What do you think???
Anyone use It??? I' m Thinking about trying one.
T/C Encore modified breach plug to use .660" long .22 Hornet cases in place of the 209 primer.
Too much flame; too much fouling:
Our Encore gets so dirty from the 209 primer that after 50 shots the firing pin will not even travel far enough to ignite the primer. I need to remove the butt stock and clean the entire action with brake clean and compressed air before it will work. Too much flame trying to get through the small hole.
If you check out the cartridge in the foreground of the photo you can see that it is perfectly clean. It has been used 27 times and has not even been wiped off. No fouling, no mess. Look inside the breach plug and action; 50 shots without being touched and not a spot of fouling anywhere.
Too much energy:
I have no idea who started the 209 craze but I believe that it provides way more energy than is required to get the job done. Try this experiment for yourself. Take your ramrod with a jag and a clean damp patch, push it all the way down the barrel of your Encore. Mark the ramrod where it meets the end of the barrel with a strip of masking tape. Put a 209 into the breach plug, close the gun, cock the hammer and pull the trigger. With our Encore, the ramrod will get blown 6" - 8" up the barrel with just the force of the 209. If we do the same experiment with our Hornet / Encore breach plug with it' s small rifle primer, the ramrod moves less than 1" .
We have all but eliminated those unexplained flyers from our Encore groups. Personally, I believe these flyers were the result of the 209 actually lifting the sabot off the powder charge simultaneous with igniting the powder. The much milder Small Rifle primer of the Hornet case ignites the powder just as instantly but lacks the energy to move the sabot and bullet off the powder charge therefore eliminating the flyers.
More fine tuning options:
Unlike the 209, Small Rifle sized primers come in a variety of ranges and qualities. One can experiment with Standard, Magnum and Bench Rest to add one more variable to the mix. To this point, we have seen the best success with CCI 400 but that could change with the next load.
To sum up, I love this conversion. The Encore is now perfectly clean inside and out shot after shot. I have eliminated the flyers caused by the excessive 209 energy levels. I find the shortened .22 Hornet cases very easy to install, remove and find in my pockets. One case has been primed over 40 times with the primer pocket fit as snug as it way when we first used it. We decap and prime the cases with the very economical Lee line of reloading equipment. As you loose them, you simply trim down another handful of .22 Hornet brass and away you go.
Here' s the link;
http://www.prbullet.com/hornet.htm