BH209

[bobbyrum]

A few days ago I went to the range to finally give my T/C Encore a workout. I ran out of time last fall as it arrived a little late. I used 100 gr. BH209, Fed. 209A primers & Precision Rifle Dead Centre bullets ranging in weight from 195 gr. to 300 gr. I fired one round before starting my testing. I fired 3 each & allowed lots of cooling time. First up was the 195 gr. & the 3 went into 1". Second was the 220 gr. The first 2 were damn near in the same hole & the third touched the other 2 for a 1/2" group. the 240 gr. wasn't bad either. The 260 gr. that I had killed 2 deer with last fall went about 1 1/2" & same with the 300 gr. Last fall the 260 gr. would go 3/4" out of a clean barrel & after one fouler. I did not test the 200 gr. as I had left it at home. I will try it next week when I go back.
The one thing that I noticed while testing is that BH209 seems to behave like regular smokeless powder. You reach a point say, 12 to 15 rounds where a good cleaning becomes necessary to tighten up the groups. What the BH209 folks say about not having to patch between rounds is true, but this periodic full scale cleaning may be a good idea after say 15 rounds.

Wondering if anyone else has found this to be the case?

 

[Charlie-NY]

I normally don't shoot more than 20-25 rounds of BH209 in one range session because I am usually shooting several other rifles on the same day. I always clean the ML when I get home even though I never felt that it was necessary.

Some shooters have posted that they fired 50 - 100 rounds without a decrease in accuracy. I think shooting a 100 rounds of sabots, using BH209 and 209 primers is awful expensive for the average Joe, including myself. :lol:

 

[JD338]

I use 777 in my muzzle loaders. I always run patches between shots.

JD338

 

[barge]

Went to the range today with BH209 and W209 primers and chronograph. I had shot the BH209 before and had sorted through the bullets I had coming to the conclusion the 250gr. Shockwave did the best in my 209x50 TC Encore. My best groups at 200 yd. was 3" I have been able to repeat this at least three times. Two real close together 1" and one other making it a 3" group. This was with 130 gr. by vol. I did notice that a shot from a clean barrel gives about 60 fps. more velocity than one shot multiple times. After about 15 shots I noticed a drop in fps. When I got home and was cleaning I noticed the flash hole in the breech plug had a lot of residue in it. Now the question is was that partly responsible or was it something else. I am not sure how well I inspected the flash hole the last time I cleaned it, so build up may have been cumulative. I will have to go back to the range and experiment again. The first time I shot the BH209 I shot 27 rounds. Today I shot 27 rounds. Velocities with 130 gr. where 2175 to 2185 after fouling shot of 2249fps. Was not going to say anything until I could get back and see if things where more consistent with known clean flash hole and watch for build up. I would right now say cleaning after 15 to 20 shots is needed. Yes the gun will fire and you can seat the sabot. As of right now I am impressed just trying to have a better understanding of the idiosincracies. I also found the screws holding the studs that the forearm screws go into where loose, they now have loctite on them and will be checked more often.

By the way the CED M2 worked great. Used the regular screens at first until I got several error codes, the sun was bright and close to over head, then changed to the infrared screens with no more errors. I will say that I had put duct tape on top the the screens so I would not have to deal with that at the range, worked great. Why they do not do something when they make them I do not know. The do tell you in the instructions that if you run into a problem you can tape brown paper to them. I just thought I'd be preemptive.

 

[bobbyrum]

Is this a new gunpowder!! :lol: