Update on the new girl

Ok, the MK85 is accurate! Just not with full calibers... So far... My deer load for my Black Diamond works equally well in the '85 A .452 250gr xtp in harvester crush ribs over 70gr of 3f Swiss lit by an 11 gives 1600 fps and right around 2 1/2 inches for 3 at 100. Not too shabby for open sights and 51 year old eyes. However, this rifle makes my Black Diamond look like and Omega when it comes to breech fouling! She's also HARD on caps. Rarely do they stay in place or intact and she blows crud all the way back to the end cap! I'm shooting the original Knight red hot nipple that came with her( 50 shot fired so far...)Also the rare cap that survives( maybe 2 of 10) is usually jammed into the striker face requiring some effort to pick it out. Not good on a hunting gun. Some of this makes me think I'm getting some striker bounce. This is a new old rifle that was on the dealers rack for 20 years minimum and may have been cocked for a considerable amount of that time. Perhaps the striker spring took a set? If the spring isn't strong enough,, the striker will bounce back a bit on ignition allowing the cap to jam in the striker face or be blown to bits. After each range trip, After cleaning the striker face there is a black burn mark left that is exactly the size of an 11 cap. It takes a bit of JB compound to bright it up again. I had an American Knight that used the FPJ's and got my forehead sandblasted at nearly every shot. Swapped it for a nipple plug and shot musket and 11's with no issues.Right now, the only advantages the MK85 has over the Black Diamond is the ability to easily remove the trigger and that the trigger is adjustable for weight of pull. So far i think Ian McMurchy was right about the Black Diamonds" T/C took the best features of all the ( plunger) inlines"More to follow

I have three LK rifles but no MK85. I also have a Black Diamond XR that I use #11 caps to shoot. And while it gets dirty, the Black Diamond XR is still the most accurate rifle of all of them. Although I would hate to live on the difference. Also something I learned about the LK rifle and whether it applies to the MK I am not sure... Keep that trigger clean on the LK rifles. Spray it out from time to time and oil it. Also that back safety, roll that out and wipe off the threads. I once could not cock one of the LK rifles. I tried and tried. Called Knight and they made a lot of guesses but it turned out the trigger was dirty. And so the rifle would not go back and stay cocked. Also I keep my rear safety always screwed all the way back, making the side safety my main safety. As that rear safety can move on you when you shoot.

My Lk rifles will shoot conical bullets but I can not push them hard. 60-80 grains is all. And I am fine with that.

Confederate rifleman said:

Ok, the MK85 is accurate! Just not with full calibers... So far... My deer load for my Black Diamond works equally well in the '85 A .452 250gr xtp in harvester crush ribs over 70gr of 3f Swiss lit by an 11 gives 1600 fps and right around 2 1/2 inches for 3 at 100. Not too shabby for open sights and 51 year old eyes. However, this rifle makes my Black Diamond look like and Omega when it comes to breech fouling! She's also HARD on caps. Rarely do they stay in place or intact and she blows crud all the way back to the end cap! I'm shooting the original Knight red hot nipple that came with her( 50 shot fired so far...)Also the rare cap that survives( maybe 2 of 10) is usually jammed into the striker face requiring some effort to pick it out. Not good on a hunting gun. Some of this makes me think I'm getting some striker bounce. This is a new old rifle that was on the dealers rack for 20 years minimum and may have been cocked for a considerable amount of that time. Perhaps the striker spring took a set? If the spring isn't strong enough,, the striker will bounce back a bit on ignition allowing the cap to jam in the striker face or be blown to bits. After each range trip, After cleaning the striker face there is a black burn mark left that is exactly the size of an 11 cap. It takes a bit of JB compound to bright it up again. I had an American Knight that used the FPJ's and got my forehead sandblasted at nearly every shot. Swapped it for a nipple plug and shot musket and 11's with no issues.Right now, the only advantages the MK85 has over the Black Diamond is the ability to easily remove the trigger and that the trigger is adjustable for weight of pull. So far i think Ian McMurchy was right about the Black Diamonds" T/C took the best features of all the ( plunger) inlines"More to follow

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Is the Face of the hammer Flat or does it have the cone in the center? Just curious?

Flat face on the striker. I clean out the trigger on the MK85 after each range trip. I want no surprises! The Black Diamond doesn't get taken out of the stock very often. I can get what little residue that makes it to the sear with qtips and pipe cleaners. No problems or gremlins so far. The Black Diamond gets REALLY dirty only if I use the flamethrower nipples. Currently I use Ampco's and 10 shots with them gives the same fouling as 3 with the flamethrowers. Also I lose about 100 fps with the flamethrowers.Ymmv.

