First Range day with New Knight Ultra-Lite.

[Utah400elk]

I am sure this is not a new story line…I was really lucky and drew a NM unit 15 Muzzleloader tag for the late season. I have had a 50 Cal Knight Disc Extreme that shoots 460 grn NoExcuse conical at about 1400 FPS really well. It will shoot a 2-3 inch three shot group with a Williams peep at 100 yards (limited only by my eyesight). However, the drop on that load at range is a bit extreme. It’s really a 100-150 max range rifle.

When I bought the Disc Extreme, I really wanted the Ultra-Lite. The sales person at Knight actually recommended the Disc Extreme in 50 over the 50 Ultra-Lite after I explained it was being set up for Colorado hunting. Well, now that I have a NM tag I felt it was the perfect excuse to get a 45 caliber Ultra-Lite. The is obviously the Nitride finish and is topped with a Leupold VX5 2-10 scope. The rifle with the scope weight in at about 8.5 pounds total.

I am setting the rifle up for full bore sized bullets. In researching this 45 I had a hard time finding true velocities. In an effort to help out the next person…

I had my first range day today.

I tried three different bullets today. They were 300 grn Ballistic Extreme , 275 grn Arrowhead LR and 300 grn arrowhead LR.

I was shooting BH209 and CCI Mag primers.

I shot three test strings with each bullet using 78, 80.5 and 82 grns ( by weight) BH 209.

Ballistic Extreme 300

78 grns= 1929 FPS
80.5 grns= 2011 FPS
82 grns= 2050 FPS

Arrowhead 275 LR

78 grns= 1999 FPS
80.5 grns= 2084 FPS
82. grns= 2100 FPS

Arrowhead 300 LR

78. grns= 2005 FPS
80.5 grns= 2035 FPS
82. grns= 2074 FPS

The Arrowhead 300 LR with the 82 grns gave me a single ragged hole and shows real promise. However…this round does have a bit of recoil. The 275 LR were a very close 2nd with the 80.5 grns. This was just a little,bit bigger group than the 300 gr LR. Could have been shooter error.

Next range day I will be testing the Arrowhead XLD in both 275 and 300. I will also post the velocities for these rounds at muzzle and 100 to see what BC I get at these velocity.

I hope this helps somebody when they start looking to go this route.

On a side note…my son has a Colorado unit 201 cow tag and was shooting my disc extreme very well today. We have a very busy fall but will update this as we go.

 

[Baddog]

Thanks for the info

 

[Utah400elk]

Ok. Second date update…JK

2nd range day update…

First range info:

95°
429 foot elevation
30.23 inHg
57% Humidity

I shot two different bullets

First was 275 grn Arrowhead XLD with 80.5 BH 209 by weight with CCI mag primers

Average muzzle velocity was 2073 fps and the average 100 yard velocity was 1882 fps.

This gave me a realistic 1.5 MOA. There was one flyer that I will claim but it was not as good as a group as I had hoped.

Next was the 300 grn Arrowhead XLD with 82 grns by weight BH 209 with CCI mag primers.

Average muzzle velocity was 2043 fps and the average 100 yard velocity was 1870 fps.
this gave me a solid 1/2 MOA group. I had to switch lot numbers for this bullet with the BH209. It dropped a little more than I expected so I might need to play with the weight just a little. I shot two different group. The first group was 1.5 inches high. I adjusted my scope down 6 clicks and got a second 1/2 MOA group. Unless something drastic happens…This will be my hunting round.

JBM calculator gives me the following BCs:

275 XLD G1=.378
300 XLD G1=.395.

Please let me know if my math is wrong…Also, does anybody know if you can use a G7 BC for a muzzleloader bullet?

I will shoot a few more times then send this to Bestill for a new breech plug.

 

[Utah400elk]

The bottom group is a 3 shot hundred yard group. The upper group is a 9 shot group after a small adjustment on the scope. I am starting to get a fair bit of blowback on the primers and velocity is dropping a little bit. I have done the shimming and was getting clean primers the first time at the range but it is getting progressively worse. I am sending this off for a Bestill Breech plug next week. I don’t think I can ask much more from this load or rifle. I am very happy with the results so far.

 

[Kopmana]

The bottom group is a 3 shot hundred yard group. The upper group is a 9 shot group after a small adjustment on the scope. I am starting to get a fair bit of blowback on the primers and velocity is dropping a little bit. I have done the shimming and was getting clean primers the first time at the range but it is getting progressively worse. I am sending this off for a Bestill Breech plug next week. I don’t think I can ask much more from this load or rifle. I am very happy with the results so far.

Awesome shooting! thank you for all the info on loads, and how they worked for you. Is the gun still shooting good with the 300 grain XLD? I just ordered a new Knight UL in 45 caliber two days ago, and am patiently waiting for it to come. In the meantime I'm researching bullets. Did you size the 300 grain XLD's? what size/diameter shot best from your gun? are you still running them today?

 

[Utah400elk]

I sold my UL and am patiently waiting for a new Arrowhead custom build. The 300 XLD shot great for me. I bought a sizer and sized them so that they could be loaded with one hand but with a fair bit of force. I would still be shooting them if I kept the same rifle.

 

[ENCORE]

You'll likely get increased velocity if you measure your BH by VOLUME. Now I imagine many are going nuts after that statement but, I'll explain.
It has always been suggested by Western to measure by volume. However, Western also gave a conversion number for those who wanted to weigh the propellant, which is .7.

Because of the cylinder size variation, BH varies in weight from lot to lot number. This has been known for well over a decade. Examples ONLY. Take a 120gr VOLUME charge of lot#26 and weigh it and it could weigh 91grs average. Lot#27 could weigh an average of 82grs. Do the same for lot#29 and it weighs 96.1grs average.

So if you're weighing charges ONLY, you could very well be slighting yourself on velocity.

VOLUME IS VOLUME. Get a quality volume measure and set it at 120grs. Fill it with BH and tap if you like. VOLUME IS VOLUME. Do say a dozen of them and weigh each, then average those weights. Then.... use that average weight. Remember.......... any time you change lot numbers, repeat the process.

In the example above for lot#29, that is the weight of 120grs VOLUME, 96grs average. There are a few of us shooting a 1,000yd match next month and are using the same lot. 96grs is the average for each of us .

I backed down to 94grs weight and I'm shooting the 350gr XLD's at 2145fps.

The 300gr XLD's are my favorite bullet and the most accurate that I've found.
I had a really good day.......

Two 5 in 1's