This Gun was manufactured by Remington strictly for the use of black powder only. Do I need to make changes to the existing Remington equipment to do so?? Why would this be necessary? I don't want to make revisions that keep me from doing that.
Well to be technical... the barrel Remington put on it should say "Black Powder or Pyrodex only." At the time the rifle was made those two were essentially the only two choices for a muzzle loader. Later other products came out that produce 'Black Powder-like' pressure curves and are called black powder substitutes. You can essentially substitute them for black powder in any rifle that was made to be safe with black powder. Those substitutes tend to be less volatile than black powder, so its easier to buy them... ie walmart frequently stocks many of the modern black powder substitutes.
If your rifle can shoot an 80-120 grain charge of black powder (like a Remington 700ML/MLS) then you can use the same volume of Blackhorn 209, pyrodex, 777, (both pellets and loose powder... but always read and follow the powder manufactures instructions for exact limits with different weight projectiles etc). They are all volumetrically designed to be black powder substitutes, perform with similar pressures, and be safe. So since that rifle was made, there have been many improvements in available safe powders for it.
Now-a-days I think its easiest to think of these substitutes as being in two groups.
- Those that make sticky fouling that tends to require cleaning between shots with organic solvents (like water, windex, spit etc)... Black powder, Pyrodex, 777, white hots, etc are in this group
- Those that don't generate fouling that build up between shots and only require cleaning at the end of the day with standard gun cleaning products (Hoppes, bore solvents, CLP, etc). Blackhorn209 is the lone contender here
Of the available propellants, you will find that many here love Blackhorn209 (me included)... its chemically similar in many ways (but not all) to smokeless powder... but is volumetrically the same as black powder. So it doesn't build fouling, you can load and shoot all day and not need to clean between shots. It also produces less smoke, so you can probably see your target flee (and or get hit at longer ranges).
At heavier projectile weights, about 275gr and up, Blackhorn will out perform all other powders 1:1 as far as velocity is concerned... ie 100 grains of Blackhorn should push a 275 grain or heavier projectile just a bit faster than 100 grains of any other propellant. But as it has a very similar pressure curve to black powder, its not extremely faster... just a bit faster.
Also because Blackhorn uses a nitrocellulose base, it cleans up much like standard fire arms (rifles shot guns) and why its in a group alone.
But Blackhorn is tougher to ignite (needs full powered or magnum 209's), and needs to be sealed up to keep it burning, so with your rifle's current #11 nipple system its not compatible with Blackhorn209. If you have a sealed breech kit put on your rifle (like the one I sell), then your rifle will be able to shoot any muzzle loader safe propellant/black powder/black powder substitute... even though it only has "Black Power or Pyrodex" embossed on the barrel. Plus it seals all the crap into the breech plug making maintenance easier and improving reliability. Typically sealing up the blow back tends to tighten groups a bit too... I believe it is because you get more consistent pressure from shot to shot over a leaky breech system like your #11 percussion caps... plus blackhorn 209 is more temperature stable so it tends not to have the drop in speed you can see from shooting in colder temps than where you sighted in... but I make no guarantees as to accuracy.
If you put our sealed breech system on your rifle, you won't limit it in any way... more over you broaden the powders you can use with it to Black Powder or any Black Powder substitute.
Hope this helps,
Tom