At the gun show last week, I purchased a used MK 85 (at the request of my wife no less!).

So far I haven't had a chance to play with it much. I did put in the 209 ignition system, and it came with a decent Simmions 3X9 scope.

My question is this. I am a newbe with muzzleloaders. What type of accuarcy is "good"? I plan on using this in Nebraska and Iowa (so I have to take the scope off for Nebraska) in ranges of under 100 yards. I know that the max rated charge for this rifle is 120 grains of FFg, but I don't know if that is in relation to the bullet weight or just a "max charge". So far, 2 50 gr pellets give good results, but I am wondering what others experiences have been.

Thanks for the help in advace.

The advice I give everyone is take a few different powders and bullets and they them out. Find out what your gun likes.

All Knight's are good shooters. Get yourself some Triple Seven 2F or 3F (I use 3F), some Triple Seven 209 primers, and some 250 or 300 grain sabots. I use 90 gr 3F and a 290 grain Knight (Barnes ) sabot. My Disk Extreme will shoot consistent 1-1 1/2" groups at 100 yards.

I bought my MK 85 predator in 54cal and my Father bought his in MK 85 50cal New. They both like 80grains of Pyrodex RS with a 240gr Hornady XTP . We tried many different powder charges of Pyrodex RS and found anything hotter made the groups open up. I have shot them with sabot and 44cal bullets of several manufactures but settled on the Hornady XTP 240 because it has less chance of deforming when being pushed down the barrel. I have shot through all my deer with 80grains of Pyrodex RS at distances up to 125 yards. 777 wasn’t available at the time and I haven’t tried different loads with 777 yet. We couldn’t use scopes during muzzleloader season until this year so I didn’t bother trying. I have also shot my MK 85 with a patched round ball but only with 50grains of Pyrodex RS any more and the group would open up.

Since I bought my Encore I retired the MK85. The Encore seems to like 100grains of 777 with the same sabot and bullet.

Like others will say you will have to experiment.


Good luck and good hunting.