Pennsylvania Game News - October 2010 - 63

best thing is availability and price as compared to the rest of the class.

Cleaning the Replicas Fouling is not near the problem with the clean burning replicas as it is with black powder, but that doesn’t mean you can abandon the cleaning process. Pyrodex still leaves a limited amount of carbon fouling Economics and needs a damp patch between shots. There is little frugality in shooting an And, to a lesser degree, Triple Se7en and inline muzzleloader. If that is your motive, Black Mag are at their best stick with a primitive flintaccuracy with a damp (walock or percussion. Why? ter-based solvents) fouling If you cast your own lead patch after each shot. Is the roundballs, or even if you fouling patch necessary buy them for a couple of when hunting? Not really. cents apiece, and you add Hunters can expect to load in the lower cost of a can and fire up to a half-dozen of black powder (less than shots before the bore be$20), even considering the comes uncooperative to ad$2 for a flint or $3 for a can ditional loads. It’s just as of #11 caps, your cost per important to remember that shot is less than twenty consistency yields accuracy. WITH American Pioneer cents. Multiply this numA shot fired from a clean Powder, ignition was a ber by a factor of three or bore can only replicate its problem with percussion more for inline loads. performance when fired caps but not with the hotter The modern replica 209 primers. from another clean barrel. powders are priced beWhile the accuracy difference can be mea- tween $30 to $40 for a 10-ounce container. sured in fractions of an inch, for some Add in the cost of 209 primers and sabotted shooters this is unthinkable. bullets that run between 50 to 75 cents Strangely, a little bit of fouling left in apiece and you’ll be looking at a cost-perthe barrel actually provides a bit of lubri- shot that is close to a dollar. Yes, this was cation for subsequent loads in some of the the same price you are paying for centerfire mixtures. Blackhorn 209 and White Hots rounds. The new generation of modern powders actually shoot better with fouling muzzleloader shooters demand perforleft in the bore from the previous shot. In mance and are not concerned with cost. fact, the thin white residue left behind ac- The promised minute-of-angle accuracy tually acts as a kind of lubricant. given by the scoped high-tech frontloaders Triple Se7en, White Hots, American is real, but so is the price. As always, it’s Pioneer, Jim Shockey’s Gold and Black the satisfaction derived from the system Mag XP all clean up with plain water. In that drives the sport forward. These new fact, these carbon-based powders are fur- propellants are the most capable powders ther fouled by the unburned powders from that muzzleloaders have ever seen in the the 209 primers. Fortunately, a good black 300 plus years that hunters have been carpowder solvent takes care of the job rying frontloaders into the hardwoods. This quickly, including the powder ring left by is a venerable, albeit one-shot, smoky chalthe Triple Se7en in the bore where the lenge whose final page has yet to be writbullet was seated. ten.
OCTOBER 2010 63

Because Blackhorn 209 is a nitrocellulose-based powder, shooters need to use a modern gun solvent, such as Hoppes No. 9 or other suitable centerfire rifle solvent. But in comparison to other replica powders, it’s the quickest powder residue to clean up.

Pennsylvania Game News - October 2010

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