Bor Lock 270 grain loads

[Woitey]

I recently acquired a pristine Cooper MZ. I'm in Colorado, so it's a sabotless, no-scope, loose powder, irons-only gig. I've put a 20 MOA Farrel rail on it, with Arrowhead rifles front sight on it. Looking at either the Arrowhead's recommended XS rear or NECOG's peep. But haven't made a decision. I bought a pound a half of BH 209 and 60 Bor Locks. The Cooper has a 1/28 twist. I would appreciate a starting load if anyone has one for Blackhorn 209. As the price of BH209 is obscene and I don't want to use more than I have to in working up a load. I plan on weighing the charge. This load will be for elk. Thanks.

 

[coyote_out]

I struggled with grouping the bore locs in my accura, when I put a wad between the powder and the bullet it helped a lot, not sure why, but it did. My two cents.

 

[westslopelaker]

I shoot 75 grains by weight (about 100 grains by volume) of triple 7 with copper bore locks. Shoots great in my cva optima!

 

[ElDiablito]

Those 270s are on the light side for elk IMO.

 

[westslopelaker]

This bullet is the only 270 copper bore locks I've ever recovered from three bull elk kills. Under the hide on the far side after smashing the shoulder on the entry. Every other one has been a pass through. All three bulls were pretty close shots ranging from 16 to 75 yards and one shot kills. I really like this bullet from my experiences using it.

 

[Woitey]

All Schells had were Bor Locks. If the Bor Locks don't work for me, I'll try Thor, and if that doesn't work out, No Excuses. The new Hornday 340 grain load looks like a soft bullet to me, suitable for long-range expansion, but I don't know if it will go through an elk shoulders at say 150 yards. I'd be happier if it was built like a Partition or bonded.

 

[VaMtnHunter]

I recently acquired a pristine Cooper MZ. I'm in Colorado, so it's a sabotless, no-scope, loose powder, irons-only gig. I've put a 20 MOA Farrel rail on it, with Arrowhead rifles front sight on it. Looking at either the Arrowhead's recommended XS rear or NECOG's peep. But haven't made a decision. I bought a pound a half of BH 209 and 60 Bor Locks. The Cooper has a 1/28 twist. I would appreciate a starting load if anyone has one for Blackhorn 209. As the price of BH209 is obscene and I don't want to use more than I have to in working up a load. I plan on weighing the charge. This load will be for elk. Thanks.

I have a Cooper 50cal as well and tried the bore locks and did not get very good accuracy at all. I shoot 100gr by volume BH with 300gr Thor hammers. They need to be sized and my gun takes the .502 diameter. I assume yours would as well. Good luck!

 

[ElDiablito]

All Schells had were Bor Locks. If the Bor Locks don't work for me, I'll try Thor, and if that doesn't work out, No Excuses. The new Hornday 340 grain load looks like a soft bullet to me, suitable for long-range expansion, but I don't know if it will go through an elk shoulders at say 150 yards. I'd be happier if it was built like a Partition or bonded.

The 300 ish gr Thors are a great choice and of course the heavier NE (460-600 gr) would be well suited as well on a big bull. Yeah, I wouldn’t shoot a Hornady 340 at an elk except at long range. Too soft up close.

I killed a bighorn several years ago with the 270 BOR Lock. Worked great but too light for elk in my book. The heavier the better in case you don’t have the ideal broadside shot.

 

[Mtndawger]

I recently acquired a pristine Cooper MZ. I'm in Colorado, so it's a sabotless, no-scope, loose powder, irons-only gig. I've put a 20 MOA Farrel rail on it, with Arrowhead rifles front sight on it. Looking at either the Arrowhead's recommended XS rear or NECOG's peep. But haven't made a decision. I bought a pound a half of BH 209 and 60 Bor Locks. The Cooper has a 1/28 twist. I would appreciate a starting load if anyone has one for Blackhorn 209. As the price of BH209 is obscene and I don't want to use more than I have to in working up a load. I plan on weighing the charge. This load will be for elk. Thanks.

I’m in Colorado too. I shoot the 270 Bor Locks out of my optima with 100 grains by volume of triple 7 with a federal primer. I’m using the factory front sight with aperture rear sight. This gives me 2-3” groups at 100 yards. Not bad considering the front sight covers the bullseye @100. After a lot of trial and error this set up works best for me. I have tried other primers but don’t get quite the consistency from them. I have tried the Thor bullets too and they were not quite as accurate and quite a bit more difficult to deal with. Need to clean the barrel after every shot or too difficult to seat down the barrel. The bor locks seat easily even in a fouled barrel.

