Hey John B,
Welcome to the site and to knight rifles. Years ago i started out with a knight and the tolerences of the barrels were so tight that the power belt was my choice.
I think from the way it sounds that you need to swab the barrel after each shot with a damp rag or whatever.
when i shot the 777 it left a small ring at the bottom that had to be removed between each shot, i really got tired of pushing the rod against the tree to get the sabot in.
if you are new to muzzleloading what i did was try to get a system of reloading. fire, clean,powder, bullet & primer.
Hope some of this works for you but you will probably get a lot of greatv advice from the guys on this site, they are great.
if you want to talk write back.
Good luck but most important be safe.
daddus1