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I've always been a traditional style muzzleloader, very fond of my Hawken style 54 caliber round ball guns using Goex blackpowder. The Hawken rifles have served me very well in the Illinois and Wisconsin deer woods for decades. But when an opportunity came along to purchase a new, unfired, T/C Impact .50 cal, I bought it. Now I'm in the process of educating myself about in-line muzzleloaders. The Impact has some very favorable reviews and, so far, I've acquired BH209 powder and Federal 209MZ primers. The bullet/sabot combo that gets high reviews are the Barnes Expander Spitfire T-EZ 250 grain, item number 30587. But as they're popular, haven't found any yet. So, already been to the MMP website looking, and reading, and looking at all the other bullets that are available. This will be set up for deer so looking at different bullets in the 250gr - 300gr, .451" / .458" range with the appropriate MMP sabots. The T/C's, reportedly, have a tighter, smaller, bore so I'll try the 3 pedal sabots as well as the smaller diameter sabots and see. Not trying to reinvent the wheel here, but my experience with in-lines is very limited and am willing to listen to different experiences, knowledge and opinions on them. The rifle isn't going to change, and a big part of what I like, is load development and figuring it out. It will end up having a scope on it as open sights are just plain harder to see now. Anyway, looking forward to some discussion here and thanks in advance. Dean
Last edited by DeanAnderson; 09/03/21. Reason: add pictures
It isn't what happens to you that defines you, it's what you DO about what happens to you that defines you!
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Double check your primers. I think the MZ primers are weak so they won't upset the load before the pellets ignite. BH209 requires the hottest primers going. I use magnum primers, either CCI 209M or Federal 209A. The Winchester 209 primers are also pretty hot and many folks use them with BH209.
My brother has the Impact and he uses Harvester Crush Rib sabots with his bullets or shoots the Hornady bullets with the easy load sabots.
Last edited by LeonHitchcox; 09/03/21. Reason: Added info
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Campfire Outfitter
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I am pretty sure Leon has that correct, shotgun primers are necessary for Blackhorn 209. I use the Federal 209A. I like my Impact, it is scoped with a Leupold 2x7 VX2, I shoot the 300 gr. XTP with a black Crush Rib sabot. Very accurate at 100 yards, kills deer deader than Disco and it is easy peasy to clean up at the end of the season.
Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
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I have been elk hunting with my Impact for 6-7 years and have about that many elk with it. I shoot 348gr Powerbelts ,but 295's work well too, I did use a 245 gr with a sabot on a Nebraska whitetail hunt which worked well according to the two that I shot with them. I have always used std Winchester 209 primers with 777, Pyrodex and BH209. No need for special primers. A lot of guys get wrapped up in trying to wring the top velocity out of a ML to stretch those shots out to 200yards and then fight accuracy problems. 99-100 grs usually works out great.
Also no need for those boutique bullets at typical ML velocities. Power belts or XTP's work fine on deer.
I have never heard of Impacts having a tight bore.
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Ditto on the primers. Those 777 primers probably won’t light BH209 for spit. If you can’t find regular primers, you should get some 777 or one of the other members of that family like Firestar pellets to tide you over until you can. Get busy on that before the rush begins.
BH209 need hot primers and a good, clean flash channel. In a pinch, your MZ primers MAY light regular BP okay, but I’ve never heard of anyone using them for that.
Good luck.
What fresh Hell is this?
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I personally think the impacts are one of the best muzzleloaders on the market especially for the money. I liked mine so much so that I bought a second one and I also own a cva accura plains rifle and can tell you the impact is better built than the cva only thing the cva has goin for it is the nitride. I think you’ll find the standard Winchester w209s more than adequate plus they’re longer resulting in zero blowback in both of my impacts which the same can’t be said for cci magnum primers and in the case of my cva any primers without shimming the firing pin assembly. I have had zero ignition issues with the standard winchester primers and blackhorn even on a 10 degree morning. I ditched the ramrods they came with and outfitted mine with the cva universal ramrods cut to fit. Today’s gimmicky ramrods I feel are made more for the range and less with the hunter in mind
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You are headed the right direction with BH209, good stuff. Everybody is correct, the Blackhorn is hard to light off and “muzzleloader” primers aren’t hot enough to be reliable. You need a good shotgun 209 primer.
Welcome to TN - patron state of shootin’ stuff
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I think any XTP 240 - 300gr, would be ideal. I have found them to leave a good blood trail.
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I had grabbed the primers as they were right next to the BH209. I'll eventually get there with this thing. If not this year... I still have my patched round ball guns.
Shots aren't long, I have 40 acres in NE WI and it's tight cedars surrounded by agriculture, lots of deer and turkey move through it.
Also looking at the adapters to use large rifle or large rifle magnum primers, looks interesting.
Couple reviews I read mentioned tight bores, but as I still haven't loaded it, can't say.
Looking forward to messing around with this thing, thanks for "joining" in.
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As others have said, regular 209 primers for blackhorn. Also, don’t overlook full bore projectiles! Thor, Hornady, etc. Ultimate accuracy is usually found with loose powder measured by volume. As my hunting shots are 50 yards or less a lot of times, pellets work just fine and are convenient.
“One thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.” - James Russell Lowell
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My Impact really liked 80 WEIGHED grains of BH209 behind a 250 gr projectile/sabot. A max load of 84 weighed grains recoiled hard enough that the rearward momentum would sometimes unlock the action. Didn't really hurt anything (danger-wise), I suppose, but it was a really weird surprise having the action open up when you shot it. I would catch myself holding it at arms length, looking at it, and wondering what the heck just happened. That piece is aluminum, so it seems like it would take a lot of rearward momentum (recoil) to cause that to happen. It loved 80 grains, though.
M7
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Just sent a breach plug to Precision Rifle, in Manitoba, to have it machined for their 209 adapter to use large rifle or large rifle magnum primers.
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Received the machined breach plug and 10 primer adapters. A shell holder for 22 Hornet is needed to seat primers and to decap the spent primers, so one of those is on its way to me too. Having never used anything like this and finding nothing specific online to using them in a T/C Impact, I'm slowly working my way through this. One observation is how loosely the primer adapters fit in the machined breach plug. I'll get around to snapping a couple after the shell holder arrives to see how it "works". I had a made in USA Burris 3-9x40 scope laying around so picked up a T/C mount and installed it, found some interesting Federal 50 cal projectiles for it at Fleet Farm, so almost to the point of shooting it. I'll get some pics up later...
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If you don't like it see if Hanks Precision Gun Parts can help you out.
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Love my Impact, it’s scoped with a fixed 4x, killed some nice bucks with it last couple years but think I’m going traditional this year with a TC Hawken 54 and round ball.
Mine likes BH209 and Win 209’s like others have suggested, but don’t overlook other powders. I picked up some Allianz Black MZ at Sportsman’s warehouse on close out and it does pretty well.
I use the harvester sabots as they seat better and are more accurate. 240XTPs killed well but exits were not common, switched to Speer 270 Gold Dots, got exits, but lackluster bloodtrails. I want to try 300 XTP’s next.
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Last edited by DeanAnderson; 10/21/21. Reason: add pictures
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So why the rifle primer conversion vs. the standard shotgun primer breech plug? Seems like a lot of trouble and to what end?
Last edited by MOGC; 10/22/21.
Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
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Because I have the means and ability and desire to try something new and different. This stuff is my hobby and I enjoy all of it.
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The Veri-Flame adapters have some good reviews and I'd like to try the different primers to see what happens...
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Damn... aren't you special. Rock on, just because!
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