The Thompson Center Encore Pro Hunter Review

I had really started to doubt whether or not we would get this last data book complete and ready for sale, but we did!  Almost all of the loads were done in the spring, it was just the chronograph part that seemed to drag on and on (and on).  

But here it is, ready to go.  This will be the last of the data books for this year and it has been a much bigger undertaking than either Kathy or I ever expected, a lot of work to say the least.  We have now completed 5 data books, it has taken just short of three years.  Thanks to you all for your support in buying our products, MAX is growing and it’s due to your support and the common bond we have, the great sport of muzzleloading.  

This is the my review of the TC Pro Hunter that is in the book, and as you see, I love me some Encore and always have.  This book has 34 outstanding loads for the long barreled Pro Hunter that is fitted with the Speed Breech XT.

Without a doubt, Thompson Center Arms has always been one step ahead of the competition when it comes to muzzleloaders . They’ve also been trend-setters of design and quality for others to look up to and be forced follow. Thompson Center’s unique ideas and designs have always been able to pull us in for a closer look and many, like myself, have purchased several TC products. But in any case, if you’re a hunter, you’ve wanted a TC product even if you’ve never bought one.

I purchased my first Encore Pro Hunter in 2009.  As with all TC products, it was built with unsurpassed quality.  I liked the idea of having an extra 2” of barrel to help add a little extra velocity to my loads.  At first I was a little concerned about the Speed Breech XT, mainly because of its extra length, meaning the extra distance the fire from the primer had to travel.  I could really care less about being able to remove my breech plug by hand or quickly but this is the only option to be able to get the extra barrel length.  (The original style plug was fine, so why fix it?)  But in the end, the Speed Breech XT proved reliable in igniting the market’s most popular powders.    

As with the original Encore,  just because the Pro Hunter CAN shoot a 150 grain MAGNUM load doesn’t mean it can do it accurately.  So if accuracy is a must, it isn’t going to happen with a 150 grain MAGNUM load, not with anybody’s rifle.  And loose powder will always outperform pellets, always.  I did however do three things to this rifle before shooting it for groups and they were:  1) I broke the new barrel in by firing about 30 shots using a solid copper bullet using a controlled process;  2)  I did a trigger job on the rifle; and 3) I replaced the factory hinge pin with an aftermarket pin that tightened the barrel to frame fit-up a bit.  These three things are easy to do and well worth the expense and effort.

To say the Encore is versatile would be an understatement compared to others. With a frame and butt stock, a few forearms and barrels, you’re hunting almost anything in the world!  The quality of TC products, outside of some custom stuff, is un-surpassed. There is nothing like the fit, finish and feel of a TC rifle. If you have ever owned one, you probably still own it and most likely own more than just one.

Thompson Center Arms products have become a part of our hunting and shooting heritage and they earned it by building high quality products. TC products aren’t cheap, but no truly reliable and quality rifles are. With the right fine tuning, good loading and cleaning techniques and load components, the Encore Pro Hunter will serve you well both on the range and in the field.

Thompson Center has done it again with the Pro Hunter, it’s a great rifle with multiple options at a more than fair and reasonable price and will be money well spent.

                           Russell Lynch

As always, thanks for your business.  Russell and Kathy  

7 Basic Marksmanship Fundamentals

MAX Fall Shooting School- Part 1

The key to becoming a better shooter is more than going to the range with good intentions. 
Quality practice is the key to becoming shooter.  Simply spending a lot of time and shooting rounds down range is just not going to cut it.   This is however a good plan if your intention is to expect as much from yourself as you expect from your rifle.   

However, knowing what to practice and how to practice is not only the best place to start, it’s the only place.  

So, I want to start with the “what” part first:  that being the “7 basic fundamentals”.  

These 7 fundamentals are inherent with all shooting disciplines, no matter the shooter, no matter the weapon.  There are also Marksmanship Traits, but these basic fundamentals are a must.

