I have the "American hardwood" model with blued barrel. It handles well and is very accurate up to about 150 yards. It does get dirty fast with it's open breach area and you should protect the scope from primer flash. If memory serves me right (I've been messing around with Knight rifles for the past several years) it did it's best with 85 grs (volume) of FFFg T7, 250 gr XTP, .50/.45cal short smooth black Harvester sabot and CCI #11 cap. It has about a 21" working barrel so adding more powder did not seem to gain me anything. I had poor results using the 209 conversion kit so I went back to the #11. I have noticed that if you don't seat the #11 cap well, the first pull of the trigger will seat it for you and you will need to try again.