CVA Optima Blackhorn breech plug?

Do any of you Optima shooters use the original breech plug to shoot Blackhorn powder or did you replace it with the Blackhorn plug?

I had to get the BH breech plug

Please explain. Did you have ignition problems with the original plug?

Yes...Sometimes it would firs, then hang fire, then no fire. CVA recommends using the BH plug

Wiley - I don't know what you chose to do, but today I went to the range to fine tune two TC Omegas, a Traditions LT, and a CVA MR with the BH209 breech plug. I was shooting 95 gr of BH209 using a Fed 209A primer in all 4. Granted it was wet, rainy, damp, high-humidity, but I was under a covered shooting bench at Swan Creek so nothing got directly exposed to the rain. The Omegas and the Traditions ignited every time, no delay, or anything. The CVA shot fine the first shot and the next three shots sounded like just the primer going off - I saw the sabot and bullet land about 25' in front of me on the first bad ignition; the second one, the bullet made it out of the barrel but the sabot did not; the third time, after pulling the breech plug, cleaning it out, and swabbing the barrel, the bullet and sabot made it about 50' down range.

The CVA shot fine when I first got it with Pyrodex pellets and the original breech plug and I guess that is either what I will have to go back to or give somebody a heck of a deal on the gun if they are not going to shoot BH209, since I really prefer to shoot BH209. This is the first trouble I have had ignition-wise with the CVA, but all the other range trips have been on nice, warm, sunny days.

My son and I will be toting the TC Omegas when the TN muzzy season opens next week.

I used a bit just a cock hair bigger than the hole in my cva breech plug & drilled it. It shot bh209 fine then.

I went ahead and got the Blackhorn breech plug for my Optima. I've shot it some but don't have it dialed in with the Blackhorn like I want it. I may resort to loose Pyrodex Select tomorrow if I can't get the Blackhorn groups tightened up.

After some searching on the interwebs, I found where the flash channel in the breech plug is susceptible to excess buildup which can cause poor ignition. It was recommended to use a 1/8" bit to clean the channel out. I did as suggested and was able to remove quite a bit of build up; may try to take it to the range again at some point next week, but I am probably still going to be toting the Omega next Saturday morning.

Good luck with yours Wiley and interesting way of describing your process .308.

For 'in the field' cleaning of the flash hole in the breech plug I have the end of a Cat 5 jumper wire (about 6" long with the male plug still attached) with some of the outer jacket removed and a couple of the 8 conductors (plenty of spare wires to strip if I need them) stripped back about an inch. I put small kinks in the stripped part of the wire and run it back and forth inside the flash hole to clear any leftover debris in there. I've had that little piece of cable in my possibles bag since the mid 90s and it has served me well over the years.