My 10 Year Wait for an MK-95 .54cal is Finally Over!

[GM54-120]

I totally understand.

I love the 54cal for some reason and a 50cal barely gets me interested. It has to be one heck of a fine 50cal like my NULA to even perk my interest. I guess i could go sabotless in a 50cal but the 54x50 sabots shoot so good for me. Plus i got a ton of them. Many of the 50cal bullets are nearly a perfect FPS match in a ML too. I normally shy away from bullets with a poor sectional density like a 50cal 300gr-348gr PB. These 50A&E and 500S&W bullets perform really well most of the time. They fly like a brick but they hit like one too.

There is a website for B&M. They make custom light weight 50cal rifles and their own ammo. There are tons of recovered bullet pics and a few in the ML FPS range. Its worth a look if you never been there. http://www.b-mriflesandcartridges.com/default.html

IIRC they are associated with SSK industries aka JD Jones. You ever see the Knight/Lehigh JDJ 950 YouTube video with that monster rifle?

 

[WV Hunter]

You ever see the Knight/Lehigh JDJ 950 YouTube video with that monster rifle?

LOL, that video hurts my shoulder just thinking about it. Ain't no way I'd set behind that thing. My kids thought it was hilarious :lol:


Good shooting Shawn! Can't complain about that! :goodman:

 

[ShawnT]

You ever see the Knight/Lehigh JDJ 950 YouTube video with that monster rifle?

LOL, that video hurts my shoulder just thinking about it. Ain't no way I'd set behind that thing. My kids thought it was hilarious :lol:


Good shooting Shawn! Can't complain about that! :goodman:

You will find no complaints here buddy, I am one happy camper! I can't wait for Saturday to get here I just hope the weather is going to cooperate.

I watched that video. I could not quit laughing after he showed the cartridges. :lol: :shock: :lol: I would love to shoot one round from it. That would definitely get your heart started. :lol:

 

[kevinbrian]

Good deal and congrats Shawn!!!!! Glad that you made the acquisition!!!!.

 

[ShawnT]

Today was a Frustrating but also a good day at the range. The Frustrating part had nothing to do with the MK-95 .54cal. I have also been trying to get an older Savage/Anschutz .22rf to shoot good, this one is driving me nuts! :evil: I think it is headed down the road. When I got on the range at 07:30 there was no wind and 45*, so I wanted to try the .22rf. I spent quite a bit of time with it and it sort of got me pretty wound up and had to call it quits on it. So I got the new MK-95 .54 out and got all set up. The Targets below are in the order they were fired, all at 50yds. First 3 shots were pretty good the last 2 had me scratching my head, but I wrote them off as just being frustrated with the 22. These are with the .500 Rainier 335hp, 100gnV Pyro RS.


Then I shot same load but with the .500 Speer Unicore 325hp. Again first 3 shots look great, then 2 out. :huh?:


Switch back to the Rainier since I have a few more of those and shot 6. Ok So now I am really scratching my head. I'm like " Ok what just happened?". :huh?:


I don't make myself out to be the best shooter but each shot felt good when the trigger broke and I just could not see why these were not grouping like they had. So I took a little break, got something to drink, a PBJ sandwich & chatted with a fellow club member about is custom Br .22lr. Went to throw another charge of Pyro and I then noticed that the bottle is almost empty. So I looked at the charge I threw and noticed that some of the grains are finer than normal. I now wonder if it is just due to this is the last of the bottle I got for the MK-85 last year. I looked in my bag and see I have 4 speed loaders that were for the MK-85 last season but I never used them and never emptied them so I tried them. They were loaded with 100 Pyro and the Speer 325. Last speed loader had powder past the bullet so it was on both sides and I spilled a bit. It was one I had removed the partition from that caused that (I don't remember why I did that either). But the first 3 were not to bad.


