My Last trip to the range was hot and dry. That stuff hung in the charge tubes like it was glued there. Never seen anything like it before. Then I remembered that I'd read something about the dryer sheets, I think it was here, and thought the next chance I got I was going to try that. I ordered some new tubes from Lane and they came on Friday. I didn't have but a quick chance to peek at them so today after church and getting Ma's little list taken care of I dug the package out and did some dinking. I planned to weigh new charges and put them in the new tubes to be sure they'd hold the larger, long gun, loads ok and they did. Getting the powder back out of the one was a joke. That got the dryer sheet involved and I did every one of the tubes and powder pan for the scale.
The tubes came with two different colors of caps spread equally between the total of tubes so I have pistol loads in one color, rifle for the two breaks in the other colored tubes. The long guns shot identical charges of the 209. I got 5 long tubes for carrying sabot/bullet sets. A piece of electricians tape around one of the tubes represents the pistol bullets/sabots.
After I dialed in the new tubes I had others that I've been using for the range and figured I'd clean those out and maybe just go ahead and re-fill them with range charges again and keep using them for that purpose but I had sticking powder in many of them. I finally got the powder knocked back into the canister and gave each of the tubes a rub down with the sheet and tried again with a load and pour. Bingo. That powder slides out of those tubes like water. This is slick and I'm sure glad I tried it.
I've shot black powder for what seems a century, but this is why I love this site...there's always something to learn and the information here is so "no bull" kind of usable information. About a year ago I I started to read about the bh209 but had my guns dialed with pellets and wasn't too crazy about making a switch prior to deer season since I knew where things went with the pellets [T7 pellets]. The more I read, the more I was tempted but I stuck it out eventhough I had a jug of the new powder on hand. After the seasons ended here I ordered new plugs and started doing some range time with the new powder and found it to be about like everything else...there's a learning curve to success with it and I've finally arrived to a point I feel comfortable with the powder. Except for those tubes that won't, or didn't empty without a fight. The dryer sheets might finally be the last hurdle. lol
