Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Are all Encores this bad?

A buddy asked me to work up a load for his Encore Prohunter in 44 mag. First of the ergonomics don't work for me but the worst part is the trigger. It's got to be 7 lbs and feels like I'm pulling a concrete block across the pavement. It makes trying to find an accurate load very frustrating.

I'm glad he's paying for components.

i have had a few. i think he just has a rough one. good news is the triggers can be tuned very easily to be a good trigger. mine have been very accurate. never tried 44mag though.

mine encore rifle barrels were not really tack drivers, but i have found Bergara barrels to be more accurate.

i had a bergara barrel. one. the chamber was cut wrong somehow and the brass came out egg shaped. they didn't seem too interested in helping me out on it. last one i bought from them.

I've put about 80 rounds through this one. Cleaned it 4 times in the first 50. I shot the last 30 without cleaning it. I can SEE copper on the lands. That could have something to do with it too.

That said, I'm holding about 2 1/2 at 100 with IMR 4227 and 240 gr XTP.

I have two receivers and several barrels, they all shoot pretty decent and one 22-250 barrel shoots very well. My one receiver has a 3 pound trigger but the second one had a trigger job and its down to 21 ounces. its a little too light for most use. One thing I have found with the encore is that I get more repeatable accuracy when using rubber orings or neoprene washers to �float� the for end. It seems to keep POI shift to a minimum when swapping barrels.

You could fire-lap the bore, if you were inclined. I got a 44 mag contender factory bbl where I could see tooling marks in the bore. 1st thing I did was fire-lap with cast bullets and lapping compound. It worked very well, and my bbl has zero issue with metal fouling. My gripe is the poorly thought out forcing cone inside instead of a std chamber cut. Morons. MIne shoots really well, but I've never put it to paper for groups. Seems like 2.5" at 100 is plenty good for the cartridge's range capabilities.

They have headspace issues sometimes. I had a Bullberry custom in 22-250 with the hanger bars. I hated the single screw vs. the double. The fore end always shifted. They tried to make up for it with a huge float job but I never cared for it though I heard you can bed it with the hangers and it is better. The action job on mine was nice and the trigger was super light. Under a pound. For the money though I couldn't get used to it. I bought a 22 lr barrel in 16 inches and a 243 barrel iin 16 inches and used it to teach my son to shoot. In the end the blast from the 243 was just to much and after the one season I sold it in pieces. Mike Belm can help with the trigger and head space issues. Bullberry and a few others make custom barrels. There was a nice write up on a custom benchrest rifle built on one but in my mind with the fore end issues it is just to delicate for me. A friend bought one stock and he shoots sub moa with it but I just can't get used to the chance that pressures on different parts of the fore end can affect it so easily. I can say with the Hanger bar setup my son did shoot a few 1.5 -2" groups in 22-250 at 250+ yards at 11 years old. It was accurate if you where careful but not a hunting rifle to me. Others love theirs and if they are satisfied great.

I also had issues with the stock fore end and the tiny screws they use from the factory. The extractor on a custom shop 22 looked like it was slotted to deep or the extractor was wrong because they would bulge slightly with brass right there. I ordered a new extractor and they wouldn't cover it. They also wouldn't cover my Icon when and action screw stripped. The guy told me I had used to much torque. I told him I had used 60" pounds on a very accurate torque wrench and asked him if I used to much what should it be? He flat out told me he didn't know. The he charged me 30 bucks for two action screws. I pressed again for the spec so I wouldn't make a mistake and he weant and asked an engineer and they said 65" pounds. I was pretty po'd and this was after S and W took over. I loved the icon and it would put 5 handloads into a neat hole of a bipod. After the service issues I left TC never to return.

To clarify mine did have the hanger fore end mated by them. It was just a glued in piece of wood route for the hangers. I was told it could be bedded as well but never pursued it. I have also shot a friends 7mm-08 hand gun in an older Encore and it was my first time shooting a pistol. Of t of bags managed 1.-2" group at 10 yards which was impressive tome but the recoil made the trigger guard cut into my finger pretty bad so 3 shots was all I wanted to take with it.

I can tell you my dad bought one in .30-06 about ten years ago. Went through about four boxes of factory Hornady ammo trying to get it zeroed over a couple days. Could have been the scope, but it was a new Leupold, so I doubt it. I was not impressed.

The triggers are on the heavy side, but for cheap you can replace the springs. I have a mgm 6.5 creedmoor and bergara 243 barrel and both shoot under an inch if I do my part. Hornady factory match for the creedmoor and winchester powerpoints for the 243.. im sure reloads will do better. I plan to replace my trigger springs with belm springs to bring it down to 3-4 lbs in the near future

I love mine. All my barrels (mostly bellm, MGM, and bergara) flat out shoot, and bellm trigger parts do wonders. I'm not high on TC, at all. Bergara may turn out a bad barrel on occasion, but TC does it often....to the point of stamping 7-08s as 243, and such. It's a super handy hunting package, that fills a niche. They don't fill all niches, though.