BH 209 W/variflame

[jarv442]

I have a T/C endeavor 50 cal, katahdin length and am going to try the BH 209 powder in it to compare to the other powders I have. I have a vari flame for replacing the 209 primer. I noticed that the hotter primers are recommended. Should I use a Magnum primer to get a better ignition or should the rifle primer be sufficient for the BH 209 powder, or should I just get a hot 209 primer? I am using the Powerbelt aerotip 295 grain bullets, I found that they performed best in my T/C Scout so I picked up a pack of them up for the encore and compare them to the sabots I have. Anyone else have a similar set-up? If so what combination of charges/sabot works best for you? For my bullets the BH website lists with 100 grains of their powder the MV is 1693 FPS, the Powerbelt website lists 100 grains of pyrodex powder gets 1620 FPS MV. It seems the volumes are comparable. Anyone have different results? I will have my chrony with me and will post what I find as soon as I can get out to the range.

[grouse]

In cold temps i think you are going to need the Federal 209A primer. The endeavor should shoot a 250grn SW with a short black harvester sabot excellant.

[Busta]

I wouldn't expect to get those velocities with that short barrel, I also wouldn't waste the time/powder/bullets trying to get the vari-flame to reliably ignite BH209. I have tried the small rifle primers and the small magnum rifle primers in the .25 ACP with mixed results. The small rifle primers will not give instant ignition, noticable lag time, can hear the hammer fall before ignition. The small rifle magnum primers are a bit better, but not what I would consider 100% reliable. With very tight fitting saboted bullets it works, but with the Hornady FPB's and other conicals it was not working. I haven't actually shot the PowerBelts with it, but I would expect poor results.

If you want reliable ignition every time, get some hot 209 primers such as Federal 209A or CCI Mags.

[Semisane]

I have the .25 ACP ignition on my Lyman Mustang.  Tried BH in it with CCI small rifle magnum primers and got delayed ignition on every shot, and failure to fire about 1/3 of the time.  Go with the 209s.

[jarv442]

It was my understanding that the reason for the Variflame/.25 ACP ignitions is that the 209's were to powerful and pushing the charge and bullit up prior to complete ignition of the powder. Is this a ploy for the companys selling these products to drum up sales?

[grouse]

It was my understanding that the reason for the Variflame/.25 ACP ignitions is that the 209's were to powerful and pushing the charge and bullit up prior to complete ignition of the powder. Is this a ploy for the companys selling these products to drum up sales?

I think so. I have never had a problem with a 209 primer shooting Pyrodex or 777.

[black powder]

It was my understanding that the reason for the Variflame/.25 ACP ignitions is that the 209's were to powerful and pushing the charge and bullit up prior to complete ignition of the powder. Is this a ploy for the companys selling these products to drum up sales?

 

i have [1]loaded a bullet with a sabot into my ENCORE with NO POWDER  [2] installed a primer 209 into the breech plug and pulled the trigger ..conclusion THE BULLET DID NOT MOVE at all ...

[jarv442]

I had 2 hours to kill yesterday so I got to the range to see how the new setup works.I didn't have any 209 primers so I just went with the variflame adapters with small rifle primers. The only powder I had was loose pyrodex, I didn't have time to get to the gun shop. The only bullit I used was the Powerbelt  copper arotip 295 gr. The barrel is 20 3/8" in length so I was getting about 250 fps slower speeds at the muzzle than the published data from powerbelt for a 26" barrel.I started at 90 gr and got 1312 fps,100 gr got 1373 fps 110 gr got an average of 1425 fps for 10 shots.I cleaned the barrel after every 3 shots and as expected the slowest of the bunches were  after cleaning it. I will work the load up to max charges next time to see what the max speed out of this barrel will be but if it holds better groups with less that is what I will use.Now It is off to get some BH and try that. I will post after more results.As I was cleaning it I remembered the other reason stated for the variflame: Reduced blow-back. There was not a spec of blow-back in or on any part of the frame, even around the firing pin, with the variflame adapter. The patch I used for wiping down the area around the firing pin was very clean, my fingers got the patch more dirty then the frame did. So the next time I use the 209's I will compare the difference.