Borty I dont know much about the old TC (other than I HATE sidelocks, I dont drive a horse and buggy so I dont like the same in guns but I knows its a personal choice) but for a strict safety point of view WATCH OUT with that old Traditions. They are NOT very strong guns!!! I know alot of guys will get mad and call me names but that doesnt bother me. The Spanish built barrels on ANY muzzleloader is a disaster just waiting to happen. They are barely proof tested to handle a decent blackpowder charge. They are WAAAAAY away from handling anything like 100+grains of Pyro and surely NOT ready for T7.

I wouldnt recommend anything over 90 grains of Goex, same for Pyro and -70 for T7. Anymore is just asking for it. Earlier this summer I had a customer that brought in his old break action muzzleloader with a hole in the barrel, a bent Nikon scopetube and luck on his side. The genius' at Traditions drilled the screws for the front scope mount in FRONT of the breech plug. Add the fact that he was shooting 150grns of Pyro through it and in short order the thin metal between the bore and the bottom of the tap (basically only half the barrels wall thickness) was eaten away and one shot spit the front screw in the front mount OUT. It tried to go into the Nikon scope, which it caused a dent in the tube sufficient enough to render the scope useless. I dont know where the screw ended up but the customer is lucky it wasnt in his skull!!!

That is a design flaw of more than one blackpowder gun on the market. That is why you see the taps on a TC Encore/Omega being spaced so closely. They are over the breechplug and not in front of it. The strongest is place is behind the plug on a reciever like found on a Knight, Savage etc. The weakest is straight into the barrel like many old CVA and TC Hawkens used to be mounted. Cutting into the barrels wall for simple sight mounts is bad enough.

Good luck,
RA