Demystifying the Muzzleloader

By Tony Smotherman

When most young folks think about muzzleloaders they often think about the Western pioneers from long ago, or at least I always did. The Davy Crocketts and Daniel Boones from long ago were famous for their old Kentucky long rifles that bellowed smoke from the front of barrel like an old locomotive.

Those frontloading rifles were the only tools for survival that the great mountain men had other than a Bowie knife. To be quite honest, some of those old side-hammer muzzleloaders were not much more dependable than a good sharp knife. These guns were loaded from the front with loose powder, a patch and round ball, and fowl weather played a big role in whether or not they fired when the trigger was pulled.

Not only was it not certain that they’d go “boom,” but when they did, accuracy became questionable at best. To say the least, the shooter had to be relatively close to what he was aiming at in order to connect. Let’s just say this, if those old fellows had a Knight Muzzleloader back in the good old days, things might have turned out a little different at the Alamo.

Now that we have had a little bit of a history lesson, let’s bring you up to speed about today’s technology in muzzleloading. From the 19th century up to present time muzzleloaders have taken a drastic change in every way except one — they still have to be loaded from the front to be a true muzzleloader. Yep that’s right, the powder still has to be poured down the throat or front of the barrel, followed by a sabot (pronounced say-bow) and a projectile, or simply known as a bullet. Sounds complicated I know. I at one time thought the same thing. But once you try it you will realize that it is not as bad as it sounds. Truthfully, if I can get the hang of it, anyone can.

The most significant advancement in today’s muzzleloaders is the way the powder charge is ignited. By this I mean that for the gun to go off, some sort of fire has to be sent in from the rear of the barrel to make the powder explode. Thus, the reaction to the explosion is the bullet moving out the front of the barrel at a very rapid rate of speed.

Now, the Davy Crockett side-hammer guns — we’re going to call them “Davys” for short — had a lever or hammer that, once the trigger was squeezed, dropped onto a percussion cap which exploded and in turn sent fire thru a series of tunnels that led into the powder in the barrel. The short comings to this type system were the tunnels that lead to the powder. In many cases, by the time the fire from the percussion cap reached the powder charge in the barrel it was too weak to make the powder explode. In other cases, the tunnels would have moisture in which would put out the spark. I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this. The old Davy guns were not very reliable. I don’t think I would want to go out and hunt a Grizzly bear with one of them. How about you?

This is where Tony Knight, founder of Knight Rifles, came into view. Back in the mid-1980s, Tony was a machinist and an avid hunter from Missouri, and he had several close friends that loved to head out West each fall in search of elk. These friends of his were already devoted muzzleloader users but were unhappy with the accuracy and reliability of the old “Davy” guns they used.

Knowing Tony Knight was a wiz with metal, they asked him if he could come up with something that would take to the harsh winter conditions of the West, which were similar to the conditions that the mountain men dealt with back in the day. This is when the company now known as “The Pioneer of In-line Muzzleloaders” came into focus.

After some serious thought and fine-tuning, Tony invented the first in-line ignited muzzleloader of the modern era. Do you remember when I mentioned earlier something about fire having to go through tunnels? Well, that is the part that Tony did away with. In his design, the percussion cap (the source of fire) is sitting directly behind (or in line with) the powder charge in the barrel. When the cap goes off it sends its spark straight into the powder. This eliminates the problem with the fire getting weak before reaching the powder, and deletes the open tunnels that moisture built up in. Thus, the first truly dependable muzzleloader was born in 1985.

From that point in his gunsmith career, it seemed as if there was nothing stopping Tony in his quest for the ultimate “smokepole.” Along with in-line ignition came many other advancements in his muzzleloaders, such as one of my favorites, the adjustable trigger. At the time the first gun hit the street, which was the MK-85, no other muzzleloader allowed you to adjust the trigger assembly to the users liking.

