Coltdriver
Member
I got started with a .450 Marlin barrel on this Encore last year. The big cartridge is fun to shoot and with an 18 inch barrel it is easy to carry.
This year I sold the Marlin barrel and picked up a 20 inch 45/70 barrel in stainless. Thompson Center apparently discontinued the earlier Katahdin barrels and I wanted a stainless version anyway. This is a Pro Hunter Barrel.
My brother and I took it out to the Pawnee Grasslands (northeast of Greeley, Colorado) this afternoon to try it out. What a hoot!
I had loaded some of the original 45 70 rounds with 70 grains of black powder and a 405 grain cast bullet. I also loaded some very light loads with smokeless powder under the 405 grain bullet. Some with Unique and some with Reloader 7. Both of the smokeless rounds gave less recoil than the black powder rounds.
The barrel came with a peep sight. At its lowest elevation and 100 yards out with these rounds the best we could do was still about one foot high. I guess T/C expects everyone to put a scope on the barrel.
The weather was perfect. I was wearing electronic muffs. You could hear the bullet zip its way to the target.
I removed the peep sight and mounted a 1-4 20 scope on it when I got home this afternoon. I had the limbsaver mounted from the earlier barrel. The limbsaver is an incredibly effective recoil pad.
I have some jacketed Hornady 300 grain bullets that will go in the next reloads so that we have something to try next week end. The down loaded rounds are fun to shoot and they do not beat you up like the magnum loaded versions do. I am also going to get a box of the lever evolution bullets so I can see how they shoot and sight in. Next hunting season I will take some of those along with this rifle.
This rifle balances right under the barrel hinge pin. In this configuration it only weighs 7 and 1/2 pounds.
This year I sold the Marlin barrel and picked up a 20 inch 45/70 barrel in stainless. Thompson Center apparently discontinued the earlier Katahdin barrels and I wanted a stainless version anyway. This is a Pro Hunter Barrel.
My brother and I took it out to the Pawnee Grasslands (northeast of Greeley, Colorado) this afternoon to try it out. What a hoot!
I had loaded some of the original 45 70 rounds with 70 grains of black powder and a 405 grain cast bullet. I also loaded some very light loads with smokeless powder under the 405 grain bullet. Some with Unique and some with Reloader 7. Both of the smokeless rounds gave less recoil than the black powder rounds.
The barrel came with a peep sight. At its lowest elevation and 100 yards out with these rounds the best we could do was still about one foot high. I guess T/C expects everyone to put a scope on the barrel.
The weather was perfect. I was wearing electronic muffs. You could hear the bullet zip its way to the target.
I removed the peep sight and mounted a 1-4 20 scope on it when I got home this afternoon. I had the limbsaver mounted from the earlier barrel. The limbsaver is an incredibly effective recoil pad.
I have some jacketed Hornady 300 grain bullets that will go in the next reloads so that we have something to try next week end. The down loaded rounds are fun to shoot and they do not beat you up like the magnum loaded versions do. I am also going to get a box of the lever evolution bullets so I can see how they shoot and sight in. Next hunting season I will take some of those along with this rifle.
This rifle balances right under the barrel hinge pin. In this configuration it only weighs 7 and 1/2 pounds.