Author Topic: 209X45 Encore Barrels? (Read 658 times)

toytruck · « **on:** February 16, 2004, 08:45:54 AM »

I got mine almost two years ago and have killed four deer with it. First deer was a nice 8 point using 225 grain powerbelts. My barrel has the orginal 1:20 twist. I was just curious if anyone still owns this barrel or have you gone with the newer 1:28 twist in .45 caliber. Why did you change?

I didn't go with .45 for the faster long range reasons, but using a .54 caliber for 10 years I wanted to go with a easier cleaning rifle that shoots heavy conicals. Besides the .54 using sabots was shooting .45 bullets anyway and I took alot of deer with it in my FireHawk.

I have some work to do with longer conicals from 385 up to 470 grains that I have bought or been given to try out when it warms up.

By the way this is my first post on this forum looks like a good one to me.

rpseven · « **Reply #1 on:** February 17, 2004, 03:48:45 AM »

Funny you should bring this up. I bought one of these after they first came out, thought it would be pretty neat to have. I have had trouble with it every since. I got the barrel from the bass pro shop. It was kind of funny I went in looking for a .45 cal. and they said they didn't have one so I settled for a fifty but when they gave it to me I went to check out with it and as I was walking down the isle with it I looked at the box and to my surprise it was a .45 cal. I thought cool. Well, I got it home got some powder and bullets for it and went to range with it, this thing wouldn't shoot worth a sh$%. I tried different bullets, different powder charges and still couldn't get it to shoot. I sent it back to T/C and told them about it and they shot it with such and such bullet/powder and said it would shoot a inch group @ 100 yds. I tried it with the bullet/powder that they used and they lied! So I started to do some checking around and some research and thats when I started hearing the horror stories about the 1:20 twist rates that they put 'em when they first came out with them so I had it check by a gunsmith I know, yea thats right I had one, so that sucker went back again to T/C with a nice long letter and they sent me a new one supposeably with a 1:28 in it, but I am fixing to have it checked because I can't get it to shoot worth a sh$% either. I haven't put very much time into this one but its coming. I just read a real good artical about .45 calibers and what kind of bullets that should be used in them so I am going to give this barrel the bennifit of the doubt before I raise hell with T/C again. I have been burned twice with T/C factory barrels already and that kind of lets your confidence level down whole.

toytruck · « **Reply #2 on:** February 17, 2004, 05:54:31 AM »

My barrel likes the 225 powerbelt with two pyro pellets. One big hole at 25 yds. and sub inch at 100, but these bullets only went through one doe and three other deer it didn't. They still died, but didn't have a blood trail and I would rather have something to follow.

I have done alot of reading on this and the 1:20 twist is designed for the longer bullets with less powder. I tried triple 7 fffg and its great for cleaning, but I don't like the crud ring. Maybe I am using too much powder compaired to pyrodex. Anyway I was going to send it back to TC and exchange it for the 1:28 barrel, but the gun dealer I bought the gun from advised against it as the 1:20 is supposed to be optimum in the .45 using conical bullets.

So I am going to try again with the longer bullets. If they shoot good there no doubt they will work well with deer. I have never owned a .50 caliber, but that may change if I can't do anything with this barrel.

Underclocked · « **Reply #3 on:** February 17, 2004, 07:06:39 AM »

I would be willing to bet that rpseven's barrel is SS as mine was. Or should I say "is". The first went back to the factory - felt like a washboard when you ran a patch down the clean bore. Second is 1:28 and is better but still has a bit of roughness in the bore. I have one in blue and it is smooth as silk, borewise. The G2 I have is blue and seems to have a nicely done barrel.

I think the problem with the original 1:20 .45 barrels had a lot more to do with overall barrel quality than twist rate. T/Cs specs on dimensional tolerances are pretty scary (at least the specs that have been reported to me).

rpseven · « **Reply #4 on:** February 17, 2004, 02:41:43 PM »

Do you mean Stainless Steel (SS)? It's not? You can feel the rifling in it. I need to have it checked again to make sure that its a 1:28 twist. It better be 1:28 twist, because they will catch he$$ if they have lied to me.

toytruck · « **Reply #5 on:** February 17, 2004, 03:54:06 PM »

UC,
My SS barrel insides are smooth as a babys butt. I don't have any roughness that you described and it is mirror shiney when cleaned. So maybe I won't have same problems you did. I did notice the rifling at the end of the QLA appears sharp where the bullet engages, but haven't noticed a problem when loading.

DannoBoone · « **Reply #6 on:** February 17, 2004, 05:02:41 PM »

Speaking of QLA, one having accuracy problems may want to have it
checked. Mine was off enough, you could notice it with the naked eye. This
would allow full rifling contact with the sabot on one side of the barrel while
the other was in the process of releasing the sabot. It only amounted to
2-3 thousandths of an inch, but after it was totally removed and recrowned,
it had much fewer flyers. Even though mine is a .50, you could get the
exact results in a .45 -- caliber would make no difference with this problem.

VVCG ML barrels also have a QLA, and the quality difference is like
comparing an old Chevy Vega to a Cadillac. The OD of the sabot touches
the ID of the VV QLA until it stops very evenly at the rifling about 1/2" down
the barrel, and is very well aligned when pushing it on down the barrel. It
would probably work in the same manner with the lead missiles that some
people like to shoot. :-D