Blackhorn 209 @ Midsouth just posted

[Hausser1]

 

[Ka'imiloa]

I've got an unopened jug of BH109 cause I can't get the recommended primers. Using T7 powder/primers this season. Maybe next year I'll break the seal on the BH109

 

[Ka'imiloa]

I did a bunch of research on this issue of BH 209 ignition recently because a friend loaned me both his .50 T/C Encore and his .50 CVA Wolfe. The older Encore had the second generation breechplug which exposes the primer to a degree, and the CVA had the hand-removal long breechplug that comes with the Wolf model (and Omega model too, I believe). The breechplug length eats up primer heat as a heat-sink, plus its length, and its orifice was almost entirely plugged up with extremely hard-to-remove T7 fouling. The T7 or other "muzzleloader" primers are not beefed up, and instead just the opposite in power, to reduce the wretched T7 fouling.
So they are useless for Blackhorn 209, which is awesome good but harder to ignite just like smokeless powders are, plus BH likes some bullet resistance to rapidly build pressure when the powder is ignited -- again similar to smokeless powder ignition. So for BH 209 a ML bullet that obturates easily, or has a skirt or sabot is just the thing to provide the equivalent of a crimped cartridge case or shotgun shell crimp.
To their great credit, CVA worked with Hogdon (now the maker of BH 209) to design a "BH 209" breechplug, and I have examined and measured in extensively. You can buy it online for maybe $25. It is a brilliant design for loose powder, whether BP, Pyrodex, T7 or BH 209.
You will find that BH 209 has much less fouling than T7, and you can shoot maybe ten shots using a moderate charge like 105 gr. by volume, before possibly running one patch down the barrel. And for me, that amazingly clean shooting was possible even in my very dry Arizona climate. Use smokeless powder solvents to clean with BH 209, not water-based cleaners as with BP.
I couldn't get the magnum 209 primers either, so just used the standard shotgun 209 primers, making sure the "BH 209" breechplug was clean in its very tiny orifice portion, and it shot fine and very accurately using 105 gr. by vol. (77 gr. by wt.) of BH 209 with a 330 gr. Harvester .45 hardcast bullet in a Harvester "Crushrib" sabot (an absolute godsend sabot, when you have previously tried to get a saboted bullet down an even slightly fouled barrel, especially if that barrel happens to be a "tight" one).
Do I love Harvester flat-point hardcasts, Harvester Crushrib sabots, and BH 209? You can bet on that!! We have big Mulies plus elk out here, and penetration, especially on angled shots, can make all the difference.
Aloha, Ka'imiloa

 

[ENCORE50A]

I believe CVA worked with Western on the plug. Hodgdon just purchased it. Its made in Canada, not actually by Hodgdon.
Unless something just changed.................

 

[Ka'imiloa]

I believe CVA worked with Western on the plug. Hodgdon just purchased it. Its made in Canada, not actually by Hodgdon.
Unless something just changed.................

 

[Ka'imiloa]

Thanks, I could well be mis-remembering about who worked with CVA to develop the truly excellent BH 209 breechplug. It has a deep frontal hollow to bring the powder well down into the plug, yet the same very small (.032-33") orifice to direct the hottest possible fire-jet to the powder. That deep hollow is just like the famous "Nock breech" of the later 1700s, which revolutionized shotgun ignition using BP, and allowed much shorter barrels to be used. Very soon after it came on the stage, double guns with today's 27 or 28" barrels began to be in use for shooting flying.
That deep hollow, with its conical base, also removes a lot of "heat sink" character from the breechplug, whose long threads must hold the pressure of today's powerful ML loadings. So the primer can function better in two ways, it is closer to the powder charge, plus the plug robs less of its heat. "Brissance" (primer-power) is maintained better as the fire-jet hits the powder. For BH 209, that is very important for full and consistent powder burns. I'll repeat: never use a "muzzleloader" 209 primer for BH 209. They're weaker, not stronger.
Aloha, Ka'imiloa

 

[rangerod]

Thanks, I could well be mis-remembering about who worked with CVA to develop the truly excellent BH 209 breechplug. It has a deep frontal hollow to bring the powder well down into the plug, yet the same very small (.032-33") orifice to direct the hottest possible fire-jet to the powder. That deep hollow is just like the famous "Nock breech" of the later 1700s, which revolutionized shotgun ignition using BP, and allowed much shorter barrels to be used. Very soon after it came on the stage, double guns with today's 27 or 28" barrels began to be in use for shooting flying.
That deep hollow, with its conical base, also removes a lot of "heat sink" character from the breechplug, whose long threads must hold the pressure of today's powerful ML loadings. So the primer can function better in two ways, it is closer to the powder charge, plus the plug robs less of its heat. "Brissance" (primer-power) is maintained better as the fire-jet hits the powder. For BH 209, that is very important for full and consistent powder burns. I'll repeat: never use a "muzzleloader" 209 primer for BH 209. They're weaker, not stronger.
Aloha, Ka'imiloa

Very well said. Great post.