help with a hard loading encore 50 cal
 

just bought a new t/c encore that everyones talking about in 50 cal,whys it so hard to load up the bullets wont go down easily very hard,im using bore butter 100 grains of 777 loose and a t/c xtp 245 grain sabot and shockwaves and barnes expanders all with the black plastic jackets,hurts so bad my palms bleed and l;ast week i got one stuck had to have my gunsmith remove if was jammed so tight,triple seven help me before i sell this inline??i spit patch after every shot which i dont have to do with my knight disc extreme,help my e-mail is [email protected] why are they so hard other than the old well the barrels are so close fitted excuse,,

RE: help with a hard loading encore 50 cal
 

T/C bores seem to be tighter with the encores and omegas. my omega isnt very bad though, and ive not heard of any being so tight that palms bleed. ouch...uh, try powerbelts which are smaller and maybe call T/C and see what they say, they have excellent customer service. if its really that bad, they may send you a new barrel or something, i dont know.

RE: help with a hard loading encore 50 cal
 

I would not recommend the use of the bore butter. I would start all my shooting on a clean dry barrel. As for why your barrel is so tight... usually that can be solved with a change of sabots. But since your shooting Thompson Center products in a T/C rifle I would think that should have worked.

I think I would telephone Thompson Center and discuss this problem with them....

RE: help with a hard loading encore 50 cal
 

T/C had some problems with sabot being made a little to big but it sounds like you are having trouble with other mfg as well.

I could not even load the Shockwaves I bought this fall in my Encore I ended up twice having to take the gun apart and and use a block of wood and hammer to drive the things out the breech. I know some sabots are tight but this was incredeble.

I called T/C and they said some of the sabots made for them were oversized and they will send you some free ones to fix the problem.

BTW I use a T-handle screwed onto the end of my ram rod while shooting at the range and have a little block of wood with a 3/8 hole about half way through it to put on top of the ram rod when reloading in the field.

Sabots are great but you have to put up with some hard loading while you experiment.

RE: help with a hard loading encore 50 cal
 

tell ya what i own a knight disc extreme now problems what so ever,you would think using t/cs sabots it would shoot in a t/c gun.ive even had the barrel lapped in still no way,,im ythinking about powerbelts or a sabot without the plastic jacket??any one else??help

RE: help with a hard loading encore 50 cal
 

45/50 black Harvester sabots
44/50 green MMP sabots
Barnes Spitfire sabot/bullets
Harvester Sabertooths
Powerbelts
Buffalo sabot/bullets
Precision Dead Centers/QT sabot/bullets.... especially 40/50s
Bulk bullets like XTPs/Gold Dots in .429 and .451 with Harvesters/MMPs

Call T/C & complain. Ask them why they changed from MMP to thicker Hornady plastic sabots. Hopefully, they still have some leftover MMPs to send you.

Also... get a good T-handle for your ramrod or buy a range rod. Aways use a clean, dry bore & use lots of spit on that patch. Very lightly, lube around the plastic sabot with bore butter..... but don't put any on the bore walls.

One last thing... make sure you're using a quality solvent that removes plastic, copper & lead WITH A BORE BRUSH. I even use a bore brush for swabbing at the range. Most blackpowder solvents & stuff like Hoppes #9 are pretty weak.

RE: help with a hard loading encore 50 cal
 

buck slayer i can sympathize with you here are my dealings with my friends new to him encore (209X50), btw i have one also and have never had a minutes trouble with it..

http://forum.hunting.net/asppg/fb.asp?m=814074&key=

btw he is now shooting 1.25-1.5 groups and is very happy with the gun, in fact t/c told him to send it back but he is so pleased with the shooting now he says he is not going to return it. also the pics of the maxi balls we ran down the tube didn't give justice of how bad they looked in person, really needed a magnified pic to show how bad they were.

best of luck, and like everyone else has mentioned contact t/c these folks seem to bend over backwards to help

RE: help with a hard loading encore 50 cal
 

My Omega is almost as tight as what you are describing. I finally went to Hornady bullets with harvester sabots to be able to load them. Powerbelts load easy and I am in the middle of trying the Sabretooth from harvester. I ran a light polishing with JB bore paste (200 strokes up and 200 down) which helped a little. If you have a stainless barrel they seem to be slightly more difficult to load due to the nature of stainless when it is machined it tends to leave rough surface compared to 4140 steel (my Omega is stainless).

