Practical considerations on a first m/l hunt after Christmas in snow in Missouri for deer.

[wildcat westerner]

While we are working on tuning a Knight Disc Extreme 50 caliber for hunting, till it gets back I may as well learn about hunting with a muzzleloader on my first hunt which will be late in snow in MIssouri, after Christmas.
What will be the main challenge to getting off a shot-ignition? If so, how do you deal with this challenge? I have already received plastic devices with 209 shotgun primers. Is there a better, more reliable answer? I note the flashole in the breech plug has a tiny flashole. What is so tiny that it will fit into and clean this flashole properly?
Its been since 1974 since I have last hunted Whitetails, and this will be a quality hunt with a serious landowner with his best being a 179 B&C non typical. Thus, I may have a chance to take a truly memorable buck and do not want to screw this up because of some small mechanical flaw.
There is no way inn the time I can create a good ballistics chart to 300 yards with the wind factors thrown in. Do you know of any of the various tables that exist that work perfectly for a muzzleloading rifle?

Thank you in advance for any help you may choose to give me in this matter.

WW

 

[ENCORE]

JBM - Calculations

jbmballistics.com

 

[wildcat westerner]

Thanks Encore
The gunsmith got the rifle yesterday for the modifications, and I have a large amount of bullets, including your reccomendations, so at some point I can start collecting data to make the JBM computations a workable for mat for my rifle.

WW

 

[Shane Lindsey]

Traditions Breech Plug Cleaning Kit

The Traditions Breech Plug Cleaning Kit combines all the essential tools for cleaning a breech plug into one handy package! This kit has all the...

www.midwayusa.com

This kit has a small file/pick for the small hole and a small drill bit is effective for the longer hole next to where the primer ignites. The other stuff in the kit, meh....

If you want effective ignition with BH209. https://www.muzzleloaders.com/product/209-bare-primer-conversion-kit/

 

[wildcat westerner]

Hi Shane,
I looked at the tiny flashole in my breechplug and wondered how in -ell I was going to clean it properly. Was it not you who suggested I look at the Bestill Ultralite Breech Plug? I have been sucking up all the info I could get so far and believe by the time my hunt rolls around the rifle will be completed and I shall have tested 10 different bullets for it, 2 of which you suggested ,both Sabot and bore rider. I ordered the Midway cleaning kit.

If you don't mind I shall bring you up to date as I continue to learn about Muzzleloading. I perceived that this factory breechplug was no ultra premium, and somebody suggested the Bestill ultralite breech plug. This gunsmith has several improvements on his basic one, but that original plug will do for me, especially for my Missouri hunt. I sent the video of this device to my gunsmith and suspect he will only have to turn off .002-003 to make a perfect fit for the new plug/bolt interface. I suspected that the best powder to use was Blackhorn and in months have never seen any here in the Rockies. Hodgdon was kind enough to let me know they created it and had it on hand-so I ordered all I could. The price+shipping was staggering BUT I recently received 25 pounds of H570 for my .338 Win mag. for free, so it kind of balances out.
My gunsmith will be: changing the thumbhole stock for another with a conventional shape which is camouflaged. This is necessary due to the vernier sight to be mounted on the wrist next Spring to make this weapon legal for New Mexico. This stock will be further modified by adding a longer set screw to hold not only the trigger mechanism in the action, thrugh a custom pillar, but now also the stock itself Both the original set screw for the stock and the newer trigger/ stock set screw will be attached through a steel floor plate. It didn't takea genius to arrive at this conclusion. Reading extensively in reloading of Knight rifles I noted that accuracy suffered. when loads were increased. Of course it did. It was applied physics. As pressure built up with the increased powder loads, that barrelled action was "squirreling around " in that stock held in place by such a small, single screw. So this is how we shall deal with it-the 2 screws set in pillars with a steel floorplate. The stainless steel barreled action bedded properly and the barrel free floated, a Limbsaver recoil pad- The camoed stock we shall use has 1 7/8" by 4 7/8" long buttplate that is hard and serrated. No wonder I was given this rifle! A muzzlebrake threaded to the rifle. I am finicky about triggers and have several Jewells, but this factory trigger seems good to me, so we shall keep it.

So Shane, that's where I am at now.

Thanks ever so much. The enthusiastic shooters on this site have been ever so helpful to me.

 

[Shane Lindsey]

Well sounds like you have a plan for it.

I did not recommend the Bestill plug as I just went with the Knight kits. I recommended the Knight Bare Primer Conversion (what I did to shoot BH209 in my Knight D.I.S.C. which I converted to the Red Plastic Jacket and then to the Bare Primer. I do think the Bestill is a better design, but wasn't sure I could get it for the Knight. This was the easy way to get it to work.

I have found with mine that anything above 73gr by weight with the BH was where it started to get unpredictable. With the 250gr Cutting Edge that gets me 1875 FPS at the muzzle with my 19" barrel and 1448 FPS at 200 yards, which is plenty for my Virginia hunting.

Keep us posted...

 

[wildcat westerner]

Oh MY,
Knight never mentioned anything to me about the conversion you have. They did ,Nonspecifically, mention other after market manufacturers. As I learn more about Knight I realize the basic design was an advancement in muzzleloading. That said, when looking at them from an investment standpoint, they have been restructured three different times.! Kind of reminds me of the Sharps company. The largest supplier of armaments in the U.S. during the Civil War, anything that passed inspection was purchased by Uncle Sam during that period and attempts to copy the design by the Rebels resulted in explosions when firing. With that kind of finances they managed to adopt the basic design to cartridge rifles and ONLY because they could use such large powerful BP cartridges did they become imperative in destroying the buffalo on the plains and thus the Native Americans' hold on the vast prairies. They folded up due to lack of advancement and also ego. They Sharps company refused to accept any other advice as to making the rifle better, even though several gunsmiths in the west sent them modified Sharps that were better than the original design.

Thank YOU Shane