Cleaning and Blackhorn 209

jamiebolseth

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Feb 12, 2015
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Just getting into ML hunting. Have had a Remington Ultimate Muzzleloader for a couple of years and have been using Blackhorn 209 powder with it. I've just ben using Hoppes 9 for cleaning since Blackhorn requires oil-based cleaners rather than water-based. my routine has just been to clean after every range session, but I've gone through the cleaning cycle enough times to know that my velocity drops fairly significantly with a clean bore. Now I'm planning my first hunt, and wondering if there's any harm in just leaving the bore fouled for a couple of weeks between my last range session, and my hunting trip to avoid a potential POI shift based on a clean bore.

Anybody have any experience with not cleaning immediately after using Blackhorn 209? Any negative affects?

Thanks,
JamieB
 
I shoot White Hots in mine but I always start out with a dirty barrel.
Mine seems to settle down after 3-5 shots? And that's how I start the season
and I don't clean it until the seasons over. Unless I drop it or fall in the creek.
And it doesn't seem to matter what I shoot just shooting it works?
 
I hunt with a clean bore with BH209. The residue left behind can attract moisture and cause rust. If you are hunting in a low humidity environment you might be fine.
 
I hunt with a clean bore with BH209. The residue left behind can attract moisture and cause rust. If you are hunting in a low humidity environment you might be fine.
Sounds backwards to me, if it's not water soluble then how would it attract moisture?

I use it, but I clean after each range trip so I've never left residue in there very long.
 
It's not as bad as conventional black powder, but it definitely can cause light rusting and pitting. I've had it occur in my TC rifles over the course of a couple of weeks.
 
Hmm... ok thanks for the info. Guess I will keep it clean.

I've had rifles that required fouling, basically because I might end up taking more than one whitetail a day. I never knew rather my first shot may be 60yds or 200yds, so fouling the bore was a must. I never had any issues with pitting or rust, but there's a few things I did to help avoid it. You can cover the barrel with a finger from a surgical glove. Never take it from the cold into a warm house. If I was ever in doubt, I'd just shoot the round out and reload it.
One thing you can do that ….. may ….. help with the first shot, is make sure ALL lubricants are out of the barrel, then use a couple patches with 91% alcohol and swab the barrel. Then bust a couple primer carriers by themselves and load for hunting.
 
Thanks for the advice. Some goods tips there. Where I'm hunting next week I expect to get a shot within 100 yds. So I'm not overly concerned on this trip. But I bought this ML to be able to shoot out to 200-300 yds. And range sessions show that it's quite capable at those ranges. I just need to find the right cleaning strategy in the off season to make the clean cold bore shot hit where I want it to. I will try some of these suggestions.
 
I usually hunt with mine dirty, as the POI clean is slightly different. I'm going to try to use a Bore Snake to wipe out most of the residue, and see if that still leaves enough to keep the same POI for the second shot and beyond while avoiding surface rust dust this year.

I tried the alcohol trick last year, and it made the bore too clean. It was IMPOSSIBLE to load my Barnes T-EZ, and I've shot plenty of them previously when I hadn't used alcohol to clean. Imagine two big guys standing next to a rifle, both putting their weight into the loading ram, having to force the bullet/sabot down as best they can. After that, I'll never get the bore that "clean" again.
 
Jamie;
Just so you know I have enough experience that you can have confidence in what I'm about to tell you as truthful and accurate after yesterdays range session I'm about half way through my SEVENTH 12oz jug of BH209.
If you leave fired BH209 residue in your barrel it will cause rust I know because it did in my beloved VERY, VERY accurate first run Encore 209x50. Thankfully it wasn't sever rust and it removed easily and had no effect what so ever on my Encore's accuracy. It did however did leave one very small patch of very slight pitting in my bore.

I wish I could tell you how long you can leave fired BH209 residue in your barrel before it will rust but I can't. I left the spent BH209 in my Encore for over a month during and then after my states ML season, so it was exposed to very significant levels of humidity and temperature swings which no doubt caused the rust to occur.

I have left it loaded in a clean ML for 10 days with no ill effects.
Despite the rust issue, so strongly do I prefer BH209 over ALL OTHER BP subs I would rather pay for BH209 then get any other sun for free and I am being 100% serious.
And this is after using Pyrodex pellets and having fired at LEAST 1500 shots out of my Encore, then I switched to 777 powder and another 800-1000 shots. Once I tried BH209 and my VERY first 3-shot 100yrd group EVER using 120 grains by volume BH209 under a 300grn XTP and a Harvester BLK sabot went into a nice tight triangle forming the smallest group I ever shot with my Encore I was almost sold. When I did it again and again four more times, I forever sold on BH209.

I will end with I use BH209 in my Encore, my sons Encore and the Knight Elite my other son uses and all shoot fantastically and none of them have any POI issues with a clean bore VS a fouled one. Yes their POI is different fouled VS dirty, but it's so slight as to be of no consideration to us what so ever. But also this might be due to the fact I knurl all my saboted ML bullets to ensure as tight a bore fit as I can get and also insure maximum sabot rifling contact. Without doubt I get better accuracy when I knurl my ML bullets. Knurling adds between 0.0015-0.002" to the bullets OD
 
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