Tomorrow's project Knight Turkey Gun

[cayuga]

With turkey hunting just around the corner, I decided to start a new project. I got a Knight TK2000 last year and patterned it. It shoots great with 100 grains of Pyrodex RS then a 3-1/4 ounce shot cup pushed onto that, and then an equal shot gun measure of #5 shot. Finally you hold it all together with a over the shot card. All you have to do then is hold on...

After I patterned it last year I remembered I had a spare Bushnell RED DOT around that is made for turkey guns... So I bought some bases and mounted this tonight..

tomorrow, I will go out and get kicked around trying to tune the shotgun to the RED DOT and to see if I can shake it off. If I can break that RED DOT then I will throw a 1x scope on it and see if I can break that too. Sounds like fun right. If you ever get a chance, shoot a turkey load out of a Knight TK2000.

 

[big6x6]

Dave I can't way to see how yours shoots.. I am going to try #4s in my TK2000... You got any turkey targets?

 

[cayuga]

No actually I don't. So I will have to shoot at a center bulls eye. and then guess at the pattern. If it was like last year, it did real well. But it kicked like a mule.

 

[cayuga]

UPDATED


3-8-09 1:20 PM
22?s overcast, windy, cold
Distance: 13-45 yards
Shotgun: Knight TK2000 w/ Bushnell RED DOT sight
Powder: American Pioneer Powder 2f 100 grains
Shot: #5 all lead
Primers: Winchester W209
Shotcups:3-1/2 inch green hard plastic, 3-1/2 inch softer clear plastic

As you might note, one of Lane's tubes is almost filled to the top with #5 lead shot. That's a lot of weight to push down the barrel of that shotgun.

I had bore sighted the red dot, so I set the first target up at 13 yards used the 5MOA dot and let fly...

The scope I suspect here was a little low, but I put a new target on and backed out to 25 yards, held the same sight pattern and let that cannon go.

My suspicions were correct. It was hitting low, so I turned up the RED DOT, and shot one more time at this same target. There was no need to post a picture of it, as it was totally blow away from the two hits. But the raise in POA looked pretty good. So I loaded up again (using APP I do not have to swab)

Here is where things got interesting. With the clear plastic cup at 35 yards, I was not impressed with the pattern. So I loaded up the hard green plastic cup and shot at an X on the bottom of the box. I only knew that X was about dead center of the box, but I could hardly make it out. BUT the harder green shot cup did a much better job at holding the pattern tighter.

The same proved true at 40 yards. It held more holes in the kill area of the box with the hard green shot cup as did with the clear plastic one. At 45 yards the pattern was not that good for some reason. I suspect the powder. My notes indicated last year I was shooting with Pyrodex RS. So I might try that or some Triple Seven next time.

Recoil was not all that bad, but I had a heavy jacket on because it was cold out there. Also I am not sold on this RED DOT. I might change over to a 1x scope and see if I like that better.

 

[Stompie]

Cayuga:

Just out of interest is this a normal muzzleloader that you are loading with shot shell instead of a bullet and you are using shot cups instead of sabots???

Do you have a choke on the gun as well? This sounds like great fun. With turkey season weeks away this interests me greatly.

 

[cayuga]

This is a shotgun. No rifling, and a turkey full choke on it. It looks like a Knight Wolverine action. And kicks like a rented mule. This is a full 12 gauge bore. I have other smoothbores also. One is .62 caliber which is a 20 gauge. Again, you can dump a shotcup down it as well. And I have a New Englander in 12 gauge. That is my grouse shotgun.

Don't try shot in a rifle. It just does not work and leads up the bore.

 

[big6x6]

Great report Dave! One thing is for sure..inside of 25yds...a turkey is dead meat... That green shotcup does seem to hold a tighter pattern... Where did you get those?

Your patterns are almost exactly what I got with the TK2000... I never tried #4....lot of people use that in TK2000s...

 

[cayuga]

A person mailed me them to try. I have looked all over and all I found was the Knight Sabots. They also work real good in the TK. I was shooting them last year, and then bought the clear ones.

 

[big6x6]

I can't find them either... I looked at Ballistic Products and Claybuster and didn't see anything that looked like them....

 

[Corpe Nimrod]

Shot the tominator in today after adding a Simmons 1.5 - 5 diamond reticle scope to it.

This is 100 grains BM3, Felt buffer wad, BP 3.5 multimetal, 2 1/4 ounce #5's, and cardboard overshot card. Left target is at 25 yards and right target is at 50 yards. The link for the target is here in case you guys still need one.

http://www.remington.com/pdfs/turkeytarget.pdf

 

[WildShot]

I can't find them either... I looked at Ballistic Products and Claybuster and didn't see anything that looked like them....

