School me on muzzleloaders

[bone collector 12]

Found a great deal on a knight bighorn I couldn't pass up,can anyone just give me some insight on powders and billets and all that good stuff

[hillbilli]

there are various powders you can use, I would start with triple seven powder. start with 100grain load. just about any bullet should shoot fine, and have plenty of power at 100grains. (you can vary a little up and down and experiment later, but most likely you wont need to.. ) everyone has their own preference for bullets- but the basic- and really all you need is a 300gr .45 bullet in a sabot, (assuming the rifle is a .50) I would start with the hornady xtp 300gr, or one of several others. often they are sold in a pack, and come with the proper sabots.. (which is a plastic wad that allows firing the .45 pistol bullet in athe .50)..

[BiggLuke]

As a Knight owner myself.... I say, go with Pyrodex 777 pellets.
http://www.hodgdon.com/tripleseven-pellets.html
the pellets are 50 grns. each, so using 2 pellets is perfect for almost any load you could think to shoot out to 100 yards.
Pyrodex is a synthetic black powder, and is water soluable.
Thus....    EASY CLAEN UP!
Just litterally rinse out your muzzle loader with water, and wipe it out dry with clean patches. And you're all done cleaning.

I can draw a smiley face free hand with my knight at 50 yards.
I think it works great.
I also use Powerbelt bullets. So there is no need for a wad between the bullet and powder.
http://powerbeltbullets.com/Store-View.php?id=276
I like the 295 grn. hollow point leads.
Great load.

[bowhunterforever]

I just got a new bighorn myself and I plan on using 777 pellets and a barnes bullet or the bloodlines.

[MountainDevil54]

you'll be much more happier with loose powder 

[Jonathan_S]

you'll be much more happier with loose powder 

  very true.  Less waste, more consistent burn of the charge, no misfires.

[jrebel]

you'll be much more happier with loose powder 

 

[scout/sniper]

As a Knight owner myself.... I say, go with Pyrodex 777 pellets.

I like Pyrodex as well.
Get rid of the #10 caps and use Musket Caps.
With this combination I have never had a misfire. 

[jrebel]

Pyrodex select loose powder....find the grains your gun and bullet like and stay with it.  I know a ton of people that want to shoot 150 grains (max load in most newer muzzy's) and they are horrible shots.  I personally found mine shoots best with 110 grains. 

German musket caps are a must..in my humble opinion.

Good Luck

[scottcrb]

Powder go with hodgdons  777 fffg and a 300 gr bloodline bullet. You can practice with grains from 80-120 but 100 is a good starting point. You may want to use cheaper bullets for sighting and practice.

[hillbilli]

Look at muzzleloader bullets, whether on midwayusa or elsewhere.. you'll see they sell "hornady cheapshot" bullets.. it is 240gr lead hollowpoint, with a sabot. great practice bullet at less cost. (and in my tests a decent whitetail bullet, but I probably wouldnt use it on elk) 100gr saboted bullets out of the muzz with around 100gr of powder are close to the same size and speed as you would get from a .44 magnum carbine. Just like the lever gun 240 grain bulets are good deer medicine, but for elk and big stuff you are probably better off with 300gr or so.. with a possible exception of some of the solid copper bullets like the "barnes expander MZ'....

[bear hunter]

I use 3 pellets =150gr of powder under a 250gr Shockwave works great and tight groups. Great Gun.

[bowhunterforever]

I use 3 pellets =150gr of powder under a 250gr Shockwave works great and tight groups. Great Gun.

What pellets do you use?

[BiggLuke]

Powder sucks....
You have to pour it out JUST right, or your bullet drops.
God forbid you have to reload in the field, ON A WINDY DAY... lol....

Pellets were designed and created for inline muzzle loaders, such as the Knight Bighorn.
I have never had a miss fire because of powder.

Pellets.

[jrebel]

Powder sucks....
You have to pour it out JUST right, or your bullet drops.
God forbid you have to reload in the field, ON A WINDY DAY... lol....

