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11-30-2011 | 01:48 PM

#1

cayugad

Dominant Buck

Joined: Feb 2003

Posts: 21,193

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From: Wisconsin

Converted Knight Disc and Blackhorn 209

As some might have read, my attempt the other week to shoot BlackHorn 209 out of my Original Disc which has the Lehigh conversion, had some real problems. Today I was determined to give it another shot..

To remind those that are not following the thread. Last time at the range, I tried the Lehigh conversion in the Disc rifle and some BlackHorn powder. I was using Winchester W209 primers. And got a surprise or two when the rifle failed to ignite on a couple occasions.

Forum members advised it was the Winchester Primers and that I needed to get CCI primers or Remington STS primers. So I got them. I was also told I needed to clean out the carbon with drill bits. So I purchased a brand new set of craftsman bits to do just that. So I was set to give this rifle another try.

On the last outing, I used 100 grains of BlackHorn 209 primers. The accuracy was acceptable, but I felt it could have done better. So I decided to try some different loads this time and see what the rifle liked best.

I started first off by preparing the rifle according to what forum members told me to do. I did the following...

#1 I swabbed the bore with out any kind of cleaner. Only dry patches. This was to pull any excess oil from the bore.

#2 I fired off 2 primers and then swabbed the bore again with a dry patch.

#3 Use a very tight fitting sabot. So instead of the MMP HPH-24 I went to the MMP HPH-12 and it was a TIGHT FIT.

#4 Do not swab between shots. I will discuss this point later.

I was now ready to load and fire.

So I started with 90 grains of BlackHorn 209 and a 300 grain Hornady XTP. The HPH-12 in this rifle was a tight fit. In fact I wondered if I could load this with the rifle ramrod. The answer is yes I could. But I had to use the short starter that acts as a ramrod palm saver to do so. But they loaded fine. The three shots were I felt pretty good.

I then upped the charge to 100 grains and fired two rounds. Why they moved to the left I can not say. Perhaps the added velocity? I felt the hold and address of the rifle was as good for those two as it was for the other three.

I then kicked the powder charge up to 110 grains of Blackhorn as I noticed this was a common load for a lot of Blackhorn shooters. The firs thing I did not when loading shot # 1.. As I moved the sabot down the barrel, it reached two points in the bore where the loading basically felt like someone had put on the brakes BIG TIME and was not going to let me finish the loading. In fact shot #2 .. this feeling was so severe I was worried I was not going to get the sabot onto the powder charge. When I finally did, I was relieved. Yet is shot right next to the hard loading #1 shot. Have other shooters experienced this hit the brakes kind of feeling when shooting blackhorn?

The loading bothered me so bad, I took solvent and swabbed the bore. Then I dried the bore with three dry patches and shot 3-5. Why #4 did what it did, I have no idea.

Now I wanted to see if the Pyrodex pellets would shoot as good as they did last time. So I cleaned the barrel with solvent. And basically took it back to ready to shoot on a clean barrel condition.

Still shooting the HPH-12 sabots and Hornady Bullets I loaded two Pyrodex 50 grain pellets and shot 6-8 . The tightness of the group was more then acceptable. I was swabbing between shots with Simple Green cleaner mixed moderately strong. And then dry patching. 3&5 are from the Blackhorn shooting and can not count in the Pyrodex pellet group.

Then for my own curiosity, I went in the house and got some HPH_24 sabots. I wanted to see if they would shoot as well as last time with the Pyrodex Pellets. The only difference this time was I was still using the CCI primers. Could this have made that much of a difference in groups?

Weather conditions were as follows...

Cold!! 27 degrees, over cast, and an occassional snow flake falling to earth. Very gray out and a wind from the North. Not real nice out, but I shoot anyway. The swab was Simple Green cleaner.

I want to say that with the CCI primers, the BlackHorn 209 went off like a center fire rifle. Even sounded like one. No Poofs.. no misfires. Just flawless. I am not sure why this powder is not shooting as well as pellets.

Perhaps..

..I have not hit on the rifle amount of powder
..It does not like Hornady 300 grain XTPs
..Could have been me

I mean the accuracy was not terrible. But at 50 yards with a scope I expect an very tight group. That 110 grain group was all over the place.

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