Lyman Mustang Breakaway & Blackhorn 209

[Bluegunner]

A few months ago, I had posted that I had bought a new "Lyman Mustang" and was going to try Blackhorn 209 with Barnes Spit-Fire MZ's. I have also topped the Mustang with a 2-8 Leupold scope.  Well the weather finally moderated enough for me to get to the range and following is a summary of my experience.
To sight the scope on my first trip to the range I used some cheaper powder belt bullets and Triple Se7en pellets. I started at 25 yards and eventually got on the paper at 100 yards. At this point I can honestly tell you that I was not very happy with the gun. It seemed to be spraying bullets all over a two foot square target. I was not a happy camper when I went home that first night, and I hadn't even gotten to shooting the BH209 & Barnes Bullets.
O.K. I get home and start to clean the gun and I notice the back of the scope moves ever so slightly. After close investigation I notice two problems. First, the rear base is not pulled down tightly on the gun (it turns out the screws are a tiny bit to long and were not pulling the base down tight). Second, the rear base was moving every so slightly from side to side (back screw was not pulling tight).
After filing the base screws and purchasing a new set of rings, I went back to the range today. First I use 100 gr. of BH209 and Power Belt bullets and found I'm now shooting a 3 inch circle, I'm starting to feel better but not great. Next I decide to load one of the Barnes MZ's and did I get a surprise. Dead on with the left and right but 8" high was the result, I'm guessing that I've got a better gas seal. After making a couple of scope adjustment I finished the day with four shots within an inch and half circle. I feel a whole lot better about the gun now!!!!

[Semisane]

I remember your first post Bluegunner and, as a Mustang owner, have been looking forward to your report.

For a long time I refused to pay the price for Blackhorn because I do a lot of shooting (about 20 lbs. of T7/GOEX/Pyrodex in the last year).  Well, last month I broke down and bought one canister of BH.  I was not too hopeful because I've converted the two breech plugs I have for the Mustang to .25 ACP ignition and suspected it might not ignite BH.

Well, I gave it a try under my favorite hunting bullet - the .452 300 grain Speer Gold Dot in a Harvester short black sabot.  This is the best shootin bullet in my Mustang with 105 grains of T7 or 120 grains of GOEX.  With either powder I can pretty much expect five-shot 100 yard groups to be in the 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 inch range. 

With the Blackhorn I had a number of failures to fire, but got it to go off with CCI small pistol magnum primers.  However, I had hangfires - from slight to major - with every shot.  Considering the hangfires it shot OK.  I did wipe the bore with an alcohol patch between each shot and that may have been a mistake.  Anyway, I've got a new 209 breech plug arriving in another week or so, and will repeat the test, and try it without wiping the bore.

Here are the targets from my first shoot.

[Bluegunner]

Semisane,

Don't have a target to show, as my primary concern was to find what worked before I leave for Texas on Sunday.  Going to my Brother's ranch for a week of hunting (wild pigs, quail, bobcat, coyote).  I was quite pleased with the four shot 1 1/2" group and when I get back will try my luck at putting a picture on-line (if things hold true).  I'm feeling good enough about the Mustang's performance that I'll be trying for a hog with it next week (my normal gun for hogs is my 22-250 using a 53 gr Barnes TSX).