TC Pro Hunter Loads
 

I'm a newbie but really needed some guidance/advice from you guys. I've searched as best I can but couldn't find anything on this subject. If it's out there if someone can point me in the right direction I would really appreciate it.

I've just recently purchased a TC Pro_hunter in 50 Cal.

I started with 105 grains of APP Shockey Gold and the 277 grain Ti Powerbelts. I couldn't get these to group at all. I shot at 25 yards and life was good, went to 50 and they began to spread out to 6-8" (at best) and then at 100 yards were all over the paper.

Step 2. I went back to the store and bought the 348 grain Powerbelt copper series, TC Maxi-Hunters and the 338 grain Ti Powebelts. I returned to the range and shot all (3) bullet types with 105 grains of powder and at 50 yards I had lead scattered everywhere.

Step 3 I bumped it from 105 grains of powder up to 110 grains. The Copper series and the TC Maxi Hunters shot excellent. Again, I'm a newbie but I was amazed that 5 grains made such a big difference. The Ti's on the otherhand were all over the place.

At this point I've pretty much decided to use the 348 grain copper series Powerbelts with 110 grains of powder. Out to 100 yards I was holding a 2" group and my confidence is building.

Does anyone out there have a prefered load out of their TC Pro-Hunter? I'm in Colorado so Sabots are not an option.

Thanks in advance for your input.

RE: TC Pro Hunter Loads
 

First off welcome to the forum. It is great having you here.

You bought a great rifle, but I think they are know for their sabot shooting ability more then their conical shooting ability. Although I think you are on the right track. I have no personal loads to share with you, but I do have some suggestions you might consider.

If the powerbelts are working for you, then stick with them. Try some of the different weights and designs. Aero Tips, and some of the pure lead ones might work real good for you. I like to shoot big conicals, but I have one rifle that loves the 245 grains Aero Tip Powerbelts. With 90 grains of powder, there is nothing safe for 100 yards with the open sights.

Also some other things to try would be some Saber Tooth Conicals. They shoot well out of my Black Diamond XR and my Knight rifles love the things. The Saber Tooth come in 250, 300, & 350 grains. My rifles like the 300 grains ones. They are very similar to the Powerbelts in design, but I like the way the bullet is made better, and they are a lot cheaper then Powerbelts.

Instead of Maxi Hunters, try some 370 gr Maxi Ball. I never found a rifle yet that will shoot maxi hunters. Why I have no reason.Contact http://blackjackhill.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_7&amp ;products_id=27 Get a hold of Bill Davis at Black Jack Hill and have him cast you some up out of pure lead. You have to lube them yourself, so you might need a tube of bore butter. They normally shoot very well out of most rifles and have excellent down range power.

The last option I would suggest is find out what the barrel of the rifle (not the QLA mind you) slugs out at. Then have some conicals made at Bull Shop Conicals. I shoot a .503 out of my Black Diamond XR with excellent results. I am going to get some .502 diameter next time and see how my Knights like them. I shoot them with only 70 grains of powder, but when the conical weighs 500 grains, that is a lot of power. Hop that charge a little and elk might have a real bad day with that load.

Another thing to examine is your selection of powder. While I do not want to start a powder war here, I never had any luck shooting conicals with American Pioneer Powder. Get some Triple Se7en 3f powder. I like that the best for all conical shooting I do. Also the normal Triple Se7en 2f does well, I just up the grains charge about 7 grains and it works good. For example, I shoot a 500 grain conical with 70 grains of the 3f, and 80 grains of the 2f. Both hit the same place. Both have excellent power.

Another good powder for conicals is Swiss 3f, or Goex 3f. The thing to remember is black powder is filthy. I makes a lot of smoke and stink when you shoot it. I mean, what more could a person ask for? Swab the barrel between shots also, when working up a load. It will help tighten your groups.

The thing I want to say is, there is really no way anyone can tell you what will shoot well out of your rifle. All rifles are a mystery to themselves. I have a number of Hawkins and Renegade with the same twist barrel. One shoots conicals perfect, the next one would not hit a barn door with them. All you can do it try.

RE: TC Pro Hunter Loads
 

Another bullet to try is the great plains bullet.

RE: TC Pro Hunter Loads
 

Boomer - sooner_fan

My first question to you would be what does your state allow you to shoot?

2. At what ranges might you be shooting?

3. Scoped or unscoped?

I am going to make a big assumption here and you know how much trouble that can be, but if you a "Pro Hunter" I am assuming you got it to shoot moremodern projectiles???? Next as Cayugad related to you have a "QLA" on the end of your barrel which MIGHT not work real well with a conical, but some have so do not rule it out.

