Encore/Brux .45 BH209 loads?

[michiganmuzzy]

we should know better? Maybe many of us WANT to shoot black powder or subs.

 

[45-70]

I prefer Black Horn in my inline low pressure black powder guns and live with the dirt. Or I shoot Black powder in my RB guns and live with the clean up
I would not loose the efficiency of BH to smokeless powder in my 2 Reminghtons, 1 savage, and 1 scout conversion .
Enjoy the BH in your smokeless guns. I go for the performance I built my guns for.
A wool or fiber wad will help with the dirt but why matter in a gun designed to shoot a cleaner powder and no wad.
BH will not get close to what can be done as far as velocity in any gun using an extruded smokless powder.
BH is meant for a black powder substitute not to replace or replicate modern smokeless powder.
Try as you may, but your smokeless gun with the correct powder in smaller charges will out perform equal or even greater charges of BH.
All of the black powder subs are much more hydroscopic than smokeless propellants.
Smokeless made black powder and even the subs obsolete. Not trying to break any ones bubble here but you guys should know better.
But part of the fun is Experimenting witch I don't do much of any more.

Thing is it is apples to oranges

 

[SuperKirby]

Well this got of track.
I get your reasoning. I much prefer shooting BH209 over smokeless. I prefer measuring loads by volume at the shooting bench over sitting at a table and measuring out smokeless. I prefer the smoke of the subs over the smokeless. So I get it. The thing that keeps me shooting smokeless is the frequency I’m able to shoot when I don’t have to worry about cleaning after a range session. But that’s neither here nor there. You’ve already established you want to shoot BH209. Awesome.

You already know that 80 gr BH209 will shoot well. Start there. In my limited use of conicals and BH209 I can tell you that if I went up much I saw some leading. I would say start with the load you’ve had success with and adjust from there. You already know the gun shoots, no reason it won’t shoot BH209.

 

[Ninering62]

After thinking this over for a while if at all possible I am wanting to go back to either BH209 or even 777 out of my smokeless build. I just do not feel I shoot enough to be comfortable shooting smokeless powder. The few times I have out of this gun I haven't enjoyed it. I always have at least 2 of my kids around when I shoot and the attention to detail smokeless requires is something I can't do. I thought about selling this rig and buying a Knight Ultralite but I think I will just shoot BH209, for now, that way if the smokeless urge ever strikes again I still have a capable gun.

Now with the backstory out of the way I need some load advice. I also want to get away from the $3+ a piece fancy sabotless bullets and go back to shooting conicals as well. I miss the smoke and the "Thwack" noise heavy lead makes when it hits something lol. I have the HIS ignition system in this gun so not sure how that plays into this. When I had my .45 Mountaineer with 209 ignition IIRC my load I settled on was 80 grains BH209, wool wad, and a 460 no excuse conical.

I think thats fantastic! Sounds like your logic, rational & good common sense are all on point. And its really freakin cool that the " heart of the real muzzleloader " still calls to ya & ya listen.

 

[GM54-120]

There is one powder i can think of that does work well with Lee dippers and might give you the speed that will work with conicals. Doc White even tinkered with it in low amounts. Its also very easy to ignite.

With that said though...sofar im just fine sticking with milder amounts of BH209. Western lists BPCR load data for loads that would be close so its more than likely safe especially in a good barrel. Ive shot quite a few of those loads and dont see anything to make me think they are not. At 54-56gr by weight MAX you get reasonably good cost per shot and still got a load that hits hard.

 

[GM54-120]

Just to keep this in context....I doubt anyone would consider a 45-100 or 45-110 under powered for deer or elk or even bison. A 460gr bullet with 80grV of BH209 is pretty much the same thing. Personally i think its a bit much for deer unless you just want the additional range of the hotter load and the better BC of the heavier bullet. Just look at how many deer have probably died to the old 405gr 45/70 load at around 1300fps. They still load them about that fast today and they still work fine.