BH209 - maiden voyage

[WV Hunter]

Ok, so this past weekend I finally got around to trying the BH209 in my new to me .45 Disc Elite, stainless w/thumbhole stock. I mounted a Sightron SI 3-9x40 on it that I had bought a couple years ago on closeout, when they were upgrading to a new version of that model. Decent scope, has a simple BDC type reticle They call the Holdover Hunter. Its basically a duplex crosshair, with 2 small stadia lines below. Clean and simple, no dots, circles, or clutter. I personally like that. Figured it might be a good fit for this gun, and give me the option to set up for longer yardages easily. The scope has nice eye relief, and is pretty crisp and clear for a lower end scope. I think they retail for around $130, I paid around $70 IIRC.

I've read and learned quite a bit over time on the forums about BH, and felt that in this particular rifle it would be a good fit. So I reluctantly dropped over $45 for a jug last week. I had some W209 primers and some 200gr SST/Shockwaves so that's what I planned to use.

I headed to our cabin for the long weekend, with the intention of sighting the rifle in, and hopefully shooting groups at 100, 150, and 200 to see what it did. Well my plan immediately went awry when I got to the cabin and realized I forgot my shooting bag


Fast forward to Sunday... I set up my bench and made a makeshift rest to shoot from. I shot a few primers off to foul the barrel, and blow out the breechplug tape, then I shot a couple sighters at 25yds. Got it close then moved back to 50yds. I shot 1 sighter at 50, made an adjustment up and shot a 3 shot group that was right at 1", but some left. Not bad, considering the rest. I was not really loading and shooting fast, just avg pace maybe 3-5 mins between shots. Enough time to reload, and check the target, etc.

Here is that target

So where I was shooting, I could only get to 80yds so I moved my bench back to there. I shot my first shot and it was left and high, similar to the previous target. I moved it down, but forgot to move it right. Next shot was about the right height. Then I moved it right and shot again...but knew I pulled it. Well it went way low, so I disregarded that. I shot again and it was good, so I shot 2 more and ended up with a decent 3 shot group. I called it a day because I was having alot of trouble with the crappy rest I was using.

Overall my opinion is I like it. Using 100gr, it shot nice...maybe I can fine tune and get it better. Flawless ignition, the kick certainly wasn't bad, and I do like the lesser amount of smoke, though I miss the smell of rotten eggs :mrgreen: I really liked no swabbing between shots! The other good thing.... my primers were almost spotless. The gun has the Lehigh conversion in it, I guess the W209s are a perfect match for my setup. I actually felt like they would do very well after everything I've read here.

Next stop.... 100, 150, and 200! I'm also planning to try some different amounts of powder and even probably some Barnes 195's that will likely be my hunting load.

So I guess THANKS are in order to all you guys for teaching me - my maiden voyage was successful, to me anyhow. :yeah:
Although if I would quit reading these forums I'd have alot more $$$ :mrgreen:

 

[sqezer]

Trigger control buddy, try 110 grs. and see if that helps.

 

[hawgslayer]

Nice shooting :!: :!: :!: :!: A little tweaking here and there and you'll have them all in that black center. :!: :!:

Ray........... :yeah:

 

[WV Hunter]

Trigger control buddy, try 110 grs. and see if that helps.

Yeah, it was tough with a crappy rest. I was actually quite pleased given the circumstances. Will definitely try 110 next time and make sure I don't forget my good rest!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[BuckDoeHunter]

Nice shooting :yeah:

I love shooting my 45 Elite with the good LeHigh plug artyman:

My best load so far is 120gr BH209, 200gr SST in a Harvester Smooth Light Blue sabot, W209 primer, the Barnes 195's are a close second.

 

[SCHUNTER]

Good shooting with a crappy rest. Don't forget to clean out that flame channel with a drill bit spun by hand.

 

[WV Hunter]

Good shooting with a crappy rest. Don't forget to clean out that flame channel with a drill bit spun by hand.

Yep, already cleaned it up.

When I took it apart to clean up, I could see it was carboned up and was curious how much it closed up. I just barely fit a 1/8" bit through the plug. So that means that with 12 shots the flame channel closed up by about 1/32" or about 20%. I wonder how much it would have been restricted had I shot 25 or 30 shots? Maybe I'll find out next time. :yeah:

 

[ronlaughlin]

In the past i have shot enough shots so that the only drill out of the index that would slide into the flame channel was the 1/16". The ignition of the Blackhorn on the last shot seemed as sharp as the first shot. A clogged channel doesn't seem to much affect the ignition in my rifles. In an instance like that, it worked best to clean the channel in steps, using progressively larger drills. Shooting seems to be fine with the clogged channel, however it seems to exert more and more back pressure. This pressure will eventually push flame around the nose of the primer. The flame starts a cut in the primer seat. The flame cut never heals. The flame cut primer seat gets worse and worse. To my knowledge, there is no cure.