Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Alliant Black MZ surprised me today

Alliant surprised me today too. I was shooting BH 209 and got a 5" group with my REM. 240 gr. 44 mag bullets using Hornady sabots. I had split second delay fires with the 209 using CCI 209 magnums primers. I also got a 7" group with 209 using my 340 gr. cast bullets with Harvester sabots . My last 3 shots were very tight 2" group with the .44 mag bullets , green Hrnady sabots and the Alliant powder. I get the best groups from Alliant but sure BH209 would be better without the hang fire and I dont know why I get so many hang fires with 209. I do clean the barrel every shot with the Alliant however. This Encore sure seems to like the lighter bullets. I might go get 100 200 gr. 44 cal. bullets from Acme and see if it helps, but I am not sure I can improve 2" with open sights. Why does my BH209 have a delay fire?

Common problem is a carbon clogged breech plug channell. Hand turn a 5/32" bit down it.

5/32" is way to huge for a TC. It will use a 1/8" drill bit. Also you need to use correct primers, Winchester W209, Federal 209A, CCI Magnum.

T/C flash channel is 1/8". Only the newer Knight and Savage plugs are 5/32". The T/C Omega and Impact plugs are very good BH209 plugs. If you are having delays, its not the plugs fault.

My bad. Never fired my Omega enough to plug it up before I sold it. Gotta admit though, if ya ran a 5/32" down it, it'd be clean!

Ok, things are getting better! I shot several 3 shot groups with my 50 Cal. Encore with open sights at 50 yds off a bench with just some 2x4 blocks. I have been getting 2" 3 shot groups consistently. I could not get this gun to groups. I tried so many combinations too. The only thing that works so far is Alliant with a 44 cal. Rem 240gr. pistol bullet and Hornady sabots. Anything else is a 5-6+" group @ 50 yds. This barrel with 1/28" just does not like 50 cal. conicals or heavy bullets . It does not seem to even like the .451 Hornady XTP bullets or my home made 340 gr cast bullets. The only thing I can think of is I am swiping the barrel down after every 10 shots or so with Acetone. I clean the barrel after every shot when using Alliant. A gun smith in town told em is is likely plastic build up. I think I can go on to other bullets and combinations now that I have a proven load that I can rely on for deer. However, I dont care much for the Rem. 44 ( .429) pistol bullet . Also, I am looking into new fiber optic sights. The ones on hardly glow at all and the from fiber optic sight is half broken. This should improve accuracy even further with a peep sight on the back. Does anyone use Acetone to clean the barrel of plastic. Also, again, a gun shop in town has a used TC Hawken 54 cal. for sale it is hardly used but has a scope on and that will be coming off. It's junk and looks stupid to boot. The price is $ 335 with tax and all. Think it's a good deal? The scope has me a bit concerned if it was not drilled properly. And one more question to Bigblock, You mentioned drilling out the flash hole for BH209. Do I drill all the way through from front to back or just the front or back?

i dont think acetone is really doing you a lot of good. Always try to use a water based product, something like windex when swabbing between shots. Alcohol style swabbing solutions just dont remove the fouling and tend to leave behind baked on fouling. Acetone should do a decent job of removing plastic but that really is something i never seen in my bores or had to worry about.

I guess I'm "old school", but I've never shot the BP substitutes. Always been a Goex 2F guy. I shoot an old T/C Renegade but have switched out the #11 nipple for a musket cap nipple. Musket caps work great and are MUCH easier to place on the nipple than a #11 cap, even with a brass capper. I shoot 420 grain No Excuses bullets with 100 grains of the 2F. Accuracy out to 100 yards is 3-4" with a Williams Fool Proof receiver sight and green fiber optic front sight.

For those using Alliant Black, Sportsman's Warehouse has a great deal on it right now for under ten bucks.

Thanks Montana . All the Sportsmans are gone in my area now though. Also, if index works, I will use that . I was wondering what I can use instead of spending 7 bucks on a 16 oz. bottle of Hornady bore cleaner. Anyone think the TC Hawken in 54 Cal. is a good deal at 335 with tax, or is that just ave?

Why use a substitute at all when real black works so well ?

Actually Blackheart , I will likely be trying that soon too. I dont know what is going on but my two inlines are shoot quite good. I think had a bad scope on one . I also wonder if I was not packing down the bullet hard enough. I shot several 50 yd 3 shot groups under 2" with open sights. I also put on a new scope on my TC Impact and it shot quite well, 2" @ 50 yds ( 3 shot group). I was using Alliant but yesterday used Shockey powder in blue can. I have a place 10 miles away that sells real black powder. Also, my best 3 shot group was 1.5" and I was using once shot sabots that I had already shot. Seems like there is no loss of accuracy and have done this before. Hey, they're 18 cents a piece.

Why waste the good stuff for simple paper targets? Real black is 2 1/2 hour trip one way for me. Save the good stuff for hunting, shoot the cheap easy stuff for punching holes.

OK gotcha. Makes sense now. I don't have that problem. Real black is readily available to me without going out of my way.

Real black is always worth a try.

I can get real black from Grafs that is their brand for 14 bucks , plus Hazmat , but only 9 mi. up the road they keep Goex for 25 per lb.

Not a fan of their powder, its Schutzen and never really was as accurate as goex. I actually have a pound of 4f grafs and that stuff is slow.

I didn't know that Grafs was sub par. I will try Goex then.

In the encore, try 100 gr by volume of bh209 and a 300 gr Barnes red hot or hot shot or whatever they call their sabot. I have tried that combo in several different rifles, one being an encore, and it always shot well.

I need to drill out one of my breech plugs and am not sure just how. I dont know if I should go all the way through the breech plug or not.