I had my second range session with my Knight Shadow, .50 cal, stainless with a Green Mountain barelltoday. My first range session was shooting Powerbelts, since that's all that the local Sportsmans Warehouse stocked. They shot ok, but I didn't take my screwdrivers so I could adjust the sights.

Today, I went with a buddy of mine and we started to shoot from 50 yards off my portable bench. Steve went first and had a decent group of 3, so I started to load my gun. I had bought some Hornady Great Plains 410 and 460 grain bullets. I started with the 460. I loaded 80 grains of T7 ffg and then attempted to load the bullet. It didn't fit!!!

I tried and tried with the short bullet starter and it wouldn't go. So I pulled the plug and pushed out the load. The bullet got almost started, but was pealing lead off the bullet. So I tried again with the 410 bullets with the same results.

Talk about disappointed. I then tried one of Steve's .503 No Excuses 460 grains and was able to push it into the barrel with my thumb. They shot good for me with 90 grains of T7 - 3 shot group of 2 inches at 75 yards - which I consider good, since this is my first year with a muzzleloader.

So has anyone else had the same experience with the Great Plains? I'm assuming that my barrel is just too tight for them.