Bigtimer

No... What Lee is saying is to match your sabot to your bore. We have already done that in the past with your old Optima and we found that the 24 was the correct sabot for that bore. There is a possibility that this bore will be different, so his suggestion is to remove the BP and push a 24 with a Nolser down through the bore. If it goes down easily it is to loose and you may not get the maximum out of the BH-209 or it might not sustain ignition at all. BH-209 is a progressive burning - smokeless type powder - it must maintain compression to maintain ignition.

If the 24 is TOO tight to get down then you might have to go down to a MMP HPH-3... I would stay away from a "crush rib" and use only if everthing else is to tight.

Also remember your new bore is going to be tighter now than it will be after you shoot a few rounds out of it. Shooting the conicals will smooth out your bore and may lead to easier loading sabots.

Stay with the plan if possible shoot your conicals with BH-209 to polish the barrel. If the BH-209 will not go off with the conicals switch back to T7 to get this process done and over.

Did you get any primers? yet... if so what kind...

The sabot ggauges worked better than a mic because the plastic is soft.

blackheel- The hornady 250sst with low drag is my go -to load ( cheap and shots well)with BH209 , groups under 2" and Ussualy under 1" MOA. I have shot it on 2 optimas,convertedTraditons L-bolt and converted CVA mag bolt. I haven't shot my Omega yet with BH209.

The days of "Easy" Muzzle loading are looong gone

FG
I don't think they were ever easy Flintlocks can give you fits trying to get them right. It is all in the learning curve, for now I am sticking to my two flint locks. My encore will probably stay in the safe this year.

Easy as in, Finding a bullet that you can put down the bore and have it shoot good.

frontier gander,I will just bet you are talking about that bullet that was the coming thing back in 1960 and now is as expensive as a good barnes all copper. Have you ever tried them with BH209? I suspect that with a good hot 209 that the ones around 300gr would work. I have never had any ignition problem with it that has turn up here and there and believe that a heavy bullet put down with good wad pressure would work. Lee

arn't the tmz bullets a boattail? how can the hph 24 fit? i thought the supplied sabot was the ony choice.

I used about 7 different bullets the HPH24 I am using with Gold Dots got some 1/2 groups with them. Lee

What are the specific issues with using an HPH-12 with boatails?

The MPH12 re not designed to hold the boat tailed TMZ properly causing gas to escape around the bottom. I have read that some guys place a number 16 washer at the bottom of their sabot and sit the TMZ on it. That keeps the sabot at the bottom tight against the bore when fired. I tried the TMZ in my Savage:
http://tinyurl.com/3vsc4a

But didn't try the 16 washer with an MMP12.My groups were good enough for hunting, but I wanted a more accurate bullet. This was last year whe I was just learning about shooting smokeless powder, which is what Blackhorn is very close to from a iginition POV.
Chap Gleason