- Thread Starter
- #21
OP
raggedclaws
FNG
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2020
- Messages
- 22
Putting a bow on this thread because it saved my bacon this month:
I swapped out the bolt for a new one from Knight (operating it felt and sounded different from the original), shimmed out the breech plug by .025", and went shooting. First shot was 3.5" wide at 50 yards, which i attributed to the grease applied to the front and back of the shim. (From then on I remembered to snap 3 caps after installing the breech plug and shim.)
The shim process is doubly annoying because of 1) its potential to degrade first-shot accuracy (my gun likes a pristine barrel so snapping caps hadn't been part of my routine), and 2) if you forget the shim is in there when you clean the gun, you stand a good chance of losing or damaging it. I've done both already. So i will be following up with Knight about replacing my barrel with one that isn't reamed out too deep, unless they want to send me a lifetime supply of breech plugs or nipples that are a little longer than normal.
After 6 shots I got a misfire, which, well, ok, maybe that was the nipple getting dirty? Gave it a good wipe and shot a few more times with no trouble.
Then i went elk hunting. Didn't get a chance at any bulls, so I took a 100-yard shot on a cow towards the end of the week. Gun went bang, cow elk ran 25 yards and fell over. The elk was bedded downhill from me, so i was able to send in the 460gr No Excuses at the very top of the near shoulder, hitting only the scapula, and have it pass through the heart and under the far shoulder, where it ended up lodged in the meat of the far elbow.
Thanks to sabotloader and everyone else who chimed in on this thread to help get me functional and confident as prep came down to the wire before this hunt!
I swapped out the bolt for a new one from Knight (operating it felt and sounded different from the original), shimmed out the breech plug by .025", and went shooting. First shot was 3.5" wide at 50 yards, which i attributed to the grease applied to the front and back of the shim. (From then on I remembered to snap 3 caps after installing the breech plug and shim.)
The shim process is doubly annoying because of 1) its potential to degrade first-shot accuracy (my gun likes a pristine barrel so snapping caps hadn't been part of my routine), and 2) if you forget the shim is in there when you clean the gun, you stand a good chance of losing or damaging it. I've done both already. So i will be following up with Knight about replacing my barrel with one that isn't reamed out too deep, unless they want to send me a lifetime supply of breech plugs or nipples that are a little longer than normal.
After 6 shots I got a misfire, which, well, ok, maybe that was the nipple getting dirty? Gave it a good wipe and shot a few more times with no trouble.
Then i went elk hunting. Didn't get a chance at any bulls, so I took a 100-yard shot on a cow towards the end of the week. Gun went bang, cow elk ran 25 yards and fell over. The elk was bedded downhill from me, so i was able to send in the 460gr No Excuses at the very top of the near shoulder, hitting only the scapula, and have it pass through the heart and under the far shoulder, where it ended up lodged in the meat of the far elbow.
Thanks to sabotloader and everyone else who chimed in on this thread to help get me functional and confident as prep came down to the wire before this hunt!
