I bought the Knight Bighorn Muzzleloader. I didn't want to splurge for the Knights with the discs because I plan on buying a flintlock. Pennsylvania has a special flint lock system.

The Bighorn came with a much appreciated instructional video. However, the gun came with a muzzle cap as opposed to the percussion cap #11. I had already bought the #11 caps, so I had to break the gun down to change the nipple.

I really didn't want to take the gun apart before shooting the first time; I wanted to know that the gun worked from the factory. But it was also useful to work through breaking it down and putting it back together. It went smoothly.

I bought 50 grain Pyrodex pellets. The gun is rated for 100 grains of black powder. I was concerned about the effect of using two Pyrodex pellets, but the Knight customer service representative said not to worry, the gun will work fine with two.

In fact, the helpful range manager at the shooting range explained that the accuracy of muzzleloaders depends a great deal on the powder charge. He advised that if I have an accuracy problem, I should experiment with different powder loads, even using just one 50 grain Pyrodex.

The most important advice offered was to make sure the bullet was pushed down against the powder. If there is space between the powder and the bullet, the gas explosion will be blocked and could be forced out the back end of the muzzle.

I was thus advised to mark the ramrod with the bullet and powder loaded. That is a good suggestion, and I marked my ramrod. But after firing a few rounds, it seems to me that the ramrod mark should be a secondary check to make sure the bullet is seated properly.

The primary check should be to find some method to insure that the bullet is seated when raming it down. For example, I bought a "T" bullet starter which I used to initially start the bullet down the muzzle. But then I seated the handle of the starter over the ramrod when pushing the bullet down the muzzle. This gave me a much better feel for the bullet and ramrod, and I was able to feel with precision when the bullet seated over the powder charge.

My first few shots were a little wild, but I settled down and made my sight adjustments. I was able to get within 3 inches at 50 yards with less than a dozen shots. I was pleased at the accuracy of the rifle, although the shooter needs more work.

As I already had experience breaking the rifle down, cleaning was fairly easy. It was abetted by the fact that I ran a patch through the muzzle after every shot.

A helpful fellow muzzleloader shooter offered some advice on cleaning the barrel. He suggested that I pack some lard on the back of the bullet. That way the bullet would clean the barrel on the way out. In fact, there are even items on the market such as "Bore Butter" that have the same purpose.

However, I contacted the Knight company, and the response was that the lard or other product was a bad idea. It would gum up the rifling in the barrel. I concluded that the lard or Bore Butter might be helpful for a smooth bore, but not the Knight Bighorn.