Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Blackhorn 209 question

'm needing a little help on this subject. I just bought a CVA Paramount HTR in .40 cal and am working on getting the most accuracy possible. I keep hearing that volume to wt is at 100 gr measured should weigh in at about 70 gr. mine is coming in at 77.5 gr wt to 100 gr volume.
I know I need to shoot the gun and get the sweet spot for a load no matter what and I will but I'm just curious why it is 10% off what the web site says.
I'd like to have my speed loaders weighed out with my accuracy load but it all just seems off to me.
Thoughts?
I plan on using weight as my measurement to load up the speed loaders so it looks like about 105 gr by wt is recommended as max for the 225 gr power belt in the .40 cal.

How accurate is your volume measure?

Mine aren’t as close as I thought they were - they were a bit high as well.

BH209 is x .7

Example.. 100gr BH209 in your powder measure, actually weights 70gr by weight.

What ever you are using for a powder measure, is off and throwing it heavier. Not unheard of.

The weight changes lot to lot, I've had some that weighed 70 and some as much as 74gr per 100gr volume.

I’ve checked the volume with 2 sources and I’ve checked the weight on both an electronic scale as well as a balance scale. Both of wich I’ve checked with a weight of known accuracy.

115 by volume weighs 85gr on my a&d fx120.



About 74%



Oddly enough last year it was 110 by volume to equal 85 on the scale. Guessing that is humidity. Or maybe a different can of powder.

The 120gr/volume came up a bit higher for me also. It was around 89gr intead of 84. The velocity doesn't seem to vary much lot to lot with a weighed charge.

I noticed last night as I volume measured out my 209 for next week's Ohio deer season that volume can change with a simple tapping of the bottom of the plastic holders on the table top.

Correction: I filled, leveled, and then "tapped" the brass measure on the tabletop 10 times. Watched the volume drop within the brass measure.

Look on Blackhorn’s website and it will give you the conversation from volume to weight.

It varies from lot to lot.

I think do to what I've seen, any hard conversion factor is in reality an approximation.

I have 2 cans from different lot numbers. Volume to weight is different. Using the same volume measure, at the same setting, resulted in different weights by a few grains.

I find the volume measure amount that works, then weigh several volume charges to get an average. Then I make a bunch of charges using my rcbs elec scale/thrower.

Works for my pro hunter and 700ml

Hicountry's plan is a good one. thanks for sharing

Honestly, I haven't seen much accuracy difference between volume and weighted charges.

But,being a Reloader, I'll weight out a dozen or more for checking sight in and hunting.

But, as I said, the weight will be different per lot