New to TC: Problems with accuracy, is the shells or ?????

[LneWolf_75]

My grandfather recently passed away and he left us some money.  So my dad thought it would be a good idea to remember my grandfather with a single shot rifle.  My grandfather always was a great hunter.  He always said it only takes one shot.  Me on the other hand feel or felt the need to load my clip and carry additoinal shells in my coat pocket.  in fact he died in the woods getting ready for the upcoming deer season.  

Any way, we bought a TC Encore with a 25-06 barrell.  We also bought a nice Tasco scope with it.  The first time we shot it the rifle wouldn't hold a pattern, so we went out and bought a new scope, a Leoupold.  Last Friday we went back out to shoot.  It still wouldn't zero at 50 yards.  Shot 1 hit just low and to the right of the center, shot 2 went dead center, then the 3rd shot went low and to the right again.  Then we moved to 100yrds, both my dad and i shot 3 shots.  Both times 2 shots went high and 1 went low.   I am getting upset because we bought this rifle for its accuracy.  Its not even consistent.  I also planned on using this gun this hunting season.  I'm shooting Factory Remington 25-06 Coreloc 100 grain bullets.  I am thinking about moving to Hornaday shells, and maybe a different grain,  just to see if i can get some consistency out of the TC.  I didn't even feel confident enough to take a shoulder shot with it.  My Ruger 280 will out shoot the TC.  With a 3 shot pattern with this 280 i hit the center all 3 times at 50yrds.  So before everyone says its the nut behind the gun.  Its not.

If anyone could give me some help or give me some information to back up the Thompson Center accracy, I would be willing to give it another chance.  If anyone has any other ideas that would help, please let me know i am open for anything.

Thank you everyone for your time

[5Redman8]

I am not even sure where to begin...but here goes.  Try to free float the forend as we have found contact between the wood and barrel can cause binding and fliers.  Try to snug the forend screws and not torque them to death.  Be sure and put your gunrest near the same place on the forend each shot as we have found closer to the frame is better for accuracy.  All of this and not to mention ammo.  Each gun is different, so on the ammo thing, just try them all.  

They are great guns but sometimes need a little extra attention for superb accuracy.  I have 2 barrels, both Virgin Valley barrels and my 280 will do .600-.850" consistently and my 223 will do .400-.600, all of this with handloads.  And boy is that a another topic for another day.

Kyle
topboss8@yahoo.com

[LneWolf_75]

will try thanks for the info

[jamie]

Don't get discouraged, it took a little forend work (electrical tape folded 4 times and placed between screws and barrel) to get my 15" -06 to shoot better.  Now it shoots 3 shot into .5" if I do my part and if not then it still goes less than an inch.  Keep at it, they are very accurate 95% of the time.  Hey, even BMW and Mercedes turns out a bad one sometimes.

[LneWolf_75]

I'll keep at it.  I can't get out to the range at this moment due to a foot of snow.  Yea, i guess everone can turn out a bad one or two.  Thank you for the info.

[Gitzit]

Also remove the grip cap and make sure the stock screw is tight.

[Bullseye]

Just to repeat another posters comments becuase it has caused me problems twice, check the stock screw to make sure it is tight with the frame.

[coyote 2]

This is probably a little late....but check the crown on the barrel. If it has a ding or burr - that could be your problem. Make sure the blast coming from the hole is equal on the crown. If it shows a space where there is no black fouling - thats your problem.

[Flash]

What hasn't been mentioned yet is how you're resting the gun as you shoot it. The barrel has to vibrate consistantly from shot to shot to be accurate. If you inhibit this vibration in any way, such as an overtightened forend screw or a forend that rests too close to the barrel, as was already described, it can harm the accuracy. I zeroed my Encore by resting it as far back to the receiver/frame as possible. I've seen guys at the range do this without a forend even attached but I prefer not to go that far. Are you shooting handloads or factory loads? You probably know this but I'll say it anyway. Don't mix your ammo when sighting in a rifle. A given bullet weight in Remington ammo isn't the same as from another manufacturer.

