What sabot for a .452/300 GD in a knight?

[josh...just josh]

First of all I would like to thank all of you for producing such a great wealth of knowledge here. I've been reading archives and posts on here for months. I used to frequent other bp forums, but most of them were more interested in shooting paper at 15 yards with cap and ball revolvers than actually taking game!
I do shoot a somewhat traditional rifle from time to time, I have a TC hawken with a peep sight that I really enjoy (can't get it to shoot worth a hoot though...) but at the end of the day I just to know what will fill my freezer!
I just picked up a great Knight disc extreme and I have trying to find what the sweet load for it is going to be. I learned about the 300 grain gold dots from you guys here and it almost seems too good to be true. Perfect expansion and a .233 BC that makes a lot of the pointy bullets seem lacking (it's a better BC than the 200 gr. sst fyi).
My question is though, what sabot works best with the Knight's barrel? My local shop has the gold dots and some shockwave easy glide sabots but I worry that they will be too loose. Should I go with some black harvester crush ribs instead? I want something that is tight enough to be accurate and ignite BH209, but not so tight that I need a hydraulic press to load. I'm also worried about how accurate the 300 gr GD's are, I've read where people have had issues getting them to group.
Thank you for any info!

[rt_con]

Josh... First off, welcome to the forum !

I shoot the 250gr Gold Dot in my .50 Disc Elite and .50 T/C Omega. I use the Harvester Short Black in the Knight and Harvester Black Crush Rib in the Omega.

Even though both the 250 and 300 Gold Dots are .452 diameter, the 300 has more bearing surface and will probably load tighter. I bet one of the 2 Harvesters above will work for you in the Knight.

Good Luck... Rob

[50calty]

I would go for one of the Harvesters. Just buy a pack of the crushed ribs and short black. Find out what one works for your rifle. Every rifle and barrel is different. It won't take you too long to find out what the gun likes. Fire 10 rounds of each and see what happens. If they shot about the same go for the one that is the easiest to load (probably the crushed ribs). Alot of people use BH209 with the crushed ribs and have awsome accuracy.

[josh...just josh]

Has anyone used the red sabots, the ones meant for smokeless? I just read that they might be a nice midrange between the normal crush rib and the normal black

[Grouse45]

Originally Posted by josh...just josh

Has anyone used the red sabots, the ones meant for smokeless? I just read that they might be a nice midrange between the normal crush rib and the normal black

Those are pretty bad sabots in my opinon. I would use a .452 bullet and a short black mmp sabot in your Knight Extreme. The short black harvester is fine as well. Knight barrels are usually loose compared to T/C'S.

[Semisane]

I've tried the red smokless sabots in several of my guns with Pyrodex and Triple Seven. They didn't work well at all for me.

[Gm54-120]

Ive shot the Speer 45 300gr Unicore softpoint in both MMP 3P EZ and Crushribs in my 50 Extreme with 100gr or more of BH209. It prefers MORE. Maybe mine is a bit tight but both worked within reason. I liked the 45LC 250gr GoldDot Defense bullet better mainly because with just 100gr it shot very well and expands great at low velocity.

BTW the Nosler Partition 45 300gr has about the best SD/BC in its class and are on sale at Wideners for only $23 for 50. Both the 260 and 300 shoot good in my Extreme. The 300gr doesnt come alive until about 105-110grs. Even the Partition 44 250 and 45 260 have fairly good SD and BC.

Im still waiting for a good source of the new DeepCurls in 3 calibers to be available. They are just renamed GoldDot Hunting bullets. Using longer 45cal bullets i use smaller OD sabots and with shorter/lighter bullets i use a bit tighter. My first time out with a new gun, i take MMP "shorts", MMP 3P EZ and black Crushribs.

The Extreme 50 is kind of a powder hog so be prepared to load them a bit warm sometimes to tighten up the groups. Some groups really tighten up at around 110grs of BH209 or T7 equivalent.

I never tried the Red CRs but im guessing they will be very tight in a Knight Extreme 50 and a .452 bullet, maybe a .450 would be ok if you could find any. Those mic out to about .507 and mine is tight enough with a .504 loaded sabot.

[lemoyne]

Muzzle loaders have a bigger tolerance than cartridge guns so what works well for one may not do so well with an other, with the Knight the barrels are usually between .498 and 502 this indicates that going by size the MMP 12 or MMP HPH 24
or the Short Black Harvester [or the long depending on what bullet] are the best to try starting out. The MMP HPH 24 and the Harvesters mentioned are the same petal thickness but I have found that the differences in them cause them to shoot better with different bullets. It may depend on just how much accuracy you are trying to achieve. Some of us work for and get varmint rifle accuracy with our inlines.

[sabotloader]

josh...just josh

I shoot the MMP HPH-24 in my Knights, Remingtons, and TC's.

I really prefer the 24 to any other offering.

If your Knight is an older one - then you will need to use a thicker sabot, like the HPH-12 or the MMP short black....

I also shoot the .452/300 Gold Dot - it shoots great for me... but I believe you have to drive it fairly hard.....