Questions about Knight .52 Disc Extreme

[cbvanb]

I only recently learned that Knight has stopped making rifles, and apparently they scaled back on the sabot/bullets combos as well, as my favorite bullet for my .52 (the 375 gr) is no longer available. Since nobody else that I know of makes the .52 caliber it seems I have two choices.
The first is to start shooting lead bullets, and I want to know if anyone has recommendations for a lead bullet, and what diameter I need? Will lead shoot well out of this rifle? Knight made a big deal about the barrel being developed for saboted slugs, so will lead shoot well or not?
I guess the other option is to rebarrel the rifle, probably in .50 caliber. Does Green Mountain do this kind of work or do they only make the barrels? Can anyone recommend a good rifle smith to do the work? I really like this rifle and I'm trying to figure out how to keep it shooting.

 

[cayuga]

Welcome to the forum. Another choice is to stockpile on the sabots for the rifle. if you shoot say four hundred rounds a rear, get yourself a thousand sabots. They do not go bad. I am sure you can find a different bullet that should shoot out of the sabot.

That was always one worry I had about that caliber. While it might be a great rifle, I always wondered why they made that caliber. The other thing you can do is make your own bullets.

Have your barrel measured. Then start to talk to some of these people that cast a lot of bullets and see what they think might be a good long range conical bullet for it. Have the mold made and then cast your own bullets.

White Rifle Owners did that. We shoot a .504 caliber, so some of the experts designed a bullet they believed would shoot well out of the White. And we got a mold made for it. Well they were right, the bullet shoots real well out of the rifles.

 

[cbvanb]

The sabots are what I'm having trouble finding. Lots of makers out there,but I haven't found one in .52 caliber. It sounds like a lead bullet will work, which may be my only option long term.

 

[GM54-120]

The old 375gr is going to be a bit hard to find in quantity but Knight does offer this one.

It looks like a Hornady .458 325gr FTX bullet in a 52cal sabot and a 275gr Redhot.

http://www.knightrifles.com/productdeta ... ?id=900540

http://www.knightrifles.com/productdeta ... ?id=900582

I know its not what you wanted but out of all the FTX line it IMO is the best.

Depending on if your gun shoots them well.

If you can find the older 475/52 sabots alone, Hornady makes a .475 325gr and 400gr XTP. As far as i know Barnes stopped making the .475 375gr Spitfire but they do offer a 275gr XPB and maybe more. Hawk bullets still offers .475 bullets too.

Give me a few minutes, i saw a 52cal conical for the 52 Knight not long ago.

Oh yeah Parker offers a Monster 52cal 520gr conical.

http://www.parkerproductionsinc.com/ago ... e&ppinc=1a

 

[cbvanb]

Gm-54-120, thanks, the Parker bullet line is what I needed to keep this rifle going. Don't know why I'm so attached to it, but it always shot well and it didn't take a lot of time or effort to get it that way. I may have to spend some time working out a new load, but who could complain about more range time! I just wish someone would have made 52 caliber sabots, life would have been much easier that way.

 

[GM54-120]

Gm-54-120, thanks, the Parker bullet line is what I needed to keep this rifle going. Don't know why I'm so attached to it, but it always shot well and it didn't take a lot of time or effort to get it that way. I may have to spend some time working out a new load, but who could complain about more range time! I just wish someone would have made 52 caliber sabots, life would have been much easier that way.

Someone does make them in 458/52 but i cant find them.

I would call Del at MMP. he might have some laying around that are not listed on his website. Someone is making them for the Knight 458/52 and it is probably MMP.

 

[Anonymous]

Gm-54-120, thanks, the Parker bullet line is what I needed to keep this rifle going. Don't know why I'm so attached to it, but it always shot well and it didn't take a lot of time or effort to get it that way. I may have to spend some time working out a new load, but who could complain about more range time! I just wish someone would have made 52 caliber sabots, life would have been much easier that way.

Someone does make them in 458/52 but i cant find them.

I would call Del at MMP. he might have some laying around that are not listed on his website. Someone is making them for the Knight 458/52 and it is probably MMP.

Yes I do make the 52 cal sabots for Knight. However, these sabots a proprietary to Knight and can only be purchased from Knight.

Now.......some good news for you. We just made a shipment of 52X475 sabots to Knight last week. I would think they will be available in a few days.

 

[cbvanb]

Gm-54-120, thanks, the Parker bullet line is what I needed to keep this rifle going. Don't know why I'm so attached to it, but it always shot well and it didn't take a lot of time or effort to get it that way. I may have to spend some time working out a new load, but who could complain about more range time! I just wish someone would have made 52 caliber sabots, life would have been much easier that way.

Someone does make them in 458/52 but i cant find them.

I would call Del at MMP. he might have some laying around that are not listed on his website. Someone is making them for the Knight 458/52 and it is probably MMP.

Yes I do make the 52 cal sabots for Knight. However, these sabots a proprietary to Knight and can only be purchased from Knight.

Now.......some good news for you. We just made a shipment of 52X475 sabots to Knight last week. I would think they will be available in a few days.

