Im inexperienced with my muzzleloader and trying to get it shot in quickly. My limited time and limited components will keep me from shooting a bunch. Im hoping to shoot it in 2" high at 100 and be just a little low at 150. I do not at all plan to shoot anything further than 150 until I can gain more experience and confidence. Maybe some can give me some ballpark info but for others Ill try to give you enough info to do the math for me. I know there are calculators out there but I dont know about them.
Gun- Modern InLine, Knight Disc Elite .45 cal. Nikon 3x7.
Bullet- Harvestor PT Gold 300 gr. I think the BC is .25 but not sure. Sabot.
Powder-BH209, 77ish by weight.
Velocity-I think its about 1900 but not sure.
***My basic question is, if I shoot it in 2" high at 100 yards, then about where will it hit out in the 140 to 160 range and whats the highest it will be prior to 100?

Go to JBMballistics.com and plug in your numbers. You will get exactly what you need. That said your sight in will work just fine for your needs.

Most people measure muzzle loader Powder by volume not weight.

If you are 2" high at 100 you are probably one inch high at 150. It will be a little low up til around 50 or so. Thats how mine shoots anyway.

RickT, thanks for the info. Your comment on my sight in gave me a comfort level. Its seems to make "common sense" based on my limited sense about these things. I tried the trajectory calculator and Im not sure I plugged the right numbers in. They asked for a lot of stuff I didnt know but dont think its critical. Based on the calculator it shoots a lot flatter than I thought. Dead on at 125 is 2.5 high at 50 and 1.2 high at 100 and only 1.5 low at 150. Im not sure on velocity so I bumped that down from 1900 to 1800 and it didnt change that much.
JTS, Im not sure what is "normal" about weighing powder but I was told the Blackhorn 209 website shows a conversion for volume to weight and the guy that sold me the gun and the components said thats what he used. I had some preweighed charges from someone else that werent very consistent(varied 73 to 75.5) so I started over and weighed them all out and they are now 74 gr.

New problem. I shot just 3 times today at 100 and group was centered on the bull but about a 4" group. Thats when I weighed some of the premeasured charges and just stopped and went home and measured precisely. My first time to ever measure powder and Im not sure Im cut out to do a lot of that.
The new problem causes me to rethink how much ammo its gonna take to figure this thing out.
ANY CLUE how hard it will be for me to find Blackhorn 209 powder real quick. I can go through DFW if any there or possibly order but in a hurry.

While traditionally measuring charges by volume is the accepted method, you can dial in accuracy further by actually weighing charges with the understanding that 100gn by volume is not the same as 100gn by weight.
70gn by weight is ~100gn by volume
77gn by weight is ~110gn by volume
84gn by weight is ~120gn by volume and suggested as Max load by Blackhorn 209.

This data was pulled straight from their website and I have also seen it on a few other interweb pages.

https://www.blackhorn209.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/b209muzzleloaderdata.pdf

Huck, that’s what I saw on their site. I’m using 74 gn by weight. I’ll find out tomorrow how it does.

I got a good deal on the Shooters world Multi purpose Black, bought 4 pounds. What I found by weighing and measuring by volume is that far more difference is made by selecting the sabot and bullet the rifle likes and consistently seating the bullet sabot combination on the powder charge with pretty close to the same pressure. I wipe the bore with a dry patch at a minimum between shots and prefer to run a patch wetted with orange windshield wiper fluid, both sides and then a dry patch between shots when I am at the range. The absence of any fouling makes it much easier to seat the bullet consistently. As for finding Blackhorn on the shelf Bassproshops or Cabelas is where I would look first. However don't pass up Pyrodex if you find some. Yes it is dirtier and it is harder to clean up but you can build accurate, powerful and very useful hunting loads with it.

rickt, do you do all that cleaning when you use 209? I keep getting told that you can go 10 or many more shots without running anything down the bore when using 209. The main concern is keeping the fire channel clear in the breach plug. I have almost no experience so Im going by what Ive been told and read.

