I recently acquired a new 209X50 for my T/C Encore. Could some of you give me some advise on seasoning the barrel and breaking it in correctly. I'm new to black powder hunting so any advise is appreciated.

ky "seasoning" a modern inline smokepoles barrel is an old wives tale. Especially since you talking about shooting sabots with it. What difference is a piece of plastic gonna know? Just loader up and bang away. Drop a 250SST over150grns of loose T7 and you are DONE!!!

Good luck,
RA

The way I did mine was to give it 200 strokes with JB's bore cleaner and its ready to shoot.The jar says 5to 10 strokes for cleaning,I just add 190 more strokes.I do this with all new factoty rifles and it works for me.

A good way to break in your barrel, have fun at the same time, and get to know a little about your rifle and how it works, is to get a box of cheap maxi ball. Lube them up and shoot the whole box off. You do not even have to care about accuracy. All your doing is knocking (if any exhist) the ruff spots off yourbore. After you're done use a good solvent that removes lead, when you clean the rifle and brush it good with a bore brush.

The do as the others suggested, load it up and bang away. I personally would shoot loose powder and 120 grains of Pyrodex or Triple Se7en and a 250 grain T/C Shockwave. You could even try some of the 200 grain.

As to the seasoning aspect why would you want to smear wax in your new rifle. In the modern steel it is not necessary, at least in my opinion. The only time your rifle should meet bore butter is if your shooting conical bullets. Sabots do not need bore butter..

Good luck with your rifle and keep us posted.. that's a great rifle you have there.

For starters, get yourself a good solid range rod. You will be glad you did. Save the factory rod in the event your range rod fails.

I have two of these:
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20712&id=0031502 215801a&navCount=1&podId=0031502&paren tId=cat20819&navAction=push&catalogCode=IF &rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat2081 9&hasJS=true

DAC Universal Muzzleloader Cleaning Kit



Item:
IF-215801

Then, really clean the bore with a quality bore solvent such as Butch's Bore Shine. 20-30 strokes with brush followed by about 5-6 soaked patches and 15-20 strokes.

Then an 50/50 mix 99%alcohol & Windexpatch followed by a dry patch.

Then a natural lubed patch followed by a dry patch. Now you are ready to go shooting.

I've always shot 40-60 conical through the bore at a moderate load of say
70-80 grains 2FG or 50-70 grains 3FG. Or with pellets, one or two777 50 grain pellet.

Just shoot and forget about accuracy.

About every 7-10 shots, Itypically run a damp (not wet) Butch's Bore Shine patchdown and upseveral strokes followed by a damp (not wet) 50/50 alcohol/windex patch, then a dry patch.

When done shooting for the day, back to the brush and patcheswith Bore Shine for about 10 strokes eachto remove any leading in the bore. Then dry patches and then lube with a quality lube for storage.

To ready from storage, then a damp 50/50 alcohol/windex patch or two followed by a dry patch or two. Then a natural lubed patch followed by a dry patch. The purpose of the natural lubed patch followed by a dry patch is to control flash rust.

I find that this process first removes all packing lubes and residues from the bore. Second, smooths the rifling. Third, get's you shooting your rifle and getting the hang of loading and procedures without trying to be accurate or fooling with heavy loads or hard loading projectiles.

After this routine, you will have had about 1/2 a pound or so of powder's worth of shooting under your belt and will be more than ready to begin working up various loads.

As far as seasoning, the only thing I will say is season your cast iron skillets with sausage grease or olive oil in the oven at 350 degrees for an hour or on the stove top until the grease or oil begins to smoke. Then remove from the heat and wipe in the excess with paper towels. Set the skillet or other cast iron cookware aside to cool.

Or, you can "season" your rifle if youplan on usingit for cooking or roasting.

M2C.

Regards,

Tahquamenon

KYhunter2004, DO NOT use 150grns Loose 777 powder in your rifle--EVER[:-]

Read the owners manual and do not exceed the specified limits!

Well Bro, I would just shoot it. Swab in between shots with No. 13 from T/C. Some guys on here use 50% windex and 50% 90% iso alcohol.

Lane the man said, "TC Encore" he didn't say some POS like a CVA/Traditions or other subpar rifle.

I've got THOUSANDS of customers shooting 150grns of T7 in their Encores and Omegas and the only thing they complain of is that they didn't do it earlier!!!
RA

I tried 150 grs of t-7 (loose) and 3 shots was all I wanted with it.It was with an encore and 200 gr bullet.Don't think it would have left my shoulder in tact if I had been useing a 250 or 300 gr bullet.
Was all these customers useing pellets or loose powder.

Red

Here's what the Manufacturer says:





Loose Trip7 is 15% MORE EXPLOSIVE than Pyrodex and BlackPowder, lets not sacrifice Safety for Testosterone