BH209 in the Encore PH

[JS]

Just received some of this new propellant and wanted to give it a whirl in the Encore, so here are my first impressions and a question or two.
It is very clean. I fired 25 rounds total and never needed to swab between shots. The last round went down the bore as easy as the first. Ramming resistance is pretty light with all bullets.
It is much less offensive smelling than T7 or Pyrodex, smoke produced seems about the same.
Accuracy seems to be on par with T7 mag pellets we've been using in this rifle with some bullets. With others it is much better.
The only down side to it I'm having in this rifle is hang fires, some hardly noticeable while others are quite apparent. Has anyone else had trouble with this powder in thier Encores? I'm using Fed. 209A primers. I'm wondering if the combos I've tried just don't have a tight enough fit in the bore to create the necessary resistance??

[AJ]

I have read some reports about the breechplug design being good or bad for BH209 powder. You are using the hottest primers so anything short of increasing the hole in the plug, I don't know what to suggest. Try knurling your bullets to make them a tighter fit.

[mikec]

BH 209 seems to be sensitive to bullet fit. A touch loose and hang/misfires. Swapping to a thicker sabot seemed to be the trick for me.

Mike

[JS]

I drilled out the breechplug with a .125" bit as suggested by someone and that pretty much solved the trouble. Reminds me of doing it with my Savage plug! Once I had proper ignition I started to see my groups settle in and be consistent. This barrel likes 110grs by volume with a 300gr SST and HPH12 sabot. I shot two consecutive 1.5" groups at 150yds this morning...I think it's good to go!

Edit...After doing a bit more shooting with the 300gr SSTs I haven't been able to duplicate those first two groups. Still not bad but recent efforts were more like 2" so I started to try a few other loads.
The Barnes original, loaded into a black crush rib sabot is shooting really well. I have only fired two groups from 150yds but both were under 1.5" so more shooting is certainly called for! The other bullet I have just tried is the 275gr Parker BE. Using an HPH12 sabot it is shooting much like the BO.