Shooting @ the Farm

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sabotloader

Keep Shooting Muzzleloaders - They are a Blast
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It was a cold night and morning here on the Palouse, so I thought the farm fields should be frozen up allowing you to walk on them without sinking to you ankles in the mud. So I quickly loaded up a dozen tubes of BH209 (120 gr. Vol). Packed the equipment into the truck and headed out.

Got to the farm... it was definitely frozen... Grabbed the range finder and walked some birds (targets) out on the Tundra. First set of birds were placed @ 100 yards. As I shot the range the Range Finder indicated 32* but the ground was really solid. Set the next set of birds out on the hill @ 120/5. Then just cuz I had one left and the ground was hard, I decided to try one @ 175 yards.

This was the view from the bench this morning

100-125-yds.jpg


These are the birds set @ 100 and 125

100-125.jpg


I sight my rifle in with a 3" PBR so at 100 yards I am right at 3" inches high. I shooting the bullet at 2230 fps. (Lehigh .451x230CF-HP). And according to the ballistic calculations I should be @ 2.99 high @ 100. So when I take aim on the 100 yard birds - they are setting right on to of the cross hair. So if everything works right I should hit the bird near the top and just under the rim of the bird.

First three shots went right as planned... This pic shows the 100 yd. birds dispatched and the remaining 120/5 yard birds in the back ground.

125-yds.jpg


Next up were the last 3, and according to my calculations, if I place the bird right on of the X-hair again the bullet should be about 2.57" high. Three more shots

All-Gone.jpg


My last challenge of the day... I bird at 175 yards.... This is the last bird in the shot pattern

175-yd.jpg


Back to the ballistic sheet, and according to it @ 175 yards I should be down 0.67", so I placed the X-hair and the center bead right on the center of the bird. Touched the shot off.

175-gone.jpg


Just for additional information I was shooting:

Knight Ultra-Lite Nitride Edition 50 cal.

Redfield Revenge Hunter Scope 3x9x42 with Accu Range Reticule

BH-209 - 120gr. by Vol

Winchester W 209 primer

MMP HPH-24 Sabot

Bullet - Lehigh Defense .451x230CF-HP

Shoot-Materials.jpg
 
Great shooting! Sounds like another winner.

Shawn, I have no complaints on my original SS ULite - but right now a this moment I really believe this new rifle performs better than the older one. It is really probably all in my pea-picken mind!
 
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I hear ya, but I would take it like that all day long!;) Did that one need shimming?
 
I hear ya, but I would take it like that all day long!;) Did that one need shimming?

Yes... but that is only a part of it... This rifle has a FPJ bolt and primer adapter - which will not work with a Mountaineer/Ulite breech plug.

NFPJ-Breech.jpg


To make everything work, I have to turn approximately 0.020" of the bottom of the Mountaineer/Ulite breech plug then install a 0.015 shim in the primer pocket. If you tried to use a FPJ bolt and primer adapter - the primer adapter runs into the hex nut on the BP and will not close - so you have to make the BP go in deeper so the Adapter clears the hex head.
 
The other alternative is to use the Disc Extreme FPJ plug with the primer adapter. It will fit just right with the adapter without having to shim or turn anything down. When I had my Mountaineer I think I tried about every plug setup possible to get it to seal up tight and not have to deal with seating primers and getting them to drop in and out. After a lot of tinkering I procured a bolt, plug and primer adapter from an old disc extreme. That did the job just right.

Nice shooting sabotloader. Hitting a bird at 175 has got to be a great confidence boost for when it's a deer that's the target.
 
The other alternative is to use the Disc Extreme FPJ plug with the primer adapter. It will fit just right with the adapter without having to shim or turn anything down. When I had my Mountaineer I think I tried about every plug setup possible to get it to seal up tight and not have to deal with seating primers and getting them to drop in and out. After a lot of tinkering I procured a bolt, plug and primer adapter from an old disc extreme. That did the job just right.

