BH209 and cold weather experience

[paia]

Just wanted to report my experience over the last couple weeks with BH209, my Omega and cold weather & temp changes.

Saturday, Nov. 29th-- I fired about 15 rds. and sighted my Omega in for hunting. Load was .452 Hornady XTP (non-mag), Black Harvester Crush Rib, 100 grns. by volume BH209 & a Federal 209A primer sighted in 3" high at 100 yds. Went home, cleaned rifle and breech plug completely.

Sunday, Nov. 30th-- Went back to range, fired off two primers and one fouling shot and fired one "test shot"-- hit 3" high at 100. Left rifle unloaded and packed to go to Iowa.

Tuesday, Dec. 2nd--headed to Iowa with unloaded Omega and 8 premeasured loads of BH209 behind seat in pickup.

Wednesday--Friday-- Scouted around my friend's farms and helped out with chores where I could. Omega and BH209 were left in the truck the entire time, parked outside. Temps varied from 12 to low 30's.

Friday afternoon, Dec. 5th-- Loaded Omega and test fired one shot at a lasered 76 yds. Perfect ignition and hit 2 1/2" high, just like it should.

Saturday, Dec. 6th & Sunday, Dec. 7th--Loaded Omega and hunted with temps in teens and twenties. Omega and BH 209 in and out of truck many times. Never did fire Omega on hunt. (killed a doe with my slug gun on a drive Sunday AM)

Sunday, Dec. 7th and Monday, December 8th--Drove home with unprimed but loaded Omega behind seat. (Would have stayed in Iowa a couple more days, but we were tagged out and the weather looked bad for the middle of the week).

Tuesday, December 9th through Saturday, December 13th--Loaded, unprimed Omega was in the basement where it is around 60 degrees.

Sunday, Dec. 14th--Temp about 25-- took Omega to range, fired off round loaded 8 days before--perfect ignition and 3" high at 100 yds.

Blackhorn 209 performed beautifully. For two weeks the powder and my Omega were in various temps from 12 to 65 and I had no ignition or point-of-impact problems. I have a lot of confidence in BH209 after that.

I think the key to avoiding hangfires and getting good ignition in cold weather with my Omega is keeping the breech plug and its flame channel very clean. I have gone through 6 bottles of BH209 since last spring and have had zero hangfires, but I am very careful to clean and "drill" my breech plug after every 15 to 25 shots at the range. JMO & .02

Has anyone had any BH209 problems with the cold weather in the midwest and east the last couple weeks? Just curious--thanks

 

[g.g.]

no issues with mine from GA to IL back to GA then to IN with temps from a rainy 70 degrees to a frozen 16

every single time the trigger was pulled the gun went boooooommmmm

 

[minst7877]

I hunted the eastern Michigan Upper Peninsula last week where the high never got above 16 degrees. Using a 45cal Knight Disc Extreme with 110grs of powder under a 40cal 200 gr TC Shockwave with a brown Knight sabot. fpj plug and gun worked flawlessly. Went boom every time the trigger got pulled which was after being loaded for 3 of the coldest days that I can ever remember setting in the woods on. No deer just had to empty the gun to bring it home.

 

[Busta]

paia,

Thanks for the VERY detailed report, that is quite the test you put that powder through. And thanks for also listing the 209 (Fed 209A) primer you used.

IMHO, the powder is reliable, it is the 209 primers used and types of breech plugs that are the limiting factors when using BH209.

Minst and g.g.,

Can you guys please list the primers you used? This year will shorten our learning curve on what works and what don't.

I also have not had any problems with the Knight Disc Ext N-FPJ plug, Fed 209A primer, 120 grains BH209 and a Knight 250 gr PBT (Barnes TMZ).

Thanks guys.

 

[alphaburnt]

Busta, I have fired approx 75 shots of BH in my Knight MHC with NFPJ conversion in temps from 55 to 25 with no hangfires or misfires and I am using the Remington STS primers. About every third shot I have a primer get sticky and have to work the bolt a few times to release. Breech plug carbon seems to accumulate after 10 shots. The heaviest charge I have shot is 75 gn WEIGHT and most have been 65.

 

[Little Pirate]

More than 300 shots with CCI209M at temperature as low as 0F without any problem. Using Wolf Magnum, Bighorn and Omega.

 

[old/new]

I also use CCI 209m primers with B209 in my Pro Hunter. Never had any negative ignition issues from last spring to yesterday. The last two weekends the weather upstate NY was about 12 degrees up to 21 degrees. Shot the gun a few times to see if that temp would effect ignition or accuracy. No problems at all.

Shot a doe saturday afternoon (about 19 degrees). No ignition problems.

 

[SWThomas]

This is awesome news fellas! I'm about to start sighting in my Genesis with BH209 and Remington STS primers. Shooting 3 different types of bullets/sabots (Barnes T-EZ/supplied sabots, Remington PT/supplied sabots, and Hornaday XTP/green crush rib sabots). Hopefully I don't have any issues either.

 

[minst7877]

paia,

Thanks for the VERY detailed report, that is quite the test you put that powder through. And thanks for also listing the 209 (Fed 209A) primer you used.

IMHO, the powder is reliable, it is the 209 primers used and types of breech plugs that are the limiting factors when using BH209.

Minst and g.g.,

Can you guys please list the primers you used? This year will shorten our learning curve on what works and what don't.

I also have not had any problems with the Knight Disc Ext N-FPJ plug, Fed 209A primer, 120 grains BH209 and a Knight 250 gr PBT (Barnes TMZ).

Thanks guys.

