First time shooting with Black Horn 209
Finally broke the seal on the bottle of BH209 I’ve had sitting in the powder lock up for the past 3 yrs. Time to see what all the fuss was about and if it is worth the extra cost.
One of the big selling features was that it doesn’t create a crud ring in the lower barrel like T7 does…dat be true…the range rod had no problem even after x15 loads.
However, what I found was it forms a crud ring at the top of the barrel. Almost broke my ball starter trying to get it past the first 2-3” below the crown aftr about 6 shots. The last two rounds took a huge effort to get started. Never found this with T7 not sure what to think of it.
Guys also say it was cleaner….not to sure if I agree or not, the patches come out of the barrel were just as dirty as with T7. The barrel and breach plug still required cleaning, so it doesn’t matter ‘how’ dirty really, it still needs to be cleaned.
Over all didn’t notice a great deal of difference from T7 or Pyrodex. It cleans up the same. Not sure what all the fuss was about when it first hit the shelves, just another substitute for Goex :)
Anyway, I used my .50 cal in-line Traditions ML that was zeroed for a .360 gr bullet with 85 gr of T7. and loaded it up with the 300gr QT and 60grs of BH209.
The first shot was way high and right, hit off the paper.
It took 10 shots and 4 adjustments of the reticle to bring it into center. The next 5 shots grouped fairly well on center, I’ll try a 5 shot set with 50gr then jump to 5 shot set with 70gr load to see it that tightens up that group any, but I'm confidant with those results for a 50 yd shot.
https://i.imgur.com/8o41VFHl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/zRnzX0Yl.jpg