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OT unless you shoot 'blackpowder cartridge' loads in a levergun, that is...
Anyone use the new "Blackhorn 209" powder yet? Every time I get something from Midway, they send a brochure on it. It claims that it "is not a smokeless powder" but it ALSO is not water soluble or hygroscopic, so you clean with ordinary solvents. Of course they say you can shoot many dozens of times without cleaning at all.
In my Savage ML10, I'm just loading with SR-4759 smokeless because it's "ok" in that gun, but for our Black Diamond I am always on the lookout for something where you could be a little less meticulous and not have to do the scrubbing every time you shoot it. (I wish they made the ".25 ACP" breech plug http://eabco.com/VariFlame25ACP.htm for that gun like they do the Encore - that would go a long way towards keeping the action free of soot and crud...!)
Doctors for Sensible Gun Laws "first do no harm" - gun control LAWS lead to far more deaths than 'easy access' ever could.
I found another Yahoo mailing list about Break Open Single Shot Rifles ( BOSS for short) and there was a line of stuff going on there about it. they seem to be having ignition problems with it in that it's not all that consistent and they're having to enlarge the flashholes.
If you're gonna be stupid ya gotta be tough-
Isiah 55:8&9
It's easier to fool people than it is to convince them they have been fooled.
They DO specify to use "standard" 209's vs. the "muzzleloading" ones, to get more reliable ignition, so the comment about ignition makes sense.
I'd just like not having to disassemble and clean out soot all the time. I may try one of the .25 ACP breech plugs though; they supposedly eliminate the soot blowback.
Doctors for Sensible Gun Laws "first do no harm" - gun control LAWS lead to far more deaths than 'easy access' ever could.
Chuck 100 yd wrote:I doubt if a primed .25 ACP case`s primer would be hot enough to fire this stuff reliably.
Yep - I think it would be an 'either-or' situation there. We have three different muzzleloaders to deal with:
Savage 10ML - 5744 or 4759 and a Win209 works just FINE - clean as a whistle.
Encore - could use the .25ACP breech plug; any powder pretty much ok because all you clean is the barrel if you can keep the 'primer' pocket blowback out of the equation.
Black Diamond - Mine is SUPER accurate, but a pain to clean, and I'll probably try one of the VariFlame adapters (no .25ACP one is made for it) for cleanliness, and just stick to normal powders. I might try the Blackhorn with different primers just to see about ignition reliability though; maybe 'magnum' pistol primers would do!
What I really should do is sell the Encore BP barrel and the Black Diamond and put the money towards another Savage!
Doctors for Sensible Gun Laws "first do no harm" - gun control LAWS lead to far more deaths than 'easy access' ever could.
Guys, how about using a trad gun with trad ammo n' trad powder Then all ya gotta do is pour some water in and slosh it up n' down with a slack mop, tip it out and then pour enough boiling water in to dry it self out.
When dry and still hot apply a natural fat like olive oil/beeswax mix.
If hunting over a few days just grease the bore heavily every night.
don Tomas' wrote a nice write-up on this stuff a couple months ago. He tested it and it did not cause any corrosion after shooting and putting away the gun for a week without so much as a wipe down. If you did that with blackpowder you'd have a nice start on a rusted and ruined gun!
His take, IIRC, was that it was as advertized. Rather expensive, but for a gun that may be difficult to clean thoroughly, or if you were going to be out for a week and proper cleaning would be a chore, this may just be the ticket.
I searched for "best black powder substitute" and found this post. I'm resurrecting it with a request that our shooters log in - those who have now had the time to experiment with it.
My questions -
1) Has the Blackhorn 209 lived up to its claims of being non-corrosive and non-hydroscopic?
2) How does it load in comparison to BP - do you use the same measurement by volume (as opposed to weight)? E.g. Lee Dippers
3) How does it shoot?
4) How does it store - does it seem to last as well as smokeless powders, in general, given the same provisos of temperature and humidity control?
5) Does it stuff into handguns as readily as rifles (volume-wise), such as the Uberti cowboy clones?
I have not cleaned my main hunting muzzleloader in over 21 years. Still fires off perfectly every year. been using FFg black and Pyrodex for all these years. Ongoing experiment.
Details here: http://www.gunblast.com/Muzzleloading.htm
Jeff Quinn wrote:I have not cleaned my main hunting muzzleloader in over 21 years. Still fires off perfectly every year. been using FFg black and Pyrodex for all these years. Ongoing experiment...
Then all ya gotta do is pour some water in and slosh it up n' down with a slack mop, tip it out and then pour enough boiling water in to dry it self out. 
