New member and Black Diamond owner

[Mean Joe]

Howdy, been lurking and getting some info here, so now I'm a member. Post 1...

I've decided to get back into black power hunting, and have been researching the topic a lot lately. As there are several restrictions on BP hunting rifles here in the Pacific Northwest, I was looking for a T/C Black Diamond, and saw a recent post here mentioning the Black Diamond clearance at Third Generation Shooting Supply. I was able to purchase their last new in box .50 XR 1:28 model with the walnut stock. I'm very pleased with the purchase, as it looks great, shoulders great and balances great for me. I should be able to get out during my upcoming holiday break to try it out, as long as steelhead fishing doesn't interfere. This Black Diamond is a nice addition to my other two NW legal BP hunting rifles, which include a Lyman .50 24" 1:48 Deerstalker, and a T/C .54 24" 1:38 walnut stock Thunderhawk. Three different twists for my upcoming hunting and NW restricted projectile needs. Fortunately the state of Washington now allows sabots, so the new Black Diamond will mainly be used there.


Stay Stoked
Mean Joe
Portland, Oregon

[cayugad]

Welcome to the forum. You have a great rifle there.

[falcon]

Welcome to the forum. The Black Diamond is a very good rifle; about as good as they come. It's also a very dirty rifle, especially when used wth .209 primers. The nipples that come with the rifle are the Flame Thrower Nipples with three vent holes. They allow a lot of blowback that really cruds things up.

Put a plain old TC musket cap nipple on my first Black Diamond and it stays a lot cleaner. Just installed a musket nipple for my current Black Diamond. Eventually i want to have a 209 breechplug that eliminates the nipple made for my gun.

[cayugad]

I took Falcon's advise a while back and took out that 209 ignition and went to a stainless steel #11 nipple. What a difference in staying clean in the breech. Plus since I shoot loose powder in my XR I suffered no ignition delays, or problems. I have a 1.5-4.5x32mm Bushnell Banner on mine. And my XR will handle stout loads all day long. I was testing some 260 grain Hornady Scorpion Funnel Nose bullets out of it, and to see how it liked the #11 ignition.




Now I happen to like black powder. And so I knew the rifle would be a little high since it is sighted in at 100 yards. But I was kind of pleased with the groups it was shooting at 50 yards that day. And I think 125 grains of black powder and that Scorpion would be a great combination.

[Mean Joe]

Good advice from both. For me the choice will be between #11 caps and musket caps. The 209 primers are not legal for hunting with in the Northwest. Nice to know that percussion caps are cleaner. I prefer to do all of my range shooting with hunting conditions setups. I'm also OK with percussion caps, as my previous BP rifle was a T/C .50 Thunderhawk 21" barrel Carbine. Used #11 caps for several years with the carbine and never had a misfire. I recently purchased some of the German musket caps & immediately put the musket cap nipple on the new Black diamond after taking it out of the box. T/C supplies all three nipple styles.

[quake]

Welcome, Mean Joe.

I too have a Black Diamond. I dont hunt with it much anymore but still love to get it out and shoot it once in a while. I wish mine had the walnut stock.

Good luck to you and your new Black Diamond.

[onetohunt]

Welcome to the forum

[gregrn43]

Welcome to the forum

[gman57]

welcome sit back relax and enjoy