Ok now im switching to buckhorn powder

[Boar]

went to the range today to site in the ol' smoke pole, I swab my barrel after every shot of two 777, first thre shots at fifty whent from 2inches low to right on to 2 inche high, ok great now im going to 100, shoulda went to 75 but took a chance at going to 100. swabing everyshot like ive always done, i started going all ove the place and one shot didnt even hit paper. during the sporadic shooting placement I noticed that the barrel was getting really grainy when swabing and was up to my 14th shot trying to figure out what the hell is going on, got a bulet lodged. took out the breech and let the peelts drop and that sucker was in but good. whent to the lumber yard an got the bigggest wooden dowel rod thatd fit the caliber and a sand mallet from work and gently taped from the breech forward and she came out. never had a problem with fouling like this even after swabinbg the barrel. Im swithcing.

[trolloni]

A couple of doos and donts should be mentioned about blackhorn 309 , do not clean with water based solvents,use hoppes no.9 to clean youre gun.do not use over 120 grains of powder.Use regular 209 shotshell primers those 777 blackpowder primers are really dirty too.Give youre left over pellets to youre friends theyll gladley take em !

[Archtek]

My nephew had that problem with his inline using 2 Triple 7 pellets and Powerbelts, but after just 3 shots! And yet I can take at least 6 to 8 shots with my sidelock using 80 grains Triple 7 loose powder and PRB's with no swabbing at all; more than that back when I was using Powerbelts. I saw somewhere that an "internet expert" claimed that pellets were dirtier than loose, so I tried to suggest he try loose powder, but so far he is resisting.

[highlife4me]

I quit using pellets 6 years ago, too dirty and too many misfires and hang fires. I switched to loose Triple 7 or just plain black powder. The T7 is much cleaner but if I am hunting in damp conditions I will use the black powder. I have never had a problem with black powder going off even in the rain.

[candiru]

I have a Thompson that shoots erratically with a clean barrel on the first shot using 777 pellets. Subsequent shots are just fine till I clean the barrel again. I have heard of others having this problem also. Loose powder is just fine.

[Sturg]

I switched to Blackhorn powder a few yrs back. Very easy to clean after shooting. You can fire several shots without swabbing. I use a small drill bit turned by hand to clean the 209 primer tunnel when I clean the gun. The 209 primers leave a bunch of crusty black crud in the tunnel. Very surprising how much is in there. http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/images/icons/default/smile.gif

[fr0sty]

I plan on trying out that powder once my 777's are gone. For those of you with problems loading rounds after shooting 777, have you tried other sabots? I know when I got my tc omega, I could barely load rounds on a clean barrel, much less a dirty one.

I did some research and found that not all sabots are the same size. I ended up with the black shockwave ones. they load easily into my omega. There were some barnes sabots also recommended as being easier to load, but I never found them on the shelf. The article I found that discussed it was on chuck hawk's site. Google sabot omega hawks

I was able to easily load two additional rounds after firing during last year's ml season.

ymmv