While I understand you may have a relationship with Knight rifles, I don't understand that "proprietary to Knight" attitude when they no longer produce rifles of any caliber any longer, and many bullet and sabot manufacturers produce components for all the other calibers for which Knight built rifles.
What this does in the long run is handicap companies that may want to bring out another ballistic improvement in the future. Personally I won't buy into their "improvement" because in the likely event that their product doesn't become profitable the few customers that paid good money for the rifle will no longer have the ability to buy components. Knight may not be to blame for market forces that required them to stop building rifles, but they are doing their customers a disservice by limiting our choices in components to what they deem necessary. Why are they entitled to limit who can sell .52 caliber components? I think I'll go with the lead bullets available, and Knight can get along without anymore of my money.

 

[flounder]

It's not an attitude it's a contractual business agreement.
________
Glass pipe pictures

 

[Busta]

Gm-54-120, thanks, the Parker bullet line is what I needed to keep this rifle going. Don't know why I'm so attached to it, but it always shot well and it didn't take a lot of time or effort to get it that way. I may have to spend some time working out a new load, but who could complain about more range time! I just wish someone would have made 52 caliber sabots, life would have been much easier that way.

Someone does make them in 458/52 but i cant find them.

I would call Del at MMP. he might have some laying around that are not listed on his website. Someone is making them for the Knight 458/52 and it is probably MMP.

Yes I do make the 52 cal sabots for Knight. However, these sabots a proprietary to Knight and can only be purchased from Knight.

Now.......some good news for you. We just made a shipment of 52X475 sabots to Knight last week. I would think they will be available in a few days.

While I understand you may have a relationship with Knight rifles, I don't understand that "proprietary to Knight" attitude when they no longer produce rifles of any caliber any longer, and many bullet and sabot manufacturers produce components for all the other calibers for which Knight built rifles.
What this does in the long run is handicap companies that may want to bring out another ballistic improvement in the future. Personally I won't buy into their "improvement" because in the likely event that their product doesn't become profitable the few customers that paid good money for the rifle will no longer have the ability to buy components. Knight may not be to blame for market forces that required them to stop building rifles, but they are doing their customers a disservice by limiting our choices in components to what they deem necessary. Why are they entitled to limit who can sell .52 caliber components? I think I'll go with the lead bullets available, and Knight can get along without anymore of my money.

Anyone could make .52 caliber sabots, if they want to invest in the tooling required to make a mold. I think what Razoback is trying to tell us is that, he manufactures them for Knight. I am sure that Knight put up the $ for the mold, they own the rights, and that would make the sabots proprietary to them.

I don't think there is anyone willing to stick their neck out to make .52 caliber sabots for a rifle that is no longer manufactured. Probably might not even be worth it for Razorback, if Knight GAVE him the mold and rights.

 

[paia]

It sounds like you have some options for keeping the .52 barrel shooting, but if you get stuck in the future with no sabots, or if you find the lead conicals don't shoot well, you could possibly have that .52 barrel re-bored to .54. That would allow you to shoot and experiment with a few different .54 sabots from MMP and Harvester and would be less expensive than a whole new barrel in .50. Just a thought--have fun with your conical tests and good luck.

 

[cbvanb]

I understand the situation, I'm just kind of PO'd at myself for falling for the hype. I'll just spend some time working with lead bullets and report back if I can find a combination that works well.

 

[Anonymous]

Gm-54-120, thanks, the Parker bullet line is what I needed to keep this rifle going. Don't know why I'm so attached to it, but it always shot well and it didn't take a lot of time or effort to get it that way. I may have to spend some time working out a new load, but who could complain about more range time! I just wish someone would have made 52 caliber sabots, life would have been much easier that way.

Someone does make them in 458/52 but i cant find them.

I would call Del at MMP. he might have some laying around that are not listed on his website. Someone is making them for the Knight 458/52 and it is probably MMP.

Yes I do make the 52 cal sabots for Knight. However, these sabots a proprietary to Knight and can only be purchased from Knight.

Now.......some good news for you. We just made a shipment of 52X475 sabots to Knight last week. I would think they will be available in a few days.

While I understand you may have a relationship with Knight rifles, I don't understand that "proprietary to Knight" attitude when they no longer produce rifles of any caliber any longer, and many bullet and sabot manufacturers produce components for all the other calibers for which Knight built rifles.
What this does in the long run is handicap companies that may want to bring out another ballistic improvement in the future. Personally I won't buy into their "improvement" because in the likely event that their product doesn't become profitable the few customers that paid good money for the rifle will no longer have the ability to buy components. Knight may not be to blame for market forces that required them to stop building rifles, but they are doing their customers a disservice by limiting our choices in components to what they deem necessary. Why are they entitled to limit who can sell .52 caliber components? I think I'll go with the lead bullets available, and Knight can get along without anymore of my money.

Anyone could make .52 caliber sabots, if they want to invest in the tooling required to make a mold. I think what Razoback is trying to tell us is that, he manufactures them for Knight. I am sure that Knight put up the $ for the mold, they own the rights, and that would make the sabots proprietary to them.

I don't think there is anyone willing to stick their neck out to make .52 caliber sabots for a rifle that is no longer manufactured. Probably might not even be worth it for Razorback, if Knight GAVE him the mold and rights.

Correct, Knight paid for the development and the tooling to produce the 52 caliber sabots. It's not an attitude at all. I would be nothing more than a thief if I sold these sabots to anyone other than the owners of the tooling. Yes, anyone that wants to invest the thousands of dollars it takes to produce tooling can freely do so. In this case one would no doubt get a better likelyhood of return on investment if they went to the track and gambled on horse races.