RE: help with a hard loading encore 50 cal
 

mines stainless also,i already did the bore job with the jb paste still hard to load,my next step is a different sabot,powerbelts or something meantime i contacted t/c but i dont know if theyll help since its a used gun,,ive been told encore and omega barrels are the same basically,real close tolerances but id sacrifice some of that just soi could shoot the thing..

RE: help with a hard loading encore 50 cal
 

Get one of these. It'll get rid of the bleeding palms!

RE: help with a hard loading encore 50 cal
 

I have slugged my bore and it is .500 on the money. I think one of the problems is that t/c uses a rather shallow rifling which is slanted towards sabots. Many of the other rifle barrels use deeper grooves which allows the sabot material a place to flow when loading. It also allows for a little more fouling as the grooves will give the fouling a place to go. I find that the thinner Harvester sabots make loading at least possible although the Powerbelts still load the easiest. I shoot the Hornady 300SST bullet but in a Harvester sabot for my first shot hunting. If I need a second fast follow-up shot I load a 295gr. Powerbelt and the POI is very close at 100 yards and worked just fine for me this year as my elk did not go down on the first shot and I had a second one in and shot within about 30 seconds. I am looking at Harvester Sabretooth bullets as they are less expensive than the Powerbelts.

RE: help with a hard loading encore 50 cal
 

powerbelts are expensive no doubt about a buck a piece,,,,and i have a starting toolas pictured thats not the problem,after that using the ramrod is very tough..im going to try some thinner sabots like harvester orgreen mmp but were do you get them at??midway doesnt have em..??

RE: help with a hard loading encore 50 cal
 

buckslayer88,


http://www.wholesalehunter.com/produ...slerSabots.htm

www.mmpsabots.com - call them talk on the phone you are going to want the HPH-24's - the thin ones.

www.claybusterwads.com/harvester.html

www.gamaliel.com

www.midwayusa.com

www.prbullet.com

These are some places you might look at...

Got your e-mail will try to get some stuff off to you middle of the week...

Mike

RE: help with a hard loading encore 50 cal
 

I got my Harvesters at Midsouth Shooters Supply. I find they usually are less expensive than Midway. I also bought some 300gr. copper coated cast bullets that shoot good in them (try to stay at .451 or smaller). Harvester P/N H5045SB for 300gr. bullets or lighter. $4.23 per 50.

RE: help with a hard loading encore 50 cal
 

Get yourself a solid range rod for load development.

Also, ensure that you have removed all of the packing lube from the barrel. I use a quality bore solvent for this task like Butch's Bore Shine. 20-30 strokes with a brush and 20-30 strokes with patches.

Also, spit/damp patch, alcohol patch and dry patch inbetween each shot.
Try to ensure that the barrel is clean and bone dry.

The sabot is likely too large and as soon as you start getting any fouling buildup, then the more difficult loading begins. The xtp should not be that tough to load. The SST or Shockwave albeit a fantastic projectile is tougher to load.

I also like to shoot at least 40 lubed conicals and wads at moderate charge to help break in the new barrel. After shooting 20 conicals, use the bore solvent to remove any leading and continue. This is just something that I've found to help get a barrel broken in versus reaching for the lapping compound first thing.

RE: help with a hard loading encore 50 cal
 

I have had my Encore for 2 years now and love the accuracy I get. It was really tight but reading posts on here I took advice to shoot a lot of solid lead bullets with my encore to loosen the barrel. It has seemed to help and the use of bore butter doesnt help but just hurts accuracy with sabots

RE: help with a hard loading encore 50 cal
 

Buckslayer, please read the long answer I posted in Bellm's m-loader forum. I'm telling you Dead Centers are great! Jim