I am looking to buy a new muzzlloader. I would like to get a TC Encore. A buddy of mine has one and he said that when he is using the muzzlloader barrell, once he makes the first shot and needs to make another, he can no longer get the bullet and powder to pack all the way into the barrell. He said that he has to take it home and clean it before he can get another load in it, after only one shot! I wanted to know from anyone else if they or anyone they know has experienced this same problem?

i have to clean mine every 3rd shot or it gets very tough[:@], check with the crowd on the black powder forum, BTW i love my 209X50 tc encore,
and welcome to the forums

I dont have trouble after one shot, but it does get harder to push a saboted bullet down the barrel the more shots you make, it usually gets pretty tough by the 5th shot or so. I changed to the Powerbelt bullets, and got the same or better accuracy, and they push down the barrel much easier. I love mine and use it for lots of my hunting, both muzzleloader and rife. You cant go wrong with the Encore.

One of the reasons Encores are so accurate is due to the tight tolerances in the barrel.
I shoot one and would not change for anything. I shoot 110 grains of 777 under a 250 grain shockwave sabot. Shoots 3 inches high at 100 yards, 3 inches low at 150 and 7 inches low at 200. Groups at 100 vary from cloverleaf to a max of an inch and a half. The gun is as accurate, if you are consistant w/ loading and technique, as you are. What I do between shots is two spit patches, both sides, then a dry patch, both sides and load again like normal. No extra effort, other than the normal tightness, with another sabot. But, in a reload situation, there is no time to run patches through the barrel and you want a quick reload.

That said, I shoot 250 grain Shockwave sabots and they are very hard to load. I have never tried to load one with a dirty barrel. What I do is keep one tube in my jacket with a 295 grain powerbelt and two 777 50 grain pellets if a followup shot is needed. Couldn't be faster or easier. Just drop in the pellets and the powerbelt loads easily. Now, this load will never equal the power or accuracy of my hunting load, but it is fine to finish off an animal if needed. Have never had to use a second shot though, of the 6 I have taken in the past year, none have gone more than 40 or 50 yards.

So, yes some sabots are hard to load in an Encore, but the effort is very much worth it and you can use a very easy loading power belt for a finish off shot if needed. BTW, this is the only use for powerbelts in my book. They are ok for light to low-moderate powered shooting but perform very poorly when the charges creep up in strength. I have personally had one "blow up" inside a deer from less than 75 yards and seen some others with similar performances.
R
Hank

After the 3rd round I clean the barrel, I can let it go for one more round, but it becomes difficult to load. This is using 150 grs. of Hodgdon 777 and Pyrodex. Good luck.

I asmune that your buddie is using t-7,if so it leaves a crud ring in the barrel after fireing.If you take a patch lick one side run it up and down in short jabs till you get to the breech plug take it out and turn it over run it down and back out of the barrel,you will lesson the crud ring and it should load fairly easy.
I solved this problem by going back to pyro-select still using the patch after each shot.
I use 110 grs of pyro-select and the sst 200 gr bullet when using my encore for hunting.
If you have not set your mind to getting the encore I would take a look at the savage,it will shoot any of the black powder subs plus smokeless.
The encore is one heck of a shooter also.
Another thing some say that useing the new primers from remington that it solves the crud ring problem too but I haven't tried that.