Blackhorn Corrosion /Pitting?

[TMAX]

I put 12-15 shots thru my son's Encore (camo/blue barrel) the first week of November to sight it in. He didn't get to hunt with the gun, so it sat in my gun safe (nothing fancy) in a very cold room in the house for the past couple months. Cleaned it last night with Hoppes No 9, three soaked patches and the barrel shined like new. I'm sold on the BH209 for my purposes.

 

[g.g.]

shot the encore 3 times in IN (2 yote and one buck) back on december 12th. left it uncleaned until yesterday (left gun at cabin and just got back down to property) and it cleaned up perfectly without rusting or pitting.

would not have considered it with 777

 

[taylorhaught]

I am the buddy HJ bUYS referred to. I am a little disappointed on the pitting in my Triumph. I did shoot 777 mag pellets last year (maybe 15 rounds) then shot about 40-50 rounds this year with BH 209. The pitting didnt occur untill after my deer hunt using BH 209. I cant say for sure that it was BH fault, but I am very skeptical of its claims of being non-corrosive. i spend a lot of time cleaning out my Triumph after every range session. I now have to send in my gun to T/C. Good thing it isnt before hunting season.

Has anyone else had this happen only after using BH 209?
Would the amount of powder being used cause this or enable this to happen?

 

[wayles]

Zen

Zen for what its worth I left my Blue Encore dirty after I shot my buck thinking I would go out after a doe for my bonus tag. I cleaned last nite. About 24 days. It came spick and span . You scared me into cleaning it. I will go out wed and shoot a couple of does with my .45 cal knight. So far when I went out I just enjoyed watchin all the deer behavior and vocalization. It amazes me how vocal this particular platte river deer herd is. I have called in 9 or 10 bucks and numorus does. This new place is a honey hole. In turn they have totaly ignored any estrus lure, which I have never seen happen before. [wild life research goldel estrus] They may have gotten too big and are just sellin plain old deer urine.
Wayles

 

[SWThomas]

I too haven't had any issues with BH209. I fired 20 shots in a row with Remington STS primers without a single issue. Perfect ignition and great accuracy. Clean-up was a snap also. Cleaning the breachplug is easy if you use a bore brush for scrubbing.

There will always be people that complain about a certain product. Or try to blame a product for corrosion that was more than likely caused by their own laziness. If you fire the gun, clean it for gods sake! Quit being lazy!!!

 

[Panhandle]

Re: Zen

Zen for what its worth I left my Blue Encore dirty after I shot my buck thinking I would go out after a doe for my bonus tag. I cleaned last nite. About 24 days. It came spick and span . You scared me into cleaning it. I will go out wed and shoot a couple of does with my .45 cal knight. So far when I went out I just enjoyed watchin all the deer behavior and vocalization. It amazes me how vocal this particular platte river deer herd is. I have called in 9 or 10 bucks and numorus does. This new place is a honey hole. In turn they have totaly ignored any estrus lure, which I have never seen happen before. [wild life research goldel estrus] They may have gotten too big and are just sellin plain old deer urine.
Wayles

Wayles..I'm going to be looking for a honey hole on the river for next year. I hunted the open ranges this year for mulies and about wore myself out. A nice treestand stuck away somewhere sounds very good. Monday I spent 2 hours putting a stalk on a nice 4x4 and just when I was coiming over the rise to get a shot I kicked out a couple of does and the rest is history. I'm going out Wednesday and try filling the last of my tags.
Zen

 

[wayles]

Zen

Start lookin now! I only secured this place in sept 08. I was beginning to sweat it. I think I have it locked up for next year but who knows for sure? I thought I was good forever on my old place [ 18 years ] which was 9000 acres up by gordon NE right on the Niobrara river. It had mulies and whitetails and daughter and I were the only ones hunting it. [monsters lived there]Then they decided to go commercial and I could no longer afford it. I tried a place by sutherland but it turned out every body in the country was hunting the place. The neighbors were also riding the fence with 4 wheelers and rifles trying to pick something off. The land owner was not truthfull with me. We won't go back there!
Wayles

 

[wayles]

ZEN

ZEN QDM time ...I went out today with the Knight .45and shot an old mature doe. The .45 cal. souped up with 120 gr of BH and the 200 gr. SST is devastating..... .45 in .75 out. Mush inbetween, Doe was close to 150 hog dressed. [educated guess on the weight] Could have filled my season choice too but one at a time is enough How did you do?
Wayles

 

[Panhandle]

Wayles;
I didn't see anything that I wanted. I saw several does but I didn't want to drag them 1 mile to the truck. It was a good year and I had a lot of fun. I ended up with 1 buck and 1 doe ; plenty of venison in the freezer. I also missed a decent buck earlier in the year. I 'm going to start looking for a place to hunt that is easier on these old legs for next year. You've hunted those sand hills so you know what I mean. When the weather gets better we'll get together and shoot some targets or some prarie dogs.
Zen

 

[wayles]

ZEN

Sounds good, I also had a great year. Now that huntin season is done maby I will get somethings done other than huntin. We will get together. A fellow can never have too many places to hunt so I will begin a new campaign on that also. Lots of work to do and then theres reloadin and gunsmithin and arrow makin........
Wayles

 

[Redclub]

I have never shot 209 but do have some, Has anyone considered that the crud could come from the breech plug grease/anti-sieze, tape?
Run a clean patch down your barrel after you put in the breech plug and you just might see something on that patch. Just think, put grease on plug, screw in, some grease is now in the barrel dump powder in Hmmm.

