Idaho Blackie Down

[greatbasin]

I took this handsome bear last night.

50 cal Knight Wolverine
250 gr. Barnes Expander
80 gr. BH209

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[cayuga]

Great bear! I own three of the knight wolverine rifles. I use the exact same load in my rifles. How far was the bear? What kind of penetration did you get? I am sure that the bullet did it's job. Congratulations on your bear!

 

[greatbasin]

Thanks Cayuga,

Your right, that bullet did a great job with devastating effects. The shot distance was only 16 yds. so with my bullet crono'd at a bit over 1700 fps. penetration was a non-issue. That bear only traveled about 50ft. before expiring.

I choose that bullet because of it's big (ogive) sp?...wide bullet face. It starts a bigger hole going in, and in this case exited with a hole about the size of a golf ball..and it doesn't hurt to take the heart out in the process. I cannot think of a better bear bullet.

 

[jsteurrys]

Nice Black Bear. It is good to see that you are still using that "unapproved" powder in the plunger gun with good results.

 

[hunter177]

Congrats!

Nice bear! The paws look huge! Can you give us the weight?

 

[HawgHunter]

Congrats on the bear.

 

[greatbasin]

Re: Congrats!

Nice bear! The paws look huge! Can you give us the weight?

Thanks.
I had to skin and pack him from the kill site so I didn't have a chance to bring him to a scale.
The head and hide alone was 76 lbs...If I had to guess I would say he weighed around 250 lbs.

 

[Edwardamason]

Very nice. And people say shooting BH209 in a plunger model is nonsense.

 

[cayuga]

It is not that a plunger style rifle can not shoot BlackHorn 209. They can, and I have done it. It's the danger of a primer blowing back into the face of the shooter. I have done that too, and believe me, it only took me digging a primer out of my forehead once, to convince me that plunger guns and BlackHorn 209 do not mix.

I stated I used the same charge in my Wolverines.. I misspoke. I shoot 80 grains of 2f powder out of my three rifles but normally it is black powder. Still those Barnes are a great bullet. That is an excellent bear. And if someone wants to take the chance of the BlackHorn 209 in a plunger gun, all I can say is wear safety glasses. And pray you don't need them.

 

[sabotloader]

This type of question was asked another forum... I provided my thoughts, and would contiune to say "Bh can work in in a plunger type gun but there is a risk."

I have a Knight Mk 85 have always shot pryrodex in it with 209 primers and have a few questions.

1. can i shoot Blackhorn in it, if so what are the benefits it any (have never shot BH)

2. how do you feel about drilling the breech plug and screwing in a savage vent plug

thank you for you time

Shooting BH in a plunger type gun is always a risk. Not saying it can not be done, but it can be risk.

If you use lighter bullets and reduced loads it should work fairly well as most of the bullet will get out the barrel before enough pressure builds to push the plunger back and spit the primer out of the breech plug.

The next fact is that BH does not produce a greater, if any, velocity with the lighter bullets than does T7 and if yu are shooting pecussion caps you do not have toworry about the famous 'crud ring'.

The advantage of BH is that you do not run patches while shooting.

This is a composite of pictures that I took testing BH in My MK-85 shooting BH but you can see I was shooting a 300 grain bullet, with which BH can create 100-150 FPS greater velocity than does T7 with equal charges.

All of my plunger guns I have just switched back to cap ignition.

Installing a vent liner in a 209 plug is certainly a good thought althought I would use a hardened Lehigh vent liner, plus open the 'flash channel' to 5/32" vs. the current 1/8"

greatbasin - that is one heck of a bear - that head is awesome....

 

[sqezer]

Very interesting post Mike, I have shot BH-209 out of my .45 CVA MagHunter with great results but it has a custom built breech plug, and the loads where light. If I do increase the charge I'll do as Sabotloader did with protecting the primer area.

 

[sqezer]

I had a BRAIN FART, that is a great looking bear also, congrats, :yeah: :applause:

 

[greatbasin]

I don't shoot with bare primers...I'm not sure if that matters.
I use sensible amounts of powder...for this hunt 80 gr.
I don't use BH209 to increase power or velocity...only for the ease of cleaning and lack of corrosive fouling.

I am not concerned with a certain FPS with BH209 anymore than I am with any other BP sub.

I appreciate you looking out for me, that's quite kind.

GB

 

[sabotloader]

I don't shoot with bare primers...I'm not sure if that matters.
I use sensible amounts of powder...for this hunt 80 gr.
I don't use BH209 to increase power or velocity...only for the ease of cleaning and lack of corrosive fouling.

I am not concerned with a certain FPS with BH209 anymore than I am with any other BP sub.

I appreciate you looking out for me, that's quite kind.

GB

Actually it does matter to a certain degree, if you are using the FPJ's they do work a little different in that the jacket expands over the post prior to being blown off the post and allows the blow back gasses to escape forward towards the breech plug reducing your exposure. Also in the case of the FPJ - the primers do not come apart of blow out of the jacket the whole jacket comes off the post as a unit. Also the 80 grain charge you are using is a very moderate charge and does not create the pressure that the heavier loads do.

My point was to the other poster that might be leaning to suggest to others to shoot BH from a plunger gun... I believe your experiance with the ML lead you to work to a charge that serves your purpose... so while I was not espeicially worried about you I was to the next guy that might start at 100+ grains with a bare primer...

But no matter that is still one heck of a bear...

 

[greatbasin]

:yeah: Thanks S-Man