First Post and American Knight

[HTR2133]

Glad to be on the forum! I've been snooping and reading and decided tonight to go ahead and join.

My mom and I picked out and purchased an American Knight for my dad at Christmas back in mid-late 90s. I knew nothing at the time about muzzleloading. My dad sure was proud of that little muzzleloader. He neglected it badly and I'm not sure the barrel is salvageable or will shoot accurately. Just lots of fouling and some rust inside that I can see. He told me to go ahead and see if I can sell it, but there isn't a market for it really.

After researching on here and reading many positive posts on that gun and really that whole family of Knight guns, I think I'll try to get the barrel cleaned up and keep it. It would be fun to have an older inline to tinker with and one thing I love about that gun is how short and light it is for stalking.

Any recommendations on how to clean a badly corroded barrel? No rust on outside of the barrel, just some nasty looking stuff inside.

I'd like to get some loose t7, and some 250 grain hornadys and see what I can do with the gun after cleaning it up.

 

[HC]

. Start out using a penetrating oil and use a liberal amount, give it a couple days to work. Then use normal cleaning procedures.

 

[dwm]

I use j b paste on corroded guns, it doesn’t get rid of pitting but it does clean them up pretty good, good luck with it

 

[flounder]

Pretty good chance it will shoot halfway decent but it will always be a PITA to try and get all the fouling out of them pits when you clean it.

 

[HTR2133]

Thanks for the advice! I found a good article on Brownells too on a procedure I may try.

Speaking of the fouling....is there a good lighter weight non-sabot bullet that anyone has experience with out of these shorter gun barrels with comparable twist rates? I'm tired of all the plastic buildup. Would rather find an all-metal alternative that the gun can shoot well. Seems like most bullets in that category are pretty heavy. I'd like to find something sub-300 grains.

 

[GM54-120]

I'm tired of all the plastic buildup

Would you rather scrub lead out of the pits? In a good bore plastic fouling is so minor its a non-issue. I shoot some loads that are way way faster than smokers and ive never witnessed this mythical plastic fouling with modern sabots. Poor cleaning habits, pitted/rough bores and not waiting for the bore to cool between shots causes plastic fouling....not the use of sabots with proper maintenance.

Lead can be a real pain to get out of a neglected bore. Even pushing a soft lead conical too fast in a good bore can lead the barrel. Better protect the base of the conical too with a wad if using powders like Triple7. It burns hotter than real black.

You can put a ton of time into cleaning up a pitted barrel and it will still foul more than a pristine bore.

 

[dwm]

Anyone ever try a ceramic coating in a pitted gun , just wondering if would cut down on fouling

 

[GM54-120]

Never tried the BoreCoat products like DynaTek. It might help a tiny bit but how long will it last over pits?

In a SS rifle i would try Evapo-Rust first in a plugged barrel. Fill up the bore and let it set overnight to dissolve the rust. Then have at it with something like JBs or MX bore polish. Evapo-Rust though will ruin blueing if im not mistaken. Pretty much any of the acidic cleaners like Naval Jelly will eat blueing as well as rust.

 

[HTR2133]

Would you rather scrub lead out of the pits? In a good bore plastic fouling is so minor its a non-issue. I shoot some loads that are way way faster than smokers and ive never witnessed this mythical plastic fouling with modern sabots. Poor cleaning habits, pitted/rough bores and not waiting for the bore to cool between shots causes plastic fouling....not the use of sabots with proper maintenance.

Lead can be a real pain to get out of a neglected bore. Even pushing a soft lead conical too fast in a good bore can lead the barrel. Better protect the base of the conical too with a wad if using powders like Triple7. It burns hotter than real black.

You can put a ton of time into cleaning up a pitted barrel and it will still foul more than a pristine bore.

Good point. I've never really studied closely what is in the barrel. I assumed plastic was the majority of buildup. I never have this problem in my CVA Optima, which I clean religiously. I never thought about the fact that a pitted barrel (like my dads Knight) consistently produces more fouling than a clean bore does. Makes sense.