Nice shooting sabotloader. Hitting a bird at 175 has got to be a great confidence boost for when it's a deer that's the target.

Not sure about that Kirby... the breech plug for the DISC series is 0.060" shorter than the plug for a Mountaineer.

The DISC Extreme FPJ plug is a Full Plastic Jacket Plug and will not will not accept a bare 209 primer.

You can see the difference in this picture...

DISC-Mnt._Breech_Plug.jpg


Dang! I just cleaned and put back together a ULite or I would give it a try right now - but the next time I have one torn down I will certainly give it a try for sure.
 
I guess maybe something is different with the Ulite but I doubt it? But I'll also concede you know far more than I on anything Knight related. All I can say is that I had a horrible time with sticky primers and a sticky bolt. Once I switched all that stuff over (including the bolt itself) I could drop in my primers, drop them back out, and they were shiny clean when they came out.
 
Shoot now you have me totally curious... I am going to pull the BP on my Mountaineer and give it a try...

Ok.. so I pulled the Bolt from the Mountaineer and installed a Primer Adapter Bolt and a Primer Adapter - It works fine! Now I need to figure out WHAT is different in the Ultra-Lite. The only thing I need to check is my Mountaineer was one of the very early models - so I wonder if the later models are possibly different. But! I need to first figure out the difference in the ULite.
 
I'm not sure. My mountaineer was a .45 1-20 so definitely not an early model. I can't see them changing it up that much? Or at least I wouldn't think so anyway.

You know, now that we're talking about it, I think I still have a bolt handle, a breech plug or two and possibly a western conversion from all my tinkering with the Mountaineer. I ought to find out what I have and list them in the classifieds. They aren't doing me any good sitting on the bench.
 
I'm not sure. My mountaineer was a .45 1-20 so definitely not an early model. I can't see them changing it up that much? Or at least I wouldn't think so anyway.

You know, now that we're talking about it, I think I still have a bolt handle, a breech plug or two and possibly a western conversion from all my tinkering with the Mountaineer. I ought to find out what I have and list them in the classifieds. They aren't doing me any good sitting on the bench.

I am about to strip down a Ultra-Lite and see if I can figure out "What Da Heck"

Yes, I might be interested in what parts you have
 
Let me know what you figure out. I'm curious about it now as well. I always assumed the U Lite was the same, just a trimmed down contour. I can't imagine there would be a reason for them to do anything different to the bolt or action area?

I'll see what I have when I get home from work in a couple hours and send you a PM if you want me to.
 
Let me know what you figure out. I'm curious about it now as well. I always assumed the U Lite was the same, just a trimmed down contour. I can't imagine there would be a reason for them to do anything different to the bolt or action area?

I'll see what I have when I get home from work in a couple hours and send you a PM if you want me to.

You are right! at this point it is or maybe only a U-Lite problem... and you are not going to believe where the difference may lie...

With a regular Mountaineer BP in and snug - when you try to lower the bolt handle it will go about a third of the way down and stop.. If you pull the bolt Stop/Guide pin out from the side of the receiver the bolt works fine and as you described. So now I have to figure out WHY! The odd part is if you take the Primer Adapter out everything works very well. So back to the mechanics to see if I can diagnose WHY?
 
That makes no sense. Why would it be different on just the ULite? So if I'm understanding this right, you can use an Ultra Lite setup in a Mountaineer, but can't use a Mountaineer set up in a ULite?
 
That makes no sense. Why would it be different on just the ULite? So if I'm understanding this right, you can use an Ultra Lite setup in a Mountaineer, but can't use a Mountaineer set up in a ULite?

Got it... I will get some pictures up a little later
 
That is odd. I thought the Ulite was a Mountaineer series rifle?. Very odd. On the other hand I just measured mine up and got a Bestill Plug.:)

Couldn't you just sand off the face of the Adapter the .020. Seems I remember someone else did that but don't remember who and what rifle at the moment.
 

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