The weather has been very hot for the past week or two in southern Illinois. When it breaks, I do plan on a good practice shooting session. Within two weeks, I will be hunting Colorado during the black powder season with a cow elk tag in my pocket. I plan on using my Remington 700 ML rifle in .54 caliber teamed with Winchester ML 209 primers; a 535 grain No Excuses pure lead bullet; and 90 grains of 777 black powder substitute. My back up weapon will be a TC Encore in .50; Winchester 209 ML primer; 90 grains of 777; and a 300 grain Thor all copper bullet. I have killed two cow elk within the past few years with this combination. I do like the Thor bullets. Will post the information on MM when I get my Remington rifle sighted in for the load mentioned earlier in this post. My in line Remington 700 (equipped with a 209 conversion ignition system kit) rifle would not fire Black Horn 209 powder..only poof! I was using a CCI ML 209 primer too. Cow Tag
Will Practice Soon: Rem. 700 in .54/535 grain No Excuses/90 grains of 777.
- Thread starter Cow Tag
- Start date
sjhgraysage
Very Active Member
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In my opinion your failure to fire with Blackhorn 209 powder was not because of the primer you used.
My experience with Blackhorn is that it must be tightly contained in the barrel with a good tight fitting projectile seated on top of it.
A good tight bullet and sabot combination always seemed to go bang every time for me. But I was also looking for a Colorado legal combination for my rifles.
I was getting "poofs" with Blackhorn and Hornady FPB bullets in a Knight Disc Extreme rifle. It did not make sense to me as they were tough to start. However they went down the bore to easy once started in the muzzle. I decided to try adding a thick felt wad between the powder and bullet. No more "poofs". Just that little extra wad seemed to help seal up the bore for complete ignition of the powder. I got my wool felt wads from Track of the Wolf.
Your mileage may vary.
My experience with Blackhorn is that it must be tightly contained in the barrel with a good tight fitting projectile seated on top of it.
A good tight bullet and sabot combination always seemed to go bang every time for me. But I was also looking for a Colorado legal combination for my rifles.
I was getting "poofs" with Blackhorn and Hornady FPB bullets in a Knight Disc Extreme rifle. It did not make sense to me as they were tough to start. However they went down the bore to easy once started in the muzzle. I decided to try adding a thick felt wad between the powder and bullet. No more "poofs". Just that little extra wad seemed to help seal up the bore for complete ignition of the powder. I got my wool felt wads from Track of the Wolf.
Your mileage may vary.
Sage, Another MM member suggested the same felt or wool wad and I ordered a 100 wad amount recently. Will use them and experiment. Right now, I am thinking about using 90 grains of 777, Win. ML 777 primer, a 535 grain No Excuses bullet with a wool wad (pad) in between the powder and the bullet. After the visit to the range, I will notify MM of my work.
Hunters, A week ago I went to the range and sighted in my old Remington model 700 ML rifle. I have a Lyman #57 peep sight on her with a Tru Glo orange front blade sight. Had the machine nearly where I wanted but today I did some fine tuning. My hunting load for Colorado (Sept. 13, 2014) will be 90 grains of 777 powder; a Winchester 777 primer; a 535 grain No Excuses lead bullet with a 1/4" wool pad (wad) in between the powder charge and the bullet. Today with near perfect shooting conditions and using this hunting load, I placed three bullets in a row within 3" of each other and all were about an inch above the bull's eye. Plenty good for me as my better marksmanship days are way behind me now. I am satisfied with the accuracy of the No Excuses big ole heavy lead bullets teamed with the Win. primer and the 777 powder. We all know that every black powder rifle is different in its attitude and I feel that I now have a recipe that my rifle likes. Thanks to all for your advice and counsel. Hope to put a No Excuses bullet into the heart of a big ole cow elk in about two weeks from today. Good hunting luck to each of you in the autumn of 2014. Cow Tag
D
dwinor
Guest
I know you have spent a lot of effort getting your guns ready for your hunt, that confidence you have in your guns will pay off. Good Luck and let us know how your hunt goes.
txhunter58
Long Time Member
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LAST EDITED ON Aug-30-14 AT 12:16PM (MST)[p]Go get um! How you get one down opening morning!
Life throws you curves and you have to roll with it. I had my new White shooting great only to have the place we were supposed to hunt pulled out from under me. Instead of trying to hunt unfamiliar public land with 3 years of waiting, we are turning out tags back in to recoup our points and hunting OTC with a bow in an area I am familiar with. Gotta chase elk come heck or high water, and the water rose!
txhunter58
venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)
Life throws you curves and you have to roll with it. I had my new White shooting great only to have the place we were supposed to hunt pulled out from under me. Instead of trying to hunt unfamiliar public land with 3 years of waiting, we are turning out tags back in to recoup our points and hunting OTC with a bow in an area I am familiar with. Gotta chase elk come heck or high water, and the water rose!
txhunter58
venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)
