Knight Colorado load

bragabit · Jun 5, 2007

My brother drew a unit 55 muzzleloader tag. He has always shot sabots with powder pellets. He has a Knight DISC rifle and is looking for a good starting point for a Colorado combination of Conicle and powder. He just bought some 295gr powerbelts with the aerotip. He also bought some conicles made by Precision Rifle(PR Bullets). He bought a canister of 777 powder so he is ready to get started. If anyone has had good results with any of these items out of a Knight please help us out. Thank You

bigblock455 · Jun 5, 2007

Im not sure if he likes the bigger bullets but my load for my winchester is a 385 grain hornady great plains bullet over 90 grains triple 7 and a cci shotgun primer. Whats he hunting? deer or elk?

txhunter58 · Jun 5, 2007

My starting point would be the platinum 338 grain powerbelts, the 405 grain aerotip powerbelts, the T/C 370 grain maxiballs, or the 460 grain no excuses bullets. Plenty of elk taken with 295's, but I just want more lead.

777 loose powder with the Wincherster triple 7-209 primers. They are "cooler" and don't form as much of a crud ring with 777 powder.

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)

txhunter58 · Jun 5, 2007

Oops, if you were talking about mule deer, then the 295 grain would probably be ok, but I would still try the 338 platinum and the 370 grain maxiballs.

Any powder between 80 and 110 grains will be more than adequate. The is NO need to go any higher with 777. I am talking about ffg.

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)

fairchase · Jun 6, 2007

385gr T/C Maxiball and 100gr loose Pyrodex, would be my starting point. Good luck.

bragabit · Jun 6, 2007

LAST EDITED ON Jun-06-07 AT 03:39PM (MST)[p]I guess I should have clarified he will be hunting deer. When you get up close to 400gr bullet in a .50 cal do you exceed the 2x length/bore size restriction. I don't know if I understand this restriction but I read the maximum length for a .50 caliber bullet is 1 inch. Thanks

fairchase · Jun 6, 2007

If you choose to go with a hollow point conical you will hit the length limit at about 390 gr. with some designs. However, if you stick with a solid nose you can get bullets up to 450 gr and still be legal. It all depends on the shape of the bullets nose and the type side walls it uses to hold lube...a knurled conical will be much heavier for its length.
Check this site http://www.prbullet.com/ lots of good info there. I still like my first choice though, Maxiballs just shoot well in my Green Mountain 1-28 barrels as long as I keep the speed below 1400fps.

txhunter58 · Jun 7, 2007

The No excuses 460 grain bullet is colorado legal. The 405 aerotip powerbelt is legal. Not sure about the 444 grain powerbelt.

Speaking of green mt barrels, I just got one this week for my renegade! Plan on trying it out this weekend. Will be shooting some T/C maxiballs through it and some no excuses. I am going for elk this fall in Colorado, so now I have to chose between the new green mt and my Omega. We will see.

By the way, where are you finding 385 grain T/C maxiballs, I can only find 370 grain?

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)

fairchase · Jun 8, 2007

Tx, My bad, they are 370's. I've got 385 in my head from the Barnes Spitfire I'm currently loading...LOL...thanks for keeping a check on me.

Cow Tag · Jun 10, 2007

Hunters, My Colorado load for muzzleloader elk hunting is the 405 grain Power Belt bullet propelled by 110 grains of 777. My hunting rifle is the Remington model 700 in .54 caliber. My accuracy at 100 yards is just OK and I am talking using the bench rest here too. What other bullet that is Colorado legal would any of you recommend for me to try this summer in preparation for my September visit to Unit 61 in Colorado for a cow elk? Loose Triple 7 powder and the Power Belt bullets have the plastic tip inserted within the nose. Need some advice here so please fire away!

bragabit · Jun 10, 2007

LAST EDITED ON Jun-10-07 AT 09:54PM (MST)[p]Cowtag,
The first thing I would try is a maybe a little less powder. 100 grains of 777 would provide plenty of energy, and I will bet it will tighten your groups up. Try this before spending a bunch of money on new bullets.

txhunter58 · Jun 10, 2007

90 grains would be more than adequate also if the accuracy improves. That would supply you more than 100 grains equivalent of black powder/pyrodex

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)

COLOelkman · Jun 11, 2007

I've used 100 grains of 777 with a TC maxi ball 370 gr conical for elk. I haven't had time to chronograph the load to see if more powder adds velocity or accuracy. So I only know that 100 gr in my Knight Revolution was extremely accurate @ 50 yds. I need to spend some more time experimenting.

