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.

Great report Cayugad. You make a good point. We get in the habit of moving up and down in ten grain increments. But once you find a good load that way it's a good idea to go five grains up and down from that just to see what happens.

That is really a noticable difference. Next time why not try the 85 gr first then the 80 gr just to see if it will repeat.
That makes me wonder if I can coax just a bit more out of my muzzies.

I learned a long time ago that this is correct. I have always selected my loads in 5 gr. increments. I tried to refine it some by using 1 gr. increments and that didn't work.

Five grains does make that much difference, as well as type and brand sabot...

My Knight likes 80grs FFF Goex with the .430 Hornady in 300gr...My brother's Knight prefers 85 grains with the same powder and bullet and my hunting buddies prefers 85 as well...

I use to start at 100 and go down 10 grains when working up a load, now I start at 80 and move up...