Confederate rifleman said:

Flat face on the striker. I clean out the trigger on the MK85 after each range trip. I want no surprises! The Black Diamond doesn't get taken out of the stock very often. I can get what little residue that makes it to the sear with qtips and pipe cleaners. No problems or gremlins so far. The Black Diamond gets REALLY dirty only if I use the flamethrower nipples. Currently I use Ampco's and 10 shots with them gives the same fouling as 3 with the flamethrowers. Also I lose about 100 fps with the flamethrowers.Ymmv.

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Ok. I was just curious. If it had the cone like mine did they are rough on the nipples and really destroy caps. They do tear up the caps pretty good though. I can't recommend the AMPCO in the MK85's myself. I tried them (from TOTW) and had lots of hang/delay fires (CCI Mag caps) till the flash hole was drilled out a little bit. Knight Nipples never failed in mine, but they have a larger flashhole.

Shawn T , I've been having issues with CCI's too. Not ignition, but their 11's fragment terribly.Their musket caps, both 4 and 6 petal, are first rate! Recently lucked into a small supply of Remingtons and am hopeful of better results.I've never had ignition issues with Ampcos, but I do notice best accuracy with them comes after about 20 shots and that tiny little aperture opens up a bit.I used to get a lot of cap splits ( musket) with them until I took a bit of sandpaper and reduced the outside diameter of the cone so the cap fully seated. All is well. I find they last about 500 shots before needing replacement and that they resist peening very well. This is especially true in my Black Diamond which has a striker fall impact like a slammed car door.

That is interesting. I got my Mk-85 about 2 years ago now. I had problems with the hammer flaring out the nipple because it came with the hammer that had the cone in it so it could fire cap or primer. I eventually removed that cone so mine was flat faced. When it had a cone it really destroyed the caps as well as damage the nipple. After I removed the cone it did not destroy the caps near as bad, but they still are normally split out on one side and spread out a good bit. I just figured that it was due to the power of the hammer spring. Every once in a while one will stick in the face of the hammer but not too often.

Just another though... Does your hammer have the wide or narrow end? Some of the original hammers for caps had a small diameter end on the hammer. If so I can see where it might hang onto a fired cap. My CVA Mountain rifle hammer does that a good bit. The hammer on my Mk-85 is almost the diameter of the hammer.

As far as the AMPCO nipples go... Sabotloader and someone else talked about them in and old thread. I happen to remember that and chatted with him in a Pm about those. I got 2 or 3 and tried them. The Cone still damaged them and that was the final straw, so the cone was removed. I tried another AMPCO and I started noticing intermittent hang or delay fires. Mostly they were Slight delays but it was there. I had been posting about the nipple issues and Sabotloader said he was not seeing that in his. I got a couple drill bits and opened the flash hole up to about .031 or .032 (don't remember which) but it got better. I ordered a couple Knight nipples and saw no problems at all. During all of this testing I was only shooting Pyrodex RS too.

A while back Sabotloader reported seeing these Delay fires too now and suspected that AMPCO changed something. Maybe he will chime in.

insomnia is a terrible thing...My striker wide ended. I've seen pictures of the old( original) MK85's and often thought the strikers looked like a co2 ctg from an airgun. I think part of the problem is also the depth of the recess. It almost touches the rear of the plug and so doesn't allow much venting. Combine that with the restricted opening for priming and its a recipe for wrecked caps and fouling all the way back. If a little was trimmed off the face of the recess( to let her breathe) and the striker and end cap modified to not allow the striker to turn ( a flat spot on the striker shaft and an engaging screw through the cap) would allow the side of the striker to be vented. It would also really be helpful in case the 2nd safety gets. frozen or jammed. Hummm...

CR, what you are experiencing sounds pretty normal for these guns, to me. I have a bunch of knight plunger guns (with #11's) and all do similar to what you are experiencing. I use RWS caps most of the time, sometimes Winchester too, as RWS are becoming less available around here. Never ever had one stay in place, on any gun. Sometimes they are in the bolt face, but never had to pick one out...only tip the gun over and tap on it and it will fall out. Breech fouling is unfortunately just part of the game with these. If you do scope it, put some sort of cover on the scope over the breech area. Can be as simple as wrapping the scope with electrical tape, or making a bra type cover.