The big 7 are as follows:

1. •    Support (position)
2. •    Stock Weld & Grip
3. •    Sight Alignment
4. •    Sight Picture
5. •    Natural Point of Aim
6. •    Breath Control
7. •    Trigger Control

I’m going to add one that’s really a Trait, but it’s a must:

•    Follow Through

They all work together and a couple are more forgiving than others, but be no mistake about it, each one plays its role in getting a well-aimed, well-placed shot on target.  The ability of a shooter to master and have control of them, on a consistent basis, is what makes them accurate and deadly, every time.  It is what separates some from others.  The best part is that you don’t have to buy it, and the fact is, all the money in the world can’t buy it even if you had it.

The best way for everyone understand and learn them is to break them down into groups.  They’re pretty much in the order in which we need to start each shot so we’re going to start at the top and work our way down, in these groups.

Group 1
•    Support (position)
•    Stock Weld & Grip

Group 2
•    Sight Alignment
•    Sight Picture
•    Natural Point of Aim

Group 3
•    Breath Control
•    Trigger Control

Each fundamental is used in getting each shot down range.  If you’re thinking that it’s just too much to keep up with and do for each shot,  just wait and see how it all comes together.  When learned and practiced in groups, all of the groups will then be combined into a process.  When practiced properly, the process becomes second nature, and before you know it, you’re getting well placed shots off in mere seconds. 

When this process becomes a regular part of your range practice routine, you and your rifle will soon become a well-oiled, finely tuned, death-from-afar, big game killing machine.  Just the way we should like it!! 

In the next artical,  I will talk each group and how to put them into a deadly process.

Muzzleloader Triggers: It's NOT Clean 'Till You Get Behind It's Ears!

I find very few topics where I can let pictures do most of the talking, but today after Church I found a good one. I went to my office, put in a good deer hunting video, got my trigger job stuff out and settled down to knock out a few trigger job’s I’d been putting off for a few days.

Now I’m not going to say the name of the customer of who’s rifle I was working on, but here’s what I found just under the surface of what otherwise “looked” like a clean frame...

 

This is really pretty common in Encores that are used for muzzleloader hunting or shooting, if not taken apart and cleaned from time to time (I clean all of mine at least twice a year).  Not only will this kind of crud cause corrosion (which it has in this case), it will make even the best trigger job become sluggish and hard.  Just look at the rust that came off onto my hand!

Whether you ever decide to do your own trigger job or not, learn to take these Encore frames apart for a good end-of-the-season cleaning.  Unless this is the sort of thing you want to find at the end of summer as you prepare for the fall hunting season.

If you learn from me or someone else, just learn  (I do sell a video.....SuperMAX Your Muzzleloader).   Encores have a very simple mechanism to take apart and put back together and no special tools are really needed (there is a set of pliers that makes life simpler, but it can be done without them).

When I was a child I knew when I got out of the bathtub that my Mamaw Hobbs was going to look to see that I had got myself good and clean.  It didn’t take long to figure out that the first place she was going to look was behind my ears.  It also didn’t take long to figure out that it was a lot less painless for me to do it myself.

So learn how to clean behind you Encore's ears, it will be less painless in the end.   

13 Steps to Properly Clean Your Modern Muzzleloader

I’ve worked for years with some of the best people in the world, and a group within that group are Harley riders.  They talk about them all the time and over the years I’ve heard them say (among other things) something like this to folks thinking about buying one,  “if you don’t know how to use a crescent wrench and a screw driver, you need to learn."  I know they mean it from a stand point of things just getting a little loose with a lot of road time.

Along those same lines, I quite often say something like this to people wanting to get started with a new muzzleloader, “if you don’t like cleaning a rifle, you need to get over it”.

Anyone not agree?

Good news is, it’s not that big of a deal and it really doesn't take that long if you know how and you have the right stuff.  Once you have the right stuff, it’s then just a matter of getting yourself a good system in place.

If I have a system for anything, it’s cleaning a muzzleloader, and I also happen to know a little something about what products work and which ones to tell you not to bother with.

