Knight Bighorn 50cal

Modern Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Modern Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Haden16

Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2016
Messages
13
Reaction score
0
Welp, drew a great antlered deer tag starting Nov 25th!!! I was messing with a Rem 700ml, which Derfhunter sold me a conversion kit to on here. But after getting the tag i decided a new gun was in order. Just started shooting it! Fun gun so far. Shot it yesterday and found my powder measure had loosened up on the inside causing the bottom of the plunger thing to sit loose in the bottom. Newbie mistake!!! Haha still shot a bunch though. :yeah:
 
Congrats on the new toy! I've been playing with my daughter's Littlehorn over the past month and gotta say I'm really impressed with these plunger knights. Very good quality.
 
I've read a few articles on floating the barrel. So far the sticky barrel is completely gone. I could hardly get the barrel off when i first removed the barrel lug! The only worry i have now is how much sanding im doing? I cut a dowel the same size approximately as the barrel and glued sand paper all around to hold the sand paper. Im seeing results as spots start to allow a piece of paper but man this is certainly not "light" sanding as most of the posts have stated. Shooting again today.
 
If it has a laminate stock those laminate stocks sand hard ! It took me forever to free float my barrel on one of my custom rifles . I used 80 grit sand paper wrapped around a fowl rod . I could not believe how hard and long it took . I sanded so much I had blisters and one finger bleeding . BUT my barrel was a heavy barrel and my stock needed a lot of sanding to fit the barrel.
 
So tried another bullet tonight. The All Lead PowerBelt 348gr. 70gr of ffg 777. I found the windex swab idea and swabbed wet and followed it by a dry swab after each shot. There was a weird but consistent change of impact after shot #3. Shot #4 went low and to the right. I switched to the left bulls eye and found a group fairly close to the others. Also when swabbing found a lot of lead coming out of the barrel. I didnt notice this with the 370 gr maxi-balls or the 350gr maxi hunter? Also when digging the bullet out they were obliterated compared to the maxi-ball. Didn't dig the maxi hunters out.
 

Attachments

  • Bighorn Group Powerbelt 348 70gr ffg 777.jpg
    Bighorn Group Powerbelt 348 70gr ffg 777.jpg
    91.3 KB · Views: 423
  • Bighorn Swab.jpg
    Bighorn Swab.jpg
    103.1 KB · Views: 423
Also did not move the sights at all and also checked the sights for movement and found no loose screws?
 
So it was fun... a little expansive at this point though. You'd think that a conical being so "primeval" would be a bargain.... I did learn that using my tailgate of my truck to ram the bullet down as humanly hard as possible isn't a good thing... So this is my typical routine, in case there are any other obvious problems that i'm not aware of. Today I measured 80gr of ffg 777 and tapped it a bunch not counting how many time (Probably an issue), dumped it down the barrel, used the ram rod to push it down, pushed the bullet in really tight by using my tailgate of my truck (steady pressure), then shot. I used a dry patch in between shots as well.

So after talking with a salesman at sportsman's I've learned that using my tailgate might be an issue and that paying close attention to cheek weld, trigger pull, and keeping notes on what ive tried.
 

Attachments

  • 348grs 80gr ffg 777.jpg
    348grs 80gr ffg 777.jpg
    101.9 KB · Views: 378
  • Too many Bullets.jpg
    Too many Bullets.jpg
    116.5 KB · Views: 378
Also those shots where the 348 Pure lead power belts. I was also told hand pressure with the ram rod was better than my body weight into the tail gate of the pickup. I thought the tighter the better? :huh?:
 
Haden16 said:
Also those shots where the 348 Pure lead power belts. I was also told hand pressure with the ram rod was better than my body weight into the tail gate of the pickup. I thought the tighter the better? :huh?:

Powerbelts are normally a very accurate bullet and not worth much for hunting - although the 348 would work really well on deer. I guess I shouldn't say that like that - Powerbelts can work very if you do not shoot them with a lot of powder- your 80 grain load should be very good with any of the Powerbelts. Remember they are nothing more than elongated round balls.

Why don't you purchase a box Sierra .4515x300 gr. bullets (the bullets on the left) and a package of sabots and shoot them to get everything working. You can probably find Harvester 45x50 Black sabots in a local store - although I prefer the MMP HPH-24 sabot. The sabots on the left in the second pic. The black sabot in the middle is a Harvester Crush Rib. This would be a lot less expensive shooting for you.

Sierra_Shooters.jpg


Sabot-BoreTest.jpg


Deer Bullet - this would make an excellent deer bullet... but remember I am totally biased because they work so well!

Lehigh_451x230_CF-HP.jpg


https://www.lehighdefense.com/collectio ... 0gr-bullet

MidwayUSA also has them and I think they are a bit less expensive there...
 
The only problem is the muzzleloader only hunt specifics. I cant use anything but full lead ball or conical.
 
Haden16 said:
The only problem is the muzzleloader only hunt specifics. I cant use anything but full lead ball or conical.

