Charge weights measured by volume. Velocity measured in fps 15 ft. from the muzzle for five consecutive shots with a Shooting Chrony chronograph. Temperature: 28 degrees F. Group size measured in inches for one, five-shot group fired from a sandbag rest at 50 yds. Testing conducted with a .50-caliber Thompson/Center Encore with a 26-in. barrel.
If you like shooting or hunting with inline muzzleloaders, you have undoubtedly experimented with several blackpowder substitutes. Although experienced muzzleloader enthusiasts will tell you no substitute offers the consistency of real blackpowder, they also know that no powder stinks as much or is as hard to clean from a barrel. This, of course, is why substitutes have become so popular. It is also why, ever since Pyrodex was introduced in 1975, inline muzzleloader shooters have been looking for something better to make their smokepoles go bang.
Western Powders in Miles City, MT, has established a firm reputation based on its clean-burning Ramshot smokeless powder line. The company has a state-of-the-art ballistics lab, and I spent several days there in early 2007 conducting a variety of tests with inline muzzleloaders. These guys know their stuff.
This year at SHOT Show, Western Powders introduced a new powder for inline muzzleloaders called Blackhorn 209. The company claims Blackhorn 209 will not foul the bore and requires no swabbing between shots. High velocities are also guaranteed, as well as the powder’s non-corrosive and non-hygroscopic nature.
I discussed Blackhorn 209 with several other writers and industry professionals, and many expressed their doubts that the powder could live up to the claims that, admittedly, sound too good to be true. I had been skeptical as well, but the week before the show I received a pound of Blackhorn 209 to test. Based on my range sessions, Blackhorn 209 performs exactly as advertised.
The first thing you will notice about Blackhorn 209 is it does not look like the tiny granules representative of other muzzleloader propellants. Instead, Blackhorn 209 looks very similar to extruded smokeless propellants such as IMR 4895. Each grain resembles a tiny log with a hole through its center. However, Blackhorn 209 is volume-equivalent to blackpowder. If you have been loading 100 grains by volume of blackpowder, Pyrodex or any other substitute, you can do the same with Blackhorn 209.
Western Powders says Blackhorn 209 will offer higher velocities than other blackpowder substitutes with more consistent shot-to-shot results, especially at maximum charge volumes. To test this claim I took a 26-in.-barreled Thompson/Center Encore and fired five consecutive shots with 100 grains of Blackhorn 209, followed by five consecutive shots with 100 grains of Triple Seven. I used the .50-caliber, 300-gr. Nosler Standard Hunting Or Target Sabot (SHOTS) throughout this test. The average velocity with Blackhorn 209 was 1,819 fps. With Triple Seven, it was 1,734 fps. Triple Seven is known for yielding high velocities, so these results were promising.
More surprisingly, the velocity standard deviation with Blackhorn 209 was just
9 fps, a consistency that explained the one ragged hole the SHOTS poked in the target at 50 yds. In years of testing various muzzleloaders and muzzleloading propellants, prior to Blackhorn 209, the only propellant to regularly give velocity standard deviation results in the single digits has been real blackpowder. This has a great deal to do with accuracy and is one of the reasons blackpowder has such a reputation for producing good groups.
As its name implies, Blackhorn 209 is designed for inline muzzleloaders using 209 primers; No. 11 and musket caps did not provide reliable ignition during testing. Western Powders, the manufacturer of Blackhorn 209, also recommends using tight-fitting saboted bullets for the most consistent results.
In case you’re wondering, I did not clean or swab the barrel between shots. This supports the claim that Blackhorn 209 does not foul the bore to the point it hinders accuracy. The residue Blackhorn 209 left behind in the barrel was more like very fine soot than the cruddy fouling deposited by blackpowder and other substitutes. I fired another 20 shots without cleaning and, amazingly, the last bullet loaded just as easily as the first.
Maybe the best things about Blackhorn 209 is its non-hygroscopic and non-
corrosive properties. The residue the powder leaves in the barrel will not absorb moisture from the atmosphere and cause rust. Likewise, if the powder is exposed to open air and high humidity prior to loading, it will not absorb moisture and negatively affect performance.
Both of these claims are a bit harder for the average hillbilly to conclusively test. However, I left a portion of Blackhorn 209 out in 60-percent humidity for four hours, and the resulting average velocities were statistically identical to those produced by powder loaded right out of the container.
After thoroughly cleaning the Encore, I fired five more shots with Blackhorn 209 and then put the rifle away. I checked it a week later, and there was no rust. No
conscientious shooter will stow a fired muzzleloader without cleaning, but the good thing about Blackhorn 209 is it does not require immediate cleaning after use.
As for the cleaning, the liquid most commonly suggested for ridding the bore of fouling produced by blackpowder and other substitutes is water. I never liked the idea of pouring water down a gun barrel and neither does Western Powders. Most often I use alcohol or an alcohol-based solution because of its fast evaporation. Western Powders suggests that after using Blackhorn 209, clean the barrel with Montana X-treme’s B209, Hoppe’s No. 9 or some other oil-based cleaning solution.
On the downside, Blackhorn 209, as you might guess, is designed for use with 209 primers only. It will not reliably ignite with No. 11 or musket caps, and I had less than stellar success at making it go bang in CVA’s Electra electronic-ignition muzzleloader. However, with several varieties of 209 primers, I did not have a single hang-fire or failure to fire. Western Powders warns certain breechplugs that vent ignition gases out the side of the breech, as opposed to into the breech chimney, may not provide suitable ignition for Blackhorn 209.
The company recommends using tight-fitting bullets or sabots combined with a compressed load for the most consistent results. This indeed may be good advice. Extreme velocity deviations were slightly higher with a variety of PowerBelt bullets, which fit more loosely in the bore than bullets enclosed by a full-length sabot. The saboted 260-gr. Harvester Scorpion was an exception, as both the velocity standard deviation and extreme spread with this bullet were the highest of all the bullets I tested, regardless of powder. However, the extreme velocity deviations with both the PowerBelt and Scorpion bullets when using Blackhorn 209 were still lower than those typically produced by other blackpowder substitutes with those bullets.
Based on my testing, Blackhorn 209 appears to be a viable blackpowder substitute for 209-primed, inline muzzleloaders. Maybe it is better described as the new propellant for inline muzzleloaders.
—Richard Mann
