BellM Encore Tune Up Kit, anyone tried one?

[Four Fingers of Death]

Title pretty much says it all. Torn between working hard to get Encore working as well as possible and selling it and the spare barrel.

Lot of work involved to get one working as well as a bolt gun will do with out effort, not worth the effort on the face of it, but annoyingly fascinating at the same time.

I fell that to extract the last bit out of the platform, the tune up kit, shims and springs would be hard to go past.

[stubshaft]

I have not used one of his kits but, have had very few problems in getting both Encores and Contenders to shoot well. What modifications have you made to yours already? What type of forend are you using?

[Four Fingers of Death]

I have two barrels, a 308W original 24" tapered open sighted Bbl with original forend. This forend screws directly onto the bbl which does not impress me greatly.

The other Bbl is a 17Ackerly Hornet Virgin Valley 22" Bull Bbl and it has a laminated forend which is pillar bedded. This forend screws onto a block which is dovetailed into the bbl from what I can remember. Not perfect, but about as good as you can get it I suppose.

No modifications done at this stage. Seems to group ok on the 308 Bbl, been a bit ill last few months and haven't got around to getting the 17 shooting.

The advantage in getting the kit as I can see it would be that I can measure both Bbls exactly as they relate to frame, so that I can set everything up to the same specs for each Bbl.

I'm sure both Bbls will shoot ok, but I'd like to get it so both barrels lock up like a bank vault and shoot as good as they are really capable of.

[stubshaft]

I've not had very good luck myself with forends that are screwed into the barrel. I've pillared them and put in washers to isolate them but the easiest fix was to get a Stratton hangar bar, open up the forend and glass bed the hanger bar into the forend. Because I tend to move my actions around onto different barrels I also installed an EABCO locking hinge pin. It is NOT and oversize pin but has an allen screw and washer to lock it in place. I have found this to assist slightly in getting better consistency and accuracy in my barrels. (Not going to get into an argument over the pro's and con's of oversize pins vs locking ones. It works in my Encores and that's the end of the story.)

I have never used Mikes headspace shims or springs in an Encore. I did use some of his extra strength locking bolt springs in my tenders though. I usually document which barrels shoot best on which frame, and load accordingly. Which means fireforming and using brass specific to the combination I am shooting with.

The best I've gotten with my Encores is mid .2's and with the Tenders mid .1's. (Better trigger on my Tenders).

[selmerfan]

I use the stronger locking bolt springs and stronger hammer spring, as well as the headspace measuring gadget and oversize hinge pins. Not sure if the headspace gadget is worth the money, I can arrive at the same die settings without it, but the tips and information about headspaces and frame gap from Mike are good to know and worth using the feeler gauge for. I'm not sure the oversize pins are the cat's meow either, but I use them and the fit is no longer sloppy like it is with the factory pin, so I'll use it.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I have read my way through his articles a few times. On the last pass through I'm sure he mentioned more consistent accuracy was achieved when lubricants were NOT used. I used caps to ensure you understood what I was saying. Goes against initial thought, but I suppose the lube could make the hinge/ lockup more 'mobile.'

[bearcove]

I think lube can let things move. When they are dry the friction helps hold things in place.

Just a guess though.

I'm close to buying a Savage bolt 30-06 and selling all my T/C stuff. Life would be simpler!

[HEAD0001]

Never tried the kit. But I did send two actions to him so he could do the work. Best decision i ever made. He does an absolutley fantastic job on a trigger. Tom.

[stubshaft]

Best accuracy is obtained with a CLEAN AND DRY LOCKING LUG AND SHELF. You get into all kinds of problems whenthe lug gets oil on it. Including the barrel popping open when shooting.

[rhbrink]

I would like to add some of the changes that I have made to my Encore. I have managed to get it to shoot into the .5 MOA most of the time I do have to shoot in some very windy conditions most of the time so that does have a effect on grouping with a .223.

On the barrel forearm I'm sure that there are better systems but not wanting to spend any more money on this thing I decided to try to make the standard TC stuff work just as a experiment more for my own knowledge more than anything. I was getting some very vertical grouping with my reloads, so after reading Bellms site and carefull reloading I was able to greatly improve on that. I'll say that these rifles are very "touchy" about how you resize your cases, bullet seating, and handling on the bench. Then I went to work on the forearm, having a TC plastic stock I tried various home remedys like the "O" rings which didn't do anything that I could see they just tend to mash into the forearm to various other systems I finally found a hard plastic washer about .060 that I used in place of the "O" rings. This gave me total clearence around the barrel and frame and helped with the grouping. I think that its very important to make sure that the barrel screws are properly spaced in the forearm mine I had to file one of them, move it forward just to get alignment.

On the hinge pin I'm sure that a locking system like what stubshaft is using would be the way to go but being cheap "frugal" I decided to make index marks on the pin and frame so that I could return the pin the the same place and install it for the same side everytime that I change it, which isn't often I do have a 45-70 barrel that I do switch over to sometimes. To hold it in place I read a tip somewhere on the net about using furnace duck tape cut a couple of pieces just large enough to cover the pin and the area under the forestock. So when I do change barrels line up the pin and cover the area with the furnace tape you have to remove the tape everytime that you change barrels and apply new tape but this isn't that much of a problem and does work out very well with both barrels and scope holding Zero swithing from one barrel to the other.

Make sure that your buttstock is tight I had to use a generous amount of Locktite just to keep my stock bolt tight and be carefull that you don't run some locktite into the action, like I did, it's very easy to do believe me. Also keep the locking bolts and frame clean and dry makes a difference. It seems as though that not a single one change or improvement made much difference but as you makes these improvements that accuracy gradually improves to the point where it is acceptable for a truck gun anyway.

They are fun guns and I do like the idea of being able to switch barrels rather easily and they do grow on you. It's light and short and fits well in a truck or boat and shots good enough and I have always had a weak spot for single shots.

Good luck

Richard

[DistRifle]

I have used Mikes spring kit for the sear. I also followed his instructions for the trigger job and it was not that hard to do. I added the extra power hammer spring also. The trigger now breaks at 2 lbs.

For the foreend, I find that consistent torque is the answer. But, since the foreend didn't touch the barrel where the screw went thru, it was difficult to maintain constant torque. A few shots and it would loosen up - which gives vertical stringing. So, I bedded the foreend to the barrel. Then tighten to 20 inch pounds.

I also bedded the butstock to the action. Lots of clay (to fill in the voids) and release agent needed here to prevent a permanent situation. The butstock torque is 25 inch pounds.

After all this was done, I'm getting 1.5 - 2" groups at 300 yds with a 280 rem (pro hunter). My 223 (26 heavy) is 2 - 3" at 300 yds (the wind usually takes one out).

I bought one of his OS hinge pins, but it did not fit in my action. The factory one is fairly tight.

Harvey