Never heard of a "lead only" rule in colorado ML book. I just checked and the powerbelt is legal. They just dont allow sabots because a sabot is an under sized caliber. In order to hunt elk with a muzzleloader in colorado, it must be a .50 or bigger firing a bullet 170 grains or more in a .50 and 210 grains or more in .54 or larger. Any bullet is Legal. Just No sabots. A power belt is not a sabot. Get a box and try them out. I know the old powerbelts work great,havnt tried the new ones yet. But get a box of grainage that you want and go practice. You will need to get more yardage out of that rifle than 50 yards. For the price you paid for that gun, I would really get my butt in gear and buy some powerbelts to try out. Good luck to you on sighting in the rifle and on the hunt.

While a lot of Omega's don't like conicals most will do a decent job with PB's I don't use the for hunting because they shoot with the best accuracy out of mine with 150 gr of APP FF or RS and at that velicity they fragment of course I can shoot any normal bullet here so I just pick the most accurate. Several of my friend like them but they are having good results from 80 t0 100 gr. Lee

I am also hunting elk in Colorado this year, so as others have stated, all the plated powerbelts are legal in Colorado. However, I would not consider 3" groups at 25 yards to be adequate. What if you wound one and need to do a follow up shot at 75-100 yards. Very doable if you find the right load.

As also stated, I have had a 3 year attempt at finding a decent load for my Omega. What I finally had to do was to go back to using pyrodex. I love the clean up of the newer powders like 777, but just can't get really good accuracy. My Omega shot a 5" group with 777 and no excuses at 25 yards! With the load mentioned above, I shot a 3shot group with 2 in the same hole and 1 shot 3/4 inch away at 25 yards.

It also seems like Omegas don't like big conicals. While I do like bigger conicals with elk, I think that the load above will be more than adequate. I also had half way decent accuracy with 348 and 405 grain aerotips and 777. My gun liked 90 grains of 777 with a 348 and 95 grains of 777 with 405's. However, neither load came close to the above grouping. I was getting 8-10 inch groups at 100 yards, and that was off a bench with sand bags.

Remember that loose 777 is about 15% hotter than pyrodex, so my 90-95 grains has plenty of energy for any elk in Colorado (aprox equvilent to 105-110 grains of black powder/pyrodex). Not only does your 120 grains of 777 load pack a real wallop in recoil, but is approaching the safe limit in the Omega. 120 grains would be equvilent to about 138 grains of pyrodex. Probably still safe, but I would not hesitate to drop the load down to 90 grains and see where she hits.

If I were you, I would grab some different sizes of powerbelts and a jug of 777 and pyrodex and see if you can get some better accuracy. We are shortimin!

Good luck!

I've tried everything from 80 grains up to 120 grains with the Great Plains, MaxiBalls and No Excuses. The 120 grain with the No Excuses was the best grouping for me. I'm definitely going to try the PBs. I had heard so many good things about the No Excuses (from this forum), that I was determined to make them work. I also tried them with fiber wads with no success. Thanks for your recommendations, hopefully I can get something shooting decent.

sounds like you and I have had very similar experiences. Just remember that going back to pyrodex was the only way I found what I consider acceptable accuracy. Hopefully you can find some with powerbelts and 777.

I also tried Black mag3 and APP and they were worse in my gun than 777.

The kicker is that my brother got an identical Omega and his gun shoots what ever bullet and powder you put through it.

Am I off-base here, or should we expect more consistency from a brand of muzzleloader than that? I know we all say, "thisrifle likes this", "An this un likes this", "Oh and this un will shoot about anything you stuff down it" It seems to me that there is very little effort payed to producing weapons which perform consistently. To make matters worse, we as consumers almost uniformly accept this about muzzleloading rifles giving the manufacturers, basicly, a free out, to defects in workmanship, settling on good enough or marginally huntable.

i was at wal-mart today and clerk was stacking shelf withnew pb platinum bullets.they were 11.67 a pack. also the hollow point ones were 11.67 a pack. thats my new bullet now for my hawkins.295 pb hollow point,around 80 grs of 2f in .50 cal.no more bore butter to mess with in buck season. all my family are using pb now.for target we are using rb.348 may be better bullet but i like the 295 in 1-48 twist.i like the hollow point because i can LOAD DOWN not up on my charges.bullet will open.no flinching/no recoil/ no noise to much/ not as much KABOOM.this makes me a much better shooter.i am OLD SCHOOL.ha

I've certainly been thinking about this. If the gun did not shoot saboted bullets as well as it does I would probably send it in to TC. I still may if the PBs do not perform.

Fillae, if you send it back to T/C, be sure and tell them in the first sentence that you know that they've been sending alot them back unrepaired because they shoot a decent pattern with shockwaves. Also let them know that T/C advertises the Omega as a suitable choice for conicals. And that you don't want it back until they can make it fit for the purpose you need and the purpose they advertise it for.

Good luck if you do, Phil

I would also add to tape a note on the gun itself saying that you want them to call you and discuss the problem with the gun before they do anything. I basically sent them my gun with a very detailed note saying that I HAD to shoot conicals and it would not shoot them well. As I stated previously, all they did was shoot sabots and send it back saying that there was nothing wrong with it.