im thinking about buying a western knight muzzleloader. was thinking either the mountineer or the big horn. anyone own either of these? the higher price of the mountineer worth it?
I personally really do like the Knight line up. For your questions I would offer these thoughts...
1. If you plan on only hunting the short ML seasons and then the rifle will be put away until the next season - probably the most economical rifle for you might be the Big Horn. You can order it with a Western Edition breech system and then choose the percussion cap you might want to use. And again personally I would use a #11 Mag or RWS 1075+ percussion cap.

2. If you think you might use the muzzleloader for more than just ML season or you might hunt in other areas that allow 209 or primer ignition then the Mountaineer might be the rifle for you. The versatility of the available options in the Mountaineer series could provide many more options for hunting.
I have a Mountaineer set up for Western Hunting and it works very well.

But I believe an even better option might exist. My favorite Western Edition Knight is a Mountaineer series rifle but is called the Ultra-Lite.
Here the rifle is set up for Western ready hunting.

And with the swap of a few parts - I change mine out and use it during regular rifle season also

The U-Lite does have a shorter barrel, a light weight strong Kevlar stock with and internal bedding block built into the stock.

Also if you want to reduce the price of the rifle you might choose to by - there really is nothing wrong with the new DISC Extreme. The DISC Extreme offers most of the same advantageous as does the Mountaineer series.
