Blackhorn 209

I have shot a lot of Blackhorn 209. First off.. it is POWERFUL. When you shoot it, you know. So if your shooting 100 grains of black powder, then you need to reduce that to 80 grains of Black Horn 209. Because of the way it ignites, you should use a good 209 primer. I was using Winchester W209 and never had a problem with making it go off. But they tell you not to use the low powder primers made to reduce crud rings in muzzleloaders. Just not enough flame. Also not all inlines will shoot BH209. Certain shapes of the breech plug will give you ignition problems. If your shooting an open breech rifle like a CVA Staghorn, or T/C Black Diamond.. while it will go off, it might blow the primer back in your face. So I suggest only a closed breech system like the Omega, Triumph, Accura, etc.

Also you can not use water to clean the rifle. Solvent must be used. This stuff does not like water at all. Hoppes, or other quality solvents will take the fouling right out of the barrel. Also you do not have to swab between shots. You just keep shooting.

Accuracy with this powder is excellent. It must be compressed very tightly. And also a tight fitting sabot makes better accuracy then a loose. In fact too loose and you do not get the power out of the powder. But if your find the right charge, and the right projectile. This will seem like the greatest thing you ever shot.

Personally I have seen the price drop on this powder which is a good thing. If it were sold locally near me I would shoot a lot more of it, but I can get the same accuracy and power with other powders.

BradB said:

Has anyone used this powder in a cva optima? I bought some and I'm having ignition trouble, I get hangfires and no fires. Sometimes the second primer will set it off, but once I had to pull the breech plug and empty the bore. That time I had to pull the breech plug I found the bullet and powder charge had been pushed up the bore about 2 inches but no boom, yes the load was seated in the first place. 100gr of BH209 and a hornady sabot, cci standard 209 primers, flash hole was clear every time. Do I need a magnum primer or to alter my breech plug? At this point I sure wouldn't trust it to hunt with, I'm using triple 7 for now, never had a bit of trouble with that. Thanks

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On some other forums I frequent, a similar problem was mentioned by an Optima shooter. What they discovered is the design of the breech plug was not conducive to the ignition of the powder. There was even a person well skilled/trained in metal fabrication that was making breech plugs that would insure that when used with BlackHorn 209 and a HOT 209 primer, you got instant ignition. The breech plug design and the type of primer is critical to the consistent ignition of this powder. Also a tight fitting projectile is needed and the powder must be compressed tightly. I would guess your problem lies somewhere in this area.

Some BlackHorn shooters have even made hand drills by gluing a #64 drill bit (I believe it was) into a wooden dowel. Then before shooting they use that as basically a nipple pick. They clean the fire channel of the breech plug. Blackhorn in some rifles have been depositing a carbon like substance in the breech plug, there by reducing the amount of fire from the primer to the powder and hence creating hang fires or misfires.

When I tested BlackHorn I noted that the Knight Disc rifle I was using had a very hard, almost impossible to clean breech plug. As much as I liked the powder, after two pounds of BlackHorn, I threw the breech plug away. Although in all fairness to the powder, the plug was very old, and worn before the first charge of blackhorn ever went into the rifle.