cci primers and BH209
 

I have just worked up a load in my cva optima. It took me a little while with some diffrent bullets and powder types but i think i have finally got the right combo. There are a couple issues though. I'm using bh209 cci primers with hornaday 300 grn ssts. Most accurate load i have found yet. But the problem i'm haveing is hang fires. I was out at the range today gun was clean so i fired off 2 primers to make sure everything was dry. Loaded up 90 grns of bh with the SST to just to a fouling shot and got a hang fire. The second primer set off the poweder but there was that 1 second delay in there that i have noticed after a hang. The next 3 shots where perfect though. all 3 landed in the same 1in sqr at a 100 yards:s4: I need to get a pic of the target up i was so proud. So i put the ml away for a little while and was sighting in my shot gun. 30 min or so later pulled the ml back out and was going to do some shots with 90grains of bh with barnes 250 grn splitfire t-ez and every time i tried to shoot i got a hang fire. I know that bh needs a hot primer and these are the full strenght cci's. Should i try the w209 or the remingtons. i have also heard some thing about drilling out the flash hole on the breech plug but not sure what to do there.

Make sure that the CCI primers that you are using are the CCI 209M. The "M" on the end of 209 is the indicator. Federal 209 A or the Winchester "Blue Box" 209 are also recomended for Black Horn 209 powder. You may need to use a drill bit to clean out the breech channel and a torch tip cleaner to clean the flash hole.

That sounds like some good shooting for the group.

BH209 is a great powder,what I have found is that it does require a very tight sabot boolit fit. I believe that any combo that takes less than 35 pounds of pressure to slide down the barrel will cause ignition problems.

There are several ways to achieve good tight sabot combos, one is try a different sabot from another supplier, you can use paper to wrap the bullet of choice in your current combo to make it a tighter fit. Knurling the bullet is another option, rolling the bullet under a file across your bench or any smooth surface will knurl it and cause it to act like a larger diameter making for a tighter fit.

Good luck and keep shooting!

Once in a very great while, i would experience a hang fire with my Accura. What totally cured the rare hang fire, was to make the CVA breech plug look more like the Omega breech plug i.e. on the powder end create a powder pocket.







Pictured is a home made breech plug made from a grade 8 bolt. Thus far this breech plug has provided 100% ignition whilst using BH209 with all kinda primer. This breech plug hasn't been tried in sub-freezing weather, nor sub-zero weather yet, but it is getting cooler here day by day.

Last winter after hunting season, there was quite a discussion about modifying breech plugs to receive a vent liner. This i did to my CVA breech plug, and whilst doing it, created a powder pocket. This modified OEM plug provided 100% reliable ignition in my Accura with BH209 all last winter. The rifle was fired after being left loaded and dirty in the cab of the truck, overnight, in sub-zero weather many times. Even in temperatures colder than -10*, there was never a hang fire using W209 primer.

Jeff50316

Jeff have you been cleaning the 'flash channel' in the breech plug with a hand twisted drill bit? Over time a good amount of carbon wil build up in the flash channel almost closing it down.

CVA uses a 3mm 'flash channel' and when it is that small if fills fairly fast. You will probably need to clean the channel every 8 shots or so.

Drilling the 'flash hole' out, to a larger size can help also (and I would suggest .032") but you still need to clean the channel.

I believe the best alternative is to modify the plug as Ron has suggested. CVA uses a pretty soft metal in their plugs so it is fairly easy to modifiy. Here is a drawing of the basic operation.

This is a knight plug but the operation is basically the same.



This one might give you some more thoughts...

ok thanks for the info so far. The only cleaning i have done to the breech plug is run some bore solvent through it and then use that little pick think to clean it out. i prob have but like 50 shots through it all ready. I'll head up to the hardwear store and find a bit to clean it out and if that don't work i'll try drilling out the flash hole.

well I went to the hardware store to find a bit that small and they didn't have one. 1/16 is the smallest they carried were did you guys find yours at?

Jeff50316

Just to make sure we are talking the same bit... you are talking about the bit to hand drill the flash channel with - correct?? not the bit to drill out the flash hole....

The flash channel in a CVA plug is normally 3mm, very few places in the US will carry metric bits - so you will need to get a #32 Wire Gage Bit. It measures 2.946mm - so you wil have to ask for Wire Gage Bits and then you want a #32 for the flash channel.

Probably the best place other than a good hardware store might be an Auto Parts supply store like NAPA. And pf course you could order one on line but it should not be to hard to find some Wire Gage bits.

Jeff50316

A common drill available to remove the carbon from the flash channel of the CVA plug is 7/64". If you have never used one on your flash channel, the use of the 7/64" drill may cure your hang fire issues. The 1/16" drill is too small for the flash channel, and a way too large for the flash hole.

I would just about bet that like has been already said a dirty breech plug is the problem. Figure out what size drill bit will hand turn into your breech plug and just keep it clean. On my TC Pro Hunter it is a 1/8" bit but not sure what it will be on your CVA.