Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders New to the world of muzzleloading, and have a few questions...

Not only am I new to muzzleloading, but also new to this sight. I have to say that it consumes most of my online surfing.

I thought I would throw this out there. I recently drew a muzzleloader tag in a Army Ammunition Plant here in SE Iowa. I was able to pick up a T/C encore, 209 X 50 at a great price. I have a 3X9X40 scope on it also.

I realize that ammo possiblities are somewhat endless. I thought I would throw a question out to to other encore users as a place to start. Powder, ammo, etc. I thought I would see what works best for others, and go from there.

I would love to get 200 yards out of it (with much practice, I know). Any information would be helpful.

Thanks!

joe

If you are going to try 200 yrd shots......you will have a bunch of exprimenting to do.Powder charges...bullet weights.....different brands of bullets.etc

I dont have an Encore but my inline shoots Powerbelts best.Some people dont like em but they work for me.I shoot 100 grains of BP behind 295 gr bullets.

I'm not big on pellets or plastic but you might want to take a look at the pages at http://theoutdoorquest.com/. Rich and TJ are cool guys and would probably be a great resource for talking Encore loads.

Once excerpt from http://theoutdoorquest.com/blog.htm mentions a load they have used with great success up north (not only in the Pro Hunter they mention there, but in Omega rifles and the regular Encores as well: "First on the bench was the 209x50 and it didn�t take long before it was punching one-inch groups in the paper. TJ settled on a load of three Pyrodex pellets and a 250-grain Shockwave bullet."

But even with that much power you NEED to become very familiar with the load's trajectory and do more than a little practice. Try very hard for exact duplication with each load, anything short of that effort will not get you anywhere near acceptable hunting accuracy at that range.

I use a Leopold VXII 3X-9X on a T/C pro hunter .50 shooting the .40 200 grain shock-wave with 105 grains of 777 2-f loose powder. Sighted in at 100 yards if I use the juction of the thick and thin cross hair I am dead on at 200 yards with about 2 1/2 inch groups.

I have shot both the 250 gr shock-wave and the 200 gr shock-wave and the 200 gr shock-wave has about 2-3 inches less drop at 200 yards, at least in my T/C rifles.

Doc

They are kinda pricey but Barnes sabots seem to be easy to get to shoot good. I have seen guns that would not group anything else very good shoot them accurate. miles

Thanks guys for the info. Any information helps me out at this time. Ill keep you posted.

joe

If you want 200 yards go with a sabot, not a bore-sized bullet.

Welcome to the Campfire, fellow Iowan. I like this bullet out of my Savage ML: http://www.prbullet.com/ .

Thanks, its good to be here. I am actually getting my first couple rounds for it tomorrow. Thanks for the information also. I will keep you posted.

joe

That gun should take up to 150 grains of BP/substitute if I am correct. Of course that does not mean you have to shoot that much. If you do not have much time to develop a load, I think that 100 grains and any of the commercially available sabot loads will give you an accurate rifle to 150 yards (maybe a few less). You may be able to stuff 150 grains down the tube and be able to group it well also. To really tune it to a great shooter at 200 yards may take some experimenting though.

If you don't have much time to develop the load, call T/C and ask them what combinations they are shooting to get their ad copy, that would be a start. One thing that will suprise you though is that Muzzleloaders are/can be very accurate without much work... (the work is the fun part though)

Thanks guys. Ill give that a shot, and look forward to shooting!

joe

Laser rangefinder! Drop past 150 can be significant, but easily accommodated. The real problem is wind drift.I only take long shots on calm days.

A good friend of mine has 2 T/C Encore MZ barrels.

He swears by triple seven either in powder or pellet form, and shoots the 250gr TC shockwaves VERY accurately! 1.5" or less for 3 shots at a 100 yds and I've seen him do it several times on several different days.

He has also relayed good performace of this bullet on large deer at up to 150 yards.

IIRC he likes about 100gr's of powder.

that's what I'd try first.

I'm in the same boat and bought the same encore 209x50.
I want to shoot the deadcenter 240 gr but am wondering if I should go with 100 or 150 gr of 777 pellets. I live in the great plains and want to be able to take that 200 yd shot with confidence if I have to. I'm waiting on my 3x9x40 Burris fullfield II with the ballistic plex reticle. Bought that on sale at cabelas for $199 with a free pair of Burris binos.

If any of you want to save me some time and ammo let me know what you've experienced with the 100 and 150 grain loads.

Thanks!

The load I shoot in my TC Encore is the 250 grain Shockwave propelled by 105 grains of Triple 7 loose powder.

It has worked wonderfully on all of the (4) White tailed deer I've taken with it.

Keith

Because of the poor ballistics coefficient of muzzleloader bullets (compared to rifle bullets), I believe a maximum charge (150 grains) is necessary to have a sufficient velocity for the required 200 yard trajectory.

I have tested my TC Encore over my chronograph with 2 pellets (100 grains) of 777 and 3 pellets (150 grains) of 777. With 2 pellets my average velocity was 1650 fps and with 3 pellets the average velocity jumped to 2220 fps. Using the 245 grain Barnes Spitfire I can achieve consistent minute of angle groups with 100 or 150 grain of powder. I sight all my rifles in using a point blank range of +/- 3 inches from zero. With the velocity of I get from 2 pellets I set my zero at 135 yards, the rifle is +3� at 85 yards and -3� at 157 yards. With three pellets of powder I get 570 fps velocity gain, this allows me to set zero at 172 yards. The rifle is then +3� at 120 yards and 3� low at 201 yards. I have gained 44 yards to my point blank range. I hunt in areas where a 200 yard or greater shot is not out of the question, I get a sense of confidence knowing that if the animal is within 200 yards all I have to do is hold steady on the center of the vitals and squeeze. The difference in bullet energy is also dramatic; from my encore the three pellet charge has the same energy at 150 yards as the 2 pellet charge does at the muzzle.

With all this said, I believe a hunter first obligation is to be accurate; a well placed round with half the energy is always better than a gutshot with lots of energy. My advice is to find out what works for you and your gun and then use ballistics tables and practice to determine your maximum range.

1olhunter
Thanks a bunch for that great information!!