PNW Hunting thread

I just got a Knight Ultralight that I need to get dialed in.

 

Have the same ML. Great shooter. Only issue I see is the Hornady SST bullet. I've never had reliable expansion with them. Check out some of the barns bullets. The spit fire TEZ turns the gun into a modern day single shot rifle. The TMZ bullets were hard to load in the same gun.

 

SST muzzleloader bullet specifically? I had good luck with 308 SST. My 30-06 like Barnes Vor-TX. I do have those Barnes bullets for the muzzleloader just haven't tried them yet.

 

All of them. From the 50 cal ML, 12ga shotgun, 44mag, 450 bushmaster and a 25-06. Everything from separation issues, to not expanding. The worst was in the 25-06, completely blew a part on a front shoulder (zero penetration) on a small mule deer buck at about 125 yards. They are cheap, and they do shoot good tho.

 

My eastern Wa bull

 

Blues? That's a niiiiice draw. Thats a big beautiful rack. Well done sir

 

Yes sir, thank you! Next time I draw if it takes the same amount of years I’ll be pushing 50!! And I was complaining packing him out all night at 27 years old haha.

 

I saw a giant about that size down by Packwood the day after season ended. Jdjjdhhfkskkskd!!!

 

Awesome!

 

congrats
Nice bull

 

Thanks Roman!

 

How'd you come out with this? I picked one up this summer and had it in shape for deer season last week. Can't say they are a joy to shoot, but are hella accurate and are a very good hunting gun. I love the light weight and short barrel for stomping around in the brush. It needed a few things to make it hunt worthy, but not a big deal to get done.

 

I still haven't shot it yet, but I did pick up bullets and cleaning patches. What did you do to get it ready? Eventually I will put a peep site on it. I have been getting ready for rifle season so I still have a month before muzzleloader season.

 

I put on a Williams FP-LEGEND site, added a LeHigh breech plug, head spaced the bolt and added a giRamrod, a spinjag, and a Claw sling. I looked at the other available peep sights but didn't like the goofy way you had to adjust windage and/or elevation. I did have to modify the stock just a little bit to make clearance for the sight, but it was like a 10 minute job with a wood chisel. You might have to relieve the bottom of the Williams sight where the bolt handle rotates up with a dremel or file just a tad for clearance. Again, easy mod. The LeHigh breech plug has a changeable vent liner where the stock one doesn't. Eventually, you will expand the flash hole to the point accuracy will suffer. With the Knight breech plug your only fix is to buy a new breech plug for something like $35. The LeHigh breech plug costs like $28 and new vent liners for it cost about $4. Knight doesn't bother to headspace the bolt to get the proper crush on 209 primers to seal the nipple from blow back. The fix is to add some really small washers to the inside of the nipple so the primer bottoms out and the bolt crushes it by a few thou and makes it seal. Once that's done, you don't have anything to clean past the breach plug as nothing blows by the primer. The way to do is here: https://www.modernmuzzleloader.com/threads/shimming-the-209-primer-pocket-updated-4-7-16.28388/ If you need the washers, PM me and I'll send them over. The next thing I'm going to do is drop the fiber optic front sight and put a bead and hood on. The fiber optic isn't great in low light and it really needs a hood to keep from being banged up. If you like the stock front sight, pick up a spare from Knight as you will need to replace it at some point.

The stock ram rod is cheesy. Pick up a giRamrod with a spinjag (don't forget the ram rod extension for cleaning) and you will have a proper setup. I like Claw slings, but that is your preference. I wound up at 95 gr. of BH209 behind a .452x24 LeHigh controlled fracturing bullet for deer. I like MMP HPH24 sabots. I tried Harvester crush ribs, but the shots were erratic. Being a light gun, it kicks like a race horse. It will definitely shoot MOA if you get your powder/bulllet/sabot combination right. The Timney trigger is nice. Get the thing modded out and it's really a fine hunting piece. Way too much recoil to be a lot of fun at the range, but in the woods, it is really tough to beat because of the light weight, shorter barrel, good trigger and really nice accuracy. Enjoy your rifle.

 

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately Idaho has some stupid rules for muzzleloaders so I'm stuck with the musket caps and pure lead power belt bullets. But I will look into the sights and ramrod. You definitely know way more about this stuff than I do, so don't be surprised if I try picking your brain a few times for more advice. Thanks again

 

And I did get a claw sling. They are really nice. I have them on several of my rifles.

 

Ahhhh.... Idaho. Powerbelts aren't my first choice but they'll get the job done. Use FF 777 loose powder. Pellets can be hard to light with a musket cap and loose will let you tune the load for accuracy. I'd start at say 85 gr. and work up in 5 gr increments until the group gets bigger. Measured by volume of course. I would not go any stouter than 130 gr. 777 is more energetic than holy black and frankly, when you get much over 100 gr you will hate shooting that thing. My guess is that you will find the sweet spot at 95-100 gr. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you need more powder for velocity. There's only a couple hundred feet/sec to be gained between 100 and 150 gr. You're shooting a big ol' hunk of lead and it will do the damage regardless of that couple of hundred feet. Tailor your load for a good group and your ability to shoot that group. If you sight for say 3" high at a 100 yards, you can shoot point of aim from 0-150 yards and be on a paper plate. The difference in elevation between 100-200 yards is on the order of 18". Try to take some shots at 200 to see what it really is so you can have an idea of what your hold over needs to be if you need to take one that far. But, I'd rather try to improve the shot before I did that. Let me know what you need. Muzzleloaders are great fun and your Ultra Lite is a marvelous hunting machine.

 

I grew up thinking that all great hunters had to have a custom made leather cobra sling with a big buck or your initials engraved on it. Then I got a Claw for 14 bucks. Great product.

 

100% do no use pellets with your musket caps. They will light them but not very fast. Loose powder all the way.

I have a strong dislike to powerbelts. They work fine on deer but I have witnessed more lost elk than recovered. The ones that I seen recovered have very very little penetration. Use a good quality hard cast lead if you have to use lead if your going after elk.

 

You guys are getting me stoked about trying to figure out the TC Renegade my old man gave me. He hadn't used it in years and couldn't remember what load he was shooting, so it's going to be interesting.