Knight Disc Rifle

[mjgonzo]

I just bought a used Knight .50 cal disc rifle. It is mt first muzzleloader. Does anyone have any experiecne with this rifle (good or bad)? Are there any things I should do or look for to get the best performance from this rifle?

Thanks
Gonzo

[arcticap]

There's a lot of different powders, sabots and bullets to try out. Most recommend using loose powder instead of pellets and swabbing between shots. Some might even recommend using certain primers like the Winchester 777's.

Most of the bulk sabots are made with slightly different diameters which have different loading and shooting characteristics. To learn more about their differences, visit these these 2 manufacturers websites for details:

http://www.mmpsabots.com/

http://www.harvesterbullets.com/

But if you want some specific tips from seasoned inline shooters who may have knowledge about your Knight rifle, the folks on this black powder forum will be very helpful:

http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/

You can learn a lot just by reading their posts and asking a few questions. :)

[SamStafford]

My Granpa used to have a Knight Disc Rifle in .50 and he said the pellets were hard to shoot. He always used loose powder. ;)

[Mark whiz]

I shoot an earlier Knight Model (USAK that still uses #11 caps for ignition), but I think a lot of things are similiar for Knights.

Like SamStafford said, I highly recommend loose powder over pellets. Loose is more controlable and more adjustable. I've settled on Triple Se7en powder for now as the other substitutes like American Pioneer, BlackMag, Shockey's Gold are less powerful and have issues with moisture. If you have access to true 2fg black powder like Goex, Elephant, etc I would definitely give those a try too.

Fight the urge to shoot lightweight bullets at hyper velocities - that works for centerfire rifles, but not so good with muzzleloaders.

I've found that sabot bullets from 300gr up to 400gr give me my best accuracy and have been devastating on game.

As arcticap suggested, the MMP sabots have always worked marvelously for me.

As far as bullet choice goes, the Hornady 300gr XTP Mags and 300gr SSTs give me fantastic accuracy over 80gr of 2fg 777 powder. The bullets made by http://www.prbullet.com/ have worked well for me and are my hunting bullets of choice.

Since you'll be using 209 primers in the Disc, I would suggest doing a little research and see what people say are the "coolest" brand of primers - as 777 powder can cause crud build up around the breech plug with really hot primers and loads..............plus really hot primers can actually start moving the bullet before the powder fully ignites which can hurt accuracy.

That should give you some food for thought for the present.

Good Luck

[220combat]

The best recommendation I have to to buy as many disks as possible. Knight is closing it's doors for good, and there is no after market manufacturer for the disks. I'm sure someone will be making them eventually, But you should be prepared to search for them. Here is the link to Knights website with information.

http://www.knightrifles.com/

[Andy Griffith]

Originally posted by 220combat:

The best recommendation I have to to buy as many disks as possible. Knight is closing it's doors for good, and there is no after market manufacturer for the disks. I'm sure someone will be making them eventually, But you should be prepared to search for them. Here is the link to Knights website with information.



Actually, I would suggest ordering one of the non-disk conversions which are all steel and do not use disposable "disks." Nothing else to buy, and less hassle!

[UtahHunting]

The best recommendation I have to to buy as many disks as possible. Knight is closing it's doors for good, and there is no after market manufacturer for the disks. I'm sure someone will be making them eventually, But you should be prepared to search for them. Here is the link to Knights website with information.

I wouldn't be to concerned with this. You will still be able to get parts and accessories for your Knight rifle.

Taken from their website.....

Sales of Knight’s parts and accessories will be also be handled by Modern Muzzleloading, Inc

As someone mentioned, if you are worried about it buy the conversion kit so you don't have to use the discs.

[mjgonzo]

thanks for all of the great information. A friend gave me a couple of different powders to try. I will pick up a few different kind of bullets and spend a day working up a good load.