Harvester Crushed Rib Sabot and Barnes Spitfire T-EZ 250gr

[sharps4570]

Session 2 with BH209 and Barnes T-EZ 250gr - visited the range today with a thoroughly scrubbed bore.

Used Barnes supplied blue sabots only. Shot a total of 30 rounds (3-rd groups).

Ran two dry patches (in cleaned/oiled bore) prior to loading the very first projectile. And one dry patch prior to loading the 16th bullet. Breech plug was never cleaned from start to finish - lot of crud but flash hole remained functioning till the last projectile.

Started from square one. Tried different charges from 80-110gr of BH209 (by volume) - 100gr performed the best.

I would've much rather preferred to test the ML in minus temps since that offers a better insight on performance under field conditions. Anyway, I intend to test again in Oct.

Couple targets (@ 100m) - left target has six rounds (fliers were shooter issue ). However, the POI had also shifted a bit. No scope tweak performed so far. 100gr of BH209 were used for both targets.

[Deer Hunter]

That looks good.
Haven't shot mine in a few years. I think I will have to start from scratch.
Hopefully I kept the targets.

[diverduck]

I can’t help you with the blackhorn, but I’m now shooting the Barnes 250grain tipped in front of two 50 grain 777 pellets. I’m using the supplied blue sabots. They are very tight in the bore, and by the 4th shot at the range I need to swab. The accuracy is very good though, and I shot a doe with them last year and the performance was excellent. Deer dropped dead on the spot, let out a groan and twitched a little bit. I won’t be switching anytime soon now that I’ve figured out what works. I’m hunted deer a lot, but the muzzleloading thing is pretty new to me. I was glad to find an accurate load that performed so well! I think you’ll be happy.

[sharps4570]

Thank you all. Appreciated the inputs.

I can’t help you with the blackhorn, but I’m now shooting the Barnes 250grain tipped in front of two 50 grain 777 pellets. I’m using the supplied blue sabots. They are very tight in the bore, and by the 4th shot at the range I need to swab. The accuracy is very good though, and I shot a doe with them last year and the performance was excellent. Deer dropped dead on the spot, let out a groan and twitched a little bit. I won’t be switching anytime soon now that I’ve figured out what works. I’m hunted deer a lot, but the muzzleloading thing is pretty new to me. I was glad to find an accurate load that performed so well! I think you’ll be happy.

Terminal performance is the primary reason for switching to Barnes. Other brands of projectiles such as Shockwave, SST are very accurate in my ML but leaves more to be desired.

As far as BH209 may be concerned, I've been using the powder since that first became available (2008?). IMHO, best loose black powder substitute for use in in-line ML in terms of both performance and maintenance. Only issue is that presently powder supply is almost scarce and near impossible to source here.