OK - same for Idaho - but I still use a real bullet and sabot of the or near the same weight to get the rifle sighted in and for recreation.

One thing you could consider is getting some full bore lead bullets from Bull Shop - he makes a wide variety and is a lot less expensive with a much tougher bullet... think they are 20-$25 a box of 50...

bullshopBullets.jpg


I use the 460 because I hunt elk with them... but the 400's would be great for deer and even elk.

460grBullShop.jpg


And this is the .503x350 I use for deer hunting

503-350.jpg
 
Has anyone found that a particular powder just doesnt agree with your gun? Im going to try some other things before I make that drastic of a change. I'm shooting 777 FFG
 
Oh no, crap. Sorry you guys lost a friend on here. :(


What sort of pressure while loading do you guys impart on the ram rod when loading? I was under the impression that the more pressure the better? That was literally a guess though. I guess when you shake a loaded rifle around you can hear the powder "slosh" around in there so that pretty much throws my idea out the window. :think:
 
I have never used anything but my hands or a ball starter to seat my loads. Just good and tight is how I do it, kinda leaning on my hand a little with some body weight. Not sure what the actual pressure is, but I do it the same whether using Pyro or BH209 and never had an issue. If it was me, I'd probably try some all lead (bullshop or other) in the 350 to 400gr range. I personally use Pyrodex RS in my knight #11 plunger rifles, but I also shoot sabots with them.
 
Still at 4'' to 14'' from 80grains to 100grains with maxiballs in 385gr. I might switch powders, not sure what to do...
 
Haden16 said:
Still at 4'' to 14'' from 80grains to 100grains with maxiballs in 385gr. I might switch powders, not sure what to do...

Really sounds like you have a problem with the barrel not resting the stock correctly - which changes barrel harmonics - which moves the bullet all over the place.

Might read through this and see if it makes any sense to you and if this might apply to you rifle. I wrote this up a long time ago in response to fellow shooter having the same problem...

Checking the Fit of Knight stock


Rob, relieving the stickiness of that should be a really easy fix....

I wrote this up for a guy on Hunting Net the other day - i will repost it here. Look through it and see if it makes sense to you. I firmly believe the sticky stock will affect your accuracy...

Quote:
Can i get a little info on making sure i don't have any stock to barrel issues? I have seen info on tv about how a free floating barrel helps and heard of different procedures of seating the barrel. I will be putting a new stock on my gun very soon (broke the original one), and don't want to have issues there.

I can share some information with you for sure... One thing to remember 'floating' a barrel is not the best for accuracy it is the ‘cheapest’ so that is why you see many companies floating barrels. Companies can not afford to spend the time (money) bedding a barrel to the stock properly so the best thing is to 'float' them. With a wood stock the temperature of the barrel on the wood will make the POI change unless they barrel is bedded in glass or some such feature. In a composite stock if the barrel were bedded into the barrel channel correctly the heat would not be a problem but the flexion of the forearm of the inexpensive stock create a POI shift - so the answer 'float' the barrel.

In your case... since I think you said you have a Knight and if you are getting a Knight composite stock you might not have any of these problems. When I put a barreled action in a Knight stock I set the action in the stock and start the lug screw in. Tighten it with the Allen wrench until it starts to pull the action down. Then stand the gun vertically with the recoil pad on the floor. Gently, and honestly i am not that gentle, tap the gun on the floor to assure that the recoil lug is all the way back in the pocket. Then tighten the lug screw up snugly to hold it all in place. Forgot to say make sure the ram rod is not in place.

When you have the lug screw in tight place the gun in a horizontal position and squeeze the nose of the forearm and the barrel together as tight as you can. If there is no movement – you’re done the barrel is seated on and in the barrel channel. Put the ram rod in and repeat the test. If the test is the same you’re done... go shoot it and give it a check for accuracy.

If during the squeeze test (ram rod removed) the barrel moves down into the stock or the stock moves up to the barrel... release the grip and note if the barrel moves (on its own) back to the original location. Everything should be good - the barrel is floating. Next repeat the test again noting where the barrel returns to. At this time grip the barrel and the forearm of the stock and pull them apart easily. If you feel the barrel stick at some point then you have a problem. If the barrel appears to lift slightly but when you release it - it returns to the original location and you feel no points of stickiness - you are good. Put the ram rod in and repeat the test.

During the squeeze testing if you felt some stickiness in the spring of the floating barrel you will then to do some very light sanding in the barrel channel to relieve the tight spot. You might be able to locate the tight spot by running a dollar bill under the barrel and between the stock to locate the tight spot. Do not sand any more than you need, in fact in my little world the thickness of a single dollar bill is the max thickness the barrel should be off the stock. I normal use a strip of white computer paper for this test it is thinner than a dollar bill - heck it might be worth more than the dollar bill also!!!

Hope this might help you... when you get your new stock and if I can help give a shout....

mike
 

Latest posts

Back
Top