First Range trip with the Knight Ultra Lite

[ShawnT]

Well first off the Weather man lied to me this morning. He must have been hung over. Said it was to be 40 degrees and get to 45 with light wind. Got to the range and it was 29* and varying wind. Saw some flags in front of a couple buildings on the way actually stand straight out! :evil:

Oh well I was going to shoot it anyway. Just got the rifle from jbaker and received the new Leupold VX2 3x9x40 RL Duplex yesterday, it was set at 4x to limit parallax at 50 yards. I mounted and bore sighted the scope last night. The Rifle looked as close to new as a used rifle can get, can barely tell it was shot! Jay really took care of it. :yeah: 8) Due to the cold and wind I figured it would be a quick trip but wanted to sight it in and see how it felt. I put up 2 targets at 50 yards, swabbed the bore with one patch of alcohol and 2 dry then popped 3 Win209 primers. This is my first bolt MZ in a long time. I had 3 different Elites and sold them all, just never felt right for me. Anyway I had test fit 2 Win209 primers at home just to see how they fit. Both primers showed .004" crush. 8) I had a few 250 grain SST's so thought I would use them up as sight in bullets. Loaded them with MMP HPH-24 sabots per Sabotloaders recommendation. The SST fit nice in the 24's. Starting load was 76gn (Weight) BH209. I made a chart up several years ago using my Ted Cash measure and a scale and it shows this to be 110 grains (V), I believe this is a tad light verses the normal conversion. By the time I got set up I was really starting to feel the chill too, that wind was coming in from the ocean and was cold! First 2 shots were about 5"low and 2 1/2 inches right hitting the lower target, aim was at the top target center. Adjusted scope up several clicks and wound up high by 2" so lowered the adjustment and shot 3 rounds. Made first windage adjustment and shot 2. I left the windage there as I don't worry to much right away about hitting dead center till after load work up is done.

I then upped the charge to 77gn(W) and took aim at the bottom target and shot 3 that were slightly lower, 2 in one hole and one a bit right. Raised the scope a couple clicks and shot 2 more in one hole then the last 2 went right for some reason. I figured it was just my freezing hands but when packing up found my rest top was loose too so probably a bit of both.

Either way I was pretty tickled with the rifle. It fits me like a glove and handles real well. Recoil was much better then my MK-95s, I think this stock really handles well, the bullet was lighter than I normally shoot may have helped some. The rifle set up to hunt weighted in a 7.4lb with scope and rod per my bathroom scale, but sure feels light! I was about froze so decided I had better stop and wait till it warms a bit more to do some more work with it. I should note that I did not swab during shooting and was loading about as fast as I could weigh the powder and drop it too, so my shooting was not as good as it could be but I was more interested in getting initial scope adjustment done as just get a little acquainted with the new rifle. Primers came out clean as can be. This is an early rifle with a 2 digit serial number and has no shims in it and like I said it crushes a Win209 by .004". I really think I just fund a new best friend! 8) Here are a few pics from todays get acquainted trip. Sorry the pic of the rifle is a tad dark but this is the Green stock, and it looks even better in person to me! 8)

 

[sabotloader]

Shawn - this sentenced scared the heck out of me...

Either way I was pretty ticked with the rifle.

So I am thinking you are not liking that new rifle! And I really am thinking you are nutz - but I got it figured out!

The more you shoot it the better you will like it - I am pretty sure of that...

 

[cayuga]

I read the same thing and it made me wonder ... did he mean tickled? For a new rifle it looks like your on to something. As for measuring your powder, I know a lot of people do it. And the more you shoot it, the better they get.

Also you mentioned the rest, but were you accounting for wind gusts. A flag standing straight out, would make me somewhat concerned. Although at 50 yards it should be minimal.

 

[Dutch]

Shawn,

It seems like you may be falling in love with a new ML! I predict (an easy prediction) that the UL will become your all time favorite ML. Congratulations on the new rifle.

 

[WV Hunter]

A NY'er can't admit he's tickled... so he used ticked :lol: :lol: oke: Have to say.. I'm a little jealous..ok alot jealous! But happy for ya :yeah:

Sweet setup for sure, and a nice first outing! Did you use leupold base/rings?

 

[Squeeze]

Nice artyman:

 

[ShawnT]

OOPS! :shock: :d'oh!: I did mean TICKLED! :lol: Boy you guys picked up on one word.

Guess my fingers were still froze, or can't proof read worth a crap. :lol:

I was really planning to stay a lot longer but just was not able to. My fingers feel like they just got warm.

Dutch, you were right so far I think I am falling in love with it! This rifle feels nothing like the Elites I had and it shot much better since it fits me so much better. The way that stock is made it recoils so much different from my MK-95s too. I had high hopes for the rifle and so far it is much better then I had hoped it would be. It will be a real pleasure to hunt with.

Cayuga, I was not watching the wind to "Time" the shots so it may have contributed, I did not have my range flags with me. There is a large corporate building down the road a ways that has a Very large American Flag out front and I usually take note of it on the way out to the club. As I was driving by that Flag would almost stand straight out then drop down a good bit. So it was pretty gusty.

