Tc encore
- Thread starter RM1(SS)
- Start date
That’s how I do mine...
Jimmy Hoer
New Member
They attach only to the barrel and offer connection to nothing else, essentially a harmonic barrel tuner without the elaborate design of one.
yoderjac
Well-Known Member
I'm sure disappointed that S&W killed the TC Encore line. I scavenged the frame/receiver from my 50 cal muzzleloader for a smokeless build and was planning to just buy a frame to rebuild the muzzleloader. After they quit production, the cost of a frame on the secondary market skyrocketed!
Drycreek
Well-Known Member
I just sold my TC Ecore .50 caliber muzzy a couple months ago. Before I sold it I checked the completed sales on Gun Broker and was surprised at the prices. I probably made a 75% profit on that gun. Better investment than the stock market !
I will never sell my .50 Stainless Encore...
Drycreek
Well-Known Member
We only have a two week muzzy season here, and it’s the very last season, but I did replace the Encore with a CVA. I like it better than the Encore, it’s a better design IMO. The breechplug removes by hand and the trigger pull is way better than a stock Encore. It’s nitrided stainless, so you get the corrosion resistance without the shine. Best of all, I had money left over. 
yoderjac
Well-Known Member
We only have a two week muzzy season here, and it’s the very last season, but I did replace the Encore with a CVA. I like it better than the Encore, it’s a better design IMO. The breechplug removes by hand and the trigger pull is way better than a stock Encore. It’s nitrided stainless, so you get the corrosion resistance without the shine. Best of all, I had money left over.
I did a trigger job on my Encores with a kit from MCARBO. Very crisp now!
Drycreek
Well-Known Member
Yes, you can make them better with a spring from Mike Bellim, or like I did with Bulberry Barrels. It’s a shame you have to spend more money to get what you should have had to begin with though when you’re spending that much money. Same with ARs, every one I have has an aftermarket drop in trigger.
yoderjac
Well-Known Member
I have always found the TC's to be quite good off the shelf and even better when customized. I had a pretty good deal on price directly from TC when they were making them. Being used to that pricing, It is especially hard for me to swallow the price of a used frame today to rebuild the 50 cal. So far, I haven't seen anything priced where I can justify buying it.Yes, you can make them better with a spring from Mike Bellim, or like I did with Bulberry Barrels. It’s a shame you have to spend more money to get what you should have had to begin with though when you’re spending that much money. Same with ARs, every one I have has an aftermarket drop in trigger.
My Encore came dull nitrided stainless, the breech plug is slightly challenging to remove but the thing that can’t be replaced is the fact that every animal I have squeezed the trigger on has died no matter what it was. i will just stick with it because confidence is very hard to replace...We only have a two week muzzy season here, and it’s the very last season, but I did replace the Encore with a CVA. I like it better than the Encore, it’s a better design IMO. The breechplug removes by hand and the trigger pull is way better than a stock Encore. It’s nitrided stainless, so you get the corrosion resistance without the shine. Best of all, I had money left over.
yoderjac
Well-Known Member
I have not looked at the CVAs, but I wonder if Drycreek has an older Encore. Mine has a breech plug that is very easy to remove by hand, unlike my TC Omega which requires a special wrench. As it turns out my new smokeless needs the same wrench to remove the plug from the MGM barrel. Of course, with smokeless, this is less of an issue as you don't clean the gun after each use like black powder equivalents.
Probably the biggest driver for me to convert to smokeless was the smoke. I shot several deer with the TC .50 on still days. When the smoke cleared, there was no deer and no blood trail to follow. I had no idea which direction the deer ran to begin a search. In one case, I was fooled when I saw the deer run off from the smoke cloud. There were 2 deer and it turns out that they did not run in the same direction after the shot. The one I saw run was not the one I shot. I eventually found both deer by walking circles after dark with a FLIR. The original TC had no problem killing deer, but recovery was a challenge in some conditions. With the smokeless, so far, every deer I've shot has been bang-flop.
Probably the biggest driver for me to convert to smokeless was the smoke. I shot several deer with the TC .50 on still days. When the smoke cleared, there was no deer and no blood trail to follow. I had no idea which direction the deer ran to begin a search. In one case, I was fooled when I saw the deer run off from the smoke cloud. There were 2 deer and it turns out that they did not run in the same direction after the shot. The one I saw run was not the one I shot. I eventually found both deer by walking circles after dark with a FLIR. The original TC had no problem killing deer, but recovery was a challenge in some conditions. With the smokeless, so far, every deer I've shot has been bang-flop.
Drycreek
Well-Known Member
I could never get my Encore to group well with anything except Powerbelt bullets and I’m not particularly fond of them. I never tried loose powder and that’s probably why. I used three Pyrodex pellets, that was before all the different powders were availble. I bought that gun simply to take advantage of the extra season for antlerless deer on the lease I had in Central Texas. We had too many does and tried to kill twenty of them per season, and sometimes struggled to get it done. After I gave that lease up I used it one more year to take a doe in East Texas. After that it was just in the safe for ten years or more. I actually had a .280 Rem barrel on that frame for a few years and hunted with it. After I had my custom .280 built it has been my go to rifle for deer and I had no use for the Encore, the .280 barrel, or the .50 caliber. We still have a late muzzle loader season so I bought the CVA for about half of what I sold the Encore .50 caliber barrel and forearm for. Win, win !
100 grains of Shockeys Gold and either a shockwave or a Powerbelt will cloverleaf at 100 yards. I shoot power belts and have never lost an animal and I would venture to guess that I have killed more big deer with a muzzleloader than I have with a center fire rifle...
Drycreek
Well-Known Member
100 grains of Shockeys Gold and either a shockwave or a Powerbelt will cloverleaf at 100 yards. I shoot power belts and have never lost an animal and I would venture to guess that I have killed more big deer with a muzzleloader than I have with a center fire rifle...
I never lost a deer with them, because the place I killed most them on was open enough that from a ten foot tall stand you were taller than most all of the mesquite trees.
It was pretty easy to see them fall even if they ran 100 yards or more. I shot one in the heart once, broke a rib going in, and the bullet was in three pieces under the skin on the opposite side. It broke hitting the rib, I could tell that from the trauma to the heart. She was graveyard dead though !Now that I have reached ”mature” status, no more heart/lung shots for me. High shoulder drops them where I don’t have to drag them. The Powerbelt I shot the doe with last season centered the spine and still went completely through her with only two White Hot pellets. I think the Powerbelts may be better constructed than they were 15 years ago. Still accurate too !
yoderjac
Well-Known Member
I have a TC Omega that I had a hard time grouping. I had to back down to 80 gr of Pyrodex pellets to get it to group. I have not had that issue with the Encore. It grouped quite well at 100 yards with 150 gr of white hot pellets and shockwaves. Of course it does not compare to the smokeless build. I'd still like to rebuild it if possible.