Dug around in my bag and find no more Pyro. Forgot to pack the new bottle last night. I did find I still had a 1/2, or more, bottle of 777 2f so gave that a try with the Rainiers. I also decided to up the charge from 100gnV to 110gnV. I had wanted to go up anyway so why not now. Shot 4 rounds and now were talking! Then when the trigger broke on shot 5 I realized that I was leaning into the gun and it broke a tad early before I wanted. So I loaded up one more for verification and after the shot it had went right in the middle of the group again. I had to stop and clean up so they could set up for tomorrows Turkey shoot, But was much happier.


I noticed when swabbing between shots that the crud ring was not bad at all with either powder. I think I could easily shoot more without swabbing but it is just sort of second nature to swab. I also noticed that this rifles bore is amazingly smooth. The Sabots just slide down with the same amount of tension each time and feel the same all the way down. Even when I use my T-handle short starter the sabots don't have that hard start and ease up past the crown like all my other rifles do. They feel the same from start to seat on the powder. I am really liking this rifle. can you tell. :lol:

I noticed last night when packing up that this rifle felt lighter than the 2 .50cal Mk-95's. So I decided to weigh them on my bathroom scale. All have composite stocks too.
MK-95 .54 with Leupold 3x9 7.2lbs
MK-95 .50 with Leupold 3x9 stock shortened 3/4" 7.8lbs
Mk-95 .50 with no scope stock as is, 6.8lbs
MK-85 .54 Nikon 4x40 Monarch 7.8lbs
KRB7 with Leupold variXIII 3.5 x10 8.8lbs
This new MK-95 .54 cal is more like an Ultra Light in weight! :shock: 8)

 

[Hornet22savage]

Groups looking good there Shawn, as for the ones that don't behave I don't have an explanation for those. I shot my KRB around three weeks ago first two shots were spot on. Third shot went a lillte low thought it could have been me so I fired two more and those went right. Sometime we shoot good and other times we don't it can be a crap shoot. On that day I was shooting my Savage 243 which as you know I was having a problem with and that is frustrating, I was also shooting my DISC Elite and that was not going the way I wanted either. Frustration is the enemy of accuracy. Looks like T7 might be your powder though.

 

[kevinbrian]

Wow Shawn...I have been quietly keeping up with your progress. Then I saw the pictures of your breech plug and plunger, etc. At the place that I bought my last two MK's. they have some Knight stuff up, still hanging on the wall in a corner of the store....where stuff ends up that likely won't be sold. The Mississippi laws changed years ago allowing the Blackpowder crowd to use old blackpowder cartridge guns. Noone there ever bought another MLer (according to the storekeep). But I noticed that they had a row of Knight breech plugs called Cross-fire. I forgot the model number.....but you can be sure that it started with 9000XX...(I may have missed a zero or two). But in the place where one would screw a nipple, or a red jacket nipple, is a small thread hole. Do YOUR 95's use them??? If so....would you like me to pick those BP's up for you??? I looked for a Crossfie breech plug that uses nipples but couldn't find one. Just because they look 'different' although my slotted breech plug, and my hex breech plug work just fine.
Man, that is a great looking MLer and I LOVE the pattern on that camo stock!!!!! Beautiful. And it look like it is wanting to group great!!!!

 

[ShawnT]

Wow Shawn...I have been quietly keeping up with your progress. Then I saw the pictures of your breech plug and plunger, etc. At the place that I bought my last two MK's. they have some Knight stuff up, still hanging on the wall in a corner of the store....where stuff ends up that likely won't be sold. The Mississippi laws changed years ago allowing the Blackpowder crowd to use old blackpowder cartridge guns. Noone there ever bought another MLer (according to the storekeep). But I noticed that they had a row of Knight breech plugs called Cross-fire. I forgot the model number.....but you can be sure that it started with 9000XX...(I may have missed a zero or two). But in the place where one would screw a nipple, or a red jacket nipple, is a small thread hole. Do YOUR 95's use them??? If so....would you like me to pick those BP's up for you??? I looked for a Crossfie breech plug that uses nipples but couldn't find one. Just because they look 'different' although my slotted breech plug, and my hex breech plug work just fine.
Man, that is a great looking MLer and I LOVE the pattern on that camo stock!!!!! Beautiful. And it look like it is wanting to group great!!!!

