andrewjoseph

I saw a Knight thumbhole blackpowder shotgun at Cabelas yesterday and have started reading about them a little bit. Does anyone in the forum shoot these and are they fun?

It seems like their hunting applications would not be the same as rifles. I like to have 2 to 5 shots when Im phesant or duck hunting.

The rifle was light and seemed like it would be blast to shoot, Im just not sure it would be practical for me.

mauser06

if you dont think its practical for you it probably isnt. not trying to be a smart@$$ or anything just saying. it would be a challenge to wingshoot with a muzzleloader for sure.

i believe that gun is more of a turkey gun. was it the knight TK2000 or whatever they call it? sure you could probably get other chokes but i think that comes standard with a turkey choke..could be wrong though.

i dont shoot a BP shotgun but im dying to get my hands on a flintlock shotgun. found what i want just need the money end of the deal! that to me would be awesome. i may never kill a grouse or pheasant or rabbit with it...but id have a blast trying!! and i REALLY want to hunt spring gobblers with a flintlock shotgun. that would be awesome. big ole smoke cloud on a spring morning..one day ill come up with the cash...hopefully this spring or summer

but i dont plan to hit many birds or bunnys with it. its going to be a big long heavy son of a gun. going to swing like a log and then its going to be a flintlock...by the time i get a shot off the game will be in the next county laughing! by the time i reload my buddys will have left me behind. but that ok. it would be awesome trying!!

Gruntr Huntr

If you like muzzleloaders, you'll have an appreciation for the shotguns, but, if you're wanting the 2-5 shots and you're not sure if they would be practical for you, then you're probably not going to like them. Practicality is definitely NOT a consideration using muzzleloaders. However, using a muzzleloading shotgun is probably an excellent way to learn how to shoot a shotgun effectively, IMHO, because you must learn to follow through with the shot if you want to hit anything!

Gruntr Huntr

Hey mauser06, I've hunted and taken ducks, pheasants, doves, turkeys, rabbits and squirrelswith muzzleloading shotguns. It is awesome! You'll find it's definitely a different experience than with a modern shotgun. The lock time is slower so you have to stay on target after you pull the trigger, and, of course, it takes you longer to reload, but the reward is spectacular!

mauser06

gruntr..thats awesome. i know itll be a new challenge. but thatll be the fun of it. i think if i do my part and follow through i may be decintly successful. but thats my hardest part of shotgunning now is following through.

and ill admit...grouse hunting exspecially im a trigger happy fool. i carry a 12 ga semi loaded with 8 shot. i hunt reallllly thick woods for ruffed grouse though. your odds are greatly against you from the start. pull up to swing into a tree...hearing the bird take out and never seeing it 10 yds away...it is generally thick and nasty. soooo i keep my buddys in tight line with me for safety sake..if i see one i can usually get 2 shots off. if its foolish enough to give me a good shot ill dump 3. lots of brush falls from the sky. funny part is most of the ones i kill are the first shot! but im excited to get my hands on a flinter someday soon. regaurdless its gunna be atleast a year after i get the cash..so itll be a while! lol...

andrewjoseph

Can you shoot more powerful loads with muzzeloading shotguns, can they shoot faster?

Is there an advantage to their performance? Could you create a turkey load equal toor greater in power than one that could be found for traditional shotguns?

donw

andrewjoseph, from what I understand, with that Knight, you can get a tighter group at 40 yards than you can with regular shotguns. It has a great choke on it. Also, you can play with the powder/shot loads much easier to get the best groups. It can also shoot the stoutest loads of all the ML shotguns. I would have purchased it, but I have a CVA Opima Pro which I bought with 50 cal and the shotgun barrel. It cannot shoot as stout of loads as the Knight, but I do get great patterns at 40 yards with 1.5 oz of #5 shot. If I were looking for an upland game ml shotgun, I'd look at one of the doubles by Pedersoli (sold by Cabelas and others.) Oh, one other thing about the Knight is that you can reload it without taking out the choke (unlike mine.)

Tiogaflinter

I use a TC New Englander for turkeys and a fowler 62 for rabbits and tree rats. Both are a blast to shoot, if you enjoy muzzle loaders, shotguns are another area to be investigated. Especially when the gun cabinet gets more ML rifles than I should have.

donw,
what do you shoot that you have to remove the choke?

donw

Tioga, for turkey, I use the multi-metal wad/cups that are too big to go past my choke. Great pattern out to 40 yards, though.

Gotbuck

Ishoot the TK2000 for turkey and it does the job better than my 12 guage. Here is the post I did almost 2 years ago when I got mine.

Hey all, I finally got to tourch off my TK2000 for the first time on saturday. Since I didn't see any deer while bowhunting in the morning I deceided to try the gun.

First shot was 100gr Pyrodex RS Select ffg loose with #6 shot in a 2-3/8" shot wad cup with a foam overshot card using the new 209 kleanbore primers. Target was set at 30yds, and since this was my first time shooting I was shooting offhand while standing. Wow! what power the shot echoed in the valley like a cannon. I had 7 pellets in the brain area and 10 pellets in the spinal column on the target I was really impressed.

Second shot was 90gr Pyrodex with same shot and setup. This time I had 12 pellets in the spinal column and 2 in the brain area. Still impressive.

Third shot was 110gr Pyrodex with same setup. I had 14 pellets in the kill zone and the patterning was a little tighter with the load.

Final shot was at 35 yds with 110gr Pyro. This time I had 8 pellets in the kill zone and 2 in the brain.

I beleive the gun is capable of distances beyond that but I must admit at 35 yds it is hard to see the birds head for me so I didn't want to try it and get erroneous results.

The loading sequence is quite simple. Measure out your load, pour it in the barrel, next load your wad. I looked at Knight's wads but they want way too much for them so I bought 100 3-1/2" wads from Ballistic Products and they are the exact same ones that came with the gun, even red in color. I got a 100 of them for 11.99. www.ballisticproducts.com
Next fill an empty shot cup with your shot then pour it in the barrel. The next step is to place an overshot card on top. I used the foam card that came with the gun but I also picked up 500 cards from ballistic for 7.99.
The shot also came from them in a 25lb bag called Magnum shot #6 and it is very consistent I didn't see and bad pellets.

Cleanup was impressive with the 209s. I looked at the barrel after shooting when I got home and to my surprise it was not fouled at all. I did still clean between shots but the patches were extreamly clean when I did run between shots. Just a habit to clean between shots for me. I probably didn't need to do it. I cleaned the barrel with a bucket of scalding hot water and Knights solvent and it cleaned everything just as expected. The breech plug was not stuck, it actually came free without a hitch and was not fouled, just a quick scrub and it was clean. The hammer was taken apart and cleaned up with no problems. That gun is a pleasure to shoot and the power is impressive. The kick is everything everyone says it to be impressive. If you are not ready it will knock you around. I must say the first shot was unexpected in the recoil dept. I did get it down on the next shots. I've heard if you put an overpowder shot card in between the powder and wad it will help with recoil. I did not try that as I thought it was shooting fine.

After testing It was useless to go back to bowhunting since I beleive that everything within a few mile radius had to hear the gun go off.
The air temp was 60 and sunny and clear a real perfect day shooting. I had filmed the whole shooting sequence but have no idea as to how to transfer from film to computer to the internet.

Great gun. I got mine on an auction site brand new from a Wild Turkey event from a guy who didn't need it for about half of what BassPro and Cabelas wants. I spoke to Knight about the new thumbhole stocks for mine and they are 150 bucks ifI want one.