Redclub

 

[Swampman]

I've kept guns (blued & stainless)loaded for an entire 3 month hunting season with both real blackpowder & Pyrodex. I've never had any pitting or rust. They are only corrosive if they are burned.

 

[deer655]

my brother uses a knight grand hunter{i think thats what its called}. he started using blackhorn in it.he shot about 20 shots thru it.then cleaned it a few days later. he swore he had a corrosion spot in his barrel that wasnt there before. he is a gun cleaning nut usually but something came up an i think he was believing bh would not harm his barrel.he still loves bh but will definitely clean up much faster next time.

 

[Busta]

I fouled and loaded my SS Huntsman w/ Hubbard 209 breech plug on Dec 4, never seen another buck I wanted to take, so never fired it during the Dec 5 - Dec 21 Muzzleloader Season. Our Late Antlerless Season started the next day Dec 22 and ran to Jan 1, 2009. The last day of season there were dog tracks all over the woods :evil: , so every deer was ran out of there. At last shooting light, since I wasn't going to see anything anyways, I deceided to shoot out the load. Instant ignition, hit the snowball I stuck on the old dead tree. I brought it home and left it cased in the basement for 2 days. I cleaned it up yesterday, slicker than a whistle. No hint of any kind of corrosion.

My Knight Disc Ext MHC was fired twice on Nov 15, reloaded and hunted with for 2 weeks. Fired out the load at the end of the 2 week season. Excellent ignition, and also cleaned up slick as a whistle.

With that said, I really think I can smell sulfur once fired and I was very skeptical about leaving the fouling in the bore for any length of time. IMO, if you have a very hot ignition, tight bullet, instant ignition, good burn, SS barrel, the residue left is not harmful for 2 or 3 weeks. Of course there would also be several other factors to consider such as, temperature, humidity, weather, storage, previous condition of the bore, stainless vs blued. This was MY experience, YMMV. It is also my opinion that if you are trying to ignite this powder with anything less than the hottest igniton source available, you are not getting as complete of a burn, therefore possibly leaving some fouling in the bore that may be corrosive.

I did some early testing with some #11 rifles, .25 ACP ignition, and some "not-recommended" 209 breech plugs. I know I did not get as good of ignition or as good of a burn with these ignitions. Some of the lesser 209 primers were no better, and in cases worse than these other ignition sources.

This year was a learning year, I know I definitely learned alot, by both my testing and others reports. Is this powder for everyone and their application? No way, but it sure has been great and exceeded my expectations in my rifles. Thanks for all the reports, good and bad!

 

[Grouse]

Thanks for the report Busta.

 

[lane]

To answer a few questions...
Dec 3 I shot a fouler in my Triumph and then loaded it. That evening my buddy wanted to shoot it so he shot it out. It was then loaded and brought home without shooting it and left in my cool basement until yesterday when I shot it so I could clean it. It was hunted with for one day [no rain or snow] and then stored until yesterday.
It's a blued barrel. I just bought the rifle this year and haven't shot anything out of it except Blackhorn. The barrel ahead of the sabot was not affected, just where the powder made contact in the first two inches of the chamber. I've left it uncleaned after firing and never had any problems.When I scrubbed it last night some of it came out, but not all. Going to give it another going over tonight.
Thanks guys, Zen

Well Bro, I've had my SS 45cal Disc Elite fouled, loaded and fired 3 times, and now it's loaded again, since the 6th of November :shock: Been keeping it in a cold garage-in a gun case, all this time. Got some more time-off next week, so will take her out for that Buck Will definitely clean it after the next hunt, and report back. Thanks for the heads-up

Update:

Just got done cleaning the 45cal Disc Elite...Perfect bore condition

The Bolt Breech blowback area was tough to get out the carbon..it really enamels itself to the Stainless Steel! Breech plug cleaned up easy 8) I'm VERY satisfied with BH209 8) 8)

 

[Frontendstomper]

After reading all the posts my Omega had been in my basement since the muzzleloading season and late doe season ended, I thought I better clean it. I was alittle nervous but it came out clean as a whistle. This is my first SS ml and I still treat like my previous blued barrel on my thunderhawk.

Just wondering if the guns that are showing some pitting are blued or TC weathershield barrels? I know a couple of guys that have had some trouble with the TC weathershield barrels and they are not using BH 209.

 

[lane]

After reading all the posts my Omega had been in my basement since the muzzleloading season and late doe season ended, I thought I better clean it. I was alittle nervous but it came out clean as a whistle. This is my first SS ml and I still treat like my previous blued barrel on my thunderhawk.

Just wondering if the guns that are showing some pitting are blued or TC weathershield barrels? I know a couple of guys that have had some trouble with the TC weathershield barrels and they are not using BH 209.

My thoughts exactly. TC barrels seem to be the bulk of the effected