Thanks Kevin, I am having a ball with it. I really like the rifle and with all the new .500 diameter bullets I am really liking the .54 caliber in general. Gm54-120 is the one that really sparked my interest in the .54.

I use Large rifle primers in those Red Speer 38spl training cases. The MK-95 did come with a #11 ignition too but I don't use it. I prefer the Posi-Fire. The Crossfires would not do me any good but thanks for offering. I seem to remember that the crossfire was originally designed for better ignition with Pellet powders, but I might be wrong. One of the other guys may now better. To my knowledge there is not a nipple for the FPJs, that type end was actually just machined onto the end of those BP's.

If you happen to go back to that shop (Please don't go out of your way) and see one of the Old Knight ramrods that has the Extendable end on it, I would love to get one especially with a .54 jag on it, and would not mind hearing of any MK-95 parts they might have. I am just about set though on parts. I have 2 more NIB breach plugs but there are no more parts for them. I recently asked Sam at Knight and at that time all he said that was left was a #11 BP, none for the Posi-Fire. My other 95's came with that extendable rod but this one came with a straight rod and no jag. I can't find those extendables anymore, they stopped making them a long time ago. I did take the extendable from my "parts/rescue 95" and sort or made one. For some reason that rod was about 3/4" short, have no idea why. If it was shortened for some reason I could not tell it. I picked up a couple Ox Yoke brass .54 jags. I cut one down and drilled and tapped it to 1/4"x28, applied a little blue loctite and replaced the original .50 cal jag with that. It turned out pretty good and is the right length anyway.

 

[pjsoden]

OK Shawn,
if your done playing around with those other bullets, Run some 325 Barnes with the purple sabot and 95 grains of 209.
That should make your 10 year quest complete!

 

[ShawnT]

OK Shawn,
if your done playing around with those other bullets, Run some 325 Barnes with the purple sabot and 95 grains of 209.
That should make your 10 year quest complete!

Hey Pete,
Well I would but I am clean out of BH and no one on the Island or surrounding counties as it. I might be able to get some at Cabela's when I head home to Ohio for Deer season at the end of the month. No matter what this dogs gonna Hunt! :wink: Dude this thing is light. I think it actually balances better then the .50.

 

[WV Hunter]

Hey that gun is shooting well Shawn. 777 might be it!


And fwiw, we were sighting in a .22 last weekend. Well my son was doing the shooting. Rem 552 BDL semi-auto. I put a cheap 4x scope on it, and after getting it dialed in - he shot (3) 3 shot groups that were all clover leafs...in a row! I was blown away. 30yds. I have the target at the cabin, was pretty amazing actually. First time we ever shot this gun. Its basically brand new, I picked it up many years ago in a bulk gun purchase. Several times I thought about geting rid of it because we never used it....boy I'm glad I didn't!

Good luck with yours. I'm like you...if I can't get it to shoot well, its down the road.

 

[ShawnT]

WV Hunter,

Thanks. I was pretty pleased with the way it shot the 777. I hope to try it again this next weekend and use a few of the Speers 325's that I want to hunt with. If it works I can get the 777 no problem. I also have another bottle of the Pyro RS that I got the same time I got the last one. The Only problem is that I don't have that many of the Speers, and can't find any, so got to be careful and save some for hunting. I have several of the Rainiers left so that is why I was shooting them. They shoot so close to same POI that there is no need to adjust the scope for them.

As for the 22. This one had shot some almost 1 hole 5 shot groups @50yds, then it will fling them out to 3/4". :huh?: Same ammo too. I have rebedded it 3 times and just seems to be something else wrong, its not the scope as I have swapped it out 2 times too with known good scopes 24X and 36X Br scopes. Its the consistancy that bothers me. I am just about done with it.

 

[pjsoden]

Shawn,
the secret to how well it balances is that the barrel blanks on both the 50 and 54 are the same. More metal has been removed from inside the barrel of the 54, making it lighter on the front end. These guns are so awesome, we're really lucky that Mr. Knight designed them and that we have one of each! Enjoy!

