stripercrazy

started shooting the mk-85's...I got 2. so I took them to the range to sight them in, I've never fired them, one I put a scope on, the other is how I bought it started at 15 yards with the new scoped one and after 5 shots I had it 1 inch high so I moved it to 50 yards and after 3 shots its close......the other gun that's the way I got it was 2 inches high at 15 yards...... I'm going to Maryland hunting in late oct and wanted to get used to them, with the safety on the side and plunger....I want to make sure it'll fire when I pull the trigger.....when I was cleaning the two guns I realized they have different breach plugs and nipples although they look alike. one has a open nipple( it don't get small like most nipples) and it gets small in the breach plug. the other gun has a regular set up with the nipple that has a small end and a open breach plug....when I bought these guns I bought the tool to take out the breach plug, its got a big flat screwdriver type slot that works good....lol I ordered 2 new breach plugs and they don't have the slots, I'll have to use my black diamond wrench......another difference in the gus is one uses a set screw to hold the plunger in the other gun has no set screw...it was a good day at the range, I learned about the guns and the safty and parts....guns handle great, feel good. I got a month and a half to get a good hunting load....I started with 90 grains of prodex harvester crushed rib sabots and xtp 300 grain bullets

sabotloader

stripercrazy

I have a couple of MK's and they really are solid rifles... They might be old but they just get finer with age...

toccopola

I got a mk 85 predator 50 cal in 1990 it was the first inline for me and it has the stainless barrel. With that fast twist it would shoot just about every sabot bullet i put down the barrel with extreme accuracy. I ordered some speer 200 gr .451 hollow points and some of the black sabots and used 90 grs. of 777 and found that when i shot deer they died from some extreme damage. The bullets would go in as a 45cal and come out as a hand grenade. If it ran off it didn't go far and would leave a blood trail a blind man could follow. When the hogs started coming around where i hunted i changed to a 100 grs of 777 and started using 300gr flat top xtp's. The recoil was so bad i dropped back to 90grs. I killed many deer and hogs with that load but i found that the .451 240 gr.HP xtp's done just as good and i could handle the 100grs of 777. When the kit to replace the #11 percussion came out i got it and changed to the 209 primers it was a good upgrade due to the wet weather.