Re: Cva optima v2 & BH209
First off I would hardly describe Black Horn 209 as the best of the best powders out there. As for easy to clean, ... you clean it with gun products just like you would a modern rifle. NO WATER based products. Triple Seven on the other hand while yes it does produce a crud ring, is just as powerful, cheaper to shoot, and you can clean the rifle if you like with TAP WATER. Much easier to find out in the woods camping then solvents and such. But you might have to swab the barrel between shots, like when you're waiting for the barrel to cool down or your heart slow down. That's when I swab. With windex. BlackHorn you don't normally have to swab the bore. Unless your accuracy goes to pot!
Now don't get me wrong Black Horn 209 is a great powder as many here will claim. I purchased an Optima actually just so I could shoot BH. Then the headaches began. You do have to get a different breech plug from CVA before you can effectively shoot BH209. The one that came with the rifle will give you misfires. And when you get the new plug and you still get misfires ... then the gang here will tell you, your primers are not hot enough. So then when you get new hotter primers like the Remington STS and the CCI shotgun primers. then the rifle will fire perfect... for a few shots. When it misfires its because you have not scraped out the flame channel in the breech plug and so that's the problem. Now with your drill bit in hand you scrape that out. Now we get into blow back from the plug. Its not set right, you need little rubber O rings to help seal the primer in the plug.
With Triple Seven 2f powder, even Pyrodex RS its plenty powerful. Magnum loads are not needed. Cleans up easy with water based products (Windex works really good for swabbing the bore) and is easy to find in stores. I use some dishwater. You know, you do the dishes and before you dump all that soapy goodness down the drain, fill a squeeze bottle with it. You now have a bore cleaner and a patch cleaner. As for cost ... its cheap. But like I said, many people here hang their hats on Blackhorn 209. Me ... when I run out of BlackHorn 209 I have a good supply of Triple Seven, Pyrodex, and black powder on hand. I will be just fine.