Fired my New Englander for the first time this morning. The bore was dirty when the gun was bought: Was concerned the bore had rusted. Cleaned the gun and chunked a small medical flashlight down the bore backwards: It was all shiny: Lucky.

Checked the sights with a laser boresighter the other day and they seemed to be on target. This morning i decided to shoot the 370 grain Maxi-Balls. Had trouble seeing the front sight so i put some orange paint on the bead: Worked great.

i tried 80 grains of Goex Pinnacle 2f and the 370 grain Maxi-Ball: Wrong answer. All three shots were hangfires and bullets went all over the 50 yard target.

Went to 80 grains of Pyrodex RS and it seemed to shoot about 2"
low at 50 yards. Upped the charge to 90 grains and the first round was in the 2" bullseye. Fired a three shot group that measured about 3.5" and quit.

Will try again in a couple weeks. That gun does not balance well; its barrel heavy and balances just behind the barrel wedge. Its probably because of the hollow Tupperware stock. If i can't find a wood stock the barrel may get hacked off to 21 or 22 inches.

http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/4898/dsc01350x.jpg

Nice looking New Englander. I have three of them and they all shoot good. Although one is a shotgun.

These guys might be able to help you?

http://www.longrifles-pr.com/thompsoncenter.shtml

woooweee is that some green grass!

You may want to consider another bullet in that rifle. Some guys don't like them but I have had a few 1:48 rifles that shot the 275 gr Maxihunter very well.

Might take the recoil pad off and see if you could put some weight in the stock to create a better balance.

I ended up putting a bunch of lead shot in a zip lock in one of my stocks. Then when I found the weight I wanted I filled the zip and lead with silicone caulk and put that inside. The caulk dried and I had nice weighted wedge that i could remove anytime I wanted...

Thanks, Bronko.

Will do that. Don't have any 275 grain Maxi-Hunters. i've got some 320 grain Maxi-Balls, will give them a try. Will try to pick up some of the 275 grainers too.

Yeah it is. Thats big bluestem grass and its growing good this year, thanks to good moisture; so far. This stuff can get 5-6" feet tall: The deer bed in that grass in winter.

Thanks Sabotloader. i'll do that.

I like the looks of it. Like a modernized side hammer.

I don't know if it's legal to use them for hunting in your state but you might try some sabots and bullets. They don't hurt your shoulder nearly as much. The 1 in 48 inch twist is an all around twist and just might shoot them very well.

try goin down to 70 grains pyro on those 370-maxis. shrunk my groups.