grain choice
 

so i need some advice. i have been loading up 100 grains of powder in my TC encore to site it in. but, is this enough, or to much? what are you guys loading up?

100 grains is a very good load. Granted people shoot magnum loads, but if you are getting good accuracy with 100 grains, keep that in your mind as a good load, and then have fun experimenting with other loads.

100 grains of powder is "enough". Your gun may prefer less or more with a given bullet for best accuracy.

I shoot 100 gr of loose pyrodex and 350 gr Hornady FPBs in my in-line. This is a 125-150 yd load for deer. I keep saying I'll try BH209, but I have to burn through my pyrodex first. At my current rate of less than 10 shots per year, it will take a while.

If it's accurate then I say leave it. Most guns don't shoot "magnum" loads well. I keep most of my loads in the 80-90g range.

100gr's is plenty enough in any ML. What kind of powder are you using? Grain amount should be determined by accuracy over distance IMO. If your Encore is shooting fine with that load than leave it alone. If your not happy with your groups go a little less and see what happens. I found that anything over 105-110gr's of powder you start to loose accuracy.
(BP)

You are not going to believe this, but 100 grains of powder is more than enough powder, especially for deer. I shot my 600 lb cow elk in 2009 with 90 grains of Goex 2f and a 385 grain Hornday Great Plains. That was about a 100 yard shot, and I found the bullet on the off side right under the hide. It weighed 375 grains recovered. In 2005 I shot one with 80 grains and a 370 grain T/C. That was a 450 lb cow. I did not recover that bullet, it hit the spine and broke up.

Take that for what it's worth.

Marcial

The standard 45-70 load of 70 grains of black powder under a 405 grain chunk of lead killed quite a few bison in the 1800's.

My Knight with 250 Shockwaves doesn't like 100grs, it likes 90...That does the job nicely...Remember the 45/70??? It used 70gr of black powder and killed many a buffalo...The original bullet was 405 grains...

In my .54 flintlock, I use 80grs of FFF Goex...

Accuracy is king and each gun is an individual. There is one way to find what is best in your particular gun.
Take several bullets in each grain weight you like and try them with several sabots
start with 90 gr and go up the the max your gun will handle pick out the best target then try 5 gr each side of that make sure you mark the load bullet and sabot on each target. You may already know this but the sabots come in different lengths and thickness of petal, finding the right one for you bullet is important it needs to be tight enough so the bullet can not slip when the rifling spins it yet loose enough so you can load it with out pounding on it. Lee

k. well i see me shooting between 125-250 yards. does that change my choice of how much powder i need to load? right now i use the 385 grain great plains also.