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Pulling the Trigger on a New Muzzleloader, Part 1

March 4, 2009.

My home state of Colorado is fairly restrictive when it comes to special muzzleloader seasons — no sabots, no pelletized powder, no optical sights. I'm OK with this, and have a T/C Black Diamond that is set up with a peep sight that can consistently group Powerbelts inside an elk's vital zone at 100 yards.

But, there are some tempting opportunities available in nearby states that I'm interested in taking better advantage of.

Nebraska's 31-day-long black powder season is a great way to extend your season throughout the month of December. New Mexico and Arizona muzzleloader seasons offer significantly better draw odds that any-weapon seasons. Want to hunt mule deer in Kansas? The only way non-residents can do so is with a muzzleloader or bow (as ridiculous and arbitrary as that may be).

New Mexico has allowed scoped muzzleloaders for many years, and Nebraska and Kansas recently loosened their muzzleloader equipment restrictions. With so many opportunities out there, I finally decided to set up a muzzleloader that will best allow me to take advantage of these great hunts.

Thompson/Center has been extremely aggressive about putting their switch-barrel Encore ProHunter in the hands of every TV host on the Outdoor Channel, and it certainly seems to be a great product. However, I am significantly turned off by the upright pistol grip it comes with. I prefer a more traditional profile for a rifle, muzzleloader or otherwise.

The leading contenders for me were the T/C Triumph and the Knight KP1.

The Triumph offers the Speed Breech, which seems like a great feature, and offers the light weight (6.5 pounds) that I consider so important for mountain hunting. On the downside, I really didn't like the extreme drop to the heel of the stock and, overall, didn't think this was a great looking rifle.

Ultimately, I was drawn to the Knight KP1. It's chunky, at a whopping 8 pounds, but reviews seemed to indicate that it had a better trigger and offered better accuracy than the T/C Triumph. The lines of its stock are nice and straight, and the laminated version is certainly very attractive.

Interestingly, it's a switch-barrel gun, which means someday I might be able to slap on a .45-70 or rifled 20-gauge barrel to play around with. That's pretty far down the road, however.

My KP1 .50 caliber muzzleloader is now on order from Bud's Gun Shop. It will come with a stainless barrel and laminated stock.

Also on order are a Leupold Ultimate Slam Muzzleloader scope in 3-9x40mm. It has one of those fancy reticles with built-in hold-over points. I'll mount it with Talley one-piece mounts (ordered directly from Knight).

I'm a big fan of Triple 7 powder in its loose form, and look forward to seeing how three 50-grain pellets work for me.

I'm also a big fan of Barnes bullets, and will be trying several of their all-copper saboted bullets.

I hope to pull all the pieces together next week, and hopefully get to the range to punch some big old holes in paper shortly after that.

Then, I just need to draw a tag to put it to use.

(Continued in Part 2.)

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