Sabotloader, Yea I can't type worth a crap or apparently read either. :lol: ALL I can say is I can see why you are shooting yours so much lately. From the first shot I was amazed at how good this rifle feels to me. I think it will wind up retiring my MK-95 50cal. :wink: I can't wait for some nice warm weather to get here so I can really spend some time with it. Another thing I did notice later was that bore cleans up real quick. Must be something to that DynaTek coating. I did really notice that when closing the bolt you can really feel the primer crush. They definitely got the head space on this one right. Thanks for the tip on the MMP HPH 24's, they felt just right at least with the SST's. I don't really care for then but just had some that I use for sight in. Still not sure yet what I will end up shooting. I have some to test and plan to get a couple more to try out.
I see a lot of potential in this rifle.

 

[ShawnT]

A NY'er can't admit he's tickled... so he used ticked :lol: :lol: oke: Have to say.. I'm a little jealous..ok alot jealous! But happy for ya :yeah:

Sweet setup for sure, and a nice first outing! Did you use leupold base/rings?

OH NO! Heck NO! NO Way will this old country boy ever claim to be a NY'er. :nono: :nono: oke: I'm a country boy from SE Ohio and will bleed biscuits and gravy till I die! :wink: The only thing I like about NY is the mountains upstate. Just wish there was some work back home.

Yup. Jay had Leupold bases on it and sent 30mm rings but I got a set of Leupold Matte Medium 1" rings to go with the Matte scope.

 

[WV Hunter]

A NY'er can't admit he's tickled... so he used ticked :lol: :lol: oke: Have to say.. I'm a little jealous..ok alot jealous! But happy for ya :yeah:

Sweet setup for sure, and a nice first outing! Did you use leupold base/rings?

OH NO! Heck NO! NO Way will this old country boy ever claim to be a NY'er. :nono: :nono: oke: I'm a country boy from SE Ohio and will bleed biscuits and gravy till I die! :wink: The only thing I like about NY is the mountains upstate. Just wish there was some work back home.

Yup. Jay had Leupold bases on it and sent 30mm rings but I got a set of Leupold Matte Medium 1" rings to go with the Matte scope.

Knew I'd get a rise out of ya... :lol: :lol: :mrgreen:

 

[ShawnT]

A NY'er can't admit he's tickled... so he used ticked :lol: :lol: oke: Have to say.. I'm a little jealous..ok alot jealous! But happy for ya :yeah:

Sweet setup for sure, and a nice first outing! Did you use leupold base/rings?

OH NO! Heck NO! NO Way will this old country boy ever claim to be a NY'er. :nono: :nono: oke: I'm a country boy from SE Ohio and will bleed biscuits and gravy till I die! :wink: The only thing I like about NY is the mountains upstate. Just wish there was some work back home.

Yup. Jay had Leupold bases on it and sent 30mm rings but I got a set of Leupold Matte Medium 1" rings to go with the Matte scope.

Knew I'd get a rise out of ya... :lol: :lol: :mrgreen:

Yea! Once a country boy always a country boy! :wink:

 

[Mikeul50]

Nice ml Shawn...looks like one that I need to shoot more...
The wife's tan ul look good too...I guess that makes two to shoot more...and the wife says the boy needs his own....so maybe when my new business makes enough we may be joined by a black one....darn shame....

 

[ShawnT]

Thanks, I plan to give mine a little more exercise this weekend if nothing comes up. I also need to shoot my LK .36cal. I installed a new scope and need to sight it in and continue working on a load for it.

 

[Mikeul50]

Hey Shawn...
What do you think...if I order a muzzleloader from knight should I stick with 50 cal or get something else...maybe 45 cal..
Sure would like to see a 40 cal ul....that would almost make the tan ul a freebie to be reclaimed....because my wife would take the 40cal ul....I know it....

 

[WV Hunter]

Hey Shawn...
What do you think...if I order a muzzleloader from knight should I stick with 50 cal or get something else...maybe 45 cal..
Sure would like to see a 40 cal ul....that would almost make the tan ul a freebie to be reclaimed....because my wife would take the 40cal ul....I know it....

Well if you want a UL, you don't have a choice. You can get the regular mountaineer in .45, but compared to what you have been using its alot bigger/heavier. They have recently done a couple runs in fast twist, not sure if any of those are available still. I know many folks hope they will come out with the UL in .45 fast twist, but only time will tell. A .40 cal ... probably never gonna happen in a factory gun. You'd have to go custom.

 

[ShawnT]

Hey Shawn...
What do you think...if I order a muzzleloader from knight should I stick with 50 cal or get something else...maybe 45 cal..
Sure would like to see a 40 cal ul....that would almost make the tan ul a freebie to be reclaimed....because my wife would take the 40cal ul....I know it....

Like WV Hunter said no 45cal yet in the UL. I was sort of waiting to see if they came out with one but had started thinking last about retiring my MK-95 50 for a more modern rifle and this UL came up so I grabbed it. As for the .40 cal, I too seriously doubt that will make it into production. I can tell you who would make you one reasonably but it would be a plunger rifle built like my .32cal but you could name your twist and length. They built 2 last fall but I have no idea how they shot.