Black Diamond XR .50 cal

[Confederate rifleman]

One followed me home today. She'll be a back-up rifle and a dedicated aperture sighted rig. She's a brand spankin' new blued/synthetic and I would like to get a wood stock for her. She seems very well made and I'm looking foward to seeing what she can do. What's the general impression of the Black Diamond series? Despite the myriad of newer " superior" designs, I think that the plunger fired inlines are very versatile with their multiple ingnition capabilities and extreme simplicity.Still love my Omega !

 

[cayuga]

Well I own a Black Diamond XR and it has to be one of the best shooting rifles I own. I have a 1.5-4.5x32mm Bushnell scope on it. With 100 grains of powder and a 250 grain Shockwave it will really shoot. I did shoot stronger charges with it, and it does fine. I just never saw the need for it.

 

[big6x6]

I had a Black Diamond several years ago. It really was an accurate muzzleloader. It would shoot just about anything accurately with 90-100g of Pyrodex RS.

Things I didn't like were the two-piece breechplug which took a really long time to remove, the very creepy trigger, and mostly the fact that with the open breech it would really eat up your scopes finish. With aperture sights like you are going to use that is of course not an issue.

 

[Banerbird]

I had a Black Diamond several years ago. It really was an accurate muzzleloader. It would shoot just about anything accurately with 90-100g of Pyrodex RS.

Things I didn't like were the two-piece breechplug which took a really long time to remove, the very creepy trigger, and mostly the fact that with the open breech it would really eat up your scopes finish. With aperture sights like you are going to use that is of course not an issue.

I had one for several years and mine wasn't picky either. 90gr w/ 240gr XTP through 130gr w/ 300gr Speer. All shot accurately. The only thing it wouldn't shoot was Powerbelts. I wound up throwing half of what I got away.

I agree with the scope issue. I had to wrap mine. One outing at the range and my scope was black and gray from the burn. If you do ever happen to put a scope on it, I'd wrap the scope.

I know the guy who bought it off of me and there's a good chance I can get it back in the near future.

 

[cayuga]

Yes, they do eat scopes. I have a duct tape bra for my scope and it works fine. Mine is not fussy about loads either. Although with 100 grains of Pyrodex RS and some shockwaves I was able to shoot pretty good groups out to 150 yards with a simple 4.5 power scope. Which kind of amazed me.

 

[Okie Hog]

If I were just getting into muzzleloading I would buy a Black Diamond XR, put a 4x32 Leupold scope on it and never look back. Have fired my friends gun a lot and just love it. They are super good guns. Sounds like I really do need one.

 

[Confederate rifleman]

range report

Thanks for the imput! Took her to the range and accuracy will not be a problem.Loading will be!I tried my death ray load , 240 gr .44 XTP in a Harvester sabot over 80gr 2f T7, and I thought I'd need a hammer to seat the round!NEVER had such a fight before.I fired 4 ,3 shot groups at 50 yards with the aperture sight and none were over 3/4 inch. All 12 shots were inside 1 1/4 inches and mad a very nice hole in the target. With her being new I can understand some tightness in loading but this is extreme.Maybe I'll try some crush ribs...I dont find cleanup to be a chore . Granted it she doesn't clean up as fast as my Omega, but then again nothing does.One wierd thing I noticed is that the bore seems to be covered in a strange blue substance.looks alittle like layout blue, but is VERY difficult to remove.A good scrubbing with a bore brush results in sky blue patches. Dont know what this stuff is but its a bugger. I'm gonna fine tune the trigger abit , but overall I'm very impressed with the accuracy.Loading under field conditions will be quite impossible though.Must find a way around this...

 

[Banerbird]

777 in all my guns, leaves a "crud ring" that makes seating the bullet (the last 1/2 - 1 inch) difficult after one shot and impossible after 2 shots without swabbing. I'd try Pyrodex or something different. With Pyrodex, I never encountered the crud ring, although the bore did get extremely tight after 5-6 shots, if I didn't swab. But it's better than 2.

777 is a good powder, but it does have it's drawbacks, just like everything.

 

[Confederate rifleman]

crud ring

Banerbird, This isn't a crud ring issue.Using musket caps there is no ring.I swab between shots every time. This barrel is just plain TIGHT.The first load in a clean barrel was the surprise of my life! It takes an awful amount of pressure to start the sabot past the QLA and a great deal of pressure to ram it down the rest of the way.

 

[cayuga]

Try using a Harvester Crushed Rib sabot...

 

[big6x6]

Try using a Harvester Crushed Rib sabot...

RIGHT or an MMP 3-petal EZ..

 

[Banerbird]

I agree with the crushed rib or 3 petal. I used 44cal bullets with an MMP sabot. It was snug all the way, but not tight enough that I couldn't load with one hand. If it was as tight as what you are saying, I would have switched to a 45 cal bullet. There's more options for sabots for a 45cal than 44cal.