A TALE OF WOE
Some of you guys know I've been waiting to get the Lyman Mustang back in action to take another shot at tryingBlackhorn 209in it.
Previous attempts with .25 ACP small riflemagnum primersresulted in bad hang fires.I ordered a new 209 breech plug to try 209M primers, but the firing pin broke before the breech plug arrived. After waiting over three months to get the "repaired" receiver back from Lyman I was ready to Get Er Done last Saturday - or so I thought.
I loaded up a bunch of powder tubes with 70 grains weight of BH (which filled my TC U-View powder measure to about the 107 grain mark) and headed to the range. After putting a target out at 100 yards I dumped a tube of BH downthe cold clean bore and pushed a300 grain Gold Dot in aHarvester 5045B sabot down very firmly on the charge. The temperature was hovering around 90 degrees when I touched off the CCI 209M primer and the gun went BANG instantly. That's a good start.
Because I just can't help myself, I swabbed the bore with both sides of one alcohol patch and loaded up again. When I took the shot - "CLICK - NOTHING". Opened the breech and there was a very very light dimple on the primer. Closed the breech and tried the shot again - BOOM, everything's fine.The next shot - CLICK/NOTHING. Another light dimple on the primer. Tried again - CLICK/NOTHING. Switched over to a new primer, still no boom. Backed the breech plug out about 3/4 turn and got it to go off. All the while I'm thinking"*#!##%** LYMAN REPAIR SERVICE".
Well, any time the dang gun ignited the primer it lit off the BH with no problem and no hang fire. I managed to get five shots into the target. Here it is.
That's about the kind of group I get with this gun/bullet with 105 grains volume T7 FFG (U-View measure) or 120 grains volume GOEX FFFg. So maybe with a little load tweaking I can get BH to outshoot the other powders. Maybe not.
I was pretty frustrated with the gun problems but determined to shoot one target with no swabbing between shots. I did manage to do that. Here's the target.
I did not expect that! I must confess that the gun wasHOT at this point. I could not hold it by the barrel. It seems to me that BH creates more heat than the other subs.
This shoot was too limited to draw any conclusions other than CCI 209M primers will ignite BH in the Mustang in 90 degree weather, andLYMAN REPAIR SERVICE STINKS. But I suspect that when I use up this first canister of BH I won't be buying any more. If you don't mind swabbing I just don't see the advantage.
A Very Limited Mustang/Blackhorn Report