I have been shooting a Knight Long Range Hunter and Master Hunter .50 Cal using bare primer breech plugs for all my deer and big game hunting for the last 12 years in Texas and elsewhere. After lots of trial and error my go to load is 110 Gr(Volume) of BH209, Federal 209A primer, Harvester 300Gr PT Gold Bullet and Harvester Black Crush Rib Sabot. I do weight my loads for consistency. Both rifles have Timmey adjustable triggers set at 2.5 lbs. and have been glass bedded. Starting with a clean gun I pop a couple of primers to foul the barrel and never swab the barrel between shots. I will clean out breech plug every 10 to 15 shots. I zero in 2" high at a 100 yds. put the cross hairs on center body mass and am comfortable with shots to 150 to 175 yds. I'll try a hog etc up to 200 yds. but not a quality deer.
Both guns will produce 3 shot, 1 inch or less groups at a 100 yds. and both have top quality 1 1/2 to 5 Scopes. Bullet performance on game has been terrific. Lots of whitetails, feral hogs, fallow, axis and a couple of aoudads have all been one shot kills. I have used nothing but BH209 since it was introduced and wouldn't use anything else. Unless we have a lot of rain I leave the gun loaded and fire it as I leave the lease. The BH209 website has a world of info. Use it.

Jim, thanks a million for all the good info. Jim has been somewhat of a mentor for me on muzzle loaders. I don’t know how much he knows compared to others but he’s my go to until someone proves to be better. I know his opinions are based on a lot of research and first hand experience.

I have never used Blackhorn 209, I have seen it on the shelf. $49. a half pound just isn't worth it to me. Started shooting Black powder long before substitutes were available and patching between shots is no bother to me at all. I would not let the wonderfulness of BH 209 keep me from hunting or shooting if I couldn't find it on the shelf.

I shoot a knight ultralite with 110g by volume of bighorn 209 like Jim, I only clean after a range session. It holds 1 moa at 100. The bullet above is a 300 grain hornady sst ml bullet that I shot an elk with at 237 yards. It was found just under the skin on the far shoulder. Currently this is my favorite bullet.

JTS, when you say you clean only after range session, does that mean the bore, breach plug etc? Also, would that apply to a short or long range session? Another way to ask-if you just shot 3 times at range and then went to hunt, would you clean before the hunt? If you shot 20 times on the range would you shoot all 20 without cleaning?

Freerange, good question. I clean bore, breach plug after a range session. When I shoot at the range I only shoot probable 10-15 times. I shoot from 100-300 yards at the range. It takes a while because I let the barrel cool between shots. If I was going to shoot 30 rounds at the range I probably would clean atleast the barrel after 10-15.

Luckily I don't notice much change impact between shot 1 and shot 5 so I don't think I would feel uncomfortable hunting with it after 3 shots. If I do shoot it while hunting I always clean it that night but I don't think it is necessary.

The week before my elk hunt I shot 1 shot at 100 at the range and reloaded but didn't fire the second round til the next day and it maintained zero. I did this 5 days in a row leaving it loaded overnight without cleaning and it maintained zero. This gave me a lot of confidence for my hunt.

JTS, sounds like you think things through and are detail oriented. I only muzzy hunt 9 days a year and that ends Sunday. Next offseason I may want to see if you can/will give me some insights. I put a lot of time and effort(and money) into hunting and I need/want to be a lot more knowledgeable/confident with this weapon.

Can’t complain about that result. I tried that bullet and found it to be very accurate. We had to kill a lot of deer on our Texas lease to maintain MLD status so it gave me the opportunity to observe bullet performance. My concern was inconsistent bullet performance. On two bullets I recovered the copper cup was separated from the lead core. Our deer were typical small hill country deer, but we had a lot of Axis, Fallow as well as Aoudad, so I was concerned about the SST’s performance so I went back to the 300gr Harvester PT Gold as my primary hunting load. I believe Hornady makes a makes a bonded version of that bullet for TC that’s for use on elk, moose etc.y

I'll be happy to help any way I can.