Here’s what I use and how I do it:

Begin by gathering & preparing your cleaning supplies:

     Patches
     Cleaner
     Wire brush
     Pipe cleaners
     Lewis Lead Remover
     JB Bore Cleaner (Paste)
     TCS Cleaning jag
     Canned air
     A ram rod with a rotating handle or jag*

*Keep in mind, to properly clean or load a muzzleloader, either the jag or the handle of the rod must rotate when a bullet or patch is run down the barrel.  This so that one or the other is tracking the barrels' rifling.

I’ve got to where I put a stack of patches in a small re-sealable plastic container and pour enough good cleaner over them to get them good and wet (of course, I recommend MAX Dead On Clean!).  Butch's Bore Shine for Black powder would be my second choice.  (My container here is one I saved just for this purpose that came from KFC...it came with my baked beans!)

Now you’re ready to start a detailed cleaning. 

STEP 1:     Take three (3) patches from the bowl and blot them until they are only damp.  Using a TCS Cleaning Jag (those rubber O-rings are excellent at forcing the patch deep into the rifling) and the first damp patch, SCRUB the lower 6 to 8 inches (from the breech plug forward) of the barrel 10 to 12 times.  This would be to remove the crust ring left behind from shooting Triple-7.  Follow with the other 2 damp patches at 7 passes back and forth each.

STEP 2:    Now run two (2) dry patches 4 passes back and forth each.  This will remove any cleaner from the barrel.

STEP 3:    Disassemble the rifle.

STEP 4:   Remove & clean the breech plug.  See the detailed directions at my previous blog article titled “Breech Plug Cleaning: How I Do It”.

STEP 5:   Now take the brass wire brush and wrap a wet patch around it.  Twist it into the breech far enough to get past the breech plug threads and rotate it 4 to 5 turns.  Repeat with a second wet patch. 

Repeat with multiple dry patches until you see they are coming out mostly clean.  (Remember that they will never come back out perfectly clean or white since the brush will always have some dirty cleaner in it.) 

STEP 6:   Now it’s time to use the best muzzleloading barrel cleaning tool in the world, the Lewis Lead Remover.  To do this, run your rod up the barrel from the muzzle and out the breech.  Attach the Lewis Lead Remover.  

Squirt some good bore cleaner (again, we have an excellent one: Dead On Clean) on the L.L.R. and pull it through the barrel and out the muzzle end.  Repeat.  

Nothing in your barrel can survive what this Lewis Lead Remover has to dish out!  

STEP 7:   Dry out the threads of the breech end of the rifle with a patch (you can use your finger for this).  Now reinsert the thoroughly clean breech plug (don’t forget to lube it first, per my instructions in my breech plug cleaning article).

STEP 8:   Using a patch, again with a good conditioner or oil on it, lubricate the entire outside of the barrel that would be under the forearm.

STEP 9:   Clean the face of the breech and down inside the frame.  Use conditioner and cleaner for this.  This is where the pipe cleaners and long handled Q-tips earn their keep.  Lubricate this area real well.  

STEP 10.   Now reassemble the rifle.

STEP 11:   Using one patch with cleaner on it that has been blotted until it is nearly dry, down the barrel 2 to 3 times to remove anything loosened by the Lewis Lead Remover.  Repeat with a dry patch or two.

**One other tip that will help clean and keep your bore smooth and bright, would be to run a patch with some JB Bore Cleaner (Paste) down the barrel every other time you clean rifle.  Use one patch with JB, 8 to 10 passes.  No more than this, JB is a very light abrasive and a little goes a long way.

STEP 12:   Using one patch with some conditioning oil on it, pass it one time down and back through the barrel to protect the metal from rust.

STEP 13:   Wipe down all exterior metal parts of your rifle with a good conditioner to protect from rust.

NOW your rifle is CLEAN and ready for storage, or to be reloaded for your next shot!!

New Muzzleloader Barrel Boost: Barrel Shinning

I have a great, easy, low-cost way to shine your muzzleloader barrel, and due to our new video on the Thompson Center Triumph running a little late (been spending all my time completing the 5 Load Data Books ), I wanted to go ahead and share that process with everyone now.

