Knight MK85 54 Caliber Load

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JHM

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I have been off of the muzzleloading boards for about three years now. At the end of December I will actually have some free time for my self. I purchased a very clean 54 caliber Stainless Knight MK85 about three years ago. I have never shot this rifle and am looking for some load suggestions.
I do have a healthy supply of Swiss Black powder on hand. I have no indention of scoping this rifle as I enjoy the balance and light weight of the rifle. Also, if I do ever go out west elk hunting this would be my go to rifle if the weather is wet and not good for a flintlock. My goal is to to come up with a load for elk hunting. I imagine 75 yards or so will be my maximum load for iron sights. A good peep sight could extend that a bit. Thoughts?
 
might look into the 535 gr No Excuse conical behind 65-85 gr of Swiss, would be good Elk killer out to 100 yds or so I imagine..I know they shoot good out of my custom barrel Renegade with 80 gr Goex 2f.
 
Here are a few bullets for .54 Cal that i am very confident would work well in your MK85, These are from Molds i had made

The middle bullet, 532 Grains, All 3 of these bullets i had made for Paper Patching, The .54 Drops from the mold at .533-.544, 2 Wraps of my 9# onion skin paper brings the diameter up to .539-.540, These have shot great in both my 1:28 Twist Green Mountain LRH .54, and My Lyman Great Plains Hunter 1:32 Twist .54


And here is a Grease Groove bullet i had made for .54 that also shoots VERY WELL in the Fast twist .54s


I have also had had great luck with the Lyman Plains bullets in my fast twist rifles, i have both .50, and .54 Molds, they are lighter and shorter than my custom bullets above, both calibers measure .85 in length, the .50 weighs right at 400 Grains, and the .54 comes in at 460 Grains
 
Either of these work very well in Fast twist .54s, I had this mold made as well, the smaller bullet is 515 Grains, the larger bullet is 650 Grains, Both drop from the mold at .533 for Patching ‘Up’ to .540-.541 Bore
 
The no excuses are loose in my MK85. Like almost drop to breech plug loose. I also had a custom 54 mold made up. I have a GG 520grn bullet and a 505grn PP bullet and also a 370grn for use in a sabot, .500x54 purple MMP brand Sabot. All of my molds came from Accurate Molds. I also shot Idaholewis' paper patch bullets in my MK. Small groups. I have been given a box of 350 grn Hornady XTP .500 for use in the sabot but have yet to try them. I put a Williams peep on mine and wouldnt shoot it any other way. No scopes in Washington State.
 
Harleysboss said:
The no excuses are loose in my MK85. Like almost drop to breech plug loose. I also had a custom 54 mold made up. I have a GG 520grn bullet and a 505grn PP bullet and also a 370grn for use in a sabot, .500x54 purple MMP brand Sabot. All of my molds came from Accurate Molds. I also shot Idaholewis' paper patch bullets in my MK. Small groups. I have been given a box of 350 grn Hornady XTP .500 for use in the sabot but have yet to try them. I put a Williams peep on mine and wouldnt shoot it any other way. No scopes in Washington State.


Harleysboss, You were slightly ahead of me on the The .54 GG Mold From Accurate, the only difference in our molds is band diameters, i went a little larger with mine. I have zero experience with this No Excuses Conical, i just now looked them up and they say sized to .540 (Which Makes Absolutely no sense???) Explains why they are loose, That is right at the same size as my finished Paper Patch bullets and they are intended to load fairly easy. The heavier the bullet the more importance on them loading tighter, so they stay put on the powder! Think about the kinetic energy of a big heavy 535 Grain bullet, Doesn’t take that hard of a bump to the muzzle pointed down to get that Big heavy bullet to move, like Bouncing up an old rough logging rd, Etc. Loose fitting bullets are to much of a Gamble for me and my style of hunting, I care to much about my Rifles to chance ‘Ringing’ a barrel over a bullet that slid off the powder charge. Bench rest shooting is a whole different ball Game, I like my Target bullets to load with very minimal effort, a brass Range Rod will nearly load my target bullets.
 
Without getting to far off track here, Here is a good test for anyone that might not understand kinetic energy. Take a .223 with a common bullet weight of 40 Grains, Put this in a Kinetic bullet puller and hit a Hard Solid surface, you will have to BEAT THE HECK out of it to get that little 40 Grain bullet to slide out of that case. Now take a .458 Winchester Magnum with a 500 Grain bullet (that has NOT been Crimped) And place that in the Kinetic bullet puller, You can pretty much let the kinetic hammer/puller free fall against a hard surface and that big heavy bullet will move!

Same kind of deal with a loose fitting Bullet in a Muzzleloader, The heavier the bullet, the easier it would be to make it move by bumping the muzzle
 
You've got some great advice on an elk load for sure. If you ever want to work up a lighter load, take a look at the speer 325 jhp in a purple sabot, over about 100gr of powder. Very accurate for me and good terminal performance. :) I use RWS 1075 caps on all my MK's...to me, they are the best available (though getting hard to find around here). Welcome back to the boards!
 
Thanks to all for the load suggestions. I'm going to think this over a bit. I most likely try both the 325 grain Speer bullets, and a big 500 plus grain conical.
The rifle can tell me what it likes.
Its good to be back.
 
The Speer 325gr is the bullet Knight shipped with the MK85 back then. Alexander Arms was loading them in 50 Beowulf which maxs out around 1850-1900fps with a 325gr bullet. The bullet was originally made for 50Action Express which maxes out around 1450fps IIRC.

The energy "dump" from the 325gr Speer at roughly 1800fps is impressive.
[youtube]BROdbEm5wqA[/youtube]

335gr Rainier vs clay blocks...Insane
[youtube]4f38nCF_OUM[/youtube]
 
Barnes MZ 325 grn withe purple sabot. 85- 90 grns powder. Super accurate load in the MK.
 

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