Back in early 2008, I was the first person in Michigan to purchase a case of Blackhorn 209. Yes, that also includes distributors and retailers.
I was really fired up to get this new powder, and it has lived up to the hype for over 10 years now.
Back in 2008 and 2009, I was shooting this stuff weekly, and sometimes for several days in a row. I was shooting it in 15 different .45 cal & .50 cal muzzleloaders, and approximately 45-50 different breech plugs. OEM, modified OEM, customized OEM, custom, and modified custom breech plugs. That includes testing it with #11 caps, .25 ACP with both standard & magnum primers, not to mention 15ish different 209 primers both bare and with RFPJ and other primer carriers. Not to mention several (too many to list) saboted bullet combinations, full bore heavy lead conicals, land riding copper, brass, and copper jacketed bullets, with several wad combinations.
I've tried every Black Powder Substitute to come down the Pike. I'll see if I can remember most of them listed here in no particular order below.
Pyrodex RS/P/Select
Black Canyon
Clean Shot FFG/FFFG
Black Mag/'2/'3/XP
Goex Clear Shot FFg
Pyrodex Pellets
Clean Shot Pellets/Sticks
Triple Se7en FFg/FFFg
American Pioneer Powder FFg/FFg/Sticks
Triple Se7en Pellets/Mag Pellets
Blackhorn 209
Goex Pinnacle
Jim Shockey's Gold FFg/FFFg
IMR White Hots Pellets
Alliant Black MZ
Alliant Blue MZ Pellets
There is one new Triple Se7en FIRESTAR Pellet currently that I have not tried yet, but will as soon as one of my buddies buys some to try. I'll trade him some good powder for a tube of 6 that will give me three shots to see how they group with other known components and equivalent load. I started wising up after Blackhorn 209 arrived on the scene, and haven't spent much money on the other newer powders like I used to do. Someone I know will, and I can swap for enough to test it.
Although the labels on the Blackhorn 209 containers has changed around a half dozen times over the last 10 1/2 years, the product is still the same. They were on Lot #30 back in April 2018 when the latest label showed up. There has been some minor VOLUME to WEIGHT conversion variances from one lot to another over the years, but I've heard that all production going forward from Lot #30 will be exactly the same converting VOLUME measurements to WEIGHT, using the 0.7 multiplier. This means that 100 grains by VOLUME will weigh exactly 70 grains by WEIGHT. Western Powders still recommends measuring Blackhorn 209 with a VOLUME MEASURE. If you WEIGH your powder, you better know what you are doing!
Examples below:
80 grV × 0.7 = 56 grW
100 grV × 0.7 = 70 grW
120 grV × 0.7 = 84 grW (Max Load)
Here are three of the faces on the labels. Very minor changes to the original label until last year. Then a whole new color scheme for this year.
2008
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2017
![Image]()
2018 (10 years later)
![Image]()
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To say that I am satisfied with Blackhorn 209 would be an understatement. I guess I took quite a leap of faith back over 10 years ago in early April of 2008 ordering a whole case, before I ever tried it. I did call Western and talked with them, and conversed with an insider that was able to test some of the original powder during the fall hunting seasons of 2007.
The original powder was not only black, but also had silver/gray mixed in. It was also called "Silver Strike", before they settled on the Blackhorn 209 for the production runs. I was fortunate enough in the spring of 2009 to be able to shoot some Silver Strike on a range in Miles City, Montana. If I didn't know better, I'd say the original formula had a little more zip. Might have just been the location and elevation?
I was really fired up to get this new powder, and it has lived up to the hype for over 10 years now.
Back in 2008 and 2009, I was shooting this stuff weekly, and sometimes for several days in a row. I was shooting it in 15 different .45 cal & .50 cal muzzleloaders, and approximately 45-50 different breech plugs. OEM, modified OEM, customized OEM, custom, and modified custom breech plugs. That includes testing it with #11 caps, .25 ACP with both standard & magnum primers, not to mention 15ish different 209 primers both bare and with RFPJ and other primer carriers. Not to mention several (too many to list) saboted bullet combinations, full bore heavy lead conicals, land riding copper, brass, and copper jacketed bullets, with several wad combinations.
I've tried every Black Powder Substitute to come down the Pike. I'll see if I can remember most of them listed here in no particular order below.
Pyrodex RS/P/Select
Black Canyon
Clean Shot FFG/FFFG
Black Mag/'2/'3/XP
Goex Clear Shot FFg
Pyrodex Pellets
Clean Shot Pellets/Sticks
Triple Se7en FFg/FFFg
American Pioneer Powder FFg/FFg/Sticks
Triple Se7en Pellets/Mag Pellets
Blackhorn 209
Goex Pinnacle
Jim Shockey's Gold FFg/FFFg
IMR White Hots Pellets
Alliant Black MZ
Alliant Blue MZ Pellets
There is one new Triple Se7en FIRESTAR Pellet currently that I have not tried yet, but will as soon as one of my buddies buys some to try. I'll trade him some good powder for a tube of 6 that will give me three shots to see how they group with other known components and equivalent load. I started wising up after Blackhorn 209 arrived on the scene, and haven't spent much money on the other newer powders like I used to do. Someone I know will, and I can swap for enough to test it.
Although the labels on the Blackhorn 209 containers has changed around a half dozen times over the last 10 1/2 years, the product is still the same. They were on Lot #30 back in April 2018 when the latest label showed up. There has been some minor VOLUME to WEIGHT conversion variances from one lot to another over the years, but I've heard that all production going forward from Lot #30 will be exactly the same converting VOLUME measurements to WEIGHT, using the 0.7 multiplier. This means that 100 grains by VOLUME will weigh exactly 70 grains by WEIGHT. Western Powders still recommends measuring Blackhorn 209 with a VOLUME MEASURE. If you WEIGH your powder, you better know what you are doing!
Examples below:
80 grV × 0.7 = 56 grW
100 grV × 0.7 = 70 grW
120 grV × 0.7 = 84 grW (Max Load)
Here are three of the faces on the labels. Very minor changes to the original label until last year. Then a whole new color scheme for this year.
2008
2017
2018 (10 years later)
To say that I am satisfied with Blackhorn 209 would be an understatement. I guess I took quite a leap of faith back over 10 years ago in early April of 2008 ordering a whole case, before I ever tried it. I did call Western and talked with them, and conversed with an insider that was able to test some of the original powder during the fall hunting seasons of 2007.
The original powder was not only black, but also had silver/gray mixed in. It was also called "Silver Strike", before they settled on the Blackhorn 209 for the production runs. I was fortunate enough in the spring of 2009 to be able to shoot some Silver Strike on a range in Miles City, Montana. If I didn't know better, I'd say the original formula had a little more zip. Might have just been the location and elevation?
