Early in our marriage, my wife bought me the TC New Englander kit for Christmas, ( the honeymoon phase)and for a first try it came out pretty good. I'm now planning to start shooting it again and am interested in some suggested bullets and loads that I can get a start with.Conicals or sabots, I won't be fussy. I'm going to keep it simple, open sights and probably a 75 yard maximum distance on deer. It's a .50 with a 1:48 twist.
ive got 2 of these and its not a picky gun at all.70-80 grains of pyrodex with patch round balls or the thompson center 370 grain maxi balls i couldnt get sabots to shoot in it at all. i prefer the maxi balls for hunting. i bought the mould and make my own but you can also find people that make them on ebay way cheaper than buying thompson center ones. youre gonna love that gun!
My friend has the same rifle and he has hunted for years with 70 grains of Pyrodex RS and a T/C 370 grain Maxiball. He has shot deer as far as 75 yards, and has never lost one yet.
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
I have a T/C New Englander that I have taken a bunch of deer with! It's 50 cal percussion. I've had it for 15+ yrs, it's a great gun! I did change the sights on it though. I put a front sight on that has the fiber optic bead. That helped my aging eyes sooooo much!
When I first got the rifleI had a heck of a time coming up with a load that would shoot consistently accurate. I tried different conicals and various sabots. After much testing and frustration, I hit on the right combination. My New Englander loves to spit out the T/C Maxi-hunter lead conical. This is a 370 grn bullet loaded on top of 90 grains 2F. This load is mighty big medicine on whitetails. When hit with this, a whitetail rarely makes it out of sight and the blood trail is tremendous!
One more thing, my rifle is over 15 yrs old and I really believe it actually shoots better now than it did in the beginning!
You got a good gun. Have lots of fun!
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I had a 54 new englander wood stock and this gun can shoot my load was 95 grains of 3F goex a wad under the hornady patched RB ,I replace the rear sight with the t/c hunter peep and a front fiber optic bead love the gun.
I also light the weight of the gun could carry this thing all day,but leaning more into flinter did sell it to a guy in texas who will not part with it.
I also had a heck of a time working up a load on my New Englander. I just spent the last two weekends at the range.
I had a tang peep installed because my eyes are getting worse and I can't line up the iron sights. T/C did it (I sentthem the tang and they mounted it).
Anyway here's what works for me at 50 yds. I cleaned the bore after every shot
275gr TC Maxi-hunter 85 grains FFg triple seven
320 gr TC Maxi-hunter 100 gr FFg
My next task is to work up a load for the PRB. I'm still 4 inches high at 50 yds with 65 gr FFg (.490 with .015 lubed patch)
When I first bought the gun I was shooting Sabots and they grouped real well at 50 yds with 100 gr FFg Goex BP but I decided I wanted to shoot the maxi's instead.
Gruntr Huntr - how did you get the front sight off? Is it one piece?
The front sight on the new englander will need a brass drift pin and hammer and you will need a padded vise to mount the barrel and check the dovetail and see which side has the taper
Williams makes a fiber optic front sight .450
I had a small problem with my new englander always shot high I had to return it to they relazered the barrel (bent it)
Looks like I will have to try the Maxi's as it seems a few of you have had success with it. I would like to hear about more conicals that might be worth a try. How about the Hornady Great Plains?
WOULD LOOK AT THE REALS CONICALS AND A WAD UNDER THE BULLET.
I TRIED THE HG PLAINS CONICALS AND THESE WERE THE ONLY CONICAL THAT GAVE ME TROUBLE LOADING SOLD THEM ALL
320 grain mac-balls alwaus shot great using a wad and 80 grains 3F
TC New Englander
thats what im tryin to say...
Shot patch ball ok out to 50-60 yards... Good luck...