Your barrel and mine an Omega are about the same and I do have some real pet loads for it...

Nother question, Are you just beginning to shoot ML's or are you a vet?

If you are just beginning there are some real easy loads to get started with, pellets & PowerBelts or Sabre Tooth... but as soon as you get comfortable shooting and cleaning I would advise to move on to loose powder and a different projectile.

Which brings me to another question, how much do you feel you will shoot this new rifle? Hunting season, or year round @ paper and what ever else you can find at a range?

I will warn you ahead of time, shooting ML's is contagious and addictive....

Good luck and welcome to the forum... there really are some good people here with tons of experiance...

mike

RE: TC Pro Hunter Loads
 

I am sorry what is a Ti Powerbelt? I have not heard of that brand. I thought they were made by CVA, is someone else making them now? 2" group at 100 yards is excellent.
Chap Gleason

RE: TC Pro Hunter Loads
 

I was thinking. 2" is good, very respectful, but 2" out of a $700+ rifle? Not good. The only other choice you have, is to call tc and get another barrel and keep calling and having them replace them until you find one that will make the rifle worth the price you paid. For about $200 you could have went with a cheaper rifle and got those. Dont settle for 2" groups with an expensive rifle.

RE: TC Pro Hunter Loads
 

Since you are from Co. The best you are (IMO) going to do with the pro-hunter is the 348 or 405 powerbelt. We have tried a lot of different conicals out of Omega's and Encores and the only ones that worked OK were the powerbelts. Get the heaviest that your rifle will shoot. 2" is pretty dam good especially since you can't use a scope.
Redclub

RE: TC Pro Hunter Loads
 

Thanks Guys.

Sabotloader,

I'm in Colorado so it's loose powder, no Sabots, iron sights, etc.

I'm not to the point yet that I can tell you about the yardage I'll be shooting. Based upon my Friday shooting I would say 25 yards was on the edge of my range. I feel much better about life after Saturday. I'll have this thing to 1" groups at 100 by elk season, I'm then going to play around between 100-200 yards. I honestly thing that my eyes and the sites will be my limiting factor. Right now I think I'm going to be 100% confident at 100 yards. I just need to see what I can confidently do beyond that.

To be honest I ended up with the Pro-Hunter because I had a buddy tell me, you ought to go by a Pro-Hunter "It's the Best". So I did. I looked at it as a new toy and thus far it's been a lot of fun. I don't see myself doing much more than just hunting with it but I'm pretty anal about all my rifles so I'll get it figured out regardless of how much range time it takes. I've really enjoyed shooting it thus far. The iron sights really add to the challenge, having not shot irons in a long that takes some getting used to again.

Thanks for everyones input.

RE: TC Pro Hunter Loads
 

Might consider the Sabortooth while the PB's shoot ok in my TC the Sabortooth is more accurate for me and I believe they hold together better at velocities over 1500fps on big game animals.Lee

RE: TC Pro Hunter Loads
 

Sorry guys, I said Ti Powerbelts. What I meant was the Platinum Powerbelts. Sorry for the confusion.

I'm going to try the Sabertooths. I was pretty happy with the Copper 348 grain Powerbelts but everyone seems happy with the Sabertooths. I'm going to give those a shot.

Thanks again for the help.

RE: TC Pro Hunter Loads
 

FG

Can he shoot a copper clad PB or Sabertooth in Colorado,or does it have to be all lead?

RE: TC Pro Hunter Loads
 

Copper powerbelts are fine. We dont have to put up with picky rules like that. They keep it simple. no pellets, no scope, no sabots.

RE: TC Pro Hunter Loads
 

In my 209x50 Omega which has the same barrel as the prohunter I was able to get a ragged hole with the 223gr areo tip and 110 gr. RS . It may take about 40 shots to break in the barrel . The rest of my loads would be no good were you are . Take some time to get used to the new gun , they are great I have 3 barrles for my Encore .
Charlie

RE: TC Pro Hunter Loads
 

I've started a few threads here latelytrying to pick these guys' brains about the"perfect" bullet and powder combos for our Encores. ;) They've been helpful withtheir suggestionsso you may want to search some of my threads for that info. However, it doesn't seem that many actual Encore Pro Hunter owners are here so feedback aboutyour specific rifle will be somewhat limited.

