Its a good reliable powder thats accurate, reliable, consistent. 40+ years on the shelf and its still going strong. Plus a big helper is the fact that the ends of the pellet has a touch of black powder so it ignites easier.
I've used Pyrodex and 777 in previous years. I decided to give White Hots a try this year. I will be hunting with them from now on. The reason ... they provide consistent accuracy and are a bit cleaner than 777 and a lot cleaner than Pyrodex. The smoke cloud isn't as big either if you are interested in following your game after the shot. They still leave the crud ring like the other pellets, but I can reload a saboted round after one patch down the barrel.
My only complaint about them is they tend to fragment if left in those tubes and are knocked around. I just put them in an old 777 box.
Dave Sticks and stones may break my bones ... but hollow-points expand on impact.
Well, all they had was 777 pellets, so that's what I'll go with this year.
Anything special I need to know?
Can I use the new 209 muzzleloader primers, or do I have to use the standard shotgun primers?
The WW 777 primers are designed for use with 777 and help reduce the crude ring. They won't eliminate the crud ring or fouling and swabbing between shots is a must do for consistent accuracy and ease of loading. One water wet patch followed by a dry patch. I use a 2 1/4" square cotton patch wrapped around a .45 cal bronze brush for my .50 cal MZ. Having two ram rods, one for bullet seating and one for swabbing, is the way to go.
After you use up the 777 try some BH209 with magnum 209 primers. You won't have to swab between rounds anymore.
I have tried 777 pellets, BH209, and White Hots in my Knight orange disc rifle. 777 pellets worked ok but are dirty and accuracy wasn't that great. BH209 ignition was not reliable in my rifle. White Hots are truly amazing in my rifle. It helps to swab the bore if you fire several shot strings at the range. I get cluster groups @ 100yds with 2 White Hots.
Those white hots are great .They say only 2 white hot where 3 777 don't know why but then seen a write up in NAHC mag where the writer use 3 white hots .My guns like them the best
I am also trying the White Hots this year. I have used the 777 two pellet 50 grainers for a 100 grain load as well as the the 777 two pellet magnums for 150 grain load. The white hots are also 75 grains, so a two pellet load is 150 grains. My initial testing was not so awesome. Maybe cause i didnt clean out, but my 50 yard shots seemed pretty good, but back at 100 yards they were all over the place. I had forgotten the cleaning crap and brought it home. It did clean easily, and the smoke cloud seemed to be less than the 777 cloud. Hopefully make it out today to finish up load testing. I will report back when I make it shooting again.
I got the bottom of my accuracy issue. It was not the powder, but it was the Bullets. It was recommended to me to try the Nosler 300 grain partition in a black sabot that Nosler sells. They did not like my gun at all. About every third shot at 100 yards would totally miss a 2'x3' target. I cleaned it up again and switched to some 295 power belts and my groups went to sub 2". I guess with my cheapo CVA pre-buckhorn, its gotta be powerbelts. I have shot the 245s in it well also. The whitehots seem to be fine anyway with equal accuracy to the 777 I was using.
I used three White Hots behind a 300gr Hornady SST ML to kill a big New Mexico Bull elk. I get consistent MOA groups at 100 and 200 yards with this load. The bull came in to 63 yards and I shot him in the neck. He went straight down. I recovered the bullet just beneath the hide in back of the neck. It weighs 248gr so it retained about 83% of its weight. At the range I shoot 3-4 times before cleaning and I am sure I could shoot more with no problem. I do not have experience with any other propellent but this is my experience with White Hots.
