If you clean out the channel with the drillbit, I suspect that will solve your problem. I had no idea there could be that much crud buildup! It goes in a lot farther than you would think too, about an inch. I do that after each shooting session.

However, using a hotter primer is always a good idea. I use remington STS. I never get hangfires, etc. in my Omega.

OK, the fire channel at the primer end only had a .050 (approx.) opening. I started with a .060 drill and worked up to .125. Now I have a .125" opening to the fire channel. I removed a lot of carbon, but I think I was also removing some metal. But, definitely a much larger opening to the fire channel. I'll brush out the interior or the fire channel and use a nipple pick on the opening to the barrel, which is .030 or below. I'll try it again this coming weekend and see what happens.

Again, thanks to everyone.

dont use blackhorn 209

Same as Ron.
Its probably the flash channel if you have a nice tight bullet on a well pack charge it helps. You need at least 60 pounds of "wad pressure" and a tight sabot to hold it.

lolololololol

Don't use a drill, just the drillbit. You just want to remove the carbon buildup, not metal. I use a pair of pliers to grip the drillbit and place the breechplug over the bit and turn it. Other people have glued the back of the drillbit (1/8") into a short piece of dowel rod) to serve as a handle

Just to re-cap, I removed the metal covering the the flash hole channel and opened it up to .125", cleaned the carbon and re-installed.

Went to the range Sunday, and the first shot was muffled and I didn't touch the target... but the breech didn't blow out. I don't think the load was seated well enough. This was with the same Win 209 primers I was using when I had the hang fires before. All of the following 5 shots were seated tighter and they all sounded good and grouped about 1.25" at 50 yards, even though they were all different bullets and sabots. All was well till I moved out to 100 yards then the first two shots were low but close together... the next 3 shots were way wild and almost off the target. All 5 of these were 290Gr Barnes TMZ with MMP black sabots. I don't know if: the shorter MMP sabot was not stabilizing the long Barnes bullet, there was too much plastic build up from the sabots, or I was flinching after shooting my 30-06, 20 gauge slug gun, then the Omega... I've been getting to be a recoil wimp lately.

"ronlaughlin - Use the 1/8" drill to clean the flash channel, and don't swab between shots, and have a somewhat tight sabot, and be sure to have the bullet/sabot tight against the powder. You should have good ignition with any primer, if you do these things."

I cleaned between the shots with Blackhorn 209 solvent, and was getting a lot of thick black powder residue on the patches. Way more powder residue than when I used American Select… which was the cleanest shooting powder I ever used, but was prone to moisture.

That brings up the questions: whether shooting the bore dirty helps reduce the plastic in the rifling? Does shooting the bore dirty reduce or increase accuracy? How often should you clean for plastic in the barrel.

I'll have to put in more range time to find out.

hunter235

This still could be part of your problem. If you are leaving any mositure in the barrel or on the BP you are going to get a partial burn and you will have a lot dark residue in the bore + inconsistent shots and POI's. + the flash channel in the breech plug will fill much quicker with carbon.

In the end when you get this functionig correctly BH will leave less residue than does any other BP sub.

Honestly with BH you do not need to patch the barrel after a shot. Or if you must use 91% alcohol - not just plane rubbing alcohol - and then just a barely damp patch.

If you keep the flash channel in the breech plug clean with a hand twisted drill bit - the Omega will shoot BH just fine in most instances, even with a W209 primer.

I use BH209 with Win209 primers in my Omega with no problems or hang fires. Just make sure the breech plug is drilled out to get rid of any carbon build up and that you're using a good snug fitting bullet/sabot combo. I shoot 110gr. of Bh209 with a 250gr. shockwave and a Harvester Short Black sabot. This load will shoot around an inch all day long at 100 yards if I do my part. There is no need to patch between shots when shooting BH209. I easily get 15 or more shots durring a range session with no hang fires or loss of acurracy. Just make drilling out the breech plug part of your cleaning routine.

I think if you were cleaning between shots with a BH 209 solvent, you may be making it worse.