Most of this past season, I hunted with one of the .50 caliber Omega (laminated thumbhole stainless) models and after shooting 400 or so rounds through the rifle to determine the "BEST" load for this particular rifle, I finally settled on a WEIGHED 80-grain charge of FFFg Triple Seven behind the 250-grain Hornady SST. Now, a "WEIGHED" 80-grain charge is the volume equivalent of right at 114-grains of FFFg black powder. Velocity out of the 28-inch barrel (26 3/8-inch working bore) was 2,068 f.p.s. and the rifle consistently shot inside of 1 1/2-inches at 100 yards.
I had one of the Leupold 3.5-10x40mm tactical scopes mounted on this rifle. I sighted the rig to print "dead on" at 100 yards, using the crosshair for my aim. Then at 200 yards, I found that I could use the first "mil-dot" below the crosshair...put it squarely on the target...and the bullet would impact only about an inch low. During one shooting session, I managed to put three shots at 200 yards within 1 3/8-inches. If I had been shooting at 100 yards, it would likely have looked like one big hole!
On my first hunt with the Omega last fall, I managed to drop (and I do mean drop) a nice 150-class northern Nebraska ten-pointer at 208 yards with the rifle and load. I was impressed.
Let me say this about T/C factory provided load data and ballistics...Don't Expect To Get The Same With Your T/C Rifles. I'm sure you've all seen their advertisements claiming 2,203 f.p.s. with a saboted 240-grain bullet and 3 of the 50-grain Pyrodex Pellets.
Now, I do a lot of choronograph work...and the best I have ever gotten this load to do, velocity wise, has been 2,010 f.p.s. - not 2,203 f.p.s. as T/C claims.
Also, if you shoot the pellets (Pyrodex or Triple Seven), and you have an electronic powder scale, try weighing and separating your pellets into lots that are within a half-grain of each other. I've found some boxes of Triple Seven Pellets where the pellets varied as much as 2.3 gains from high to low. And with a so-called 150-grain charge, that means a load can vary as much as nearly 7 grains. Just a thought.
Toby Bridges