Knight DISC rifle loads

Morning. I'm a diehard bowhunter but with the acquisition of an Iowa lease, I plan to do some late season muzzleloader hunting out there. I have an original (bought in the spring of 2000) Knight DISC .50 cal rifle. Shot it for years but then devoted most all my time to bowhunting. I use to shoot 300 gr Barnes Red Hot sabots with 100 grs of Pyrodex pellets with 209 shotgun primers. Took the rifle out yesterday to shoot and have some fun in the cold. Rifle did well but the memories of the smokeface, fouling and cleanup all came back. I had heard alot of good talk/comments from clients and friends on Blackhorn 209 powder and it was highly recommended. Most recommended 250 gr. Barnes with CCI 209M primers. My question is, can my DISC rifle, with the original orange plastic ignition system, safely shoot Blachorn 209 powder and what are good loads for the gun with it's rate of twist? Thanks in advance for any input.

strikerII said:

Morning. I'm a diehard bowhunter but with the acquisition of an Iowa lease, I plan to do some late season muzzleloader hunting out there. I have an original (bought in the spring of 2000) Knight DISC .50 cal rifle. Shot it for years but then devoted most all my time to bowhunting. I use to shoot 300 gr Barnes Red Hot sabots with 100 grs of Pyrodex pellets with 209 shotgun primers. Took the rifle out yesterday to shoot and have some fun in the cold. Rifle did well but the memories of the smokeface, fouling and cleanup all came back. I had heard alot of good talk/comments from clients and friends on Blackhorn 209 powder and it was highly recommended. Most recommended 250 gr. Barnes with CCI 209M primers. My question is, can my DISC rifle, with the original orange plastic ignition system, safely shoot Blachorn 209 powder and what are good loads for the gun with it's rate of twist? Thanks in advance for any input.

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Safety wise there are no problems. The rifle itself will shoot BH safely.

The orange plastic ignition system may be able to shoot BH - but I am unsure of its reliability. BH is a smokeless based - progressive burning powder and it must maintain pressure to work. If the jackets leak to much you might end up with hang-fires or even no-fire.

The best bet is to convert the rifle to a DISC Extreme bolt system and Bare Primer ignition system.

The twist rate for your rifle is 1/28 and that twist is very good for a large variety of bullets. The Barnes Red Hot is an excellent bullet and will shoot very well from that rifle shooting BH. I use T7 and I shoot 120 grains by volume, you could use the same load of BH by volume and be right in the same area velocity wise.

Moving to BH does require a little bit of a learning curve and especially regular maintenance of the 'flash channel' in the breech plug.

Put it all together and you should have a great operating system.

Yes, you can...but much will depend on your breech plug. I have Disc with the orange jackets that shoots 100% reliably with BH209, but it has a crossfire breech plug (easy to find online reasonably priced). I use W209 primers as they are a little longer than CCI's. This does not eliminate blowback however, but the smoke out the muzzle is way less and no need to swab between shots with BH209.

If you want to spend the money, you can convert it so that, with a new bolt, breech plug, etc.....you have a bare primer system that will fire 100% reliably and no blowback.

As for load, your gun will let you know. Mine in this particular gun is 250 Expander, 80 gr. BH209, W209 primer. It groups well and I can "ping" the 8" steel plate at 190 yds every time.

You've got a great gun there. Best of luck with it.

I'd just recommend you go to triple seven I like it way better than Blackhorn 209. How much are you really going to shoot the rifle once you get the rifle sighted in?

Thanks for the feedback. I used to shoot 100 grs. Pyrodrex pellets with a 300gr. Barnes Expander and am going to try some 250 gr TMZ next.
I agree, once it's sighted in, the smoke/cleaning issue is a moot point; one shot is all I'll need!

With Triple 7, what powder do you use, FFG or FFFG?

I would go with FFG.

strikerII said:

With Triple 7, what powder do you use, FFG or FFFG?

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FFG with 209 ignition and a Winchester W-209

FFFG with Percussion Cap ignition

Thanks fellas.

I shot my 'Original Disc' with the orange discs and the stock breech plug with 100% reliability with B209 powder. I used a CCIM primer and usually a 250 grn SST, though bullet wouldn't matter to reliability. Yes, there was some blow back, but beyond that everything was fine.

I was out at the range today, shooting 240 gr T/C XTR's. Was only able to shoot 75 yards at this range but these grouped well with 2-50 gr. Pyrodex pellets and Win 209 shotgun primers.I swabbed the barrel after every shot, and after 3 shots, pulled the breech plug and cleaned it and cleaned the barrel fully also. However, when I switched back to Barnes Expanders, 300 grs, with the same powder/primer combination, all 3 orange discs had blowback and were mangled.I had to remove the bolt each time to remove the remains of the disc. This was out of a freshly cleaned breech plug & barrel. What gives?

I'm guessing the 300s were tighter down the bore and being you switched to a heavier bullet, the combination of tighter sabot and bigger bullet produced more pressures / blowback.

Don't be nervous over it. It's normal stuff with MLs. You can try a weaker primer to 'possibly' reduce blowback with that particular combo. Try Winchester Triple Se7en primers or the regular CCI, not the CCI-Mag.

Yes the 300's were tougher to push down the barrel. I'm going to try shooting Barnes 250 gr. Spitfire T-EZ's next. Recommended by several friends.