HEY, If Buckhorn is going to cost $30 to $35 for 10oz as I have heard and, 777 cost around $22 a Lbs.($12 when WalMart puts it on sale) How can it be worth it
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Bruce,
Blackhorn 209 has a MSRP of $30, hopefully (but doubtfully) it will be less than that. However, people don't balk at paying $32.99 for 100 Triple Se7en pellets at Wal*Mart. Triple Se7en pellets at that price would be $1.00 per shot for a 150 gr (3 pellet) charge. With a net of 33 charges per box. If you were able to get T7 Pellets for $25 per 100 count box, a 150 grain (3 pellet) charge would still cost you 75.75 cents per charge.
10 oz of Blackhorn 209 loose powder would give you 4375 grains by weight per container. According to Toby, a 100 gr VOLUME charge weighs in at just under 70 grains by WEIGHT. (using 70 grains as the weight) That would be 62.5 charges at 100 grains VOLUME per container. He also states that it takes about 110 grains BH 209 for an equivalent T7 3 pellet charge. If that is the case that should leave 56.8 charges per container at 110 grains by VOLUME (77 grains by WEIGHT) costing 52.8 cents per shot.
If you do the math, that would mean that Blackhorn 209 would be half the cost of T7 pellets at Wal*Marts price, and only 2/3 the cost of T7 pellets at $25 per box.
It all boils down to perspective, Hodgdon has been fleecing their T7 pellet customers for years, nobody seems to be questioning that.
In all fairness T7 loose powder at $25 per pound would be 90 shots at 100 grain VOLUME (77.7 grains by WEIGHT) charges. The 110 grain by VOLUME (85.47 grains by WEIGHT) equivalent charge of T7 would give you 81.9 shots per container, at 30.52 cents per shot.
And you are right about T7 going on sale, but T7 has a very short shelf life and velocities vary greatly from old stock to fresh in my experience. The BH 209 is supposed to have a long shelf life like smokeless powders. Not that a 10 oz container would last very long, but if a guy could find an end of season sale on the stuff, you could stock up without the worry of it getting erratic like T7 can do, especially the pellets.
I am in no way approving of a $30 price point on the BH 209 powder, I hope it is much less than MSRP. I am just trying to show that there are already other powders, namely T7 pellets, that already cost more to use per shot.
I won't use this newer expensive powder for everyday shooting sessions, what I would use it for is an out West hunt that lasts a week to 10 days. $30 dollars for a truely non-corrosive powder on a hunt like that would be cheap insurance, as long as it lives up to it's hype.