Win 209 with the fpj concave plug

 

[Doohan]

I have had ZERO cold weather issues with BH 209 ..

In fact I converted another this weekend in Ohio's bonus weekend.

Loaded up the Omega Saturday morning and didnt fire until Sunday evening. Gun was in and out of a warm truck, gunsafe then back out in FRIGID weather yesterday. Sub 10 F and 25+ MPH winds. Gun fired the one and only time it needed to ..

The load was 120gr of BH209 and a 275 Parker with supplied MMP short.

At the time of the shot it was about 6 degrees F and I gotta tell you .. It was cold as hell out there yesterday. I had a heck of a time getting ranges cuz I was shaking uncontrollably.

Took a decent 7 pointer..

 

[ronlaughlin]

paia,

Thanks for the VERY detailed report, that is quite the test you put that powder through. And thanks for also listing the 209 (Fed 209A) primer you used.

IMHO, the powder is reliable, it is the 209 primers used and types of breech plugs that are the limiting factors when using BH209.

Minst and g.g.,

Can you guys please list the primers you used? This year will shorten our learning curve on what works and what don't.

I also have not had any problems with the Knight Disc Ext N-FPJ plug, Fed 209A primer, 120 grains BH209 and a Knight 250 gr PBT (Barnes TMZ).

Thanks guys.

Our muzzle loader season opened Saturday 13 December. All my tags were for antlerless deer.

My load was/is 105g BH209 with Winchester shot gun primers and 300g SST which i assume is the same thing as a 300g shockwave. My rifle is an Omega, and stays in the pick up, loaded, for hours days or months. The muzzle is/was taped with black electricians tape, and all shots are/were fired through the tape, and the muzzle is re taped when i get back to the truck. The rifle experiences what ever the environment is in the pick-up cabin; be it -19* over night or 60* or so riding along side by side with me.

Saturday was warm, and i ended up with two deer. Temperature during the hunt was around 35*. One deer was hit in the chest broadside, and the bullet hit both lungs, clipped the back bone low, and passed through. Of course the deer was immobilized right there and was dead when i arrived after reloading. The second deer was hit in the shoulder; the bullet hit one lung, and made a little dent in the back bone, and stopped. The deer was unable to get up and run, and was dead when i arrived after reloading.

Saturday night the weather changed and i think it was -19* here Sunday morning. I went up in the hills and when i left the truck it was -11*. I walked around for about 1 1/2 hour and it seemed as though my face was freezing so i went back to the truck. I was curious to see if the rifle would fire, so i touched 'er off before i got into the truck. At that time it was-5*. Spent the rest of the day, in the warm cabin, driving around; passed up a couple of deer cuz i was too lazy to deal with dressing them in the bitter cold.

Monday morning was -19*, and i did not feel like hunting, so i stayed home and worked in the shop.

I think Tuesday morning was -14*, but i headed for the hills anyway. Shot a deer broadside through the chest through both lungs, and the bullet passed on through. The deer ran in a straight line for around 100 yd in snow and left a decent blood trail, before it expired. Later in the afternoon it had warmed up to about 20*, and i found deer on a South slope with only patches of snow. Shot one in the chest, and the bullet hit both lungs and passed through. There was little blood to follow, and the deer ran on a contour for 75 yd or so, then went down hill maybe 20 yd, and then abruptly turned up hill and went about 30 yd before it expired. I was unable to find the deer easily, because of the lack of snow and blood, and the zig zag. I nearly gave up hope, and was sad that i couldn't find it, but made one more circle. It took me over an hour to locate the deer doing some painstaking tracking.

Wednesday morning it was 2*, and i headed for the hills to hunt. Found a deer in it's bed, and shot it through the chest at an angle; the bullet hit both lungs and passed through. There was a peculiar hole in the diaphragm; perhaps made by a rib fragment, or maybe a bullet fragment. The deer was unable to get up, and expired before i reloaded and got there. I think it was the hole in the diaphragm that kept the deer down, but how would i know for sure. It was like a spring day in the hills, and after i drug the deer to a road, and loaded it, i was amazed at the many many deer i saw from the truck, enjoying the sunshine.

After my experiences, i personally, don't think the sst-shockwave is the best bullet. It seems to be too hard when it should be softer, and too soft when it should be harder. They are inexpensive though, and i have a lot of them. Tomorrow i plan to shoot some Nosler at paper, and will try one on the next deer i get a shot at.

The BH209 sure works good in my rifle in cold, bitter cold, and too bitter cold weather. It works when the breech plug hole has shrunk to 1/16" too. It is accurate and clean. It doesn't require a magnum primer in my rifle. In the future i will probably experiment with different bullets, but will probably always use BH209.

 

[g.g.]

great report ron...congrats on the does!

 

[Busta]

Excellent information Guys! Congratulations on the deer.

JJ,

Can you tell us what primer you were using, please?

 

[younghunter_86]

Sat out yesterday afternoon. Temp was LESS than 0 degrees probably around 1 or 2 below. Nonetheless, was bitterly cold with the wind and just sitting on a pail in a fence row :shock: . Shot 2 guns: Omega which was loaded Sunday and Disc Extreme (with FPJ) was loaded on Friday, but left in unheated garage all weekend. Both went bang.

Omega was 110 BH209. 300 SST, short black harvestor and CCI 209
Disc Extreme was same load but a Fed 209A in the red disc.

 

[Doohan]

Busta..

Standard CCI 209

 

[black powder]

ronlaughlin thank you for the nice story and documantation ..god you guy's are lucky ,we are only allowed 1 deer per season ..i am not surprized about the SST and the SHOCKWAVE not performing on a hunting situation ..