Breakin' some in

[sandcritter]

Second afternoon of muzzleloading (greenhorn), very windy today, with couple of ML-rescues: a 1st gen blued Austen & Halleck whose bore needed some TLC is OK now, and a 2nd gen. nickel A&H with just a little bore corrosion now pretty good after polishing. Lot of elbow grease later, was time to shoot. Had chosen this rifle to learn on basically because enjoy wood (the blued one came w/ a gorgeous maple stock in addition to the all-weather beather stock shown). Although out of business, turned out they had a reputation as shooter's, to boot.

50yds, iron sights, rook ML'er on the trigger. PRbullet.com's ExtremeHP 330gr (sabot'ed all lead HP). CCI std 209 primers. Blackhorn209 per below:

Nickel ML:
80gr - vague group right lower quadrant
90gr - loose group bottom centerline
100gr - Bottom left quadrant. Yes!

Blue ML:
100gr - Top midline (edge of target)
100gr - Top right quadrant. Decent!

Good day of learning, overall. Next trip, will continue load workup and move targets out further.

 

[dalberg]

nice looking guns!

 

[GM54-120]

Glad to see someone saved a couple. Those are really nice and it was sad to see them go under. In their day they were rated very high on the quality list and are still awesome.

Have a great week

Scott

 

[cayuga]

That lower left 100 grain group from the Stainless is a nice group. Also nice looking rifles.

 

[mrlnfshr1]

Did you have any hangfire issues with the Blackhorn.? I never tried it in my AH because the breachplug is of the type that in theory shouldnt work well. My rifle fires fine with loose 777 but the plug is a PITA to remove after less than 10 shots. Could you post a pic of the breach plug.? Thanks

 

[sandcritter]

mrlnfshr1,

I hear you. Sabotloader pointed that out too, but found a way around it. PRBullet.com offers a conversion kit, with a modified breech plug and firing pin that (it looks to me) has the striker pin just a touch more proud than the stock firing pin. At $70 was a little pricey, but the rifle shoots great. The only problem that have had, was after a few rounds the primer residue fouls the primer pocket in the new breech plug, and gets harder and harder to get the primer to seat fully down. This caused me some trouble on the first range trip, causing a few failures to fire (not hang fires, but the energy from the firing pin apparently spent smacking the primer down and seating it, and not detonating the primer. A repeat cocking and firing usually fired it fine). But this last trip, no problem. Maybe the primer pocket had to wear in a little, maybe just need to clean it occasionally between shots, dunno.

The appearance of the breechplug, is exactly that of the stock plug but whereas the stock plug is threaded to accept a nipple or old open-type 209 adapter, the PRBullet plug is instead a smooth counter-bored cavity. Oh, and it's a whisker larger diameter lands means you have to use a 7/16" or 11mm socket to install/remove, the A&H tool is a hair too tight to fit. Odd, but true for mine.

 

[mrlnfshr1]

Thanks. Have looked at that plug before but hadn't gotten any true feedback. Might have to give it a try. How was removal of the plug after shooting? As I mentioned earlier, it is a PITA with 777, hence I have never really worked up a great load for my rifle since I hate removing the plug every few shots. I have other rifles that are much easier to deal with.

 

[sandcritter]

Have been using teflon tape. Each trip have shot 10-12 ML rounds. Plug spins right out when warm, little snug if let get cold afterward. Since am new, can't compare it to much, but hasn't been a problem. Pleased to hear from owner of similar rifle!