cayugad

If I had a Thompson Center rifle that acted like that, I would call Thompson Center on the phone and raise the roof. Tell them the different sabot combinations you have tried. Also this is idea that "you have to swab between every shot," well put it this way, if on their commercial they advertized that you shoot the rifle, then have to swab the barrel before reloading...I would never even consider the rifle for a purchase. Not one of my inline rifles can not be loaded at least three timesbefore a swab is needed. Shooting Pinnacle powder, I loaded 12 T/C Mag Express 240 grain XTP's in a row without swabbing the barrel. I could have loaded more but ran out of sabots.

I would insist that I mail it back to them and that they attempt to load three sabots in a row without swabbing. After all we are not going to be swabbing in the middle of a hunting encounter. When you need a fast second shot, you do not have time to swab. I would then send them the rifle and demand some satisfaction. That's insanity to pay that kind of money for a rifle and not be able to load the thing... Stainless Steel or not.

Pittsburghunter

Well Dr not to be a real smart ass while being one I look at the very rear of the rifle being shot then work my way up to the butt stock then trigger group breech and then forward.

Sounds like a group of people who while well schooled in traditional guns have problems with modern rifles. Short seating by 5" or so is caused by fouling in the bore or lack of muscle to seat the darn bullet. I will go with the former because the way you lay the keys down on your computer you seem pretty stong. Use a bore brush in those rifles as you use them to get the stuff your eyes don't see.

I had trouble with one batch of bullets in my Encore and the factory knew of the problem and gave me new replacements for free.

I think your best bet is to hang out at the range and wait for someone you don't know who comes down and is shooting his rifle real good and ask him/her for some help. Fresh idea's from someone getting the job done is the best advice I can give.

Good luck and let me know if any of those rifles are for sale cheap.

m.t.hands

here is some more reading on the hard loading encore's

http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/fb.aspx?m=1008199&key=

http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/fb.aspx?m=815967&key=

DR KILL

WOW,, well pittsburg, why not be a smart ass , thats what you come off as , as a matter of fact smartass your not dumbas you are,,
Lets see here , well i got plenty muscle to push the bullet down the barrel
so thats not it,, and if you can read then read my post again this gun has done this out of the box never shot,and im not an idiot i know how to use a bore brush along with the rest of my cleaning gear.
LOL,, as far as shooting I am holding a 2 inch group at 125 yards with the omega , the problem im having is not shooting the gun accurate ace its loading the piece of ****, t/c just screwed up big time and no one wants to take the blame, i understand if it makes tighter groups but advertise that it sucks to load and getting off a quick second shot from your deer stand is almost imposible unless you beat the piece of **** on a tree or use super lube,,,,,, but then again thanks for your opinion ace

SteveBNy

Does this mean you have contacted TC and they refuse to help?

Steve

Pittsburghunter

Well now I don't know what to say in one post you say you can't load the last 5" and now you say you are getting two inch groups out of the thing(s). These rifles have real tight tolerences and if it is clean the amount of effort to move the projectile will be the same thoughout the bore. I shoot the mag express sabots made for .429 bullets with .429 bullets all day with no problems and I know of many other people who do as well. Does it take more effort to load the Encore compared to a BPI barrel? Yes but the extra work is worth it.

The only time I have had trouble loading close to the bore is when the thing needs a good cleaning.

ENCOREMAN

DR KILL,
I have several Encore's and Omega's (45 & 50cal.) and I need to clean between each shot when I shoot sabots out of these rifles....especially when I shoot the Barnes MZ's.When shooting the Barnes MZ's not only do I clean between each shot, but I also run a prelubed patch in and out of the bore quickly. I use the same prelubed patch for a 5 string shot andI move the patch around to a different spot as I use it. Now when I load my Barnes bullets they go down the bore smoothly with some effort, but you don't have to struggle. My accuracy actually improved using this method.
The Power Belts go down with little effort in all these rifles with a clean bore. The last few years I've used the PB's for hunting in case I needed to load a quick 2nd shot. They are very accurate out to 125yds. after that I've noticed that they start to tumble and accuracy suffers!
You mentioned that you tried different powders....did you try the new Goex Pinnacle yet? I shot some yesterday for the 1st time with excellent results.I was able to shoot wo cleaning time after time, using the PB's with a 100gr powder charge. I was shooting a T/C High Plains Sporter....this is very similiar to the T/C New Englander except it has a pistol grip stock.
I'm looking forward to shootingPinnacle powder out of my Omega today with the Barnes MZ/Spit Fire bullets.
I have some crush rib sabots on order that I think will ease the loading too. Someone earlier had a post and mentioned that they made the MZ's load easier.
I didn't see where you mentioned the powder charges you were using. I'm sure you know that heavy powder charges will give you more fouling.
Cayugad gave youthe good advicehe's known for. Send the rifle back to T/C if you feel somethings wrong with the bore. They worked with me when I sent back a 45cal. Omega that wouldn't shoot accurately and so did my buddy. They replaced both rifles with the 1-28" twist barrels.
I'll report later this weekend on the Pinnacle/Omega.
Good Luck and let us know what you come up with.

jeff4088

Got a EncoreS/S 50 and accuracy is good with it at 100 yds, that is all i tested it at. Used powerbelt 245gr. bulletswith 3 pyrodex pellets. I am really happy with mine.

Pittsburghunter

Hi Jeff, that is pretty good for the light powerbelts!! I guess the stout charge is keeping them on track. My buddy last weekend had great results shooting the 295g bullets out of his Reminton ml700 at 71 yards with 130g of Pyrodex pellets. he was grouping under 2" with some bullets hitting the same hole as he tweeked his scope.

I have had so-so luck with powerbelts but stopped shooting them because I love to shoot and the price is just to high for casual shooting. Even if I was rich I would not spend that kind of money for range work.

Two years ago I had a two T7 50g pellet load using a 295g powerbelt that shot exellent at about 50yds. I have no clue how good it shot at longer distances because it was an emergency load because I bought defective shockwave bullets. I carried that that season but the deer did not want to be shot so I have no clue how well it would have worked.

MLKeith

DR KILL: I also have a stainless Omega .50 and it is very tight to load. I have found loads that work and at one time I even slugged the bore as I was sure there was something wrong as I had stuck some sabots part way down the barrel before finding the ones that would work. I did decide that 777 was not a powder that my Omega would use as the crud ring would form so bad I could not push anything past it and usually had to use a brass brush to get it out. If you feel that the bottom of the barrel is smaller than the upper portion I would run a slug of lead from the muzzle to the bottom of the barrel and measure it then run another lead slug the other way and see if there is a difference in slug measurements. If the pure lead is soft enough it should deform enough to fill the bore either direction and if that does not work just start one in the first four or five inches of the muzzle and push it back out and compare that one with the one from the bottom of the bore. Mine measures .500 at both ends of the barrel when it is completely clean and after some passes with JB bore paste. I did run 200 passes with the JB on a patch over a brass brush and that seemed to help loading quite a bit. I personally believe the stainless barrels are a little rougher inside than the blued barrels as stainless tends to machine rougher when viewed microscopically. I also agree that the Powerbelts should load fairly easy however. I cannot load Hornady SST bullets without switching to the Harvester short sabots and then they load fairly hard but not impossible. I do understand somewhat the difficulty you are mentioning but I am not quite as bad off as what you are expressing. Hope this helps as I know it is frustrating. If you want an easy loading rifle you should look for a White. I understand that they load all day long without a swab no matter what you use for powder as long as you use the White bullets. I will have to get one of those someday.