Knight Ultralite Western - Waterproof Report - Positive Results

[Buster Brown]

Equipment:
Knight Ultralite
#11 RWS Caps
Triple 7
Thor Bullet
Traditions black muzzle covers

Hunted hard for a week here in the Oregon Salad on my first muzzle loader deer hunt.
Passed on a dozen or so does from 30 feet to 30 yards, still hunting, but never saw a buck. Filled the tag on a doe on the last day. 30-ish yd shot and the doe ran about the same distance.

Weather was mostly 33 degrees, windy, and with, a rain/snow mix. Even when it wasn’t raining the slush on the trees would rain on you. Rough conditions for an action that must be “exposed to the elements,” but typical for the Cascades in the fall.

On day 4, I was starting to get worried about how much moisture I had subjected the rifle to. So at the end of the day I found a nice big stump at 100 yds with a good knot to aim at in the fading light, and touched one off. Fired without delay and still zeroed; not too shabby!

I had noticed that as I changed elevation, the muzzle cover would balloon out, or contract in, so I was hoping the action was literally air tight. I can now say that it’s certainly water tight.

At night I left the rifle on the enclosed, unheated, porch, and removed the muzzle cover to let the bore breathe. No idea if this was correct, but it felt like the right thing to do.

Hunted 3 more days in the same wet conditions, and the UL fired off right when I needed it to.

I think the tightness of the RWS 1075 cap deserves some credit, and the muzzle cover deserves the rest. I normally just put black electrical tape over the muzzles of my centerfire rifles, but I believe, in my very limited experience, that for a ML, the roll down “condom covers” are essential.

I did not wrap the action in plastic film, because I thought it would rip and catch on the brush. I figured I’d do it if it didn’t fire off after the first exposure period.

The weather tightness of the action was a big concern I had prior to purchasing a muzzleloader to hunt with. The only time I seem to see Blacktails is during terrible weather. So I needed a rifle that could deal with it.

This is just a sample size of one, and your mileage may vary, but I am confident in the system I’m stuck with.

Regards,

Buster

 

[Cattledog]

Thanks for the report. Were you using a scope or open sights? I will typically hunt in the rain when possible. I have alway have issues with my nikon scope fogging if it's in the low 40,s and raining.

 

[Buster Brown]

No scopes allowed. Open sights, but I did put a rear peep sight on it.

It has a screw in small aperture and if you remove it a larger ghost ring.

It has the original fiber optic front sight. Which is larger than I’d like, but had been adequate so far.

I wondered how well the small aperture would work in low light or a moving target. I put the sights on a lot of things at dawn and dusk, but never a critter. I will say that even with the fiber optic front sight, I don’t think the sights would be effective in minimal shooting light. Things I could clearly see in my binoculars (or a scope) at 60-80 yds, I could not see well through the iron sights. I did think about removing the screw in aperture, but didn’t want to risk losing it in the field. More testing will be required.

I’m glad you brought it up though, because it did remind me of a water related iron sight issue. I periodically bring the rifle up, check it out, shoulder it... and I noticed a couple times that the rear aperture was holding water in it. Just a film, but you definitely couldn’t look through it. Easy enough thing to blow it out, but it required more than a gentle puff. Loud enough that a nearby critter might hear it. Not sure what can be done about it, but I bring it up for awareness.

Did I mention it was wet out there?

 

[Dougs136Schwartz]

I am sure this is old news . When I use to hunt with #11 caps I would coat the edge of the cap wit several coats of fingernail polish .

 

[Busta]

RWS 1075 Plus caps rock!

 

[Buster Brown]

I am sure this is old news . When I use to hunt with #11 caps I would coat the edge of the cap wit several coats of fingernail polish .

I read about this technique, even took a bottle of my wife’s ‘used once’ nail polish and put it in my range bag. Doesn’t go with me, but it’s at camp if I need it.

But I didn’t do it. I saw how Sabotloader submerged a nipple with a #11 RWS cap for an hour and it still fired, and figured I would be OK in a wet environment.

My limited anecdotal evidence supported my decision, however I still have that bottle of ugly nail polish if I need it.

Reference here: https://www.modernmuzzleloader.com/threads/how-long-do-knight-western-breech-plugs-last.31992/ on the first page.

If I were hunting in wet weather with musket caps, however, with the slits on the sides of the cap, I think this would be a standard procedure for me.