First shot off target

arroshooter · 02-16-2008, 07:42 AM

I need some advise. I shoot a 50 Cal. T/C Omega using 3 50 grain pyrodex pellets and 295 CVA Power Belt.My first shot isalways off target. I was te told byT/C to burn a charge first then load my hunting load. I don't believe this should be necessary in a modern inline muzzleloader. Any Suggetions

johnny2 · 02-16-2008, 07:52 AM

what? say again

falcon · 02-16-2008, 07:57 AM

Sight the gun in so that the first shot is on target. Until the gun is sighted in you will have to clean it between shots.

arroshooter · 02-16-2008, 08:00 AM

I have...The gun shoots great after that first shot. It shoots 2 inch groups at a 100 yds.

gleason.chapman · 02-16-2008, 08:06 AM

Quote:

ORIGINAL: arroshooter

I need some advise. I shoot a 50 Cal. T/C Omega using 3 50 grain pyrodex pellets and 295 CVA Power Belt.My first shot isalways off target. I was te told byT/C to burn a charge first then load my hunting load. I don't believe this should be necessary in a modern inline muzzleloader. Any Suggetions

Edit the message and change your font size to 12 for us old guys. As for PB at 150g, way too much. Drop down to 80g by using 1 50g pellet and 1 30g pellet and you will be "just right" or switch to a sabot and a rifle bullet like 300g Nosler Partition, 300g Speer Gold Dot or 300g Barnes MZ. About same cost as your shooting ($1/bullet, but better penetration, expansion, shoot-thur and general Killing power). Just my experience from using PBs for 3 years, others have shot them and have had excellent results with them. Chap Gleason

bronko22000 · 02-16-2008, 08:22 AM

Even though your Omega can handle the 150 grs, that's way too much powder IMO. Drop down to 2 pellets. It is hard to believe that your first shot is off the target and then settles in. I don't doubt you. I had rifles that threw the first shot off the point of aim then settled back in but not as far off as yours. With a centerfire its no problem to leave the barrel fouled til hunting season is over but you just can't do that with a ML or you will probably end up with a scrap barrel.
I would have to go with falcon's recommendation to shoot, clean, adjust sights, shoot etc. until you have that first shot hitting POA.
Just one other thought - have you tried putting a different scope on it? I could be you have a scope problem.

cayugad · 02-16-2008, 08:23 AM

What Thompson Center is talking about is fowling the barrel. That is not something new to a lot of us. I myself fowl out my modern inline rifles before I hunt with them for the same reason you discuss. If you don't want to do that, then learn your first shot. This takes a lot of work. You have to shoot one shot, then completely clean your rifle. Shoot another shot and do the same thing all over again. You can then see where that rifle will hit on the very first shot in a consistent manner. After that you can either adjust your scope for your first shot, or you can adjust your POI for your first shot.

Or you can take 40 grains of the powder in loose form, and fowl the barrel then load your three pellets and your powder belt and go hunting. At the end of the day if you have not fired the rifle, unload the rifle in what ever manner you do, such as pushing the load, shooting the load off, or some of them will leave the fowling for a few days... Pyrodex RS is one powder I would be very careful doing this with. No more then two days left fowled would be all I could do or I would not sleep at night. If you push the load out, then just swab the barrel real good. The problem with fowling is many people just can not do it. They live in town and can not be shooting off a load at night or early in the morning without a visit from the local police department or an angry family member. Some also do not want to drive to their hunting area and basically announce the hunt is about to begin by discharging a fowling shot. I clean my rifles every night, and live in the country. So fowling a barrel is not a big deal to me.

Something else to try, and this is going to sound strange coming from me... Get your rifle ready to shoot as normal, load it, and then swab the bore of the rifle with a small amount of bore butter. Just a very thin film of it is all you want. A small amount on a clean dry patch, and the swab the bore. Then shoot the load, swab the barrel and shoot your second one and see if that does not put the two hits closer together.

Another thing you can do is change projectiles. Some projectiles will off center on the first shot and some of them not so bad. All you can do is try a lot of different bullets. You might even find a projectile that your rifle likes better then the powerbelts. I am not telling you to change something you have faith in, just telling you to try some different things.

bronko22000 · 02-16-2008, 08:41 AM

Cayugad - funny you should mention fouling a barrel in town. I know a guy who did this. He went to pick up his friend at 5:00 am to go hunting and while waiting outside for him he decided to foul his barrel. He figured if he did not put a PRB in, the powder would just burn off and foul the barrel - WRONG.
Following the KAPOOOW - all the lights in the neighborhood came on. Cops showed up in 5 mins. Luckily we live in a small town and most of us know the cops as he did. After some explaining what happened and some snickering by the cops, he and his buddy went hunting. It took a while for him to live that one down.

sabotloader · 02-16-2008, 11:25 AM

arroshooter

I really feel that there is a problem beyond just fouling the barrel. There is no way the first shot from your barrel should go "off the target" if:

I wonder about a couple of things... 1. do you patch your bore prior to that first shot? get is clean and dry as possible... and 2. it really sounds like your barreled action may not be seated completly in the stock - especially the barrel channel. Which stock do you have the synthetic or laminate?

The laminate might cause less a problem than the synthetic so my guess might be the synthetic and the fact the stock forearm is putting pressure on the barrel in one spot or another and after that first shot with the full recoil - the recoil seats the action and barrel.

Let me know the stock you have and I might be able to offer a couple of other suggestions...

arroshooter · 02-16-2008, 05:16 PM

The stock is synthetic.