From Ballistic Products this is the multi-metal series:

http://www.ballisticproducts.com/prodinfo.asp?number=3221235

 

[big6x6]

Shot the tominator in today after adding a Simmons 1.5 - 5 diamond reticle scope to it.

This is 100 grains BM3, Felt buffer wad, BP 3.5 multimetal, 2 1/4 ounce #5's, and cardboard overshot card. Left target is at 25 yards and right target is at 50 yards. The link for the target is here in case you guys still need one.

http://www.remington.com/pdfs/turkeytarget.pdf

That's about the way mine patterns... Mine really doesn't hold up past 35yds. HOPEFULLY that will be far enough! I know that is a KICKING load!

 

[big6x6]

I can't find them either... I looked at Ballistic Products and Claybuster and didn't see anything that looked like them....

From Ballistic Products this is the multi-metal series:

http://www.ballisticproducts.com/prodinfo.asp?number=3221235

The one we were talking about was the GREEN shotcup. Is that the same one?

 

[WildShot]

I think so. I have ordered them several times from BP and have received different colors. Right now I have pink, white and off white but not green in the 3 1/2" wad. I also have a lighter color green in the 2 3/4" wad.

 

[cayuga]

Wildshot ... did you look at the load max on them shotcups?

Slits: 4

Maximum loads: 2-1/8oz lead, 1-3/4oz bismuth, 1-1/2oz steel, 1-3/4oz Hevi-Shot

I've been talking to Gordy Edwards at Knight muzzleloading who (as Knight always is) has been very helpful. These are some of the responses I have gotten to load questions about the TK.

David,

From extensive testing I can tell you that 100-110 grain of Triple 7 loose ffg powder and using the 3 1/2 ? shot cups loaded with 2 ? oz. of #4, 5, or 6 should produce a pattern @ 30 yards like no other. You should maintain roughly 380-425 #6 shot pellets in a 30? circle. Hope this helps, thanks.

Here is what he wrote me yesterday when I was discussing my friend's (he shoots a TK strictly for turkey) load and some of the shots he "claims" to have made...

We do have a confirmed turkey kill on film using the TK that was 72 yards, longest that we know of. I am pretty confident with 110 grains of powder and a duplex load of 80% #6 and 20% #4 to about 55 yards. Hope this helps, thanks.

I would like to give a kudos to Gordy Edwards and all the others at Knight Muzzleloading. They have always went that little extra with any question or concern I have about a rifle.. that's one reason I purchase Knight products. thanks guys!!

So that's how it works. I tried to weigh out my shot yesterday to double check the weight. But my small powder scale will not go that high. If my weights are right, a full plastic Lane's powder tube (not the BlackHorn one) is two and a half ounces of shot. If anyone has a 3-1/2 inch shot cup and a good scale... weigh me out a full load from from one of them shot cups. That also should be about 2-1/.2 ounces.

Now I want to get some different shot size and start to duplex the load and see if I can get a couple more yards out of that TK..

Wildshot, that is some good shooting there on them bird targets. I was at Wal Mart and asked if they had any but of course its not the season. They must think sportsmen work in shifts or something. Not the season... I have two more places to look.

 

[big6x6]

I'm at work but I knew I had weighed that before:

The 3.5 inch Knight shotcup holds an actual 983grs of #4s

So that's right at 2 1/4 oz actual weight...

 

[cayuga]

thanks.. I figured it was. I measured out a load in parts on my scale and that's as close as I could figure too.

 

[WildShot]

I have two different BP 3 ?? wads. I have the multi-metal and the TPS. Both are identical except for color but the multi-metal is ?harder? plastic. I have not weighed the max shot load but if I set my lee dipper at 1 ? oz, they both will hold two scoops. That is with lead #6?s. I do have a digital postal scale that I could check the weight with. I?ll weigh a few loads and post the results.

I also compared the multi-metal with one of the Knight wads that came with my TK2K and see no difference in dimensions or material. I believe that they are the same wad, just a different color. Mine are a few years old and Knight may now be getting their wads from a different source.

 

[big6x6]

Quote:
David,

From extensive testing I can tell you that 100-110 grain of Triple 7 loose ffg powder and using the 3 1/2 ? shot cups loaded with 2 ? oz. of #4, 5, or 6 should produce a pattern @ 30 yards like no other. You should maintain roughly 380-425 #6 shot pellets in a 30? circle. Hope this helps, thanks.

Dave...I don't doubt that at all but that is a WAY big target, that 30 inch circle. That's the size of a WHOLE TURKEY...not the KILL ZONE.

That target is...now don't laugh....is 12X12 inches! That's where the pellets need to be and not in a 30 inch circle, IMO.

 

[cayuga]

I agree Chuck. You must have been impressed by my custom duct tape home made targets. At least I knew about where the neck and head would have been. A 30 inch circle to me is no indication of a killing load.