Anyone shooting cast out of an encore?

[OKIE]

Does anyone have any experience shooting cast bullets out of an encore? Any feed back good and bad would be appreciated. Thanks. Okie

[Tom W.]

I did when I had my 30/06 pistol barrel. Never killed anything, but had a great time at the range!

Oh. 160 grain Lee g/c bullets.

[trickyasafox]

10in 44 mag encore barrel- haven't shot but maybe 50 - 75 through it, but all have been LSWC 240gr that I got in trade a while ago. I haven't noticed any significant leading pushing them hard or slow.

Since I've had that barrel it hasn't seen any jacketed, but I am not the original owner.

[largom]

I have 3 Encore frames and 8 or 10 rifle barrels. Every barrel has been a problem. None would shoot accurate until I lapped them. I am shooting cast out of a 308 Win. barrel now. Barrel shoot 4-5 in. groups at 50 yds. until I lapped it very extensively, now shoots clover leafs. I an shooting Lyman 311041 with an alloy of 66% lead/33%WW.
Larry

[JohnH]

I've been shooting the RCBS 257120 out of my 25-06 Encore for the last three years and it has been outstanding from the get go. The barrel is a box stock TC 24" blue. I did absolutely nothing but run some 40 rounds of jacketed through it before shooting cast. Breaking clays at 200 yards from the bench is all the fun a fella can stand. I took it on a Pdog shoot 2 years ago and was connecting regularly at 150-180 yards. Certainly no explosive hits, but the boolits rolled 'em over and left 'em down every time.

There are certainly some cast unfriendly barrels out there. I had an awful time with a TC stainless 375 JDJ just prior to the 25-06 success. I have encountered a few lousy barrels on guns built by other makers as well, so there is a lot more to the story than the rumor "TC barrels won't shoot cast". The real truth is that you won't know if your barrel is a lousy, decent or great shooter untill you actually shoot it.

Keep your initial experimentation velocities inside the 1400-1800 fps window as good results are easy to attain there; and if the barrel won't shoot there it is unlikely it will shoot faster. If it is a new barrel, run 40-100 rounds of full juice jacketed through it to help slick it up. Use a good copper solvent and get the barrel clean before your cast shooting. Good powders for initial tests are Unique, 2400, 4198 and 5744.

[part_timer]

I'm shooting 180g boolits out of a 19" fox ridge encore bbl in 357max. Both ww's and 50/50 ww/lino with no problems, yes I'm using gas checks. Groups are about 1" or less at 50 yards depending on my eyes on a given day.

I hope to start experimenting with a 16 1/2" fox ridge 7.62x39 my wife bought me for fathers day a couple of years ago. I'm goingt to start with a LEE 150gr fp sized to .309 and go from there. We'll see what happens.

[OKIE]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the feed back. I have it from a good source that Santa is bringing me an encore in 444. I should marry any girl that buys me a gun. Thanks again. Okie

[part_timer]

Okie, I did 20 years ago. She's bought me 4 since then.