Blackhorn 209 and 350's

pre6422hornet

Handloader
Jan 24, 2012
974
8
Went out and sighted in the muzzleloader a few weeks ago, switching over to Blackhorn 209 from American Pioneer Powder. I ordered some MMP orange sabots, and I had 350 gr Hornady's, Speer's, and Kodiaks.

I started out at 90 grains of BH and the Hornady. Groups were good, running 1.25-1.5 at 100. According to BH, speed should be around 1650, but they don't tell you the barrel length. I run a TC prohunter with a 28" barrel.

I switched to the Speers and bumped up progressively to 95, 100, and 105 grains. each increment made the groups bigger and bigger. I dropped back down to 90, shot a 1.25 group and called it a day.

I really wanted to see if I could get better groups, and I have heard that groups usually shrink around 120 gr of BH. I went back out this week and started at 115 gr. The first shot was 8 inches high dead center out of a clean barrel. The next two shots were 1.5 apart and 6 inches high. I let her cool, dialed down the elevation and proceeded to shoot a 3 shot group of Speers, then a 2 shot group with the Hornady's, and finished with a 2 shot group with the Kodiaks. The Speers and Hornadys group identical, in fact they were so similiar that I stopped at 2 shots. The kodiaks grouped a little to the right, but the barrel heating up did not affect them. They printed .40 center to center. I took all three targets and laid them on top of one another and here is the 7 shot group with the bullets marked "H", "S", and "K". The lowest shot was a cool dirty barrel for all three bullets. The second shots on both speer and hornady weer the next one higher, and the Speer 3rd shot is the highest. Again, no cooling time inbetween shots for the different bullets. I shot 3 shots with the Speers as fast I could shot, walk behind the bench, dump powder and bullet, walk back, prime, sit down and squeeze. Then I let the gun cool completely and reshot with Hornady, and so on.



The Bullseye is just about 1.5 inches. Next time out I will give her two clicks up, re verify 100 yard zero, then move back to 200 and calculate drop to the corresponding tic on the Burris ballistic reticle ( 2x7x32).

I also will chrono and I have a jug test ready complete with a Cow shoulder blade ready.

I believe the elk are in trouble if we cross paths...
 
Fine accuracy, especially with the Kodiaks. One has to be impressed with that data. Looking forward to the jug test you propose. Through the shoulder first should be most interesting.
 
Very cool. Can't wait for the jug test. I'm guessing 6 with the Hornady and Speer and 5 with the Kodiaks.
 
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