If you go with a bighorn which is an open breech design plunger gun, you could go with the Full Plastic Jacket (FPJ) or #11 (western) setup. Honestly, there isn't much difference. The FPJ uses 209 primers, western uses #11 caps. They both work just fine. I use #11's in all my knight plunger guns. In the plunger guns, I wouldn't recommend using BH209 powder, just stick to real black, pyrodex, or 777.hibryan73 wrote:Looking to acquire a Knight Mountaineer or Bighorn Rifle and I am presented with the OPTION of a "full plastic jacket", or "western". What is the difference? Secondly, any ideas as the benefits and advantages of one system over the other? Additionally, Knight is offering a 10 percent discount to purchase the 52 Caliber version vs the 50 Caliber. Any thoughts on this? I'm guessing the 50 Caliber is the more prevalent caliber in use among Muzzleloaders, and therefore offers a wider selection of bullets for muzzleloaders to choose from, perhaps?
Any info and ideas on this are greatly appreciated. Been around centerfire firearms my entire life, but new to this whole "front-loader" world.
Thanks in advance
Bryan
If you go with a Mountaineer, you should request the Non Full Plastic Jacket (NFPJ) breechplug setup. It uses bare 209 primers. That is the best setup that Knight offers. You just drop the bare primer in the pocket and close the bolt and you are good to go. You can use real black or any sub with this gun.
Regarding the .50 vs .52, yes the only real difference is bullet selection. .52 doesn't have many options. Knight has the Bloodlines which are as good as any bullet you can get, but they aren't cheap. Resale is tougher on a .52, but they are good guns. You certainly aren't at a disadvantage with either, just limited a tad on the .52
If you planned on keeping it long term as your ML to hunt with, the .52 with bloodlines would be able to take any game you'd want to hunt, imo. Saving 10% ain't a bad deal. Good luck