Sir,

I'm sure that you have been on this forum for a long time and may be one of the go-to leader's here as well. I can tell you have been shooting and owning TC muzzleloaders for quite some time, and I will respect that. More so than you have respected me.

I was specifically asked by one of my MANY satisfied customers to respond to this thread to help give a little professional input, and right off the bat, this is what I get. My advice, sir, comes from ten's of thousands of dollars of research, and hundreds and more hundreds of hours of range time. I don't know how much time, money and experience your advice comes from, but that's my hand, and I play it very well.

With that said, I will say that it is obvious you have very limited knowledge of the muzzleloading industry as a whole.

1. You said: “I'm sure you lead more people to believe then not. Most ML writers are very good at that.” I lead people to achieve better accuracy and big game performance from research and testing through my professional experience. I am very good at helping them achieve this through unbiased facts.

2. You said: “Bergara barrels come polished right from the factory. T/C barrels do not. So for obvious reasons right out of the box the Bergara barrel will be smoother.” This is the reason that Bergara barrels are more prone to produce tighter shot-groups right out-of-the-box. You yourself have agreed with this statement. If you had watched either one of my first two videos (one on the Encore, the other on the Omega) you be aware that I advise that one way to get TC rifles to shoot better is to shoot it many multiple times to get the barrel to settle down.

3. You said: “Now you will probably say, I don’t want to break in my barrel.” I never said this, but highly recommend it with a TC barrel.

4. You said: “I hope you would agree all ML'S need a good thorough cleaning before shooting. In this process, two patches of JB bore paste would smooth the bore just fine and maybe better.” I do agree that cleaning is necessary before a new rifle is fired, and all manufacturers recommend the same thing. However, two patches of JB bore paste WILL NOT smooth a bore to any noticeable difference in accuracy. I don’t know where you get your information, but that is absolutely not true.

5. You said: “Another easy way to polish/smooth the bore is shooting some lead conicals thru your T/C barrel. Or even some Thors/sabotless bullets. Either way will get your bore smooth and in accuracy condition pretty fast.” There is no easy way to smooth the tool marks from a barrel. Lead conicals is something I do recommend to someone who wants to shoot a TC Encore barrel, but it is not an easy or quick fix to the tool mark issue. That is also a fact.

6. You said: “Now another point to mention is alot/most are using saboted bullets. The sabot will protect the bullet from any deficiencies in the barrel. This meaning you will not need to be overly concerned if your barrel is not in competition shooting condition. Actually the game you are shooting wont no the difference.” No matter if the sabot surrounds the bullet going down the barrel, the tool marks left in the barrel still have an effect. In other words, sir, you cannot omit the tool marks just because you are shooting a saboted bullet. And tool mark will most certainly affect a plastic sabot. This is another fact. And by the way, if you MISS your target, the game will certainly not know the difference, but YOU will.

7. You said: “After owning Two Encore's, One ProHunter, Three Triumph's, and shooting several Omega's i would highly suggest all T/C owners to stick with the proven T/C barrels. Maybe a little work to get them nice and polished but you will be alot happier in the end.” Sir, you obviously admit in this paragraph that you agree with me that TC barrels need some work to get them nice and polished. You also seem to admit that you have no experience with CVA or any other muzzleloading brands. And again, there is NO EASY PROCESS to smoothing a barrel.

8. You said: “And as far as the ML barrels, alot safer and way more reliable breech plug then what CVA has to offer.” Other than whatever old articles you may have read on the internet that were most likely published by Randy Wakeman, do you know anything at all about CVA’s safety record? Past or present? If you can find a current article on the CVA breach plug not being reliable or safe, I would appreciate you proving that by sending it to me.

9. You said: “I also want to note, the Encore really has been the least accurate of the T/C guns i have owned. That break action design i was never fond of.” Here sir, you openly admit that Encore’s are not accurate and according to you, this is due to the break action design.

10. You said: “Now the Triumph on the other hand is different.” I want to point out that the Triumph is also a break action design. But your above statement says the Encore is inaccurate due to the break action design. So, what makes your Triumph different from the Encore in this regard. ??

11. You said: “The Triumph will out shoot most Bergara CVA'S day in and out. And yes, right out of the box.” First of all, Bergara does not own CVA. Even though both companies are owned by BPI, Inc. Bergara simply supplies the barrels for CVA rifles. You cannot possibly have a qualified opinion about whether a Triumph can or cannot out shoot a CVA as you don’t appear to own a CVA or have stated you have any experience with one at all.

12. You said: “I will mention that CVA has come along way. Better barrels no doubt, but they still got along way to go to compete with T/C,Knight and Savage.” In this statement, you agree that CVA has come a long way and without doubt have better barrels. But you also make the comparison, not only to TC, but to Knight & Savage. Are you aware that Knight has been closed and reopened but is selling leftovers and parts and it is unknown whether they will ever manufacture another rifle? And also, are you aware that this is the last year that Savage will be producing their muzzleloader? If they can out compete CVA, why are they both going out of business?

13. You say: “BTW- I'm the one that said you were full of **** shooting sub 1" groups at 100yds with different loads and bullets right out of the box. And yes, i'm still sticking with that.” When you said such derogatory remarks about me in your first post, I was an unknown person/company and maybe that sort of thing is allowed or even welcomed on this forum. But once I responded, the fact that you attacked me again personally with such a statement seems extremely rude and shows your level of class.

Just for more information on me, I own more than a dozen TC rifle's that will all shoot less than 1" groups at 100 yards, but none right out-of-the-box. Most all of them have TC factory barrels on them. You seemed to have assumed, wrongly, that I don’t like TC, which I never said. So who's the opened minded person here now?

I have not got a clue as to how much real, professional experience you have in the topic of which you find yourself in the position to be giving this type of advice, nor will I ever truly know. But I will tell you this, I have the professional background to back up what I am saying. I also have a 30 plus years of history as a very well-respected public servant in Law Enforcement and in the United States Marine Corps. My level of character, loyalty and truthfulness, as far as I can tell, is far greater that yours, I will assure you of that.

I am an un-sponsored professional in the ballistic, accuracy and marksmanship industry. All of these things are set in stone, I have earned all of my credentials the hard way, I've worked for them, and they cannot be disputed. See my website for a list of my qualifications.

Now sir, I'm respecting that you have the right to say whatever you want to, in fact I have been personally involved in defending the very Constitution of the United States in order for you to be able do so, for over 30 years. Have you done the same for me or anyone else? If not, that's ok, I did it for us all, and have never asked anything in return.

I would extend to you this: if you truly want to have a good look at who I am and what my company does and what I’m about, send me your mailing address and I will supply you with free copies of every How To DVD that I have produced to date. This may give you some insight so you can be more qualified to give advise about muzzleloading to other people in the future.

Finally, I will now monitor this forum for inaccuracies that you might post concerning the muzzleloading industry. I owe this to the muzzleloader consumers, whom I directly work for.

Sincerely,

Russell Lynch
Muzzleloader Accuracy Xperts
www.maxmuzzleloader.com