BH 209 Range Report

dmurphy317 · 05-10-2008, 10:28 AM

Well I've had the powder for almost a month but I just now got a chance to shoot it yesterday. Due to other priorities I only had a few hours to shoot so I didn't get a chance to fully wring it out, but I will asap. Temps ranged from 55 to about 70 and the wind was light and in my face most of the morning. I am seeing, so far, similar results as others have seen, it definately needs a tighter sabot than oher powders, not rediculous but snugger. It does burn clean enough to allow multiple shots without swabbing. It is easy to clean up, I have never been able to clean the area between my bolt and the BP as easy as I did last night, 1 patch of Hoppies and a dry patch, done. I shot a total of 9 shots at 3 powder levels in the Mag Bolt using the 300 Shockwave Superglides (yellow sabot). I would have done more but the trigger developed a problem and I had to stop shooting it. My 14yo also shot 4 shots with his Optima with 80gr of powder and it worked fine with an average of 1564fps from a 250 Shockwave (black sabot). Here are the velocities of the magbolt loads. All shooting at 50 yards.

80 grains of powder

1509 clean barrel
1249 this shot had a slight delay between the primer and main charge ignition
1467

90 grains of powder

1592 pulled this shot a bit
1580
1575 pulled this shot
1590

100 grains of powder

1725 had trouble with trigger
1724 again had trouble with trigger so stopped shooting this rifle

I then decided to give the White Umag a try, I am using musket caps since I don't have a 209 BP for it. Unfortunately I loaded the same 300 ultraglide I was using in the magblot, it was too loose. In fact, the first cap did not fire the load but did blow the bullet out of the sabot and out of the end of the barrel, I found it at the base of the chrono tripod. The musket caps are still pretty strong based on that. I then reloaded with about 5 grains of 777 3F below the 100grains of BH209 and used a black sabot for the 300SW. It worked and had a velocity of 1796fps. That was the only shot I took with the White as I was running out of time. Next time I hope to have a full day and try more bullet types.

frontier gander · 05-10-2008, 11:15 AM

Nice groups. How many yards?

What was the trigger doing to you? Could just need to be cleaned with brake fluid, The bolt actions tend to get a lot of gunk blown down into teh trigger.

dphobby · 05-10-2008, 05:52 PM

I also tried some blackhorn in my Omega, Sorry I didn't take any pictures but I can tell you what I did. Started with 80 gr. BH and 250 gr. SW. with the supplied sabots, Not very good group 4"
Went to 90 gr. and then 100 gr, Groups didn't change. It seemed the easy load sabots and the regular ones loaded about the same. A little too easy for the BH. So I tried some Barnes expanders in 250 gr. I had to use a short starter to get them started but after that they loaded with a reasonable amount of pressure, Two hands on the ramrod to push it down. Then I got a 1.75" 5 shot group. I think maybe with a little less or a little more powder it might tighten up some more. I'm still on the fence with the new powder. I think 777 is an outstanding powder and you can get the same results with a little less money but a little more time spent loading and cleaning. Just thought I would share.

One thing I don't like about BH209 is there is no smoke !!!!
Just my .02

dmurphy317 · 05-11-2008, 03:51 PM

FG,
All my shots that day were at 50 yards. I hadn't shot that gun in about 6 months so I kept it closer to start with. As for the trigger, you are correct, it was gunk in the trigger that was causing it to not seat properly. On the first shot at 100 grains I lined up on the target and when I flipped the safety off I had my finger just touching the trigger and the gun went off. I thought maybe the bolt had something on the trigger contact point that may have caused the problem so I took the bolt apart and cleaned it real good, it wasn't all that dirty though so I was not confident I had fixed the problem. I then loaded it again and the same thing happened but without my finger on the trigger. At that point I put that rifle up and got out the White. When cleaning it later, I removed the trigger and found it had a bit of crud that was holding the sear down lower than it should have been and was causing the contact to be almost non existant, just flipping the safety was enough vibration to trigger it. After cleaning it up it is solid, lesson learned. It's been a while and maybe 100+ shots since I last removed the trigger for cleaning. You can bet I will be checking it more often now.

BPH,
I didn't even pay attention to the amount of smoke but it does seem to have less than other subs.

sabotloader · 05-11-2008, 04:03 PM

dmurphy317

Did you shoot some Bh in the White? If so how did it work? Wait a minute probably not since I think you were looking for a 209 BP for the White... Might have a solution for that at a later date....

mike

dmurphy317 · 05-11-2008, 04:20 PM

Mike,
I did shoot one shot with the BH209 as noted in the last part of my original post. I want to try it again with a tight fitting sabot to see if the loose one I had used was the problem. I ended up using 5 grains of 777 under the BH209 to ensure the ignition and it worked fine and gave 1796fps with the 300SW in a black sabot. I still think the musket cap should have enough energy to set it off if it has enough back pressure from the sabot, the one I first loaded didn't even hold the bullet in it when the musket cap went off. The powder and sabot stayed in the barrel but not the bullet. That was my bad as I realized it was too loose after I put it in but hoped I could just shoot it out, which didn't work as I've noted. My next outing I will try again with a tight fitting combo to see if it will go off. I also want to try some conicals with a wad or card between the powder and the bullet to see if that will go off and how well it works.

HuntAway · 05-11-2008, 04:46 PM

That 80 gr load is nice and tight. Good shooting! Is this rifle scoped?

dphobby · 05-12-2008, 04:58 AM

dpmurphy, Sorry to barge in your post with my two cents about my shooting, I should have started my own. Not very considerate on my part. Hey good shooting !!!!

dmurphy317 · 05-12-2008, 09:11 AM

Huntaway,
Yes the rifle is scoped and was last sighted in with the 300gr SW and 110gr of 777 at 100 yards. This probably explains why the 80gr load was hitting POA at 50 yards. I was surprized at the group I got considering the second shot delay fire and slower speed. Both the 80 and 90 grain loads show promise on the shots I didn't pull. I think the 100 gr load will show some promise based on the 1fps difference in the 2 shots I did shoot, I just didn't get a chance to get a good aim with the gun going off prematurely. I will be doing more testing as soon as I can, right now my honeydo list is getting kind of long.

BPH,
No problem it's all good data.