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I've used a Knight Bighorn for over a decade and have had really good luck with it. In fact it's the only inline muzzleloader I've owned. I was looking at their website the other day and surprised to see most, if not all, of their current production models over 900.00. Anyone think the new versions are worth that kind of money?

The CVA Optima (western version) might be a more cost effective option. Other manufactures/models to consider?

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The only Knight I would consider today is the Vision break action. They have been selling them for $199.

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Originally Posted by aheider
I was looking at their website the other day and surprised to see most, if not all, of their current production models over 900.00. Anyone think the new versions are worth that kind of money?

The CVA Optima (western version) might be a more cost effective option. Other manufactures/models to consider?

Andy

Nope, and I own one. I bought a Knight Mountaineer around 2 years ago. .50 caliber, bare 209 primer. It seems to be very welll made. It's supremely accurate and has a great Timney trigger. The downside is that it's 8 1/2 lbs unloaded with no accessories. Add a rail, scope and sling and you are well over 9 lbs. The stock sucks. It's big, thick, and has a large flat surface on the underside that makes carrying it a chore. Shooting off a rest is fine. Carrying it around in the woods is no fun at all. (I wish I had gotten the Ultralight and maybe I'd like it more.) The real downside is getting a primer in. It's takes a bare primer. The primer has to be inserted into a slot on the bolt face and it ain't easy. Knight makes a sort of Y-shaped capper for it, but one you have a scope on it, the capper doesn't work well. The easiest way is to take the bolt out completely, insert the primer, and then reinsert the bolt. Mine, along with 4 1/2 10oz bottles of Blackhorn 209 powder, is presently up for sale at my gun club.

All in all, it's a welll made, nice looking, good shooting gun that is way too heavy and over engineered to the point of being annoying. Break open muzzleloaders are simply a better design.

I also own a Traditions Pursuit XT .50. It's way lighter, handier, almost as accurate, and much, much easier to cap. I have a musket cap breach plug and firing pin, as well as a 209 breech plug and firing pin for it. It's not scoped but has decent Williams metal fiber optic sights. I much prefer it to the Knight.

Last edited by 10Glocks; 11/26/22.
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Andy - I’d say the Ultra-lite is close to the $900 value, but I’m in agreement 10 on the rest. They’re well made, but heavyweights.

I shoot 10-20 Knight rifles a year - from m-85, LK-93, Bighorn, Disc, Disc Extreme, to the Ultralite. I’ve finally phased out the LK93s for all DISC rifles.

The older DISC rifles with the 22 inch barrels aren’t bad to carry - if you can find a clean one. The red plastic jacket primer set up isn’t terrible to load in my experience, but the bare primer can be the challenge loading as discussed above.

I think you’re still restricted to percussion caps? The Knight haven’t been hard to load with caps, I’ve got one Ultra lite barrel set up with the Western bolt and #11, it’s fine with loose powder.

If you can use a sabot - Knight has a few .52 caliber Extremes left that are on sale. Those are a decent value. With a gray sabot, you’re launching standard large caliber bullets .452 IIRC. The twist is a little faster on the .52 as well.

I can say that nearly all of the Knights have been 3-4 inches accurate at 100, with the majority closer to 1-2 inches with out much work - two 777 pellets and a Hornady or Nosler 300 grain sabot load.

All that said - the CVA Optima is good choice, I’ve got numerous hunting associates that swear by them.

Last edited by AH64guy; 11/26/22.
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Thanks, appreciate the info!

Unfortunately I am restricted to open sights, loose powder, no sabot or plastic bases on bullets, and the breech must be open to the elements... Good times laugh

I noticed that the CVA breech plug appears to have a small diameter flash hole all the way through, as opposed to the knight breech plug that I'm familiar with has a fairly large hole (1/4" or so) and easy to clean. Is the CVA a pain to clean or can you use something small to easily clean it out?

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I use pipe cleaners in the primer end of the Knight plug, and a set of acetylene picks for the torch hole.

Go easy and you’ll clean the channel without opening it up. The Optima shouldn’t be much different.

