romex21

hey guys been looking over this site for a few days know
and i like it
that being said i have some questions concerning the TC ENCORE in 50cal
ive got the synthetic camo,26" barrel, scope is a simmons 3-9-40 pro hunter taken off another rifel (30/06)
i cannot get this ML to group well at all. so far heres the list of things
ive been using
150 grains 777pellets
100 grains 777 pellets
250 grain TC shockwave superglide (bougt at wal-mart)
240 grain hornady xtp hollow points,green sabots
now this is at 50 and 100 yards and as TC recomends im swabing with
there pre soaked bore cleaner after every shot and followed with a dry
patch.
i do plan on going to lose powder next time out, starting at 80grains and working up,the two bullet types are the most common in my town and quick to find
i know this is a common question but how should i start this process to get the best groups/??? also ive noticed some forend flex if you pull the barrel and forend together at the end of the forend
thanks and wonderfull site,, lots of good stuff here.

cayugad

romex21 welcome to this horribly addicting sport...

As for the problems with your rifle..I would get some of the conventional Shockwaves with the black sabots in 250 grain instead of the E-Z Glide. Sometimes too easy of a sliding sabot can have a reverse effect on accuracy. Use the easy loading sabots only if the normal ones do not load normally (what ever one considers normal).

Your Encore should shoot well with the loads you listed. So I suspect a few things. The first thing I would check is your scope and scope bases and mounts. Make sure they are tight and secure. I had a rifle go bad on me and I must have shot over a hundred rounds through it. Finally I took the scope off and it shot with the open sights better then it ever dreamed of shooting with the scope. All I can blame is the scope. So if you can pull the scope and have open sights on the rifle, try some of those same loads with the open sights. If it groups them well, get a new scope.

As for the movement in the forearm flex, I have no experience with the Encore. I would call Thompson Center on the telephone and ask to talk to one of their technicians. When I pay good money like that for their top of the line rifle, I would expect more.

Also the swabbing compound.. are you getting that bore good and clean before you load first? Take and start swabbing the bore with Windex. Lightly damped the patch. If you can ring swab solution out of the patch your making them too wet. Then work that bore in short strokes. I never used that T/C pre soaked patches, but had some Knight patches once. There was far too much solution in them patches for swabbing. Even with a couple dry patches you might not be getting the bore bone dry. Try the Windex and see if that does not help. Or go to the Dollar Store and get a bottle of their fake Windex window cleaner. Try that.

Also be sure to let the barrel cool if it is getting hot when you shoot on the range. And when you rest the rifle in the gun rest, never rest on the barrel, only the forearm. But you probably knew that.

Just some things to try. I am sure there are some Encore shooters that can help you much more then I.

romex21

as far as the cleaning patches they are very wet , infact you can see left over beads of cleaner
after wet patch, after reading somemore post, i may be cleaning to much between shots
(no fowling left in barrel to seal sabot)
the simmons scope is a cheap one so i may pull my leupold off the /06
and try that

sabotloader

romex21

I do not shoot an Encore, but there are a lot of people that do and they do shoot very well - so in my mind it is only a matter of time before you have yours shooting correctly. Besides the gun being ready as you gain experiance with the gun and shooting ML's life will get better...

Questions... Is this a new gun? and if it is new - did you strip clean the whole thing down to the bear metal?

Personally i would shoot the 100 grain loads until you have the performance you want.

The 240's are a decent projectile and should fly very well for you. Myself, i would shoot the gun @ 25 yards until I could get one hole with 4-5 shots...When you get the one hole time to start thinking about the other things....

This might be a problem... I am not sure how pre-soaked these patches are? They should be just barely damp... almost like if you were to take a dry patch and put it on your tongue (spit patch) and just barely moisten it. I pre-make my own damp patches using regular windex with ammoinia, windex is hell on T7 deposits and the ammonia accelerates the evaporation of the water in the windex and + the ammoinia is a great barrel cleaner. Another solution that is commonly used is "cayugad's" windshield washer and alcohol. And then followed by a dry patch... put as little moisture in the barrel as you can - you need some to prevent the patch from sticking but darn little.

Just thought - the TC patches are probably T17 bore patches? I myself would really skip them.

When you are ready to make the switch - I think you will find loose powder the better way to go - but there is nothing wrong with starting with pellets... again the more you shoot the more confident you will get.

Personally i would skip shooting the SW's they are to expensive to play with - use the 240's... In your town do you have a store that sells reloading products -like bulk bullets and/or packages of sabots... speaking of sabots with your Encore you will need to buy the thinner variety of sabots... either TC sabots, Harvester, or MMP HPH-24 sabots - you can use the HPH-12's to thick. If you can purchase a box of bullets buy a box of .452/250 grain Hornadys or better yet a box of .452/250 grain Speer Gold Dots... Speer also makes a .451/300 grain unicore bullet that is a good shooter for shooting paper. Then get a package of sabots. I am not much of a fan of 44 cal bullets in a 50 cal ML - but do not get me wrong a lot of people are and they shoot great for em.

