Breech Plug ?
 

With all the talk about breech plugs as it relates to shooting Bh what are the factory specs for each given company. In another post I asked Grouse what mods Knight has done.. and his answer "They opened up the flame channel, and are using a .031 flash hole". So what are the flash channels in CVA's,T/C's etc. And if a .031 flash hole is best why doesn't everyone follow suit? Or does other factors come into play.

Here is what i have learned about breech plugs and BH.

The size of the flash hole isn't critical.

The size of the flame channel isn't critical.

A plug that looks like the Accura plug isn't the best.

A plug that looks like the Omega plug is the best.







The plug on the right will be frustrating if one uses BH; the other three will make one happy.




Here are two more plugs that are sure to make a BH shooter happy.

I would midly disagree with a lot of what Ron has written in his repsonse but the key word in his response it critical... while those thing may not be critical they certainly can be a functional problem given time.

I, like Ron, have spent one heck of a lot of time re-working breech plugs for optimum reliabilty with all powders not just BH... BH is kinda unique because of the hard carbon deposits it can leave inside the breech plugs flash channel.

If you have the time because it is very long... work through the thread at the top of topic list... 'what makes a great breech plug' All the arguments and thoughts have been discussed in it.

I think in that thread you will find all the measurements you are looking for.

If you can not find what you might be looking for let me-us know again but rather re-hash the whole thing again you might look up there.

mike

Obviously the breech plug design was originated by Lehigh. A few members on this board helped Lehigh design the ultimate breech plug for all powders.

After the testing was done, Lehigh sold alot of them. And i do mean alot of them to Knight rifle owners. We then sent the breech plugs to Knight Rifles when we heard they were going to have new owners. They did alot of testing with them as well.

So now Knight is selling those same conversions and also making the new Mountaineer come standard with a plug very similar. In time people will improve.

At the Shot show, T/C talked with Lehigh about some stuff. Dave told them sorry, i'm building and making parts for Knight Rifles. I think in time, you will see better designed plugs for T/C and CVA.

They all no, they need to make some changes. The truth is, T/C and CVA are having major issues with BH209. I believe both are working on new designs right now.

Western Powders philosophy is to put the powder closest to the flame. That is why they like the Omega Plug. Not many go to the range and fire off 50 rounds at a time which is almost a whole bottle of Blackhorn 209. Their main concern is igniting the powder and if one follows their cleaning method using an Omega plug it will fire when the time comes. I have like I have said before not had any issues with the Omega plug or Ron's grade 8 style Omega plugs for my Encore Bergara barrel. Everyone has their own opinion. One needs to just test his guns and if problems arise then correct them accordingly. Do I trust a stock CVA plug to hunt with? Noway! Do I trust my .45 Omega plug to hunt with? Yes. Ron's modified plugs? You betcha!

I also have Ron's modified plug in my Accura V1 and trust it 100% to fire BH209 when I need it.
Sabotloader is too quick to be critical of Ron's plugs. It is a good thing they are friends or a major argument could take over the thread LOL.

First time i've read this. What are the major issues TC is having?

I really do not mean to be critical of Ron's plugs, vent liners, or anything else he does. I just believe there is more than one way to achieve the goal.

Westrn has one job - sale BH so they are only look at one objective get it to ignite, but it is my belief that there additional things that one should be dealing with to get the most out of the powder and the gun.

Mike.... I followed the other Breech plug thread from start to finish and it seems the more I read the more confused I get. I am a hunter so the 50 shot string means nothing to me. The outing I had with my prohunter using BH ignition wasn't an issue. It seems to me that theres more than one way to mod a plug and as in life its hard to get people to agree on anything. It's nice to hear Lehigh Dave is in demand. On both of my orders with Lehigh you can just tell what a good business he runs.

If you have no problems and you are confident with your Muzzleloader then dont change a thing. Why worry about nothing?

I'm just talking about BH209 in there muzzleloaders. More so in the QR plugs.

When you put it that way - I would have to agree 50 shots mean nothing. But there are some plugs that will begin hang firing in 8-10 shots. That would bother me a bit. I do a lot of target shooting also, not mear as much as others but when i am doing that I really do not even want to deal with a BP problem.

Isn't that the truth... my BP campaign started insearch of a way to reduce the blow-back mess in the breech area, was not even really concerned aboput igniting BH but it all worked around to that as I found as I modified the plug to reduce pressure on the nose of the primer it also provided better ignition of BH. In that same search it lead me away from Western's recommendation of having the powder sitting on the nose of the primer, in effect making a shell casing out of the breech plug. Ignition of BH or any other pwder has never been a problem for me even with T7 primers once the plug can breath. Many will tell you there is nothing wrong with the Speed Breech shooting BH and really there isn't if you do the maintenance and look how long that plug is. What it did do was reduce the blow back pressure felt on the nose of the primer and the amount of blow back into the breech even though the headspace is not perfect with all primers.

The biggest thing I can say about Dave is demand for excellence... when he (we) screwed up on the Gen I plug - he refunded eveyone their money had them keep the original plug and then sent them a new Gen II plug - I thought he was nuts but that is the kind of responsibility he has about the quality of his work.

Pro Hunter, which breech plug does that have? Is it a Omega style or Speed Breech?

Mike its the 90* turn speed breech. Tom...I don't really worry about the little things in life let alone if BH will ignite. My point being.... for me my gun during the season would be cleaned after every outing if fired. Just a topic for me that I feel makes for a good read and if we can learn something even better.

More so for sure. The Omega BP has no issues that I can see so far.

I don't blame you a bit. 777 will do everything BH can do.

It can do more. It gives you a crud ring.