I would add that I have had some bad experience with powerbelts in general although I've not tried the platinum which I thought are intended to stay together better. I've found that powerbelts fragment more than I'd like and I've lost a couple elk that I good steady shots on, but didn't find the animal. You might also check out the "Best bullet for elk" string for some other discussion on this subject. From what I can see from these threads, many people have experienced the fragmenting with powerbelts but I hadn't seen any similar complaints on conicals. You won't find that out at the range either but only after hunting. So I think accuracy has some value but isn't the only important factor. Although I'm not a powerbelt fan, I have taken a few with powerbelts but was surprised by the fragmenting when dressing out the animal. I've found the discussions here confirm some of my own suspicions.

Cow Tag · Jun 11, 2007

LAST EDITED ON Jun-11-07 AT 08:44PM (MST)[p]Dear Elk Man, thanks for your imput and I appreciate it. I read the information about the elk bullets and load on this webpage with interest. What other bullets are Colorado legal and good for the HUNT? I looked up the Parker bullets but they looked like SABOTS. Some hunters liked the TC Maxiball bullets. Any opinion of them? How hard are they to load down a once shot muzzle loader barrel? I will try the 100 grains of Triple Seven powder and see if my groups improve. I forgot the math calculations on black powder equivalent to 777. Can anyone remember the method to make black powder and 777 equal on a volume basis??? Thanks for your opinions. CowTag from southern Illinois.

COLOelkman · Jun 17, 2007

I'm not positive on all the reg's on bullets but basically powerbelts and conicals are fine and sabots are illegal. This is assuming you're hunting the black powder season. There is a limint on the length of the bullet which I'd have to look up but it'd have to be pretty big to hit the limit. I've shot TC maxi balls with 100g of 777 in my Knight revolution. I haven't fine tuned the powder via chronograph or anything but this is the load suggested to me my the Knight Rep at a show in Denver. I've also tried several other powders and the 777 just seemed to give me a better pattern although I think others could work but I just hit one that worked well. The TC's are quite easy to find around here anyway (Denver) but there are probably other conicals that would probably be fine. I haven't had too much trouble loading 4 or 5 in a row but I do swab the barrel once after each shot with a spit patch with I'd read about a while back. I don't have the specific link on that but it made sense to me and apparantly also helps accuracy. Don't happen to know the equivalent of 777 with BP either....sorry.

txhunter58 · Jun 17, 2007

777 is conisdered 15% stronger by volume than BP or pyrodex.

In other words, 100 gr. 777 = 115 grains BP

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)

OutdoorWriter · Jun 19, 2007

Chad,,

See my PM to you! -TONY

Rem308 · Jun 19, 2007

I shoot the aero tip 295 for elk and hollow point 245 for deer and they both group arround 3 inch's at 100 yards with 100 grains of 777.Shooting a Knight LK93.

bigblock455 · Jun 19, 2007

have you killed any elk with the 295?

Idahoron · Jun 19, 2007

I have done a lot of chronograph work with pyrodex select 2F and 777 2F. The T7 is HOT!!! 70 grains is right at equal to 100 gr of pyrodex select. 85 gr gave a friend of mine over 1500 FPS with a 410 gr Hornady great plains and a 21" barrel. He shot that load three times and it broke his stock. That 85 gr load was 300 feet per second faster than pyrodex select.
110 grains of 777 is a load I don't need or want in my gun. My gun never shot worth a dang with T7 at all.
I agree with the other guys back that load off and try it again. Also on bullets that have a flat base try a wool wad between the powder and Bullet. Make sure you use a good lube on the wad like Hornadys bullet lube.
I would also try the Hornady 410 gr Great plains bullet if any of the guns are 50 cal. My guns love them. Ron

Rem308 · Jun 20, 2007

WE Took a 4x5 in 1996 with the 348 hollow point BlackBelt,before it was called the Powerbelt then in 2000 and 2002 took 5x5 both years with the 295's aerotip , one at about 50 yards and the other at about 12 yards.All 3 elk required a second shot to finish them off.They all went down within 50-60 yards but tried to get back on there feet untill finished them with a second shot.