Blackhorn 209 Review 2010
 

I just wanted to say thanks to all here for putting me on to Blackhorn 209 and the other great advice for muzzling.

I have been a 777 fffg fan for years now. The reason? Great accuracy and fairly easy to clean at the end of the day. 777 has been a tack driver for me out to 100 yards. It always fires. And with soap and hot water cleans well and simply.

So why give BH 209 a try my friends asked? Because of two things.

One: I hate swabbing between shots. Sometimes, the swab/patch gets stuck on the dreaded crud ring and comes off, requiring a patch puller to be screwed onto my range rod. I also hate carrying wet patches while hunting and trying to pull them out of a zip lock bag, half frozen, in order to swab between shots.

Swabs seem to go like toilet paper, and are not cheap.

With 777, I must swab between every shot. I cannot even get two shots off using my t/c omega with 240g xtp's unless I put my entire 300lbs behind it. As long as I swab all is well.

Two: No matter what I do my plug locks up. Teflon tape, grease and re-grease till the cows come home and yet, when it comes time to clean the gun after a day of shooting, I will need Jeff Gordon's pit crew to air wrench the breech plug off. It was only two weeks ago that I almost failed to remove the plug and was ready to head to the gun smith. This erks me because my gun is cleaned immaculately after each shooting session.

So that is why, when reading your posts on this site, I became intrigued with BH. Would it be the answer?

In my area of northeastern Ohio finding Blackhorn is almost impossible. Even the local gun shops give you the dumbfounded look when you ask them if they have this product in stock. The reply is...”we have plenty of 777.” Well, so do I.

However, this all changed this week when low and behold, I go into Gander Mtn and see BH 209 on the shelf! $39.99 plus tax. I figure, whyyyyyyyyyyyy not. The folks behind the counter asked my why I was buying it? One even said he waits three years before trying new products. Well...what a salesman. But I digress.

The point is, some of you here really made me want to try it. Our gun season opens up Nov 29, 2010 and I must admit, feelings of apprehension overwhelmed me. It was not the money, but confidence in the powder. Would it do the job?

I did get the Federal 209A's also. At $3.99 per 100, I was not smarting over the fact that I still have 1000, 777 209 primers.

So off I go to the field.

With 90g of BH, the muzzleloader (which shoots perfect) could not even stay in a six inch circle after five shots. I almost puked. However, I remembered that some of you said to increase load without adjusting the scope. So I did. I went to 100g BH.

Clover leaf!

I was so happy! And not only that, but here comes the best part. 25 shots in a row, with no swabbing. The 25th load was as easy as the first. It was not until the 25 shot that I started to see some blowback. Using a 1/8 drill bit in the opening of the plug, I watched in horror as crud ooooozed out of the plug. It was then that I decided to quit. Man those shotgun primers fill the flash hole!

Man I can't tell you how happy I was though. But my happiness stayed tempered because I had not tried to get the plug out yet. So when I got home, on goes the wrench. To my chagrin, it came off with little effort. I could have done a handstand! The barrel looked clean to. I am so used to seeing a lot of crud from 777 down the smokepole making this a pleasant surprise.

As far as cleaning the BH...well, that was a little letdown. It is my opinion the BH 209 is a little harder to clean at the end of the day than 777. In fact I can clean 777 from my gun in half the time. The crud from the 209A as well as needing to use gun solvents likes hopp's really slowed me down. In particular, the breech threads.

As most of you feel, our guns must shine like jewelry, and be well taken care of. This was difficult with not only the plug itself, but also the threads. The bore was very easy.

So here is my review of BH 209 in a nutshell,

The Good: Accurate, no swabbing, and easy removal of breech plug.

The Bad: Price, and cleaning at the end of a day of shooting.

As for me, well...I am a new believer and user of BH. And can't wait to take down a few deer wit it also.

PS

T/C's XTP mags rock!



D

I clean with Montana extreme 3 patches and I am done with the barrel. I use a small dish pour in a little and let the breech soak than clean. I don't spent have the time you are.

Cabelas and Bass Pro have it for $29.99


100gr is what works really well out of my Omega also


I don't feel that it's any harder to clean at all compared to 777. Especially when you factor in all of the cleaning you have to between shots with 777.


I had been shooting 300gr TC XTP's and I agree they do rock. Now I'm going to try some some Nosler Partition's and see how they do.

John, how do you clean the bore threads where the breech plug goes into? That to me was the hardest. I used 5 cotton patches with hopps #9 over a t/c breech brush. Then I would spin the brush with the threads. There was a considerable amount of residue in the threads.

The plug itself I put into Windex with ammonia for about 15 minutes. Maybe I should try that Montana stuff.


D

I have a Triumph and soak the breech plug in T/C breech plug cleaner. Its a little jar that you place the plug in and shake for 30 seconds. Than take breech plug wipes and wipe around the grooves etc and then finally get a drill bit down the flash pole. Takes 3 minutes tops.

@ loadbreak: I would like to know how the Nosler Partition's do for you. They do look good.

Thanks for the rest of you commenting on the plug itself. Again, I am still looking to cut down the time on cleaning the bore breech threads (not the plug) so that no crud will reside when re-installing a clean plug.

The idea of not cleaning the threads, bore and plug each night might be harder to overcome. Just a few swabs of any product down my barrel would not have cleaned the threads. I went through 20 patches just to clean and lubricate from the BH 209. That means, no residue at all.

Maybe some of you have a closed breech and that's why it is a simple as cleaning a regular shotgun?

With 777 it takes me less than 5 minutes to do both plug and barrel. But thats because I have a outside hot water spigot.

I might try the hodgon 777 breech cleaner on the plug next time. I will let you know how it does.


D

I am shooting 115gr of BH 209. I love this stuff and will not shoot anything else.

You can buy a breech plug brush at most ml suppliers. I have one with black nylon bristles on a twisted wire handle with a loop on the end. It works great. It is for the breech plug channel not the plug itself.

Yeah, I have that. But I have to rap it in a cotton patch to clean with solvent.

I'm sure I will get better with time.



D

I shot 27 times Saturday with BH 209 and never had to swab once between shots and the 27th went down as easy as the 1st one did. After I got home I had it cleaned with a couple of patches saturated with Hoppes and 3-4 four patches to dry it. The last dry patch came out snow white.