gregrn43

A friend brought over his encore that he bought used several months ago. He wanted me to sight it in for him. He also has a rifle barrel in a 243 win for it which I had no trouble sighting it in. The bullets were bonded shock waves 250gr and the pwd was T7 pellets. This is my first experience with pellets, I always use loose pwd. This is a older encore without the speedbreach. A 4 inch group was the tightest group that I could get the muzzleloading barrel to shoot. I was using 2 pellets. Also when starting the bullet the first 4 inches of the barrel was the tightest of any muzzleloader I have ever seen and it felt very rough like it might be corroded. After getting passed the first 4 inches it was no problem seating the bullet. I swabbed between each shot with alcohol. I have heard people on here talk about having to tweak there encores a bit and was wondering what kind of tweaking might need to be done? Thanks for any help.

Shack56

The changes I did for my Encore was I went to BH209 (100gr. to start). Installed a Mike Bellm trigger kit, and the change that made the biggest difference was going to an oversize hinge pin. www.bellmtcs.com/store/index.php?cid=7 . You could actually feel the slop in the barrel to frame. Good luck, Steve

lemoyne

The barrel by TC are cut rifled and some times have burrs sounds like some JB bore polish is indicated.
Yhe only powder I have any problems getting to shoot wel in my Encore is 777 I have not shot any since Blackhorn came out, Pyrodex works well if he insists on pellets try some.

rafsob

I had a similar problem and knew I had a tight spot in the barrel. I sent it back to the factory and they said it didn't. But they must have done something because it was gone when I got it back.

Now one thing about these TC barrels. They like to make them very tight and it can be very difficult to run a bullet or sabot down the tube. I have heard this complaint about them from many guys.

Now as to accuracy, I would pay close attention to the recommended load for the Encore ML'der. If I remember right they call for a 250 saboted SST with 150 grs of powder.

I had the duty one day at my range and watched a guy try to group his Encore and was getting more and more peeved at not having any success. He was shooting only two pellets (100 grs) and I told him to try three pellets (150 grs.) His group tightened up and he told me thanks. I would give it a try and see if that works. Good luck.

Landngroove

Did you use a light and look into the bore to see if is pitted, and corroded?

scottycoyote

first couple inches of mine is tighter too, but no problems with accuracy. I shoot 200 to 250 grain powerbelts, 110 to 120 grains of loose bh209, also have the oversized lockable hinge pin on mine.

falcon

i have the same Encore. The bore of my gun was very rough. It took two sessions with jewelers rouge to smooth it out. Bought one box of 777 pellets and quickly discovered my Encore did not like them at all. The problem may be that deep recess in the front of the breech plug. There was vertical stringing, a sign of inconsistent ignition. Pyrodex pellets gave much better accuracy in my Encore. The gun also liked 777 granular much better.

The old black and red four petal sabots that came with the SST/Shockwave bullets load very hard in my gun but they give the best accuracy. Those sabots have a stepped base.

Slow Burn

I have one of the earlier encore models, in the beginning I had very similar results. I tried the 150 gr Pyrodex RS with 250 gr SST and about 4" group at 100 yards was my best group. I ended up going with 120 gr of Pyrodex RS and a 300 gr SST. I ended up having a friend make me some brass adapters to shoot 400 small bore rifle primers and my accuracy definitely improved, but I can't swear that the primer is the key to accuracy. I have heard that the locker pin is an enhancement to the accuracy,but I have my doubts about that as well. Since the scope is mounted to the barrel I don't see reasoning other than taking some slack out of the receiver but I have 2 encores and both are very well made and have a very tight tolerance. My encore did improve but it was more likely removing rough spots in the barrel from machining. All firearms regardless will have machining marks, I would use some JB's or slug your barrel and use some lapping compound. Mine is like fine wine, it gets better with time. I have take several deer at various ranges and it performs as wellas any rifle. I actually prefer my encore over almost all my center fire rifles except for my Sharps Hartford model. The Hornady SST bullet with the sabot that comes with the are tight, but the SST Lowdrag tends to load easier but the shoot very well in mine. Inever could get good groups with T7 in mine, but my son has had great success in hisrifle. My other ML's get good results. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

V/R
Mike

gregrn43

No I didnt,

gregrn43

Thanks for the advice fellers. I have some JB bore paste and will try some of that.