Glad to hear that Grouse. Now I don't have to pine for a 1:24 .50. :s2:

So I take it you like the power stem breech plug. I switched breechplugs right away so I never tried it with the powerstem. maybe I should put it back in and try it.

No I do not use the Power Stem with any regularity, but I do have a few just in case, I wanted to squeeze that little extra out of the load.

I use strictly the Lehigh Gen II plug.

I did shoot a few loads through the chrono with it both in the 52 and the 50... It did provide a bit cleaner burn and some additional velocity but because of the way I shoot T7 - I want to be able to run a moist patch to the face of the BP.

That's the main reason I never used it. I swab after every shot and felt the powerstem was a detriment for that

Correct...

I shoot a 52 and I don't work for Knight.

IMO Knight went with the faster twist in the 52cal because the main bullet they wanted to sell was the huge 375gr .475 copper Barnes made for them. That bullet has been tried in the Harvester 50cal sabots but results were not as good even with huge amount of BH209. The 52cal is probably fine in a 1-28 with most other bullets and so is a 50cal with nearly all bullets except maybe huge conicals. Then a 1-24 probably starts to show an advantage.

Granted that Harvester 50x475 sabot was short and thin for that 375gr bullet but its a very long bullet and it needs a faster twist. Its not always the weight but the length of a bullet. Look in some old Knight or Barnes manuals. They even advise not using some of the longer bullets unless the ML meets certain fps and twist requirements.

I agree that it is the length more than the weight. Of course with the new non-lead bullets the length is longer for the same weight so therefore I would think a faster twist would be appropriate.

It's the image of the 1:20 that would need to be reversed and considering the 45 cal isn't very popular to begin with,bringing the 1:20 back isn't a sound business move IMHO.the 1:24 makes a lot more sense if Knight wants to move away from the 1:30.the 1:28 & 1:30 .45 cal rifles shoot about every bullet offering on the market well,with very few exceptions.a lot of folks are having great success shooting 45 cal PT golds,SST and Barnes bullets naked in the .250 gr weight class out of the 1;28 & 1:30. it's more about lack of heavier .40 cal bullets,than the twist IMHO.

I never did understand why the 1:20 always seemed to be controversial. I have several 1:18 and 1:20 sidelocks and inlines and most of the people I know who shoot long range all shoot one of those 2 twists. Granted I shoot heavy lead most of the time but the twist is more versatile Thames many think and a whole lot more accurate than many think