How much powder?

[BigBull]

I just got a new TC Encore and was wanting to know if i should shoot 100 grains or 150 grains of powder in it.I'm going to shoot 240 or 245 gr. TC Shockwaves out of it.


Thanks for Helping

BigBull

[Jabba]

I have said this before... but I see you're new.

Shooting those pelletized powders IMO is putting the cart before the horse. They are expensive too.

Personally it makes a lot more sense to me to find the bullet you want to shoot for YOUR style of hunting... then adjust your loose powder charge till you find the combination that shoots the best.

But... I know there are a lot of guys out there that go by the "More is better" school of powder thought.

Jabba

[Rimshot]

BigBull,
Send a private message to EncoreBilly.
He has tested his Encore on many, many load combinations and has some good data built up. (Heavy and Light bullets and Heavy and light powder loads) He shoots a lot of pellets rather than loose powder.
I prefer loose powder but I am a tight wad.

[EncoreBilly]

Try 100 gr first with the 250 shockwave,then see what it does with 110.
This year I shot 300gr shockwave with 2-30's and a 50 in pellet form and was very pleased.If I where shooting 250 in mine I would use two 50's and see what you got.
By the way Hornaday SST's the same bullet,only difference the Shockwave tip a little longer .005,but shoot the same poi.
I have used the 300 gr the last two years, 4 deer,and liked the knock down performence better than the 250.Still can make the 150yd shot with out much drop.
And yes rimshot can really drag out a can of 777.

[Jabba]

Man... A lot of Indiana guys on this thread!

Encore Billy... You should try some big bullets.

I shoot a 450 grain solid, flat nose in a sabot. I have shot 16 deer in 3 years with them (including a couple clean ups for guys that had deer wounded) and they are flat out awesome. I was shooting full size 600 grain solids before that.

My last doe was around 150 yards. Even with a 450 grain flat nose!


Jabba

[Omega]

My Encores really like Pyrodex pellets, all my TC MLs do. The easiest load is two 50 grain pellets and a 240 XTP or 250 SST. While I 've shot less than a dozen critters from deer to caribou with the Encores, my wife and I have over 20 kills with our Omegas. The 250 SST acounts for most of the critters although at the end of the season this year I whacked 2 mule bucks with the 200 grain Shockwave. Did a great job, I may have found a new favorite. We use 150 grain loads of Pyro pellets for all our hunting.

[rem 700]

use 100 grains- more power more fun; well, with that size of bullet i'd like more power to increase range, velocity and power on deer sized game

[Purebred Redneck]

If you are using pellets, go ahead and use 100.

If you are shooting loose powder, I'd look at the 85-90 range. 250grain bullet is nothing to push and I think that bullet will be more stablized at a lower velocity.

[DocHunter]

My experience with two TC Encore 209x50 was that mine shot very poorly with bullets of less than 300 gr. I have generally used 100 gr. of Pyrodex with a 300 gr. bullet for deer, and 120-150gr. of Pyrodex with a 330 gr. bullet for elk. My best accuracy comes with less than 150 gr. of Pyrodex. You certainly don't need over 100 gr. of Pyrodex for deer loads.

[gumpokc]

another thing you can try is to see how much powder your weapon can efficently use.

take a large white sheet(bedsheet) and hang it about 5 feet in frotn of your firing position. loadup your weapon, and fire it through the sheet. If you get alot of powder residue on the sheet, then that is too much of a load, and your literally throwing unburnt powder downrange.

backoff till you dont get much, you'll always get some, it being a BP weapon as all, but if it is noticable, backoff.

same goes for working out a maxloading, work up till you start getting noticable amounts of residue on the sheet, then backoff a hair, and you know the maximum powder charge your weapon can realistically use.

Sure there's people how dont care, but some of us have a J.O.B (just over broke) and cant aford to be throwing powder downrange willynilly.