Knight .45 Disk Extreme Sabot ?

[13point]

What Sabot do you suggest to use in a Disk Extreme .45 with Barnes Expander 195 gr. .400 bullets?

Thanks

[GMB54-120]

My Elite 45 is right at .451 and prefers Harvester Smooth Blue or CRs with heavy loads and it does pretty good with MMP tans using lighter loads and bullets.

[mike.dawson]

+1 on the Harvesters

Mike

[sisko]

Thanks to 13point for posting this question for me.

The Knight Disc Extreme .45 I have shoots very good IMO. 13point has seen the groups I have shot with the gun, but I really want to work up a sweet pet load for the gun. Here is what I have planned and would like input from the fourm.

BH209 - going to start with 80 gr and work my way up.
Bullet - Barnes Expander Muzzleloading Bullets .40 Caliber 195 Grain Hollow Point Flat Base Lead-Free
Sabot - Harvester .45 Cal Crushed Rib Sabot for .400 Cal Bullet
209 Primer - Standard non-muzzleloading primer

Does anyone see any changes I need to make to my plan? Does anyone have a better starting point that might save me some time or headache?

Thanks in advance for your help.

sisko

[sabotloader]

sisko

Just like to jump in and add some points... first off the sabot, I have for myself the MMP - light tan offers better consistentcy than does the Harvester - not that the Harvester is bad, I just prefer the light tan. For me it loads a bit tighter and smoother in the colder temps. With BH you are going to want a snug sabot to get the most out of BH especially with the lighter bullets.

I understand why a lot of people prefer the Harvester, one because of price and the other reason being the cups do not look as stressed with the Harvester as they do with the MMP. You can see what I am talking about with this picture.



I sent this to MMP, they looked at it and felt there was not concern about sabot cup failure even at the high load volume I was using.

This chart is the results of that testing.



Another thing you mentioned was using normal 209 primers in your Knight. The Knight breech plug might not be the best for regular 209's. The flash channel is narrow and may fill with carbon, the flash hole is also small and may reduce the heat you get to the powder. Lehigh does make a NFPJ conversion that will work well with a regular 209. One thing you might want to make for yourself is a drill bit set up that you can clean the flash channel with every few shots to prevent hang fires.

I made these long handle bit holder so that I did not have to remove the BP - just pull the bolt and turn the bit in the flas channel - 1/8" bit. Remember you are just cleaning the channel not the tiny flas hole.



I settled on 110 grains of T7-2f for my shooting and hunting which has nothing to do with your choice of BH, but you can easily start higher than 80 grains.

Good luck

[sisko]

sabotloader, thanks a ton for the info. I will have to take time tonight to go through all your data. I went ahead an ordered some MMP Tan Sabots and I do plan to purchase a Genertation II Breech Plug Kit for Knight DISC Extreme and Elite from Lehigh soon, but not for this first round off shooting next week. It looks like I have some homework to do, but this is the kind of homework I like. Again thanks a ton.

sisko

[sisko]

sabotloader, Me & 13point went to the range on Wednesday to shoot my Knight. I had worked on the trigger based on your illustration on the other post, but I will need to do some more tweaking to get it where I like it. I only shot 9 rounds this outing, but they sure built my confidence in the gun. The last 4 shots were roughly a 1.25" and 1 of the 4 was inside a previous hole. I only shot 9 times for 2 reasons. Reason one is that the night before I broke a screw in the scope rings while remounting my scope. Reason two was that I do not have the Lehigh breech plug conversation yet, plus the BH209 is quite expensive to shoot. I went with your suggestion of MMP sabots & started out with 90 grians and shot all 9 rounds with the same setup. I plan a another trip back to the range with 13point during our Christmas break and by then I should have the Lehigh breech plug conversation on my Knight. Again, thanks a ton for the help.

[GMB54-120]

SISKO

Although i have had good luck with a few loads using the Harvesters, the MMPs IMO are more consistent overall. Noticeably more in the cold. The tighter fit seems to help with BH209 and really helps with the shorter bearing surface bullets like 180gr XTPs or GoldDots.

I use the MMP light tan with the Barnes and they shoot just fine. Using the Harvesters a light Knurling will tighten them up and ive started doing this to several bullets with good results. Especially with the Barnes.

90grs of BH209 with either 180gr in a MMP tan is consistently accurate in both of my 45s. I attribute this to the snug fit and the thinner powder pocket skirt edge expanding to full bore quicker.

This faster seal seems to help BH209 build its pressure at a more consistent curve. I dont use T7 (yet) in my 45s so i cant comment on that.

Once i hit about 110-120gr of BH209 the results become a bit more mixed with 200gr+ bullets. Both shoot pretty well at 110gr but after that the Harvester Smooth has a slight edge in my guns with 200gr bullets. The more BH209 fouling in the bore the better the Harvester shoot for me also but first shot POI, the MMP seems to win every time.

I dont really care for the Crushribs at all unless the bullet is .401 or larger. Ive used .406 diameter hardcast bullets with pretty good results and they load surprisingly easy.

BTW you will love the Lehigh NFPJ conversion in the 45. The vent liner pocket is .500 and creates an effect similar to a bottle neck centerfire cartridge. It is my opinion that im even getting more fps using the Lehigh NFPJ. Quality is FIRST RATE and the machine work is second to none.