I thought some of you might be up on the latest technology and may be able to share your experience and knowledge. But looks like a bunch of old skool side lock hunters that think it should still be illegal to have a scope on a BP. Thanks for stating the obvious. I'm just going to order a new remington and use a string to fire the first 10 shots. And keep my fingers crossed
The barrel and breech plug steel is as strong and hard as it gets for a stainless steel, so I do not believe it is the strength of those components that would be in question. I believe the weak link is in the Johnston ignition system itself. The parent Johnston plug is clearly built stout enough to run a big load of 777 in his Johnston rifle, and the new Remington version of the plug appears stout enough to run big loads of BH209, but neither are stout enough according to Remington engineers to seal and hold up to the greater pressures of smokeless. The new Remington would need someone to invent a drop-in breech plug with a stronger and more positive seal to safely hold up to smokeless.
Charlie's smokeless rifle is a complete different animal built ground up around a specific load. Though his route for a 45 caliber sabot-less smokeless muzzleloader is to use a custom ignition system using a primed cartridge casing, vs the many other 45 smokeless builders using various custom 209 module ignition systems, this does not translate into either the Remington parent Johnston plug or the newer Remington version of the Johnston plug being suitable for the increased pressure. It would be a very bad idea with great risks of property damage, injury and death. Charlie's ignition system is designed to shoot his smokeless load, but the Johnston plug is designed to only shoot pellets, and the new Remington "Johnston" plug was improved in design to also handle Blackhorn 209. Neither was designed nor intended for smokeless loads such as Charlie's.
Quite a few have already been converted to 45 smokeless with a change in barrel, breech plug and ignition system; and some are entertaining the thought and are experimenting with designing a drop-in smokeless breech plug/ignition system to maintain the factory 50 caliber sabot barrel. But none of the later, to my knowledge, have hit the market as of yet.
If wanting to use the factory barrel, magnum 150 grain volume loads of BH209 have been proofed, to date, by Western Powders. When they are completed with testing, they will publish Remington Ultimate Only load data, which is expected to show safe the BH209 loads currently being used by Bob Parker, which makes the new Remington a 400 yard gun without smokeless. So if your goal is for a clean powder to use, and you have no need for these smokeless 700-yard game animal kills hyped on the internet, then BH209 in the new Remington is a viable option. Otherwise, choose a smokeless ignition system, and have the rifle converted to 45 smokeless. There are a number of guys having good track records making these conversions.
Best
