I have shot my Black Diamond XR for many years. Its always been a wonderful shooting rifle, but a fouling dirty rifle. Still, when it comes to taking game it would be a good choice.
Lately I have been reading some excellent posts about the Black Diamond XR and other owners. And they are not shooting 209 ignition and shooting some pretty hot loads out of the rifle with good success.
So today I pulled the 209 ignition and swapped it out for a RMC stainless steel hot shot nipple. I also wanted to shoot the new Harvester Scorpion 260 grain funnel nose out of the rifle. And this time give them a real push. So I checked the rifle card and it said it was dead on at 100 yards shooting 250 grain Shockwaves with 110 grains of Pyrodex RS.
The optics on this rifle is a simple 1.5-4.5x32mm Bushnell Banner Dusk to Dawn scope. The scope has excellent eye relief, very good glass, and it gathers light as well as any of my more expensive scopes. I would change it out to something better, but its never let me down, and works perfect.
I started my shooting today with 110 grains of Graf's & sons 2f black powder. I was using a Winchester Magnum #11 cap for ignition. Prior to loading I had swabbed the barrel and popped two caps. So I loaded up and was all set to go. I fired A & B. Since the rifle is sighted in for 100 yards and this was only 50 yards I figured this would be about the right height over the bull.
I swabbed using Rusty Duck Black Off and just for fun decided to make this Black Diamond XR a real magnum rifle. My powder measure was a see through and went to 125 grains. So I opened it all the way and shot C&D. Needless to say I was impressed. Agian, I was swabbing between shots and giving the rifle time to cool down as it was 70 degrees out.
So for the fun, I aimed at the 6 o'clock of the red circle and shot two more rounds with the 125 grain load. 1&2 were pretty good. Still just hugging each other. I aimed just a little lower and shot #3 and that made sense to me.
So still pushing that 125 grain load, I shot a five shot group total. And was still surprised it was behaving so well with that much powder. Also ignition was perfect in the rifle.
So I had to try and made the five shot group a ten shot group. Now I was kind of impressed with this bullet and the large loose powder charge. Even more impressive was .. by changing over to #11 caps, I suffered no loss of ignition, and the reduction of fouling was very noticeable.
So the rifle I think has officially left the 209 primer ignition system and became a #11 cap ignition. Also I like the larger powder charge. I have no idea what the FPS would be or the energy down range but it would be moving pretty good.
I actually believe that this rifle can handle this kind of load with ease. After all Sabotloader shoots a lot of 110 grains of Triple Seven which would figure out to be just about what the 125 grains of black powder does.
Now I want to get the target back to 100 yards and see what kind of drop this load has and how it will group. It was a lot of fun today, shooting. Lots of noise, smoke, recoil, just a good time.
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
Gee whiz! another exellent shooting ad venture for you. that 6:00 hold and those 10 shots are excellent.
After I got the MK 85 and started shooting it with caps... I really wondered why I felt I need to shoot shotgun primers... The caps work so well... I guess i was still on the 'more power' wagon.
My go to load in the MK-85 is a 110 grains of T7-3f... it shoots cleaner than 2f and no sign of a crud ring with a 270 grain bullet.
NICE SHOOTING - October 10 is the magic date here in Idaho - hope I can find a nice buck... not never mind if I find one to early what would I do the rest of the seaon? I hate one deer seasons... and I can not hunt elk until December.
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Keep on Shooting Muzzleloaders they are a Blast
The change over to the #11 cap sure made a difference in fouling. And ignition was very good. So I think I will stick to this caps instead of primers.
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
Cayugad, that is an amazing difference in breech fouling. I suspect that rifle will never see another 209.
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My wife says I'm totally nuts, but I think I'm Semisane.
Things I've Learned: (1) It's not possible to please everyone, but quite easy to piss everyone off. (2) If you love animals as I do, then you're not a vegetarian. (3) There's no need to act stupid, even if you're very good at it. (4) If you eat right and exercise, don't smoke or drink, you're going to die anyway.
Great report Dave. The only thing I didn't like much about the black diamond was that stock. Sure can't argue with those results, it don't get much better.
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"Just because you're paranoid it doesn't mean everyone is not out to get you"
Dave: I been looking at a few new inline like the one my son has the accura man that gun can shoot but after the first shot now your dealing with the crud ring.
I can say the RWS 1075 + plus cap in my thunderhawk man no such thing as a dirty bore or crud ring.I think that the only reason I seem not want to upgrade.I also can say the 1 in 38 twist in that bore will shoot anything I stuff down the bore.
Black Diamond XR with a few changes