Now let’s talk about the most important advancement that Tony did to make Knight rifles work their way to the top of the food chain — accuracy! Everything that Tony did to these muzzleloaders wouldn’t mount to anything unless the guns could hit where they were pointed. Seems pretty useless to have a good looking, reliable muzzleloader that won’t hit the broad side of a barn, huh? Well that is surely not the case with any Knight Rifle.

Those old Davy guns had barrels with a 1-in-40 twist rate, meaning that the rifling or grooves in the barrel twisted one full turn every 40 inches of barrel length. Rifling in a barrel prompts the projectile to spin and stabilize, which increases accuracy. These old guns with their relatively slow rate of twist sent bullets with little spin, often tumbling, and forcing them off target. For the most part, 75 yards pushed the accuracy limit for the Davy gun.

Knight Rifles feature a 1-in-28 twist rate in .50 caliber models which makes the bullet spin a lot faster and in turn makes it much more stable and accurate at long ranges. The end result of that major change in rifling twist rate projected muzzleloaders from being a close range weapon to something that can ethically harvest a game animal upward of the 150-yard mark. Talk about taking the muzzleloader to the next level!

Now that we have talked briefly about Knight Rifles’ deadly accuracy, let’s dissect this down even further. As you know with a muzzleloader, you load the powder and bullet yourself. They are not like a conventional centerfire rifle where you put the cartridge in and you’re ready. Nope, you have to pick for yourself how much powder and what size or grain weight of bullet you want to shoot. Believe it or not, these little decisions will help you to hit your target. For the most part, the rule of thumb is to shoot 100 grains of powder and a 250-grain bullet in a .50 caliber model. I might add that the more powder you shoot, the harder the gun is going to kick. That is another reason that I like to shoot only 100 grains of powder. After all, there is no sense in punishing ourselves with heavy recoil. Any loading or shooting of a muzzleloader must be done under direct adult supervision.

Now to the part of using a muzzleloader that everyone dislikes, cleaning. Muzzleloaders should be cleaned to some degree after every shot, and given a thorough cleaning after every shooting session. The powder used is very corrosive, and if you do not clean your gun it won’t be long before the inside of the barrel rusts. Once this happens, the gun will lose its tack-driving ability and your accuracy will suffer.

There are several ways to clean a muzzleloader. With the Davy guns, everyone soaked them in a bathtub full of hot, soapy water. The reason for this was simple. In order to get clean the very bottom or the deepest portion of the barrel, the soapy water had to get into every nook and cranny of the bore, and then it had to be swabbed with a bore brush and cleaning jag. Even at that rate it was almost impossible to make sure that the entire bore of the barrel was totally clean because you could not see the bottom of the barrel.

This again is where Tony Knight and his Knight Rifles excelled. With all Knight Rifles featuring in-line ignition and a removable breech plug, cleaning has been made easy. All the shooter has to do is remove the breech plug with the provided tool and he or she can see thru the entire length of the barrel. No more soaking the gun in the bathtub! That also eliminated another problem, mom getting mad at you for making the tub dirty. Thank you, Tony!

After removing the breech plug, take a cleaning patch and attach it to the ramrod using a cleaning jag. Then spray the patch with a black powder cleaning solvent and swab the barrel until it is clean. Remember, the last word of that sentence was “clean.” Yep, with the barrel now open like a piece of pipe you can see right thru it to tell if there is any fouling still inside. That way you always know if your muzzleloader is truly clean. Always remember this; a clean gun will stay by your side for many hunting seasons, a dirty one will leave you hunting and not harvesting.    

 I myself am a tried and true Knight Rifle owner. Since 1993 I have hunted all over this great country with only a Knight Muzzleloader in my hand. They have been very good to me and have never let me down! I hope you, too, can enjoy them one day. If you would like more in-depth information I welcome you to get on the internet and stop by my web site at www.travelinhunter.com. There you can see many of the trophies that my Knight Muzzleloaders have been up against. You can also email me at tony@travelinhunter.com and I will be glad to answer any questions you may have. I look forward to hearing from you!