Blackhorn
 

I've been looking into loose powders recently as indicated in previous posts and have been looking at BH209 lately. I have some questions for anyone that shoots it. Will it shoot ok in my Triumph? Can I use Hoppes #9 to clean it after shooting, if not then what? Do Triple 7 primers work with BH209, if not what ones does everyone use? How do I measure BH209? I think that is it for now. Thanks in advance.

Yes, Yes, and No.

It'll work fine in a Triumph just use regular 209 primers, not 777 primers, which are reduced power. Hoppes should work fine though some people think other things work a little better. You just need your normal BP volume measure for it.

I've never shot it so I'll leave the details to others.

Not sure about using it in a triumph.

you measure it like any other powder, by volume.

It will be as powerful, and possibly slightly more powerful than 777 powder. I generally use 90 to 100 gr even for elk.

You can't use 777 primers. You have to use the hottest primers you can find. I am currently using CCI 209M (magnum) primers. I have also used Remington STS primers in my Omega.

Hoppes # 9 is the cleaner you should use. Water (what I use for 777) will not work for BH 209.

Agree with above. I use Winchester 209 Shotgun Shell Primers. Any 209 Shotgun Shell Primer should work. You will have to swipe after 10 or so shots because the fouling in the barrel will get to the point where it will be very hard to seat your sabot. I shot 13 consecutive shots without swabbing before it was too darn tight. That 13th shot also resulted in a hangfire. So I cleaned out the flashole. You will also have to clear out the flash hole in the breech plug every 10 or so shots as well because the of the fouling that the 209 primer leaves. So I personaly have a ten shot rule. It likes heavier bullets I do believe. I was shooting 250gr. bullets but after a recomendation, I tried a 300gr. bullet with great results. It bucks the wind better and just seemed to have a tighter grouping. Tack driver @ 50yds and a 1"-2" MOA @ 100yds. This is with a peep sight. At 150yds it opens up a bit but no more than a 2" to a 4" MOA and thats probly me and not the gun or the load. If I scoped it I am sure everything would get better but I can not hunt with a scoped ML during ML season here in CA. I use 110gr. of BH209. It is expencive and I went through a few containers of it before I finally found out what my Omega likes. I dont shoot it at the range anymore because of the price. I use T7 FFg. I have tried many combos with my Omega but can not duplicate the results of my 300gr. bullet and 110gr. BH209 combo. For hunting purposes, I think its a great sub. You will be able to load a finishing or second shot from a speed loader without any issues. Good luck and most of all, have fun.

I have a number of TC guns including a Triumph and Blackhorn has worked quite well in all of them. I used win 209 primers for a while and have recently switched to STS , I have also tried the CCI 209m. they all worked just fine, some are a bit cleaner than others or so I have heard, I really have not noticed much difference. Lee

I recently became intrigued by the BH209 talk, so I decided to try it at the range today to dial in a new scope. Using CCI 209, Hornady SST 250's, and 110 grains of BH out of my T/C Endeavor, I took six shots at 50 yards to adjust a bit (all were just high of the bullseye), then went to the 100 yard site where I took three more shots (still a little high and now to the right a bit but grouping well) did some minor tweaking with the scope, then put out a new target. This time I put two half an inch above the bullseye almost on top of one another and one just a quarter of an inch to the left of the bullseye.

Needless to say, I am quite impressed with BH! I ran some Hoppes 9 down the barrel followed by a dry patch before the last three shots and was surprised by the minimal fouling.

At home, the clean up was great. I'm sure Hoppes would've cleaned it easily, but I decided to use some CVA Barrel Blaster to work it first (probably not necessary though). The breech plug was remarkably clean compared to 777 and did not have a crud ring. In fact, I could actually use my fingers to turn out the speed breech (777 usually fouls it too badly to do that).

The only thing that was a little weird regarding the whole shoot was that when i broke the action between shots, smoke was still rolling out of the breech hole a little bit. My Kleanbores with 777 pellets never did that. Maybe those hot primers need to cool down a bit or maybe BH209 burns much hotter, but I made sure to pause before loading more powder down the barrel for fear of an ignition while my hand was on the ramrod. Anyone else experience this?