I found this process so helpful with my Triumph, that I now use it on every rifle before I shoot it for the first group.  I couldn’t tell you how well that rifle would have shot before this simple lapping process, but I can tell you it’s a tack-driver now and I credit this process to helping with it. 


A smooth bore is a fast, accurate and easy-to-clean bore.  There’s pretty much only three ways to get a bore smooth:

     1.  pay someone to hand-lap it
     2.  hand-lap it yourself
     3.  cheat (my personal favorite!)

In this article I’m going to tell you how I do a “do-it-yourself” easy cheat job of lapping the barrel of a new muzzleloader.  

Please don’t confuse this with a custom, hand-lapped barrel, but as effective method of smoothing out the tooling marks from a new barrel quickly, efficiently and effectively.


We all know that in most all cases, after a center fire rifle has been fired 30 to 50 times it will start grouping a little better.  Just from being fired and cleaned, the bore starts to become smooth, and settles down a bit and becomes a more predictable, accurate rifle that is easer to clean.  

A rough barrel causes drag (resistance) and gives residue a place to hang it’s dirty head whereas a smooth barrel helps eliminate both of these un-wanted problems.  

The problem with a muzzleloader is that it can take a short life-time to smooth a barrel shooting bullets with sabots.  So we need to cheat rifle-nature a little by forcing the barrel-aging process a bit.     

1)  What you need to have:

• 2- 20 packs of Hornady 350gr FPB bore sized bullets (these big boys have more bearing service on the rifling)

• 1- bottle of some type of bore cleaner that is made to clean copper fowling from your barrel (I use Montana  Extreme Copper Cream)

• 1- jar of JB Bore Cleaner (paste)

• Other cleaning products you would normally have on hand, such as: patches, bore cleaning solvent, a ram rod and a cleaning jag........ 

2)   What you need to do:


Go to the range and shoot 30 (all 40 will be even be better) of the FPB's.  Don't worry about trying to group them, just get them down the barrel (you might use this time to practice trigger control).  Use 100 grs of powder.  Using 100 grains of powder with this heavy bullet helps to ensure that the base of this bullet expands quickly.  If you use T-7, or any powder other than BH 209, you’re going to need to clean between each shot.  With BH 209, clean after every 5 shots.  This is also a good time to burn up old powder.




3)  What you need to do next:

So the next step of the process is getting your bore CLEAN.... and then CLEANER.... I mean bare-metal CLEAN!  

To do this particular "clean", I do as I normally would do....but twice.

And I use the TCS Cleaning Jag (left) and the Lewis Lead Remover (right) per the manufacturers recommendations & instructions (which in my never-ending quest to find better cleaning materials and tools, I now use, and recommend, over the now-obsolete Chiefs ProClean tools).  

Then I go to work with the Montana Extreme Copper Cream. I’ve been running 2 patches with copper cleaner down the barrel 10 passes each.  

Next I swab the barrel out with some bore cleaner, then I repeat the copper cream and the bore cleaner each again.  

When the above cleaning process is complete, swab the barrel out real good and make sure is good and dry, and by the way, CLEAN.


4)  The finishing Touch

Start by stirring the JB Bore Cleaner.  Put a thin coat of the bore paste on a patch, cover the patch edge to edge.  Work the JB into the patch with your fingers.  Then run the patch back and forth the full length of the barrel 10 times, using a cleaning jag (the TCS jag is the best on the market).  So you will have made 20 passes with that patch.  

 

The JB becomes very close to resembling mud (it pretty much starts out that way to be honest with you) so you will then need to swab the barrel with bore cleaner.  A few wet patches and a dry one will clean well enough to start again.  Repeat this process 9 more times.  So in the end, you will have made 100 passes with the JB.

Now clean the entire rifle inside and out, just like after any day at the range.  You're done and ready to go.

It's a little work, but worth the effort and it's really pretty cheap.  I now use the JB 10 passes every other time I clean any of my rifles.  It will continue to make a bore smooth and bright, which is what your shooting for.   (shooting for...ha)

When done, you're 2 to 3 years ahead of where the rifle would be under normal use.  

