Between my buddies and me, we have encore barrels (Pistols and Rifles), from the .204 up to the .325WSM.......love them all. Including the ML!!! Beware of advice you get in places like this....you never know the circumstances when someone says "I had this problem....". With that said.......
I now hunt deer with the sweetest shooting .25-06 in Encore.....did get the Bellm trigger kit and did trigger jobs on all of them. Just under 3lbs and perfect! The hinge pin "controversy" is something else to be considered. T/C says that it has no effect. Bellm sells the oversized pins too. I can tell you that my hinge pin would almost fall out of the hole too.......but was still giving me half inch groups. Put in the bigger pin just for piece of mind. Also floated the barrel (dremel to the plastic in the forend and some well placed washers). Did it help....still shoots great!!! Point is that every gun/barrel and owner is different. Encore has been an excellent gun for me.
The .223 is sweet shooter too.
Just bought a pistol barrel in the 5.7mm x 28mm fn for it. Should be a fun plinker!