Overall, I don't want to knock other propellants (in fact, I like the convenience of 777 pellets), but all things considered, BH209 is the way to go for me. Great shooting and minimal cleanup without swabbing the barrel after every shot. What's not to like? I'll buy more in the future (provided it doesn't run out of stock during hunting season as demand for it increases).

I've used nothing but BH209 from the beginning of my thus far short muzzleloading career. I can't compare it to other powders because I haven't used them but I really am impressed with BH209. Accuracy is great, power is great, and clean up is super easy. I have tried several different primers with it. Fed 209A primers work great but in my experience are by far the dirtiest. I prefer CCI 209M primers and that's what I currently use.

BTW, welcome 2112foru!

ya, I have seen smoke from time to time but now I just let the barrel cool. After all, when you take your first shot at game, your barrel will be cold, right? I shoot and let it cool, shoot-cool and so on. When I use T7 FFg at the range, I see smoke but I figured it was just dust from the powder when I pour the powder down the barrel. I dont think its smoke. If it was hot enough to smoke, wouldnt it set off the powder that was just poured in th barrel?

Now I had just the opposite response with my Knight Vision and BH209. I ended up shooting about 26 shots during my last shooting period, using a Hornaday 350 gr FPB bullet, and never had to swipe my barrel once till after my last shot when cleaning.

I have also shot more then a dozen sabots during a period just before my last shoot of 26 rounds, with no swipes. This is one of the best things about this powder, IMHO of course!

I can only say you must be shooting a very tight barrel. I would ventreu to say you are shooting a T/C product. They are know for very tight barrels. Am I right?

I have several "tight barreled TC's I use BH in all of them, I have shot any one of them all day at the range and never had any problem that would indicate wiping or swabbing would be a good idea. I have tried swabbing and all my guns group tighter if you just shoot and cool a bit usually 3 minutes. I live in AR and the temperature is often over 90 when I am shooting which causes the barrel to hold heat longer.
As for the smoke I have noticed it, to it has nothing to do with the barrel temperature it is part of the residue of burnt powder. Lee

My T/C Omega does have a tight bore. I developed my own 10 shot rule because of what I experienced. JMHO. If you have soot left over in the barrel when you push your sabot down, wouldnt it also push all the soot down into the breech plug? I didnt mind doing maintainance every 10 shots or so when I used the BH209 at the range. Now its just a hunting load and I dont worry about it. I have gone through 1 box of T7 Pellets, 1 pound of T7 FFFg, 1 pound of T7 FFg and two 10oz containers of BH209 through my Omega since Christmas "08". I like the BH209 the best by far. After the T7 pellets, the BH209 was the first powder I used and then went to the T7 loose powder. That being said, It was a new rifle and the barrel wasnt broken in yet. I wonder if that had anything to do with my experience. Now that its broke in, and I know much more about BP now than I did then. I may have to take it to the range with the BH and give her another try and see if my results change. Oh well, I guess I will just have to spend a little more time with my favorite rifle. Has anybody had trouble with hangfires or the breech plug due to the 209 primer fouling after many shots without swabbing?

I have gone through 2 cases of BH since it came out, I think since I have heard an other person that had about the same experiences as you have and most of us have had a different experience with it that it is likely the cleaning fluid or oil that is causing the difference. You might try scrubbing out the barrel with alcohol before you shoot and see if you don't get less fouling. With my guns cleaning the barrel is the one thing that will put a shot out of the group. Lee

Wow, now thats a lot of Trigger Time. Thanks for the advice.

Now doesn't that just pi$$ you off having to waste all that time working with this gun and powder??? :party0005:

When we got Blackhorn at the shop last fall, I decided to test to see how many shots I could shoot without cleaning while still maintaining consistant groups and easy loading. I reached 63 shots before the end of the year without running a single patch. The last shot loaded just fine, and I never experienced any hang fires or other issues. Even after all those shots, cleanup was easy.
I was using 100 grn of Blackhorn behind a 240 gr Precision Rifle Bullet and Remington 209 primers in a Thompson Center Encore.
After using Triple 7 for several years, I wouldnt go back. Blackhorn 209 is everything I could want in a powder.