How many times have you heard someone say.. five more grains of powder really don't make a difference. I always kind of felt a rifle has a sweet load and that is what it wants. Today kind of supported my thoughts.

I got my work outside done early when it was cool out. I was going to sit in the house but a rifle kept begging me to go to the range. It was in the 80's today and kind of hot outside. Needless to say I sweat out a gallon or two.

But back to the shooting. I decided to shoot a Knight Model 93 LK series rifle. I have three of them actually. And all are just a little different. It has that flat Knight stock. 22 inch barrel one that got the call today. A tree rifle or stalking rifle to say the least. Nice and light. I checked the card and would have sworn it said 80 grains of Pyrodex RS/240 XTP on it as a favorite load.

So outside I went with some Pyrodex RS powder. Rusty Duck black off for swabbing. A tin of Winchester Magnum #11 caps. Some green .430 harvester crushed rib sabots. And some .430 240 grain XTP's to shoot. This little Knight has a 1x32mm T/C Scope on it. So no magnification at all. I decided because of that and because I did not like walking in the hot sun, I would set the target at 50 yards. I got readings of 50, 51, even 69 which I knew was wrong.

I started shooting on a clean barrel. This rifle when I got it used, was in bad shape. The barrel that is. So because of that I used Bore Conditoner in the bore. So I only dry patched the barrel this time. No alcohol to clean out the bore conditioner. The card said.. dead on at 50 yards. So we would see.



reusing a old target I made an X using black duct tape and white duct tape (what would we do without it?). The first shot was indeed a bulls eye. I was pleased. Then I started shooting for a group. I did not shoot all that bad for a 1x scope. But I felt it should have done better. I was making all kind of excuses.. hot weather (and the barrel was really hot), wind, you name it. So I went into the house to get a cold beverage and happened to look again at the gun card. It said.. 85 grains of Pyrodex RS not 80. But could 5 simple grains make a difference?



Back outside with my large cool beverage (ice water) I cleaned the rifle real good. And made sure the barrel was cool to the touch before I started to shoot. The highest hit of that group was the first shot. Holding dead center on that green square, the cross hairs make it all but disappear. So I had a good target acquisition sight. The rest of the group really made me wonder if 5 grains really can make a difference.

Back in the house for more water, and in the refrigerator were two old apples. What the heck... back out to the range and set them up. I held at five o'clock on each apple at 50 yards and that little XTP just splattered them all over the woods.

I had a lot of fun, and kind of made me wonder if 5 grains is important, or did I just happen to shoot a better group that time. Anyway.. that load should make a nice close range deer stopper.