52 Cal Knight Muzzleloader

[Earl E. November]

Interesting concept, but wroth with Questions.
1. Why isn't it on their website?
2. A large lusty lump of lead is great for bigger game such as elk, but probably not needed or even wanted for whitetail.
3. If it is a 52 Caliber, what bullet is it going to shoot, I am not aware of any 52 caliber bullets being manufactured, or Sabots that would allow you to use a true 50 Caliber bullet, and there are precious few of those available.
4. Sounds like it will be a package deal from Knight. Their gun, Their Bullet, Their Sabot??

I guess if I really wanted a 200 yard plus front stuffer, I would probably opt for Savage ML10, and a 200-250 grain bullet with a good BC, a good scope and Bi-pods.
But then Whitetails are pretty much a, "100 yards or less" hunting opportunity anyway.

 

[muddy]

just got back from our Scheel's Knight muzzleloader trainign meeting. Got to shoot this sweet gun quite a bit. Don't have any time to say much on it other than I really like the gun and hope to own one eventually. I'll post a picture of one of the sabots later, they're BIG!!

 

[muddy]

OK, here's what i retained from the shooting meeting, some of which has already been discussed in this topic.

The .52 does indeed ignite the powder from just behind the bullet which causes the pressure to be more constant and consistant at each shot. This technology came about in a VERY interesting way. This was the way the American howitzers shot shells at the Germans in WW2. This was classified information because by doing this they got higher velocities and more accuracy. They could also shoot over 1 mile FARTHER than the Germans howitzers that ignited powder the traditional way from the back of the chamber. Good for us, bad for them. There's your history lesson for the day.

The reason you can't do this type of ignition system in a .50 is that the breech area where the powder would be, would be way too long and narrow therefore being very inefficient. The same concept goes for the .54 except the chamber would be too big. By messing around with several combinations they figured out that a .52 is the best way to go. I shot the .52 with 150 grains of powder and a 375 grain sabot and the accuracy was awesome. Granted that we could only shoot at about 60 yards or so because the range was very short but i witnessed one of our guys pick the gun up, shoot 3 times and have every bullet hole touching. The feet per second specs mentioned earlier are right on the money, as well as some other things. I just know that if I were to have one of the new .52 i wouldn't be shooting that much powder or a bullet that big. I'll try to post a pic of the sabot later, it's quite impressive.

Any othe questions i'll try and answer them as best as i can. I'm tired and the wife and I are babysitting our little niece who is a month old and CRABBy!!!!!!

 

[Waukon1]

Muddy, What is the effective shooting range compared to the 45 and 50? What is the projected selling price?

 

[teeroy]

i have the 2003 catalog in front of me.
a .50 caliber jacketed sabot, with 150 grains of pyrodex, sighted in at 100 yards, is .69 incehs high at 50 yards, and drops 11.39 at 200. i have no idea where the 42 inches of drop could have came from. even with 100 grains of pyrodex, the drop is nowhere near 42 inces with any bullet on the chart.
also there is no mention of the .52. it must be planned for 2004

 

[BW]

My Special Limited Edition Cabela's Catalog has them on page #582 for $530. Item # JD-21-5130

I thought everyone got one of these huge hardbound catalogs. It's got almost 1700 pages in it. Maybe I just spend too much money there.

 

[teeroy]

i have the press release from knight on the .52. you can only use loose tripple 7 powder. the .52 optimal bullet weight is 350-375 grains, with a bullet diameter of.458-.475inches. it boasts an 11% increase in velocity and a 32% increase in energy at 150 yards compared to .50 caliber magnum loads. velocity at the barrel with a .375 grain slug, is 1938ft/sec. at 200 yds, velocity is 1498 (170 less than a .50 using a .350grain) and has 1869 ft/lbs of energy. sighted in at 100 yards, it drops 10.57 inches at 200. a .50 with .350 garin bullet drops 12.97.
the breech plug looks to have a tube on the end of it, which would carry the spark to the front of the powder charge. helping in absorbing recoil is the XCoil recoil pad, which absorbs felt recoil 33% more effectively than the 2nd best recoil pad on the market today. it all seems prety neat, but not enough for me to switch from my disc extreme