SwampCollie

Well, I really really love my TC Encore. I think its a handsome gun, that handles well, and is a very great concept.

However, over the year I have owned it, I've never been able to get it to shoot factory ammo under 3". My handloads brought it to around 2"... but thats all it will do.

Its a 7mm-08. I have a single piece Tally Ring/base with a Leupold VX-III 3.5-10x50. Had a gunsmith do a trigger job, and the trigger is a beatifully crisp 2.5#s. I installed a Bellm heavy duty lock up spring and oversized hinge pin (size 2). That helped, as it used to shoot 5" groups.

I'm shooting from a Lead Sled. My three shot groups have taken me about 4 hours to shoot. Time is something I've got for the barrel to cool. The groups are not two shoots close and then a flyer, they are really all over the place. Its shooting perfect triangles. Everything is good and tight, I've checked and rechecked.

Back in June, I noticed the wood stock was broken right at the wrist, so I replaced it with a Flex-tech stock. I called TC beforehand to see if they would send another if I returned the broken one. No dice. I was kind of supprised. It appears that since SW has taken over, the notoriously poor service of SW has rubbed off on the reputedly great service of TC. Who knows?

Anyway, I have fired literally every type of factory ammo made through this gun. Remington 120s and 140s, Hornady Light Mag SSTs and Interloc SPs, Federal 140 ballistic tips and 150 Hot Cores, Winchester Power Points and Ballistic Silver tips.

I have handloaded 140 and 120gr TSX bullets (which ain't cheap). Also 100gr flat base varmint bullets and 162 Interlocks. The 162s acctually shoot the best, averaging around 1.75-2" groups. But for the nearly $1000 I have in this rig (not including the near $400 worth of ammo I've had to fool with, and my time which is nearly a YEAR now), I'm a little frustrated.

Anyone got any ideas what the issue might be? Should I send the barrel back to TC? Help.

Lubricious

Put some white out on the crown and go shoot it to see if it leaves a somewhat symetrical pattern.

idunno

HUH?

Lubricious

The residue will show up clearly on the white out. It will show whether or not his crown is messed up. I know they make some just for that purpose but whiteout is usually close at hand.

cataway

wow SwampCollieyour whole post is like a bad memory, my stock broke but it was on a 209X50 ,at least they did replace it . i had a 708 TC, as well it would not shoot a respectable group either i did finally find a load that worked good but the velocity was down to 2400 fps ,i was getting all most that from my TC 730 waters. TC replaced it but i never shot it ,traded it for a 7 mag barrel at a local gun store.
i went to synthetic stocks to.
some time back there was a guy on here that claimed he could fix the problem with the 708 ,some thing to do with the chamber,maybe he was re chambering sorry memory is not what it once was . you could send it back to TC with a nice long letter stating how unhappy you are with it ,i know people have done that ,i my self included ,told them i wanted a barrel that had been proven ,but that a different story involving a 300 mag

bigcountry

I had to do alot of work to get my encore to shoot. I had the action and barrel hole both milled out to accomidate an oversized hinge pin to where you need to tap it in. Before the holes were mismatched within .005". Second, I had my forearm freefloated, and pillar bedded. Lastly, a nice trigger job.

Went from a 2.5MOA or worse shooter to a .7MOA shooter.

Also, have you tried just using fireformed brass, and only nocking back the shoulders .002" or less?

SwampCollie

I have been using fireformed brass, and then just neck resizing. Nocking back the shoulders a couple .001's is a bit over my vocabulary Big, and I appologise, but I'm not exactly sure I'm picking up what you are puttin down for me.

Lubricious; I have thought that the crown, or in the case of my barrel lack there of, might have something to do with how the gun performs. I'll check it out and see what it does. I just took the scope off the thing to put it on another rifle. (Ironically another 7mm-08... only a Rem 700 light varmint). Took the original scope from it to put on a 300 WSM that was going to be going to Africa until my travel buddy backed out on me. So it goes.

Thanks all. I'll shoot that thing tmw with some white out and report back later this week.