[rpseven]

Check your scope rings also. for proper fit and tightness and to be sure they are not loose.

[Raven]

One last tip is this.  My first encore barrel was a 24" 308 win cal.  It had the roughest bore I have ever seen.  Very deep tooling marks.  Additionally, the crown was flat and razor sharp, not chamfered at all.  My initial accuracy was very poor, paper plate sized patterns at 100 yards, no matter what kind of ammo.  

After a little work and extra effort, the barrel is now capable of 1" or better groups.  I did several things to improve the accuracy of the barrel, not one of which I can point a finger at and say that was what cured the problem.  Here is what I did:

1)  I used copious amounts of JB bore past when cleaning to remove the extreme amount of fouling and possibly help smooth the rough bore.

2)  I obtained a 45 degree muzzle chamfering tool from brownells and cleaned up the crown, breaking the razor sharp edge and making a smooth transition from the rifling to the crown.

3)  I purchased a custom forend from Virgin Valley fitted with their hanger bar system for factory TC barrels, effectively removing a lot of contact between barrel and forend.

4)  I did a lot of shooting between each of these attempts at a cure, trying different ammo, etc.  I probably shot at least four or five boxes of ammo between the first attemted fix and the last.  This is the one thing that may have had the most positive effect on the grouping, getting about 80 to 100 rounds through the rough barrel, smoothing it and breaking it in.

I know you were not counting on all of this extra effort when you made your purchase, I know I wasn't.  However, I am the type  that likes to tinker with things, and have achieved a certain sense of satisfaction getting the bugs worked out myself, othewise, I would have traded, sold, or moved after the first box of shells.

The next barrel I purchased was also a 308, but in the 15" pistol configuration.  Before I fired the first shot, I performed steps 1 through 3 above.  The first three 100 yard groups out of this barrel averaged 1.25".  Not bad for a pistol with a 7X scope.  I should note that this barrel came from the factory with a much smoother bore than my first rifle barrel.

The bottom line is that some people have good luck with out of the box accuracy.  On my first barrel, I did not.  I did not give the second barrel a chance to shoot as it came from the factory and it may have done just fine.

Good Luck!

[quicksdraw45]

There is some good advice here .
It is not unheard of for the scope mount holes to be a little shallow and even though the mount screws are tight it may not hold the mount securely . Try removing the mount and try one screw to see if it will tighten down the mount then remove that screw and try the next .
 JB bore paste is an abrasive and In my opinion should be left as a last resort unless you know when to stop with it as Raven did , It is easy to over do it and damge the throat area and/or the rifleing .
Thompson has a excellent reputation for customer service , Try the simple fixes and then talk to them and they will make it right if it still wont shoot.

[DannoBoone]

I found that the chamber was reamed .005" too deep on my factory 25-06
barrel. There is also a .003 gap between the end of the barrel and the
receiver. This gives a correctly sized cartridge .008" of room to flop
around while the round is going off, giving 3-6" groups.  So I wildcat .270
cases to fit the chamber

I also did Raven's steps 1) and 3) above, except I used Flitz instead of
JB bore paste. I also did a trigger job on it, although it shot pretty
accurately with the ML barre. But it sure didn't hurt anything. My bore
was so rough that it wouldn't even clean properly, let alone shoot
accurately

There has also been another problem with some of the chambers. Some
get reamed out of alignment with the bore. If this happens to be the
case with yours (hope not), you have a very expensive tomato stake
on your hands. A small case firing the same diameter bullet as a larger
case could result in the chamber being reamed for the larger case and
using the larger caliber. But with your parent case being the 30-06,
there may be no other cartridge which could be used in the 25-06
barrel, unless .257 Weatherby? Just guessing.

In my case T/C would do nothing at all. I finally assumed that their
"satisfaction guarantee" was their satisfaction (got my money), not
mine. They certainly lost a customer, though -- VVCG now gets my
barrel money.

P.S. My 25-06 barrel now gets 3/4" groups, not perfect, but that's a 400%
improvement over what it did new.