Ultralight Mountaineer First Look
 

This is a sweet feeling, sweet handling, sweet rifle. It comes to the shoulder quite nicely. The rifle sent me weighs 6.3 pound, not the advertised 6 pound, but i expected such, and was not disappointed. Trigger was 3½ pound, but was readily adjusted to the 1½ pound it is now. Couldn't do a three foot drop, but did do a two foot drop to concrete, and the trigger didn't fail; it is real real nice.

First time out i found the Harvester short black sabot to be too tight, so switched to crush rib sabot. Crush rib sabot worked, but whilst loading, the bore felt very rough, and uneven. Did 50 passes using J-B, and that smoothed the bore nicely; also allowed using the Harvester short black sabot.

Started shooting with the included open sights, and they worked good even for old eyes. However, the Quick Release Knight Rifle Detent Screw came apart whilst shooting. Somehow, luckily, none of the part were lost, because i was unable to purchase a replacement. Happily i was able to put it back together. ☺ Mounted a scope, and it worked good, but i couldn't enjoy cleaning the plug threads with the scope in the way, so it was replaced with a Williams FP receiver sight, which will be on the rifle when we go hunting.

The rifle came with excess head space, and that made me sad. Primers had to be measured, and the longest W209 chosen, so to have them be easily removed with little blow by. It was tricky installing a 0.005" shim in the plug, because the shims, tools, and breech plug were all magnetic. The shim didn't want to stay in place; it seemed to have a mind of it's own, and jumped all over. With the shim now installed, the spent primers fall right out of the bolt; there is zero blow by, the bolt stays clean. The primers can be taken from the box randomly, without measuring.

The brazed vent in this breech plug seems to be a way more durable than the brazed vent in the previous Mountaineer breech plug. Flash hole is now 0.032" after 75 shots.

☺


















_

Ron,
The bore is rough because of the coating knight puts in the barrels. I believe it takes about 20 or 30 shots to cure it and the barrel will smooth out.

After 25 shots, it was still rough, and it was irritating. It also seemed to bring fliers. Tired of the way it was, i made 50 back and forth with J-B, and now it is not rough any more. The bore is nice, and smooth, and i like the way it is now!

☺













_

On new knights I do not us sabots just full bore at first this helps smooth the bore works will for me. I us Thors for this in a 50 cal and resize for 45 cal like .451 or .452 bullets.

No pictures?? hmmmm

Ultralight Mountaineer Photo
 

_

Great looking rifle Ron. Someday I hope to be able to get one like that but in a 45cal.

Nice Ron! I love that gun... now go break her in! :)

Am trying as hard as i could, but deer scarce ☺
















-

Dead Meat
 

The Ultralight Mountaineer made some dead meat. Carried the rifle every day for 27 days; walked many miles, and saw many many white tails waving good bye. The 27th day somehow found me close to a few deer that were calmly eating as they moved through the timber. The hard part was ensuring i didn't shoot a fawn or a spike; of course having good aim when the trigger was pulled, was the harder part. Some days were warm, some days were bitter bitter cold, some days were pleasant, and some days were windy, very windy. The rifle stayed loaded through the snow, wind, and cold. The load of 65 weighed grain Blackhorn went off without hesitation, and the 265g Lehigh evidently worked. The sabot was a short Harvester, and the primer was a W209, which fell cleanly out of the bolt after reloading, when the bolt was opened, and the rifle tipped sideways. There is zero soot on the primer, and the bolt was easily opened.

The rifle was a joy to carry, only twice did i have a need to switch shoulders because of back pain. Seems the average hike was between two, and three mile, but a few days were more. A couple days were short hikes. The front sight nearly looked sharply sharp to old eyes, and worked well with the Williams FP receiver sight. It is conceivable this Knight will be the only rifle, which comes with me, on my dwindling remaining hunts; who knows. One thing is sure, it is a great handling well built rifle.

☺























-