cerec_cat

Just purchased a 50 cal. encore. I drew an elk muzzleloader tag, and am extremely new to this. What type of bullets and grain would you recommend. I am leaning towards the maxi ball, or possibly platinum powerbelts. This hunt is in New Mexico, with no restrictions that I know of. Thanks in advance.

Smithbros.1

I shot the PB's 348-AT last year on our elk hunt in Colorado. They shot great out of several encore's in the group. Ipushed them with 120 grains (loose)of pry-select. The only problem was they don't hold together real well on impact. Hopefully the new plat-coated bullets will hold together better.
I would check around & get a heavy sabot if you can use them.... I believe nosler makes some 300 + grain sabots.
As far as your gun goes.....it takes time & practice....every gun is different. Take it to the range spend a few days working out the bugs, Well before your hunt. You have a finerifle there & you should really enjoy it.

cayugad

If I owned an Encore and there were no projectile restricitons.. why not take advantage of what the rifle was made for. I'd try two or three 50 grain pellets and a 250 grain shockwave. It will put the elk on the table and probably shoot really well for you. If three does not group to your liking, back it down to two pellets or get the 30 grain pellets and load four of them for 120 grains of powder charge witha shockwave.

If you want to shoot conicals, then there must be a powerbelt out there that would shoot well out of your rifle..

AmericanPioneer

The barnes red hot all copper bullets will penetrate and not come apart. They also have the new MZ bullets which are hollow point all copper with a pointed plastic tip. They are a little more pricey but will give you great performance. I saw Jim Shockey use the nosler partitions on just about everything he hunts. Im sure those will work well for you too. Just depends on what your rifle likes, how easy they load, and how much you want to spend.Cabelas has the barnes or the barnes under the Knight logo. The Knights are cheaper.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?id=0037634216124a&navCount=5&podI d=0037634&parentId=cat200005&navAction=jum p&cmCat=MainCatcat20712&catalogCode=IG&amp ;rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat200005&a mp;hasJS=true

Triple Se7en

You purchased a sabot/bullet rifle -- so why not use what works best in that rifle? You need to find a sabot that's 340 grains & beyond. The best place to find them is either at Cabelas.com or prbullet.com.

My favorites are the Buffalo S.S.Bs 375 gr -- the Dead Center340 gr & the 350 gr. Extended Rangesat Cabelas . At prbullet.com, your choices are numerous & just about any bullet there loads without any grunts or hand shakes. The best monetary & performance deal there right now are the Exteme Elites and Keith Nose HPs.

Smithbros.1

Hey T-7 you ever had any luck with big conicals out of an encore? If so what was your load? I tried a few last year....but could only shoot around 80 grains with them. I didn't feel they were the best load for me, with only 80 grains....a little to much arch.

HuntFishfreak

Are the encore rifles easy to clean? I'm thinking about getting one and was wondering if when swapping barrels if the zero stays the same.

Pittsburghunter

Just about every saboted bullet I have shot out of my Encore shot really well. I found ones that are neavier than 250g seem to work best.

One of my favorite loads with the rifle is 120g Triple Se7en a T/C mag express sabot and a Hornaday 265g flatpoint Interlock bullet.

It will shoot conicals but I haven't exerimented much with them in this rifle.


It is real easy to clean especially if you have the twist to the side primer ejector.

Changing barrels is a snap and you do not loose your zero because the sights are mounted to the barrels and stay intact when removed.

philnie

Triple Se7en
Hey Triple Se7en - do you use the Buffalo 375gr SSB sabot they supply or do you substitute a MPP sabot perhaps? If so which one? Also isn't those extended range projectiles sold by Cabelas pure lead?

thanks!
phil

Hunter John

I've owned an Encore for about 4 years now. It is pretty accomodating for most sabot / projectile combos, but I've noticed that it tends to like the heavier (>240 gr) bullets better than the light, quick as lightening variety.

I've taken 6 deer with the 44 cal 300 gr XTP bullet in the Knight sabot over 100 gr of Pyrodex. My Encore can "shoot the bacon out of a bisquit" with this load. I've never really experimented shooting anything over more than 110 grs of powder as the ranges where I hunt are all under 100 yards. 100 grs of powder is plenty for the 50 or 60 yard shot.

On the downside, I still haven't discovered a conical load that I have enough confidence in using during a hunt. I've tried the Great Plains, Buffalo Bullet, Maxi Ball (and Hunter) and can't get smaller than a 3 or 4 inch group at 45 yards. I've tried a number of different wads, but the 28 ga pink Claybuster wad with the petals cut off seems to work best.

As others have said, the Encore was made to shoot sabots. Try conicals or RBs and it's a crap shoot. [:'(][:'(]

Best of luck.