Again, I do not shoot an Encore - but I do believe this is a big problem... Break Open guns are not my favorite because of the possible accuracy problems - but the forearm is a major factor - that thing has to be on right and the same everytime or you will have accuracy problems as you extend your range.

Hey! welcome to the forum hope some of my information helps - I know Dave and other will also provide some quality info also - just remember we all and even you will not do the same thing all the time - take what works for you and run with it.

Ido have contact with an Encore pro on another site - if in time you need to make contact with him let me know...

Good luck

frontier gander

This should help you if you are having accuracy problems.

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthr.../1#Post1739603

falcon

"Personally i would shoot the 100 grain loads until you have the performance you want."

Good advice. He should sight it in at 25 yards like you said. Forget the Shockwavesuntil it is sighted in with the 240 grain XTP bullets. Using the same powder charge, my Encore shoots the 250 grain Shockwave/SST to a POI about 1.5 inches higher than the 240 grain XTP at 100 yards. A deer will never know the difference.

lemoyne

First,using to wet a patch makecan it very difficult to get the barrel dry, most of us mix our own using 50% alk. and either windex or windsheild warsher fluid and just damp;excess fluid can dampen different amounts of powder which will make the gun shoot erratticly as for the for arm it is similar to my triump which group better with heavier loads after I floated the forarm by putting rubber warshers between the forarm and the mounting studs.
Also not all guns like 777, my Omega for example just wont shoot it but will shoot one hole groups with Pyrodex RS, another load most TC like is the blue sabot and the 200gr SW or that same sabot with a 10mm-200gr XTP.
One of the things I see in what you wrote is the Simmons scope, I have had problems with several , could it be the recoil of a heavy load in a MZ loader is harder on them than a cartridge gun? I know it is different. Any time you have this type problem it is a good idea to check the mounts and try either the irons or a different scope. Lee

blackheel

I actually just use a damp spit patch for in between shots. Iput it over a brush down and up with pumping strokes, flip it over on the brush, same thing, then a dry that is flipped in the same manner.

My Encore shoots both the 240 grain XTP's with the black sabots and the 300 grain SST's with the black sabots well. I use 110 grains of loose T7 ffg. Sometimes it can be a pain to load but I know tigher is better thangoing down the barrel too easy!

As far as the flex, never seen that before.

Good luck. I love my Encore and might actually buy another in the future.

gleason.chapman

OK, that explains it then, your putting a very wet patch in and only followng it up with 1 dry patch. You need to squeeze all the moisture out of your wet patch before you insert it in the bore and it should be turned over and run down the bore once again, so your in fact cleaning the bore with two patches, just the same one twice. Then run two dry patches thru it, turning them over also, so in fact your running the patch down 4 times, twice for each dry patch. What is happening becuase your bore is not dry, some of the moisture is absorbing into your pellets and they are not completely firing causing accuracy loss. Only use very wet patches when you have your breech plug out and your cleaning your gun after a range or shooting session. Best Wishes, I hope this solves your woes, I don't know of an Encore that couldn't shoot XTP or SW usually very accurately.
Chap Gleason

Underclocked

The forend flex may be from the retaining screws bottoming out before they should. Check to make sure the screws that hold the mounting columns are secure and the columns are secure to the barrel. Find two matchingflat washers that will fit inside the interior cuts for the mounting lugs. Put one in each and then secure forearm withthe screws, check to see if the flex remains. I would try to keep the thickness of the washers as identical as possible as you may want to adjust their thickness. A consequence of doing the washer install is winding up with an unsightly gap where the forearm meets the barrel so keep thickness totheminimum that works for you. Another possibility is your ramrod will fit too loose afterwards. A bit of shim material under the unsecured end of thespring in the forarmcan remedy that problem. If indeed it turns out the screws are a bit long, you might shorten them carefully with a grinder/file. If you do leave the washer cure in place, secure them with a bit of good super glue gel - just a little to keep them from getting lost. If the flex remains after those efforts - something is definitely wrong with that forearm.

While you have the forearm off, take note of any spots on the receiver where the forearm is rubbing. Sand a bit of the forearm material off in those areas until no contact is made with the forearm securley positioned while operating the action. Ideally you would wind up with a forearm that doesn't rub the receiver at all and only exerts pressure on the barrel at the two screw locations.

And, as others have said, you shouldn't need much dampness at all on that first patch. If they are that wet, I would put them in a zip-loc and add some dry patches in with them, then work things around a bit with the bag sealed. A day or so sitting in that bag should equalize the moisture content of the patches - plus you now have more patches to use for the first swab.I've been putting dry patches in a zip-loc, add a bit of rubbing alcohol, swirl things around and calling it good. No sense getting carried away buying expensive stuff.