 

[Woitey]

I was kind of hoping the Bor Locks had more consistency in the various rifles. I've almost got enough of them to hold the Alamo....I guess I'd better look at Thor and NE. I'm also surprised that BH209 doesn't have the following I thought it did. Is it the powder itself, or the insulting price? As an aside, I'm lying here with a broken ankle with 12 screws and a plate. Likely won't see a range until March 2024. I went on a spending orgy, after I got the Cooper and then got waylaid.

 

[Woitey]

I was also able to get a handful of Federal 209 shotgun primers on Gunbroker. Of course, it cost just this side of a kidney. I had heard it was one of the primers recommended for BH209.

 

[ElDiablito]

I'm also surprised that BH209 doesn't have the following I thought it did. Is it the powder itself, or the insulting price?

Bh209 is unquestionably the best bp sub powder available and if it weren’t for the price everyone would be using it (in 209 inlines). The only thing better is smokeless powder (in rifles built for smokeless). Yes, CCI 209m and Fed 209a are the recommended (best) 209s for bh209.

 

[VaMtnHunter]

I was kind of hoping the Bor Locks had more consistency in the various rifles. I've almost got enough of them to hold the Alamo....I guess I'd better look at Thor and NE. I'm also surprised that BH209 doesn't have the following I thought it did. Is it the powder itself, or the insulting price? As an aside, I'm lying here with a broken ankle with 12 screws and a plate. Likely won't see a range until March 2024. I went on a spending orgy, after I got the Cooper and then got waylaid.

 

[VaMtnHunter]

I was kind of hoping the Bor Locks had more consistency in the various rifles. I've almost got enough of them to hold the Alamo....I guess I'd better look at Thor and NE. I'm also surprised that BH209 doesn't have the following I thought it did. Is it the powder itself, or the insulting price? As an aside, I'm lying here with a broken ankle with 12 screws and a plate. Likely won't see a range until March 2024. I went on a spending orgy, after I got the Cooper and then got waylaid

I was also able to get a handful of Federal 209 shotgun primers on Gunbroker. Of course, it cost just this side of a kidney. I had heard it was one of the primers recommended

I’m in Colorado too. I shoot the 270 Bor Locks out of my optima with 100 grains by volume of triple 7 with a federal primer. I’m using the factory front sight with aperture rear sight. This gives me 2-3” groups at 100 yards. Not bad considering the front sight covers the bullseye @100. After a lot of trial and error this set up works best for me. I have tried other primers but don’t get quite the consistency from them. I have tried the Thor bullets too and they were not quite as accurate and quite a bit more difficult to deal with. Need to clean the barrel after every shot or too difficult to seat down the barrel. The bor locks seat easily even in a fouled barrel.

Price aside it's hard to beat Blackhorn without going smokeless. Honestly for me I don't worry about loading a fouled barrel as I hunt with a clean bore. I've found that on week or longer backpack hunts a fouled barrel will accumulate a fair amount of corrosion even with Blackhorn contrary to what is advertised.

 

[Mtndawger]

True enough. My issue was with load development. Consistency with any combination was hard to come by so that leads to using up a lot of components. Cleaning after every shot compounded that. Maybe measuring by weight would solve some of that and Maybe BH would solve some of that but I’m unwilling at this point to make the switch. Going smokeless is counter to a good bit of the fun of MZ hunting for me as well.

 

[WCB]

I've shot them in a TC Triumph and my wife's Traditions Vortek. My wife's Vortek shoots 1.5" @100 with 90gr by volume of 777 FFFG and about the same with 95gr volume of BH209. My Triumph shot them 2" groups at 100 with 95gr BH209. This is all combinations of 3 shot groups. All 3 clean bore, 1 clean 1 dirty 1 clean, 1 clean 2 dirty etc.

Fed 209A primers or the Fed MZ primers (which is a 209M CCI primer) made no difference. Never tried them with Win, Rem, or any other primer.

I don't chrono but group wise 777 FFFG and BH209 have been pretty even swap in our guns and cleaning to me is the same I don't notice a difference. BH probably produces higher velocity (even more so using more powder) but out to 200yds I don't see that mattering in the real world.

Also, No idea how anyone thinks a 270 gr bullet is "too light" for Elk?