1st range session with Knight Vision
 

Well, a couple months ago those Knight Visions on clearance became too much of a temptation to bear, and I ended up with one. This week was the first time I had a chance to take it out and shoot it. Here was my setup. As you can see, unfortunately the corn field limited my shooting to 50 yards.



I heard Knight's can be powder hogs so after boresighting it, I loaded up 110 grains T7 FFG with a .40 cal 200 XTP and a MMP blue sabot and started shooting. After 2 shots and 2 scope adjustments, this is what I shot:



Not too shabby for shots 3, 4 and 5 out of a virgin muzzy with no tweaking. So I made some more adjustments and shot several more times to get closer. I was using 200 XTP's to sight it in, because I'm planning on using the 185 Lehigh to hunt with, and I figured they would have a similar POI (I have a lot of 200 XTP's and they are cheap). So several shots later I shot this:




Load was also 110 grains T7 FFG and MMP blue sabot. Not quite as good as the 200 XTP, but still pretty darn good for a new muzzy with no tweaks or load development. I will probably end up using this load for deer hunting this year, though I would like to see what it does at 100 yards before I decide for sure.

After that, I decided to try some 250 Deep Curls with Harvestor crush rib sabots. This is what I got:



This load was with 100 grains T7. Hmmmm, not so good. I didn't have time to play around more. Might have been the sabot- the crush ribs were fairly loose, especially compared to the MMP's which took considerable force to load.

After about 20 shots there was zero, and I mean no blowback at all:



Overall, I was very impressed. The Vision is built like a tank, which I really like. Seems like you could roll a 18 wheeler over it and it would just scratch it up some. It's heavy, which I also like- it soaks up the recoil. With 110 grains T7 I would describe the recoil as mild. It does have a long LOP, but being pretty tall, it didn't bother me that much. Shouldering it offhand, it fit just fine. Shooting off the bench, the LOP was a bit long- I may do what Sabotloader did and chop off a little of the stock. But for now it is okay.

I really need to try it out at 100 yards to be sure, but I was tickled pink at how good it shot right out of the box with no alterations. I have an old CVA that right now shoots really good (1.5" at 100 yards with several loads) but it took a lot of load development and some adjustments to the rifle to get it there. Out of the box that CVA was shooting pretty poorly- it took me a couple years to get it shooting really good.

Anyone have any idea how fast that 185 Lehigh is moving with 110 grains T7? I was guessing around 2100 fps, but I don't have a chrono to confirm. Good job Knight! This is not an "entry level" muzzy in my book. (****Just a disclaimer***** I am in no way affiliated with Knight, this is my first Knight muzzy - my other 2 are CVA's- so this is just unbiased opinion, take it for what it's worth)

Also, another favor- anyone with a ballistics calculator mind figuring out how much this load might drop? My shots are usually 100 yards or less, but it never hurts to be ready....

For the first time out of the box, that rifle does real well. I was on Sportsmans Guide the other day, as I saw they still had some Knight Visions in their catalog. But I did not find them on their sight. Thank goodness.

oldsmellhound

I would think but do not know for sure since it is your gun... but I would think that a Crush Rib - might be a tad small for the best accuracy...

I really think they are good shooters + NO HAMMER TO PULL BACK!!! The hammerless design with a moveable trigger hammer safety is much preferred by myself.

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/c....aspx?a=748488 :party0007:

Dave, they dropped the price to $169.97:patriot:.

The Knight Vision is the second best brake open ML out of the box i ever used. With a little tweaking it can be very good.

Knight Vision Data,

200grn Hornady SST, 135grns by volume= 2326 avg 10 shots

200grn Hornady SST, 125grns by volume= 2143 avg 10 shots

200grn Lehigh, 125grns by volume= 2150 avg 10 shots, usually the Lehigh is a tad slower then the SST. The barrel might of been warmer when i did this testing.

Congratulations on buying a great ML. :cool2:

Man, that sure is reasonably priced. Got to be the best deal going right now.

Dang Grouse....that's a lot of powder AND a lot of velocity for those 200 gr bullets!
You're exceeding 35 Remington ballistics with those loads. And I am assuming these are .40 cal bullets??!?!
That is some potent medicine coming out of that muzzle.

The 250grn SST is a little over 2300fps with 140grns of BH209 by volume. It handles and shoots that load really well. I will say I have no luck at all with crush rib sabots.

Thanks for the info. I bought the Vision at Sportman's Guide for $159, but I had a coupon that brought the price down to $120 shipping included. Kinda hard to beat that deal.

I've not had much success with the crush rib- I tried them some in my CVA Wolf and got less than stellar accuracy. Switching to MMP's tightened groups up a lot. The only Harvestor sabot I've had good results with is the Harvestor light blue .45/.40 sabot out of my .45 CVA. I get 1.5 MOA at 100 yards with either the 200 SST or 200 XTP.