Blackhorn 209?

[RememberBaker]

Any of you guys use Blackhorn 209? I decided to try it this year, I've been using Triple seven pellets for a few years in our Traditions inline guns and I would have to swab the barrel between shots at the range or I couldn't get a sabot down the barrel. No problem with BH209, I shot 10-12 shots from each rifle and no cleaning between shots.
All three Traditions Pursuit UL rifles shot like this.
100 yard, 3 shot group, 80 grains BH209, 250 grain TC Shockwave, Crush Rib Sabot and Win 209 primer.

I threw the rest of my 777 powder away.

 

[DrMike]

That sounds like pretty dramatic differential between the two powders. Fascinating.

 

[MrBruce]

How did you decide to use 80 grains? Did you "work up" the load or just get lucky? I just picked up a can of BH209 and some Harvester 250 gr Saber Tooth bullets but can't decide if I should start at 70 gr or 75gr.

 

[RememberBaker]

On the bottles of BH 209 I have it lists the velocity of a number of bullet/charge combinations, the lowest charge they show is 80 grains so I thought that was the minimum. These three rifles are the ones my daughters shoot so I wanted as light a load as I dared. Maybe I will try 70 grains and see what happens. I really don't know, I was winging it, but the recoil was pretty mild and it shot well.

 

[RememberBaker]

That sounds like pretty dramatic differential between the two powders. Fascinating.

It is DrMike, I don't know anything about the composition of the powders, but this BH209 stuff seems totally different from stuff I've used before (Pyrodex granular, Pyrodex pellets and 777 pellets). Burns very clean and clean up is with normal powder solvents rather than soap and water, I used Hoppes #9 and that seemed to work well. I'd love to hear from someone who has more experience with it than I.

 

[Tobey284]

Blackhorn is great stuff, I've almos t totally switched over in my inlines, still shooting up some of those dirty old pellets in my knight though. I believe it may be a glycerin based powder with additives for the smoke cloud. Residue is a black film which doesn't seem to increase very much after the first firing, I saw a video somewhere that showed that BH209 leaves about as much fouling as two 209 primers by themselves. I've seen a good increase in velocity over pyrodex with max loads as well. My elk load is 110 grains BH209 with a 300 grain hornady. Accuracy is excellent, recoil is fierce off the sand bags but very manageable in the field. I wouldn't hesitate to use this load on anything from coyotes to tractors. Make sure you use 209 shotgun primers and not 209's designed for black powder, like winchester 777's and such, as you can get incomplete ignition, I use cci 209 mag primers and federal 209A's.

 

[MrBruce]

On the bottles of BH 209 I have it lists the velocity of a number of bullet/charge combinations, the lowest charge they show is 80 grains so I thought that was the minimum. These three rifles are the ones my daughters shoot so I wanted as light a load as I dared. Maybe I will try 70 grains and see what happens. I really don't know, I was winging it, but the recoil was pretty mild and it shot well.

Load data from the Blackhorn website shows 80 Volumetric Units (VU) as the minimum and 120 VU as the maximum. But remember, VU is not the same as grains. 80 VU converts to 56 grains by weight which is probably why you reported a light recoil. As an experienced re-loader (rifle/pistol) I know there will be a sweet spot where velocity and accuracy meet. I'm thinking of starting at 70 grains (100 VU) and working up in 2% increments until I get the most accurate load. I'd love to hear from someone that has actually tried this.

 

[RememberBaker]

I used 80 grains by volume, I probably should have made that clear in my first post. I've got one more rifle to shoot, the one I hunt with, and I'm planning on shooting that one at around 100 grains by volume.

 

[Dr. Vette]

On the bottles of BH 209 I have it lists the velocity of a number of bullet/charge combinations, the lowest charge they show is 80 grains so I thought that was the minimum. These three rifles are the ones my daughters shoot so I wanted as light a load as I dared. Maybe I will try 70 grains and see what happens. I really don't know, I was winging it, but the recoil was pretty mild and it shot well.

Load data from the Blackhorn website shows 80 Volumetric Units (VU) as the minimum and 120 VU as the maximum. But remember, VU is not the same as grains. 80 VU converts to 56 grains by weight which is probably why you reported a light recoil. As an experienced re-loader (rifle/pistol) I know there will be a sweet spot where velocity and accuracy meet. I'm thinking of starting at 70 grains (100 VU) and working up in 2% increments until I get the most accurate load. I'd love to hear from someone that has actually tried this.

In reading muzzeloader forums, the majority of people seem to like 100 or 110 VU, and most measure it as VUs not grains. Being anal retentive reloader once I actually start to use it I'll probably measure one each of 100, 105 and 110VU and then set up a bunch of 100, 105 and 110 VUs measured by weights so that they all match to the 0.1 grains. :mrgreen: I'll then see what is most accurate - the 100, 105 or 110 - and go with that.

I have not ever read anyone trying it by the 2% increase, as most seem to do well with the 100 or 110 with no fussing around.

 

[RememberBaker]

Took my 16 year old daughter to the range to shoot her rifle. 80 grains by volume is going to be it, she gets thumped pretty good by that. Maybe 200 grain bullets would work better for the girls?
This is a screen shot from a video, I'd post the video if I was smart enough to figure out how.

Her 6 shots at 100 yards. Traditions Pursuit UL, 80 grains BH 209, Win 209, 250 grain Shockwave with Crush Rib sabots. Maybe not bench rest quality, but I don't see any holes in that group that a deer will fit through.

 

[DrMike]

She is good to go for deer at 100 yards, that's for sure.

 

[HeathSexton]

I and everyone I shoot with shoot 73.5grs BH209

 

[Dr. Vette]

I and everyone I shoot with shoot 73.5grs BH209

By weight, I assume?
That's 102.5 by VU.

 

[HeathSexton]

Yeah, I thought I typed by weight but obviously I did not. Sorry about that, 73.5grs by weight.

 

[SJB358]

Very nice. Might try the BH209 next year.. Accuracy looks really good.

 

[cwa25.06]

Took my 16 year old daughter to the range to shoot her rifle. 80 grains by volume is going to be it, she gets thumped pretty good by that. Maybe 200 grain bullets would work better for the girls?
This is a screen shot from a video, I'd post the video if I was smart enough to figure out how.

Her 6 shots at 100 yards. Traditions Pursuit UL, 80 grains BH 209, Win 209, 250 grain Shockwave with Crush Rib sabots. Maybe not bench rest quality, but I don't see any holes in that group that a deer will fit through.

Just wanted to put this out there for you. I had always used the T/C 240 gr sabots with very good luck. Only one deer had not DRT and decided I was going to drop down to the T/C 200gr sabots for a faster, flatter trajectory. I killed 3 deer with these 200gr sabots but each one I had a long tracking job. All 3 deer were good chest shots. I change back to the 240's last year and got 2 DRT deer shots. This year I switched to the Savage Smokeless M/L with 250 gr sabots and killed a deer at 100 yds. It travelled about 15 yds.

Anyway, my point is, it is my opinion from my experience with these 200 gr sabots that they are too light for good clean DRT kills. I might be wrong but that's my experience with them.