statjunk
My Omega is about three years old. It's the stainless barrel with the camo thumbhole stock. I have a Simmons Aetec on it. I know the scope is good and the mounts are solid.
Cool, that sounds like a pretty good setup and if you have confidence in the gun & scope - that a bug hurdle...
These are all just thoughts from a few hundred miles away...
Have you done the dollar bill thing - slid the dollar bill under the barrel down into the barrel channel and all the way back to the first recoil lug?
Then the next time you take the barred action out of the stock - push the action down into the stock snuggly and see if the action rocks back and forth justa bit or is sitting in the recoil lugs equally. Most that I have worked with rock just a little bit. Thenput both screws in the recoil lug lugs - turn them up until you feel them start to pull the stock and action together - then tighten the rear screw first - tighten it snugkky but not to tight - then tighten the front screw - does the dollar bill pass now if it did not before?
One otherthing I would try is to shim the bottom of the lug pockets with a piece of teflon (like from one of those kitchen cutting sheets)cut to fit in the bottom of the pockets - this will lift the action up in the stock a slight bit and should alleviate some of the different pressure points that mightbe pushing on the action and barrel.Remembering that all the stocks are cut by a machine to fit all barreled actions which might not be all the same - either the barred action or the stock.
I'm going to start at 110 and move up and down 5 grains to start with.
First I would say take the breech plug out and push a sabot bullet combination down through and make sure that it will load comfortably for you... a 3 year old Omega might have one of those really tight barrels and might be to tight for a HPH-24 or regular havester - you might be looking at a the HPH-3p or the crush rib.
If it loads OK then really at would start at90 to make sure everything fits and shoots... I know it will but I would still start a 90 (which is still a bit more than 2 pellets). Them progress to 100 - in fact I might shoot several shots at 100 to establish what kind of grouping you get ther - who cares where they are on the target - what does the group look like... then 110 looking for the sme thing - for my personal Omega the groups startng opening just a tad at 120- but shoot that is a ton powder and really 99% of the time not needed unless it gives you a ragged whole at 100...
I'm going to check out the TC U-flask to see what that is all about.
You are still going to loose a few grains of powder when you tap and cut so - I do not see the point. And I do still suggest the tap and cut, because no matter how you try - you will never pour the same with each attempt. With practice you will tap to settle and be really close to the same each time. Or like a lot of other people do weigh your loads and store them in a tube for your range outing.
When do you think you might get out to shoot - I am kinda looking forward to that report... just remember it might not all come together on the first outing - that's why a lot of people shoot pellets and PB's - it is a lot easier to take what you get.
Good luck