I’ve got one Ultra Lite barrel set up with #11s just for Idaho - same restrictions for the most part.

Last edited by AH64guy; 11/26/22.
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Go easy and you’ll clean the channel without opening it up

You will never "open up" the flash channel with routine cleaning with a 5/32 drill bit (by hand) and even if you managed to do it you wont hurt a thing. The flash HOLE though is an entirely different matter. Just removing .005 of material from the flash HOLE and the plug, nipple or vent liner is likely toast. Thats why you buy a Lehigh bare primer plug made from 17-4 stainless with a removable vent liner. About $6 then to place when needed.

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Originally Posted by Overkill45
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Go easy and you’ll clean the channel without opening it up

You will never "open up" the flash channel with routine cleaning with a 5/32 drill bit (by hand) and even if you managed to do it you wont hurt a thing. The flash HOLE though is an entirely different matter. Just removing .005 of material from the flash HOLE and the plug, nipple or vent liner is likely toast. Thats why you buy a Lehigh bare primer plug made from 17-4 stainless with a removable vent liner. About $6 then to place when needed.

I bought one of those liners but never used it. Passed it on to my son when I returned to the fold and sold my Knight. He says it fixed all the sticky primer nonsense with his.


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Yep, and to top it off the Lehigh/SSK breech plugs cost less than a Knight OEM plug. Knight chose to go with 416SS and brazed in the vent liner but Lehigh/SSK was making them for Knight at one time. The plugs Knight sells that say "vented" have the vent liner brazed in and its a pita to replace.

The real beauty of the Knight DISC Elite/Extreme type rifles is that most parts interchange. So for example if you bought a Mountaineer but wanted to save some weight you can swap out the barreled action for a Ultra lite barrel kit. Those were just on sale for about $290 shipped. You could do the same thing to an Extreme but you will need another breech plug and maybe minor inletting for the recoil lug. Just use an Elite stock though and it will drop right in. Not all Extreme stocks are inlet for both lugs.

https://www.muzzleloaders.com/product-category/muzzleloader-shooting-supplies/muzzleloader-barrels/

Plus Knights can be converted from FPJ to bare primer to Western within minutes. Although the Western conversion kit is pretty expensive and i have not found a cheaper way around it. Personally i would not bother with percussion and a DISC based rifle. I would look for an older model like the MK85. Its a much simpler design and a better choice if just hunting states with the open ignition requirement. If you hunt other states then the Ultra Lite would be the best choice in Western and then buy the parts to convert it to bare primer. Sportmans sells the kit for under $70 with the OEM Knight plug. It will get you by long enough to get the Lehigh/SSK plug and a pack of vent liners.

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If you can use a sabot - Knight has a few .52 caliber Extremes left that are on sale. Those are a decent value. With a gray sabot, you’re launching standard large caliber bullets .452 IIRC. The twist is a little faster on the .52 as well.

Knight 52cal sabots are for .475cal (magenta) and .458 (silver) bullets. There is no option for .452. You can find a few lead conicals for the 52s if you dont mind shooting big lead. Parker sells some that are very expensive and there was a guy on the auction sites selling them too. Great caliber actually if you want to shoot 458s in sabots. The 52cal sabots handle hot loads well.

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Originally Posted by LeonHitchcox
The only Knight I would consider today is the Vision break action. They have been selling them for $199.

You better be a "big boy" if you want to handle a Vision. They are far from tiny and the LOP makes it feel huge. Otherwise they are a well made rifle for $200.

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Nothing wrong with the Optima. I’m happy with mine.

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I bought a knighhawk thumb hole stainless/syn and added a williams target foolproof to it. I miunted the sight at the rear of the action. The knight is harder to clean by about 5 minutes but do much finer details and quality than my other inlines that I am not likely to shoot the others myself. They're just loaners now.

I killed a deer this weekend with a 500gr bullet at 175 yards....hit point of aim.


Originally Posted by BrentD

I would not buy something that runs on any kind of primer given the possibility of primer shortages and even regulations. In fact, why not buy a flintlock? Really. Rocks aren't going away anytime soon.

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