A rifle is like a fine wine, it gets better with age.  But if a muzzleloader were wine, we would be drinking nothing but grape juice for years waiting for it to age....

Muzzleloading Powders: Does Powder Get Too Old?

I know I’ve read articles about people finding some VERY OLD black powder that will still go off but how far should we really trust it?  Would you really want to trust something like old gun powder to your hunt?  The answer is no of course, but how old is too old? 

As you can see by the looks of this can of Pyrodex, it’s been around a while. 

I can’t tell you for sure how long, but my Uncle Don passed this one down to me somewhere around 1980, just a few years after I started muzzleloading (around 1977).  He said something like, “Try some of this new-fangled stuff.   I don’t like it, I’m sticking with my black powder”. 

Well he was one of my hunting Heroes and taught me everything I knew at the time, so the can is still pretty much full. 

In my opinion, it’s too old for me to trust to a hunt today, but it will probably still go off.



I believe powders today can last several years if stored properly.  But if just set on a shelf, moisture can become it’s worse enemy.  Age itself can also take its toll on most any black powder substitute.

Moisture is, without a doubt, the biggest problem-causer of all gun powders. In the case of the Hodgdon line of powders it’s the sneaky little moisture called humidity. If you’ve ever picked up the powder you used last year and noticed that it’s in a clump, humidity has taken it's toll.

I use to use a screw driver or a pocket knife to break it up and go on to the range as usual, but not anymore because here’s what happens:  the moisture (which is what causes it to stick together) causes the granules to swell, just like moisture does saw dust.  So now that the granules are larger, you’re getting less powder in your loads. 

Last year I compared some old T-7 against a fresh can and the old powder was consistently 20 +/- fps slower than the fresh stuff.  Less powder, less speed. 



This however does not seem to be the case with Blackhorn 209.  BH209 is just different, you can tell by looking at it and loading it, it’s a very hard powder that I’ve found not to be as prone to becoming contaminated by moisture. 

Another selling point as it does cost a little more, but it will last longer on the shelf.

Here’s a few tips to help you with getting a little longer life out of your powder between seasons: 

If you use one of the pour spouts that screws on top of the cans like I do, make sure you remove it and screw the factory lid back down tight between trips to the range or between seasons. 

If you have a gun safe with a de-humidifier, store your powder there with the cap on tight.


As far as how to stop or slow the aging process, I can’t help you with that any more than I can help stop it for you or me.  Black powder substitutes are in their own category; they will age faster than smokeless or even black powder itself.  It’s a chemical compound and it will start breaking down at some point, I can’t tell you when, but it will happen.


Another housekeeping matter you may want to think about would be to keep track of when you buy your powder in order to know how old it is.  When you get it home, take a sharpie and write the month and year on the can before putting it away. 

My recommendations would be to shoot up last years powder before this years season, then practice the last few times before season opens and hunt with this year's fresh powder. 

But if stored properly, shoot T-7 2 years and BH209 for 3 years.  After that, burn it on the range during practice. 

This may sound a little too conservative or maybe even over-kill to some, but as we all know, we can’t always buy ourselves out of problems on a big game hunt, but in this case we can.


And while we are talking about powders, I want to thank the owner of Western Powers (manufacturers of BH209) Doug Phair and Chris Hodgdon of Hodgdon Powders for the support they've shown by providing fresh powder for all of MAX’s Load Data Books. 

I wanted fresh, right-out-of-the-factory-door powder for that project and they both jumped on board in a very generous and helpful way.  As best I can figure, over 2500 shots were fired to get that data over the past two and half years; both BlackHorn and Hodgdon supplied every last grain.  Thanks to you both.

I do know now, from a lot of experience that fresh powder is accurate, reliable and deadly powder, I’m just saying...................

Marksmanship: What it is

One of many things I’ve developed a true passion for in my life is the skill of Marksmanship. I really probably love teaching it as much as I do the trigger-pulling part. 

