Lost some accuracy in my omega. could bore butter have been the difference???

hillbillyhunter1 · 09-03-2009, 06:51 AM

Greetings Gentlemen.

I don't come in her much except with the occasional question and I thank you guys in advance for the wealth of knowledge that you always manage to share...most knowledgeable forum on the website, imo.

I hope that was enough "puckering-up" on my part

Anyway,
I bought the cheapest omega (z5 or whatever)a couple of years ago and it shot awesome right out of the box. I cleaned and lightly greased it with bore butter between every shot. It shot as good as I can shoot. I am and always have shot 250 grain regular shockwaves with 120 grain of pyrodex. First load I ever used it worked great and I killed a couple a deer with it so I stuck with it

Once after a shooting session I did not clean it for 6 months...and it was dirty...really dirty. I had to scrub the hell out of it with a wire brush and lots of solvent. Got it back to sparkling again. And again, it performed flawlessly. I never ignored it's maintenance since then.

I did however quit using bore butter, on advice, and also tried Triple 7 powder (110 grain) when I mounted a new scope on it (nikon prostaff) to replace the old pine ridge. It started throwing shots all over the place. I'm talking 3 shot 10'' groups at 100yds. I was so frustrated...I couldn't even line the scope in because of the sudden inaccuracy.

I decided I was switching back to pyrodex...although it doesn't particularly seem reasonable that the triple 7 was the culprit. Scope is solidly mounted and I'm no novice. I went to the range with a box of bullets and the OLD (5 years or more old) can of pyrodex. The groupings shrank. now it is about 3-4'' groups at 100. felt some better but still not enough compared to my expectations and previous experience with this gun. gun is clean as a whistle.

I'm thinking now that:
1) it could be the old pyrodex (even though the powder itself seemed to be in good shape)
2) scope could be bad...but I had this scope on another gun and it did fine...so doesn't seem likely, although the recoil is a lot more on this then the .22 hornet I had it on)
3) bore butter made some difference with the shockwave sabots

4) have no idea...please help if possible

thanks for your patience reading this book and any comments you have
chad--hb

nchawkeye · 09-03-2009, 07:31 AM

I would recheck the scope screws along with the screws that hold the barrel to the stock to insure they are all tight...

Then I would polish the bore with JB Bore paste and try a new can of pyrodex...

If this didn't work I would try different sabots and start over with trying different powder charges...

A few years back I realized that my Knight shot much better with the TC Shockwaves vs the Hornady SSTs...The difference was in the sabots, so I stocked up on that year's TCs...Sabots can make a big difference...

kb1 · 09-03-2009, 08:16 AM

i would ask how many grains of pyro were you using and what grade (2f-3f?)it makes a differance.t7 is more powerfull and you may want to adjust accordingly.

lemoyne · 09-03-2009, 09:49 AM

Powder can degrade and I have had the experience of T7 doing that to how ever I have shot old pyrodex with out a problem.
I your situation there are certain things I would start with. ALL the mounting screws for the sight system switch scopes [they do go out more on muzzle loaders than other type guns because of the type of recoil.
The next thing is the breach plug the hole size of the tiny hole where the flame goes through to the powder is eventually enlarged by flame cutting and when it get to a certain point the accuracy goes South.
One other problem you might run into with a Omega is the mechanism is fastened to the barrel besides the trigger and hammer assm. the mechanism for locking the gun up is there and there is a possibility it is loosening ; personal experience on the breach plugs and the mounting screws for both the scope and the trigger assm. have come loose on me they have loctite on them now. Lee

spaniel · 09-03-2009, 01:54 PM

1) Verify tightness of sight system screws, preferably mount a scope of known function.
2) Try different bullet/sabot combinations.
3) New powder.
4) New breech plug -- I've never needed one but some people claim the holes widen enough to affect accuracy
5) Torque of action screws. My omega was volatile before I intalled pillars and the accuracy changed depending how I tightened the action screws.
6) Verify breech closing mechanism is tight.

Go through the list in the order of least cost/greatest convenience to you!!

hillbillyhunter1 · 09-03-2009, 04:14 PM

thanks for all your help guys. So, it seems fair to say that none here really think bore butter is beneficial when it comes to maintenance of the barrel between shots or anything of that nature, correct??

I'll try what you guys suggested and hopefully get to shoot again this weekend

spaniel · 09-04-2009, 07:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hillbillyhunter1

thanks for all your help guys. So, it seems fair to say that none here really think bore butter is beneficial when it comes to maintenance of the barrel between shots or anything of that nature, correct??

I'll try what you guys suggested and hopefully get to shoot again this weekend

I found bore butter to be nothing but a mess and it actually caused the one barrel I used it in to rust, so I tossed it. But opinions vary.

spaniel · 09-04-2009, 07:27 AM

Going back to the lengthy post I made in the bedding thread last night -- at any time during this whole ordeal did you remove the action from the stock or loosed/tighten the action screws?

hillbillyhunter1 · 09-04-2009, 07:56 AM

no i didn't, spaniel. The only thing i've done is removed the breech plug regularly to clean it and the barrel thoroughly. Thanks for that other reply about bedding, etc in the other post. I've got the synthetic model and precious little time (as I've got a 2 year old and an 7 month pregnant wife, etc, etc), so I'm not sure if I'll be able to tackle that or not here in the near future, but I'd sure like to get this thing back on track. I'll update my progress after I take it back to the range this weekend. thanks for all your help

spaniel · 09-04-2009, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hillbillyhunter1

no i didn't, spaniel. The only thing i've done is removed the breech plug regularly to clean it and the barrel thoroughly. Thanks for that other reply about bedding, etc in the other post. I've got the synthetic model and precious little time (as I've got a 2 year old and an 7 month pregnant wife, etc, etc), so I'm not sure if I'll be able to tackle that or not here in the near future, but I'd sure like to get this thing back on track. I'll update my progress after I take it back to the range this weekend. thanks for all your help

Ha, I'm in the same situation (2 yr old, 7 mo preg wife) which explains why I've shot my MLs about 4 times this year. Yep, try the easy things first!!