Pellets were designed and created for inline muzzle loaders, such as the Knight Bighorn.
I have never had a miss fire because of powder.

Pellets.

Spoken from a guy that obviously doesn't use loose powder.  LOL (no disrespect meant).  Never seen a difference in performance from load to load with loose powder.  Never have had loose powder blow away.  You can always premeasure / perload your charges so you don't have to do any measurements in the field.....but if you do, it is very easy.  It is a volume measurement...not a weight measurement so all you need is a volume powder gauge. 

The one huge advantage to loose powder is you can work a load.  Pellets you have basically two choices....100 or 150.  I personally have never had a pellet misfire, but I also have never used them.  I have heard to many horror stories.

Seams this is love hate relationship for most muzzleloaders.  Love one and hate the other......lol

[BiggLuke]

Lol...  true that. Love hate.
I used to use powder, because I started with an old Hawken's .45.
But, after realizing I was considering my best load to be 110 grns. with my new bullet and new inline, I soon found that the extra 10 grns only made a difference if I was to shoot at distances beyond what I could really even see an animal at.
For me, the pellets out way the powder, simply for the fact that it takes away one less variable.
And for me, loose black powder is still something I respect very strongly, since a co-worker of mine was hospitalized because he used loose powder. All he did was turn a powder can upside down to empty it out, and BAM!
3rd degree burns on half his body.
Possibly static charge set it off, we don't know.

I have never haerd of that happening with pellets.
    Just saying.
A lot of us switched permanently to pellets after that.

[jrebel]

And for me, loose black powder is still something I respect very strongly, since a co-worker of mine was hospitalized because he used loose powder. All he did was turn a powder can upside down to empty it out, and BAM!
3rd degree burns on half his body.
Possibly static charge set it off, we don't know.

I have never haerd of that happening with pellets.
    Just saying.
A lot of us switched permanently to pellets after that.

You are very correct....loose "black" powder is very volatile.  The synthetics like pyrodex are just as safe as pellets.  Matter of fact it is the same stuff. 

jrebel

[Duffer]

..... and so to sum it all up for the OP, whose ears are probably bleeding by now  , is this:

Every ML, even within the same brand and model, can like something different. That's the fun of 'working up a load'.

Take that wonderful new Knight out to the range and try some stuff    It's not uncommon to find folks on here (and places like Modern M.L.com) selling mass assortments of sabots/conicals. It's a great way to pick up some test bullets because... that's exactly what they did! Buy a bunch of different ones and try them out. 

Keep accurate notes or it gets really confusing!    Pellets are fine if you don't want to mess with loose. Loose is cheaper and gives you more options for powder loads but nothing wrong with 100g baseline for all of your starting bullet tests.

Shoot in 3s for groups. No reason to start long range. 50yds is just fine. Swab between shots.... or don't. Just keep it the same 'cuz you'll definitely see different p.o.i. with clean barrel vs dirty.

and most important is HAVE FUN with it!

btw: clean clean clean after EVERY trip to the range 

[kerrdog]

 

Powder go with hodgdons  777 fffg and a 300 gr bloodline bullet. You can practice with grains from 80-120 but 100 is a good starting point. You may want to use cheaper bullets for sighting and practice.

 

I've been using the 290 grain Barnes TMZ with Harvester Crush Rib Sabots.

[Peregrine]

use musket caps (especially helpful on the wet side)

use tough, mushrooming bullets (straight lead blows up on impact, in my experience, and animals don't go down right away or ever--even with perfect shots).

[superdown]

I shoot a knight bighorn and started with loose powder and have used swiss, goex and triple seven and pyrodex powders i have also used the pyrodex and triple seven pellets and finally settled on the triple seven pellets. I have also shot three different types of powerbelts two different weight of hornady great plains bullets and both maxi and mini balls.what i found that i like the best is two triple seven pellets 100grns a musket cap and a hornady 250grn sst low drag bullet.There was no huge difference in the way any one load shot from another. I think i may have gotten lucky with this bighorn because some people really have to experiment alot with load variation before they find something that performs to their liking in alot of the muzzleloaders .