When I produced my very first video MAXimize Your Muzzleloader, I decided that a chapter on marksmanship was a must. The reason was, and still is, is because I know from experience that everyone is not created equal when it comes to shooting; no more than they are at golf, driving a race car, singing............ or anything else.  

So knowing this I just didn’t (and still don’t) feel good about selling instructional material on how to get a rifle shooting accurately, knowing that the rifle was only part the equation.  I mean I can’t tell by a name and address of someone buying a video who can shoot well and who might need a little help.  Without having some basic marksmanship skills, you might not be able to achieve MAXimum potential from your muzzleloader and won't get as much out of my videos.  So that’s why I include the Marksmanship chapter.   I just felt it necessary to help those that may need what little I could offer in the amount of time I had.

I’ve been teaching Marksmanship for 23+/- years now in the Law Enforcement and Military Professions.  The members in these two lines of work need the skill for different reasons than hunters or competitors, but it’s all the same skill.  Back several (13) years ago I was the Training Lieutenant at my Sheriff’s Office for several years before taking over a Patrol Shift.  Some Deputies shot so poorly, that I talked the administration into more money for ammo in order to implement one day a month for Deputies to come to the range and practice.  They could come out and shoot a 100 rounds or so and let the instructors work with them, and improve their skill level.

What I found, in a short amount of time, was that the only Deputies that showed up were the ones that could already shoot well.  The reason they shot well is because they practiced.  Rarely, if ever did the ones that needed it, show up for additional practice.  I got to thinking that one reason may be that some people just don't want to admit that they need help or a little guidance.  
 

Here’s how that little story relates to hunters.  To start with, 6 out of 10 men or women who become a cop have little to no experience with firearms before becoming one.  So, they have never had any formal firearms training prior to becoming a Cop.  But the Law Enforcement agency does train them, just like they do the people in our military.  But how many people in the population of this country ever become a Cop or join the Military?  These are the main two professions that REQUIRE firearms training as a part of their job. So in the scheme of the hunting world, how many hunters have ever had any formal Marksmanship instruction? 

So, all the technical information in the world nor the best equipment money can buy will be of any use without knowing something about the skills needed to produce a well aimed and a well placed shot.  Going to the range a few weeks before deer season expecting to have clover leaf groups is not really very realistic. It's just like a Deputy not being able to hit his butt with both hands because they won't practice.

However, some people are just born with a natural ability to shoot... or sing or drive race cars.  Others aren’t.

For those of us who weren’t, practice helps us get better at anything we want to be better at.  But before practice, we have to know how to practice properly, and that’s what I’m going to be writing about for the next few weeks. As you can see, I’m no more cut out for singing than Morgan is for driving.

I looked for a good definition of Marksmanship before starting this series of articles, but just couldn’t find one that I liked, so here’s what I think:

“Marksmanship” is having the needed skills to shoot a firearm safely and accurately.

The word “Marksman” is often referred to as person who is skilled at shooting a firearm. That may be true, but then again, the Army, Marine Corps, NRA and other competitive shooting groups see it as the very lowest skill level one can have.  Hmmmmm.  I still go with my definition.  And I believe it's the practicing of "marksmanship skills" that can earn you the competitive shooting title of "Expert". 

So now we've defined what Marksmanship is, but where can we get it and how can we get better at it?

Well, the good news is, it’s a skill that can be learned and improved on.  You just have to know what the principals are and then practice.  practice.  practice.

On the other hand, even a great marksman can’t make a poor rifle look good, nor can an un-trained marksman do the finest rifle in the world proper justice.

But usually, a rifle is only as good as “the nut behind butt”.

I find that it helps me to teach and talk about the skill of marksmanship; helps me stay on top of my game (and at my age I need all the help I can get).  So for the last few weeks summer I’m going to mix in a few articles on marksmanship and it’s principles and traits, and then how to apply them to your practice sessions and untimely, to the woods this fall and winter.

I’ve never been satisfied with the lowest level of anything, I don’t think you are either, nor should you be.  I do have a lot of expertise in the marksmanship arena and I'm happy to share what I know works with you.