 

[ShawnT]

Shawn,
the secret to how well it balances is that the barrel blanks on both the 50 and 54 are the same. More metal has been removed from inside the barrel of the 54, making it lighter on the front end. These guns are so awesome, we're really lucky that Mr. Knight designed them and that we have one of each! Enjoy!

Pete,

You are correct. That finally dawned on me about he bore difference. When I was weighing them, they were side by side and I saw the barrels Od's were the same. I think I am actually going to like carrying this one better than the 50, Well maybe not my .50 is my first love. :wink: :lol: I completely agree we are lucky Tony built these, Thanks Tony! rayer: I would not trade my 50 and this 54 for anything. Took too long to get the 54 anyway. I was really wanting an Ultralight but now I am not sure I will ever get one.

 

[Reese]

Congrats ShawnT. So, is it my turn to find a .54 so I can have one of each? It's been crazy busy for me this year. Need to put some time aside and dust off my .50. Our local Cabela's in PA was well stocked with BH209 a couple weeks ago.

 

[ShawnT]

Reese,
Yup. I am done looking. If you want one there is one on GunsAmerica but the guy wants too much for it. I think it has been on that site for about 8 months or so.

The Hamburg store is my favorite store to shop in. When I travel back home to Ohio I pass right by on I78. The Car just knows to take the exit all by itself. :wink: :lol:I hope to get a bottle or 2 on was way though.

 

[Aquastang]

Great looking gun! I just got one in .50 and I love it. Got it for one of my sons...but I might just stick him with the KP-1 this year!

 

[ShawnT]

Great looking gun! I just got one in .50 and I love it. Got it for one of my sons...but I might just stick him with the KP-1 this year!

Thanks. I wanted to go out this weekend and do some final scope adjustments but man it is windy here, weather man said it is blowing 20 to 30 with gusts to 40 today and 25 to 35 with gusts to 50 tomorrow. :evil: I can tell you that it is really bending the trees and flags look like they are tying to come off the poles! Guess I will try again on Thanksgiving morning.

Congrads on the rifle. They are starting to get hard to find. The .54 is kind of rare, I'm sure they made more in .50cal. Some don't like all the parts to take apart but it never bothered me. The only real down side is that the parts are no longer available, at least for the Posi-fire ignition. The #11 is just an MK-85 ignition so parts are still available for it. They are a real pleasure to carry in the woods too. I'm sure you or your son will enjoy it. It is my favorite rifle to hunt with.

 

[wesley396]

Shawn T , You can still get the extendable ram rod from Knight . They are call Easton Core Ramrods for about $31.49 , But they only go up to 52cal on the jag. You might buy a 54cal jag and have a shop fit it to the new ramrod's threads.

 

[ShawnT]

Shawn T , You can still get the extendable ram rod from Knight . They are call Easton Core Ramrods for about $31.49 , But they only go up to 52cal on the jag. You might buy a 54cal jag and have a shop fit it to the new ramrod's threads.

Hey wesley396,

Did you get one of those? I was not aware that those were extendables. I thought they were just aluminum with a carbon arrow material core. I saw those but it says nothing in the ad about extending. I know Knight still sells brass extensions but those are not like the old ramrods. Now that I am reading this maybe I used the wrong term. Instead of extendable I probably should have referred to them as "Telescoping". I took an old Telescoping rod that was from another MK-95 I bought (as a parts rifle) that was a bit short for some odd reason. I removed the original Knight .50cal jag. I bought an OX Yoke Brass .54cal jag and cut the threaded end off, drilled the jag and tapped it to 1/4"x 28 like the old jag and added a few drops of Loctite The Result was an extending .54cal rod that is the same length as the original. Below is a picture of the rods. Top is the one I altered for the .54cal MK-95, next is my original rod for my .50cal MK-95, the bottom is one for my MK-85 54cal. You can tell the middle jag is smaller. All 3 rods are the same extending rod.



Thanks,