OK to size conicals for Encore?

[cabezaverde]

I have a 50 cal Encore with what I believe is a tight bore, it slugs about .502 from what I can tell, somewhat looser in the middle. The gun shoots fine, but I would never be able to reload while hunting.

I am shooting the Maxi hunter type conical. They drop form the mold about .502 at the bottom band and about .506 at the top band. It is very difficult to load them, I literally have to pound them down with a hammer.

So I am in need of a solution, and am soliciting input. My ideas are:

I. Size the top band only of the conical - I have a .501 die on order for my Lyman 450.

2. Size the whole conical, lapping out the die if needed.

3. Do something with the barrel.

4. Send the barrel back to T/C - but of course there are no guarantees with that.

I would appreciate input.

[frontier gander]

use a ball starter. its supposed to load hard at first and then once you cut past the thickest ring of lead, it should go down smoothly.

If its shooting conicals good, dont send that barrel back to tc!

[cabezaverde]

I do use a ball starter. This thing is hard to load!

[mooman76]

I'm assuming you are using soft lead which is easier to load being soft and will drop from the mould smaller too. Sizing is not usually recomended but it sure wouldn't hurt to try. It may or probably will cut down on accuracy but may not be enough to hurt beings you have limited range with a BP anyway. You could maybe hve buckshot make you a push through sizer that takes just a couple thousanths off like down to .504. You might also try turning the heat down some when dropping bullets. Turn it down to the minimum you can get bullets to turn out maybe even where they don't turn out perfect but are still usuable and the bullets should drop a couple thousands smaller. What also might work is size some for your follow up shots but use a regular full size conical for your initial load. You probubly won't need a followup shot anyway and a good chance the critter will be gone before you can reload anyway.

[Gerry N.]

Test your bore with a very tight patch to find if there are tight and loose places. If so, lead lap it. When you have an even diameter, your problems should end. If nothing else, lapping will give you a nicely polished bore which also will help.

My T-C Hawken .50 had a tight place in the barrel causing severe loading difficulty after two or three rounds, as well as poor accuracy. Lapping took care of the problem so now it shoots both round balls and conicals very well.

Of course, my preferred solution to Encore muzzleloader problems is to sell the barrel and put the money toward a good sidelock rifle and quit fooling around with inlines.

The reason, of course, is that inline, tip-up and bolt action muzzleloaders are the work of the Devil and those who shoot them do so in peril of their immortal souls.

Gerry N.

[skullmount]

2. Size the whole conical, lapping out the die if needed.

3. Do something with the barrel.



I hope you are not really useing a hammer :-?

Lap the barrel and then size the bullets.

[cabezaverde]

Test your bore with a very tight patch to find if there are tight and loose places. If so, lead lap it. When you have an even diameter, your problems should end. If nothing else, lapping will give you a nicely polished bore which also will help.

My T-C Hawken .50 had a tight place in the barrel causing severe loading difficulty after two or three rounds, as well as poor accuracy. Lapping took care of the problem so now it shoots both round balls and conicals very well.

Of course, my preferred solution to Encore muzzleloader problems is to sell the barrel and put the money toward a good sidelock rifle and quit fooling around with inlines.

The reason, of course, is that inline, tip-up and bolt action muzzleloaders are the work of the Devil and those who shoot them do so in peril of their immortal souls.

Gerry N.

Thanks Gerry, even if I am a heathen. But having a scope does these old eyes a lot of good. And I am not a traditionalist, I just want to get some extra deer season.

Tell me about how you lapped your barrel please?

My tight spot is about the final 8" of the barrel, towards the breech plug. So maybe partial lapping is in order?

If I resize the conicals, I am wondering if sizing only the top ring would do it. As you know, they are larger at the top than at the bottom. But then I wonder if a sized conical would offer enough resistance to get it down the bore with accuracy.

[cabezaverde]

So a little update is in order. My 501 sizer came in, and I sized some.

They load nicely, just some friction going down. I'll have to see what happens at the range.