzleloading.” I don’t see how you do that by buying out your competitor, but I have to admit it is a cool rifle.

It’s a .50 cal inline muzzleloader with an innovative Adapt breech plug system. The plug itself is an unthreaded insert with an O-ring seal. The plug is held in place with a collar with external threads. This keeps the threads away from getting mucked up with crud. I’ve now shot it, and cleaned it, and I have to say it works.

What motivated me to buy the Redeption, if you really want to know was the looks. Most modern inlines have what I think are ugly plastic stocks, and they all seem to want to copy the H&R Topper. The Topper along with every other break-open single shot for the past hundred years is the ugly girlfriend that you do not mind loaning out to other guys. The Redemption, on the other hand, has a walnut stock and an overall design with strong European influences. To me, it looks like a Steyr-Mannlicher Duet only this one came in at under a tenth the cost.

Accuracy is the other great selling point of the Redeption/Strike. This was easily the easiest muzzleloader I have ever to get a group at 100 yards. Mind you, I don’t mean to come off as an expert on this. However, I’ve tried before, and ended up shooting at 50 yards.

I mounted a Bushnell Banner 3-9X40mm on the rifle. I’ve been using this scope a lot, and I cannot say enough good things about it. In my treestands in the morning, I’m getting a good 10 extra minutes of usable hunting light. In the evenings I find that peering out into the pasture, I can see deer at 200 yards beyond legal hunting where before I was seeing nothing but mud. Visually, I have a hard time telling the difference between the Banner and the Elite. Banner Elite costs 6 times as much.

I set up at 100 yards with the Redemption and tried a bunch of different loads:

.50 cal 320 Lee R.E.A.L. cast from pure lead and tumble lubed with Alox and shot over a vegetable wad.
Lee TL430-240-SWC cast in pure lead in Harvester Crush-Rib Sabots
Hornady .44 Mag 300 grain XTP in Harvester Crush-Rib Sabots

Just to keep it simple, I used 80 grains of Hodgdon Triple-Seven and Winchester Triple-Seven 209 primers throughout.

All three look like they might have possibilities down the road. The Lee pistol bullets did not group well. The XTPs were hard to load. I was glad I had a range rod handy. I would not have wanted to do this with rifle’s ramrod. The old standby .50 Lee R.E.A.L. did the best for ease in loading and also produced a recognizeable group at 100 yards.

The one detraction I can say with the Redeption/Strike is that the ramrod that is supplied with the firearm is short. There is an extender that comes in the kit that you are supposed to screw on the barrel for cleaning, but what is really needed is a nice long range rod. Luckily, I brought one along. With the sabots, there is really no chance of a quick reload in the field. Even after a quick spit-patch cleaning, the Harvester sabots require considerable force to get them down the barrel and seated on the charge. The R.E.A.L. bullets had a definte advantage in this regard. I was able to press them in a good part of the way with my thumb.

Back home, I put the Adapt breech system to the test. The collar unscrewed with just a wee bit of help from the multi-tool. I had used anti-seize on the threads. The plug itself was pretty gunked up, but I wrapped it in a patch with Ed’s Red and it wiped off fine after a 12-hour soak. Similarly, I found I could clean out the barrel running a wet patch through it and letting it sit overnight to loosen up the plastic residue. This is a trick I learned with cleaning wad fouling out of shotgun barrels and it translates well to modern inlines.

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