Tell me about the T/C Endeavor?

[raybird2112]

I am thinking about purchasing a Thompson Center Pro Hunter Endeavor XT, in a 50 cal. Muzzleloader. I was just wondering what other people who have this gun think? What are the pros and cons? I love the idea of having one gun with the ability to change to multiple barrels. Thank you in advance.

[lemoyne]

I have one among my 15 muzzleloaders, it is my favorite. The Endeavor handles the recoil much better than thee Triumph which is its only competition for accuracy.
It is very strong which makes it better as far as I am concerned.
I have the SS Endeavor with Blackhorn it is the easiest muzzle loader to clean I have ever owned. It absorbs the recoil from heavy loads much better than the Omega or the Triumph which is good because my particular gun likes a lot of powder. I have gone up the powder scale with Blackhorn to find my best long range bullet and powder combination and ended up with 140 gr and a Lehigh 200gr 40 cal bullet and groups well under an inch.
I used to do custom work and build custom guns before I retired, and I always have to work most of them over before I am happy. On the Encore Endeavor I polished the mating parts engagement areas and lightened the trigger to 2 pounds. I checked the bore carefully because I usually polish the bore before I shoot them the first time but it was highly polished to start with so I left it alone.This is one of my work up targets before I did my final sight in.

[rafsob]

I bought my Encore which is nothing but a vanilla version of the gun you are asking about. You see everytime TC makes a small add on or improvement to this gun they give it a new name and up the price. I guess they have done this two or three times. The current price they ask is a criminal (IMHO).

Now as to my problems. I spent almost two years trying to get TC to help me fix my problem. It started with a tight spot in my ML barrel about mid barrel. I confirmed this problem with many friends and also a world class ML champion. But when I sent the gun back to TC they said there was nothing wrong with it! When you have a tight spot in a barrel it is usually very apparent and noticeable. TC ML barrels are known for a very tight barrel anyway. Now this would be good as far as accuracy is concerned. But to have a barrel that takes two men and a boy to shove a bullet down the barrel is rediculous!!!

My next problem came with the .30-06 barrel I bought. When trying to work up my hunting loads and testing for accuracy I could never get three shoots to group. The best I could do was group two shots and then have one that would be a flyer in any direction out to as far as 6" from the goup. I sent my gun back twice and the barrel once. TC eventually sent me a new barrel, but it didn't help or change my problem. I have met many people who had my problems and did wha i finally did, sell it.

Today if I want a ML I buy one that was made specifically for that job. Same for a center fire rifle. Ya know that there is an old saying, "That if it sounds too good to be true...!"

Now don't get me wrong, I don't hate TC. I own a Contender G2 with eight (8) barrels and they all are tack drivers. The Contender system is far more accurate then the Encore. Why I don't know for sure, but I think it may be the fact that the barrels on the contenders have a floating nutplate which is used to attach the forend. On the Encore barrels they went ahead and drilled and tapped screw holes for this purpose. This may be the deciding fact.



Some of the people I know have an Encore and like it. You may be a lucky and end up getting a shooter. However I thinkshelling out a sizeable amount of money to find out unecceptable.

Good luck my friend.

[50calty]

I'm going to have to agree with rafsob. I had a TC ProHunter muzzleloader and I had nothing but bad luck with it. I had a reg. encore frame and sent it to TC for a swing hammer. Well when I got it back I could not pull the hammer back. Had to resend it to TC with the stock. They ending up saying the stock was faulty and gave me a new stock. Which was nice, but I still could not shoot very good groups with it. There were many other problems with the gun also. Maybe I just had bad luck with it or was cursed. Cause I know many people that have a ProHunter and love it. But for the few of us we can't shoot with it. Great concept, but if I were you get a actual muzzleloader, no barrel swaping. I recently bought the TC BoneCollector and I love it. I have no problem with the recoil, easy to clean, and accurate. Really the BoneCollector is just like the Endeavor just no barrel swaping. Same breech plug and stock. I would diffently check out the Bone Collector. Also check out gunbroker.com , I got my camo version 100 off the MSRP of $600. So I hell of a deal for $500. Don't regret selling my ProHunter for the Bone Collector.

[raybird2112]

whoa, I am surprised to hear all the negativity with the Endeavor. I thought the Endeavor was supposed to be T/C top gun. I actually own a Omega but I really love the Idea of having one gun with multiple barrels. I was thinking about selling my Omega and going with the Endeavor, now I am not sure. Thanks again for the responses.

[50calty]

I'm just givin my opinion. Some people love the barrel swapping. The thing that I didn't like with the ProHunter was you had to make sure all the screws were tight. Especially the stock to the frame. Mine was coming lose because of the recoil, no matter how tight it was. But like I said earlier either it was bad luck or I was cursed.

[jaybez101099]

I love mine, bought the ProHunter put a Omega scope on it.
Dropped 3 50g pellets in it and never looked back. Since day one the gun has performed awesome. Now I only use 100gs and after a few minor adjustments the gun at 100yds tears holes. I also own 2 Triumphs which I think for the money is a better deal.
But going out this past year the PH was with me when I took to the deer stands. It boils down to ones likes. Just like buying cars people will be on both sides of the street.

[SWThomas]

I bought mine because I got a deal on it. I don't have a lot of experience with other muzzleloader so I don't have a lot to compare it to. I really like it and it has yet to give me any issues. It was pretty accurate when I bought it but after a couple Bellm upgrades it is stupid accurate. I have taken plenty of game with it and it has been very reliable at any range.

[SHulion]

I agree with SWThomas and lemoyne. I have one and it shoots light out with a number of different loads. With Bh209 it is extremely quick and easy to clean. Get one, I don't think you'll be dissapointed. Mine will definitely out shoot the shooter. Here are some range reports with mine.

http://huntingnet.com/forum/black-po...ge-report.html

http://huntingnet.com/forum/black-po...ge-report.html

[lemoyne]

I should have mentioned that I worked over the forarm before I ever shot it.
I have my own ideas about that, I sanded the ears so I could slide a doller bill under them and put a thin warsher between the forarm and the barrel.