you need to use about 90gr.loose powder and shoot a bunch of solid lead bullets about a 100 or so and it will loosen it up real good and turn it into a killer.When i first got my encore i had a tuff time loading it also i had just got over a badly crushed arm from my shoulder all the way to my hand,i still have stainless rods in all the bones in my right arm matter of fact they are femur rods ,i had 3 bone graphs also but i can't tell nothing is wrong unless i go through a metal detector or touch my hipps thats where the extra bone came from to make my arm bones. Just keep on shooting it ,takes time to break in a new gun.