My best advice would be to loose the Power Belts! I promise you, there are a LOT bettermore accurate bullets for your Encore than the CVA rounds.

Ofthe several different bullets I've tested, the T/C Shockwaves and the Hornady SST's have been THE most impressive rounds thus far. They've proven vastly superior to ALL the PowerBelt bullets we've tried! Particularly, the newer T/C Shocwave Super Glides are great shooters for the 100 to 200 yard ranges that I've shot 'em at. I'd seriously suggest trying some. Best shooting performance thus far have been from using APP Shockey's Gold pellets or Pyrodex pellets. I'm looking forward to shooting again this weekend. This weekend I'm stepping upfrom the mostly100 grain charges I've been using to magnum 150 grain charges exclusively. I'll let ya know how they do?

Good luck to ya and congrats onyour new rifle. What model did you end up getting anyway? We have both the standard black stock model and the thumbhole Realtree model and I love 'em both!

RE: TC Pro Hunter Loads
 

What areSuper Glide Sabots? MMP or harvester or did TC make their own? Here isTC Shockwaveshot about 4 years ago at 100 with my guns (Omega and Disc):
http://www.the-gleasons.com/tcshockwave300g.htm

They were awsome shotters, but I couldn't use them since I had to pound them down the barrel with a hammer. I love their accuracy, I was shooting 300g. They tend to shoot thru cause their going fast.
Chap Gleason

RE: TC Pro Hunter Loads
 

Chap

Super glides are made by MMP under contract from TC.... the mmp equivalent that you and I can buy in bulk is the MMP HPH-3p-EZ load..

RE: TC Pro Hunter Loads
 

Boomer

Do not get me wrong here but yo probably have the wrong gun to be limited as much as you are by the Co rules, although i should talk, Idaho is even somewhat tighter now during ML season.

Your most limiting factor will your choice of projectiles, you have been cut out of some really good one, I means good one that will perform above the ordinary from that gun. You are limited to conicals of some sort witht the no-sabot rule and to be honest I do not believe the gun was designed by TC to be a conical launcher. 38 states do it differently so TC is responding to the masses not the few.

I believe the pro-hunter is a great gun and well built but for you it might be a problem because of the QLA on the end of the barrel, but you never know until you shoot it. Most open market conicals, excluding the PowerBelt type bullets, require a short stater to get them going down the barrel. Were I you in the beginning of developement I would get some of the slip fit conicals (no short starter needed) and try them. If they will shoot from you gun accuratey to 100 yards you are ahead of the curve. Two very good dealers for these type of lead conicals are Dave @ No-Excuses and Dan @ Bullshop. I use both of them and shoot their 460 grain bullets - they perform great and are as accute as you will ever want + plus for a lead conical have a decent BC.

http://bullshop.gunloads.com/

http://members.aol.com/noexcusesb/index.html

The next thing will be to get the right size for your barrel... Dave'sNo-excuses come sized .503 and do fit my tight barreled TC's - his bullets are also a bit more expensive than the Bull Shops... The advantage to Bull Shop other than price is he will size them to fit your barrel....

I would email each of them and ask them for a sample to try, i would also suggest getting Dan to size you some a .502 so you have both sizes to try.

I am shooting 90 grains T7-2f loose powder to propell these things out of the barrel. They will drop an elk dead - with the proer bullet placement

The next alternative and the alternative that you might have to use are the PowerBelt or Sabertooth option. I am not a fan of either of these bullets.... Sort one of those things that earns a love/hate relationship. You either love 'em or hate 'em. If you do go this route i would urge you to use the heavier PB's 348 grain and stay at 100 grains - do not over power them. I have no personal information on the new Plat PB's maybe they are better than the orginals and I personally like the copper clad ones better than the all lead.

Either of these bullets or even the conicals (if they will shoot from the QLA)canget you to a 2" group @ 100 or better with open sights. No matter what anyone tells you a 2" group with open isghts is better than average - even 3" with the average hunting rifle shooting BP or a sub by volume is good.

It is certainly amoung the best available today, but it may not be the best available for the state rules that you must adhere to... but it ain't bad....

For hunting - it will work it will just take some time to figure out what it will shoot best and if it turns out to be PBelts - so-be-it - do not get caught up about the negatives ( there are people with positives also)- they also work well for a lot of people. I am just to picky... That is why i went to Bull Shops... but truth be known i would shoot any of them I would be back to sabots and Nosler Partitions.

Hey! good luck and keep asking questions - there is a better than average chance someone here can help.

mike