A few questions for inlines

[grnoah]

I just purchased my first inline, a TC Omega 50 cal.
Questions: 1- Is there any reason not to use a center fire rifle scope on an inline?
               2- I have a bottle of pyrodex I bought 7 or 8 years ago and never used. Is it still good?
               3- Anybody shooting the pre lubed maxi balls or maxi hunters in thier inline? These have performed flawlessly in my percussion cap and flintlock Hawkins and the wonder lube is great stuff!
 

[BIG Dog454]

1: I use a high powered rifle scope, 4X works fine.
2. powder if stored in a cool dry place, ie. I store mine in my garage that is unheated and shaded, should be fine.  I would try some and use it for practice, buying new powder for hunting.
3: I've shot prelubed maxies, they shoot OK but my rifles prefers sabots for accuracy. Try a few shots with them and find out, won't hurt.
BD

[Whitetales Bluff]

1-  I use regular rifle scopes on my two inlines. One’s an old “Redfield” fixed 4X power. The other is a  inexpensive “Center Point” 4-16 zoom with red-green illuminated cross hairs, I picked up at Walmart for under $70.  I nailed a buck with it the first time I hunted with an inline two seasons ago. For 20 years prior I’ve hunted using a side lock - cap & ball with iron sights.  Make sure you get the right rings & scope mount base to fit that Thompson unless you're using a gunsmith to do it.

2-  As “Big Dog 454” said, powder stays good for a while. I’m still using Pyrodex powder I bought close to 20 years ago as it came in a 4 can package. I prefer using the Pyrodex preformed pellets in my inline and use the lose powder for cap & ball.

3- I wouldn’t shoot anything other than a sabot round from my inline.  Most sidelocks have a slow rate of twist compatible for patched balls, lubed maxi balls, cones or whatever. I believe the newer inlines have a much faster rate of twist and an non-sabot projectile might “led up” your barrel. I may be wrong however, I’d do some research on it before destroying a brand new rifle if I were you.

Good luck with it and happy hunting..

[hunt-m-up]

Any rifle scope will typically work well on your inline, the distance you intend to shoot will determine the power you go with, especially on the lower power end. I wouldn't sight the gun in with one powder that is that old and then hunt with a new can of powder, I would hunt with the powder I sight the gun in with. May not be enough velocity variation to tell a difference, but there will be some. Some of the early inlines had a slower twist rate and I shot Maxi-hunters out of mine, they make a nice big hole in a deer. If you still have some of the conicals give them a shot to see how they do. I would guess though with the twist rate of the Omega that you are going to want to shoot a sabot, I like the TC Shockwaves with the easy glide sabot. Good luck!

[grnoah]

Well Boys, heres what I did. I bought a Burris Fullfield II 3-9x 40 and mounted it in a Talley one peice mount made for the Omega. Had to remove the rear sight to make her fit. I then set up on my bench with my chrony. I used 100 gr. of Shockys powder behind 300 grain shockwave bullets and sabots. Averaged 1451 fps. and shot a five shot, 1" group at 50 yds. I then loaded her with the same powder charge behind my 325 gr. full lead flat nose bullets for my 454 casull, .452 diameter. But his time I used Crush Rib sabots made by Harvester. They seem to fit a bit looser and the chrony showed that also as I now averaged 1214 fps but  fired a 5 shot group all cutting paper.
Observation: The Shockwave bullets are a bi... to load. The harvester crush rib sabots slide down real nice, even in a dirty barrel. The shockwave sabots apparently build more presure as the chrony shows but the group size did not suffer from the lower velocity of the harvester/325 gr. lead bullet combo.
I will try to get back on the range this weekend and try some different charges to see if I can get the velocity closer without sacrificing accuracy. I am shooting this bullet out of my 8" 454 casull at 1500 fps with great results on deer so I'm sure it will perform in the inline also at those velocities.

[martineta]

Just for yuks, you might want to try powerbelts.  They do not require a sabot and slide down my encore easily after multiple shots on the range.  The 245 gr hollow points I hunt with are very accurate. Kind of pricey but over the years I have killed over 30 deer using this bullet.  I switched to Blackhorn 209 powder 4 years ago which for me is much better than the pyrodex I had been shooting for years.  I also got lucky last year and bought three 50 bullet bulk packages of the powerbelts for $90 from a man that posts on Graybeard.  I am good to go for awhile as I only shoot the 50 a few times prior to deer season and then once each time I kill a deer.    So far no run off crips.

[LanceR]

When loading bullets with sabots it is not the bullet that loads hard it's the choice of sabots that load hard.  The muzzleloading industry still has no organization to establish standards for bore diameter, rifling land height etc.  The Crushed rib sabot is a good choice on a TC which have just about the tightest bore in the industry.

The significant majority of sabots are made by one company, Magnum Muzzleloading Products, regardless of who's name is on the bag or box.  They make sabots that are sized for tight bores such as the TC.  They also make them for .458 bullets etc.  I think they make sabots down to .36 and up to .54 caliber.

http://www.mmpsabots.com/

One bullet that gets overlooked more than it should by many shooters is the non-magnum 300 grain Hornady XTP.  They are inexpensive and expand well right down to around 900 FPS.  They are capable of sub MOA performance out of a TC.   You might want to try it with either the crushed rib sabot or a MMP HPH-24.

If you buy your bullets and sabots separately you will usually save 50% or more over buying the same bullet with a sabot that may or may not work with your rifle.

I haven't used Shockey's but switching to Blackhorn 209 might get you a couple of hundred FPS.  My Savage is clocking around 1800 FPS with 100 grains by volume of BH 209.  I usually use Accurate 5744 smokeless powder though and push them at around 2000 FPS with that.

Lance