Blackhorn goes pffffffft.

[Lawful Larry]

Lawful Larry

Can I ask which winchester primer were you using?

Just got  back from the woods and hunting heaven.  Did very well during gun season. 

Now as to the 209 primer.  Sabotloader, I have been using the Winchester 209 primers in the dark blue box.  It was originally bought for loading my 12 gauge cartridges.  I have never had any problems with them and they worked in my other Inline, my NEF Sidekick. 

When I was in the woods and had my cross hairs on the deer and the gun went pffft, I loaded another primer and it did the same thing.  When I got back  to camp, I  went over  to our range  and tried two more primers and got he same result.  I cleaned ou the gun and reloaded it with a fresh load of powder.  This time I got it to fire, but really only got a flash and the bullet just lopped out the barrel.  I put the gun and powder away and got out the other inline. 

I must say that there were  other hunters in  camp that wereusing the BH209 powder with no problems.  I am starting to belive that it may be a bad lot  number.  My lot number is:     ??.  I would like to give you a lot #, but there is none on the bottle.  All tha I can find is a sticker on the bottom with a number that looks like a date:  5 28 08.

I will be going to their website and try to get some answers.  Wish me good luck.
 

[mirage1988]

I hunted opening weekend in missouri, it rained from sunday thru tuesday, blackhorn went bang on tues. night when I shot out the load. I use remington primers. LL maybe you should have tried a different brand primer before ruling it bad powder.

[sabotloader]

Lawful Larry

5 28 08.

I believe that is what Busta indicated as the lot number and that is an early lot number...

[Lawful Larry]

I hunted opening weekend in missouri, it rained from sunday thru tuesday, blackhorn went bang on tues. night when I shot out the load. I use remington primers. LL maybe you should have tried a different brand primer before ruling it bad powder.

Sorry I may have forgot to mention that I tried a different primer, Rem 209, and the powder still was bad.  When I loaded up the NEF Sidekick and BP, I used the same Winchester 209 primers and it always went bang and I got a nice large doe. 

I never had a problem with Pyrodex RS in the past and probably go back to it for the inlines. 

[vengence]

One of our group just bought CVA apex 50 cal. for his son (last one left and right at start of ML season) Took it to the range last Friday and only got 2 clean shots out of 10 attempts. He started with 90 grains BH209 with Powerbelts (250 grain ?) and Winchester 209 primers which were recommended by the place he bought it. I have had no problems since I switched to BH209 in my Encore with CCI. We tried the CCI primers. Breech plug fouled and actually plugged up. Cleaned it with tip cleaner finally and pffft. Confidence factor is zero at this point and he is tempted to return the gun. It's pretty late in the season for that and it's only 10 above so the range time is short. We didn't have any other powder to try this weekend but need to come up with something. He tried some of my BH209 which is fine in my gun but same results. Does anybody have an exact size of breech plug hole for Apex. Any ideas?

[sabotloader]

vengence

It would be my guess that it is the PowerBelts causing the problem.  BH is a progressive burning powder and it needs gas compression to continue burning. If the PB's allowed the gas to leak by the powder could not continue to burn.

It has been widely suggested that you need a tight fitting sabot and you do need to compress the powder with the load.

If I rember correctly .032 is the ideal flash hole opening for BH.

[vengence]

I thought about the Powerbelts although his dad was using the same powder and primers with his CVA Optima and had no issues. The Apex sure seems to be a nice ML. Too bad he didn't have some time before season to work up a load. Another party member recently go a good deal on a CVA Accura. His shoots well with the Powerbelts and BH209 also. I couldn't get a decent group with Powerbelts in my Encore so I switched. They sure do load nice though.

[Lawful Larry]

Latest update:

I  got with the company and did get a reply from a rep.  I told me that I may have used a 209 primer that was not strong enough to ignite the powder.  He suggested I use either the CCI 209M or a Fed 209A.  Primers are a little scarce and I could only find a box of CCI 209M.  I went to the range and it fired everytime with no problems!  He also told me that the breech plug for the Knight Vision is a little longer and there have been problems with the plugs getting a carbon buildup.  He also told me there is a modification for the plug and if the other primers didn't work or I still had unexceptable results I could send it to them for the mod.  I really appreciated the work and help they gave me and wanted everyone to know of it.

I don't see any reason for the mod and am happy now.  I will keep taking the gun and having fun shooting it to build up my confidence in this powder.  I do like it and the bullet I am using with it and want it to work.