I am getting everything ready to sight in my new TC encore endeavor and am trying to decide on what to use for powder. I have seasoned my barrel with butch's bore lube and have decided on using the 250 grain shockwave bullet with the yellow tip(unbonded). I am also going to use the winchester 209 primers. I am trying to decide whether to use loose powder or pellets. My choices are the 50/50 triple 7 pellets, 50/50 hodgdon pellets, and I have heard good things about the buckhorn 209. Anyone using this muzzleloader what are you using and what is your opinions on my choices? I would appreciate any help and input. Also their are so many choices in cleaning supplies to keep the gun clean and at peak performance. What steps do you take and what products do you use to keep your gun clean? Thanks and good luck to everyone this season.

Blackhorn209 without a doubt, The rest of the powders look like garbage after you've used BH209.

Check this place out, its only $27 shipped to your door.
http://frontiermuzzleloadin.powergui...khorn209-store

BHunter32

When i first saw the title of the thread - i figured it was going to be an eay answer for me. I would always suggest loose powder to pellets. IMO there are a lot more advantages to loose than pellets...

But, if you are just getting into this activity the quickest and easiest way to get started are pellets and power belts - neither of which I would use in real life hunting. The big thing is to get a feel for the activity and actually shooting.

The Encore is one of the better guns out there, it has some quirks that you will easily work through and others on here will have some suggestions to that. I can not help you with the specifics because I do use an Encore series rifle.

The Win 209 primers shold work well for you if your rifle will close on the primer. Some Encores will not as the primer is a bit to long, but that really is not a problem because ather primers are available that are shorter.

If you decide to go with loose powder I would suggest BH-209 even though it is way expensive it is the easiet way to get started with loose and wil save you some other head aches other than you will have to clean the breech plug with some regularity. I prefer and use T7 loose but then you may have to deal with another problem in your bore called the 'crud ring' and in most cases is not a big deal if you most patch between shots at the range.

What ever you decide - good luck and come back for any other questions you might have.

Pellets was always a bad idea. Use powder and speedloaders to hunt with. You measure it out at home, and load just as fast as pellets in the field.

BH209 seems like it's the way to go for loose powder. That said, I haven't switched to it yet as my muzzle loader can't shoot it.

I like the pellets more than most guys on here because when hunting I find them a lot easier to handle that loose powder. That said, I also have some loose powder I use sometimes at the range. My current muzzle loader shoots the pellets and the powder to the exact same POI and it acts exactly the same. So I use the loose powder at the range to save money, and pellets in the field.

However, the Genesis I used to have loved the Pyrodex pellets, but I tried T7 pellets and the groups opened up. Being that it shot better with Pyrodex, and Pyrodex was cheaper I stuck with it. I then later tried the loose powder in it, and the groups opened up to huge groups. I thought something had gone wrong with the gun. I was literally getting 4" groups with 100 grains of loose Pyrodex. I switched back to pellets and it went back to shooting it's normal 1" groups. I'm not sure what the deal with that gun was, but it hated loose powder and loved pellets, so that's what I used in it.

So as you can see I like both, but you really need see which one your gun likes.

I have a an endeavor and I don't think once you have tried it. You would use anything but bh209. SL brought up have the clean the BP more often, I have not had this issue with the hotter federal 209A primers. I have been at the range with 50+ shots without one fail to fire. Your gun should love a 110gr. Load with the hornady 250 shockwave. With this setup in my endeavor I can hold well under sub moa off of a bench. I must be a lucky one, others have complained about triggers and hinge pin issues with theirs. I have had zero issues! And the link MD/FG gave is a great place to buy from and you will not find a better price tyd.

Thanks for the response everyone. It looks like it will be blackhorn 209 for me. What are your opinions on the 250 grain shockwaves I have decided to try out of the encore? Thanks and keep em comin'.

I would also recommend loose over pellets, BH209 or T7 IMO. If you must use pellets, I've actually found that Pyrodex pellets tend to be more accurate than T7 pellets for some reason, and I've heard that from other people as well. But loose powder is much more versatile and cheaper.

As for your bullet choice, I prefer the 200 grain Shockwave myself, but many, many deer have fallen to the 250 unbonded as well. If you use the unbonded version I would not recommend using max loads of powder. Something in the 90 - 110 grains of loose powder should be good.