Omega shooting?

[hickslawns]

Shot the TC Omega today. I had it dialed in pretty good at 25 yds with 100gr of Pyrodex. Bullet selection sucks in Lima. You get 245/295 or 250/300/350. I felt pretty good up until I back out to 100yds expecting a couple inches high. I was 4" low. Need to get a good cleaning on it, find a day when it isn't as windy and try it again next week. Frustrating on not being dialed in yet. Still fun as heck to shoot.

I also shot my 243 for the first time. The scope is not dialed in perfectly, but I am loving that gun. Will work on pictures tonight.

 

[CJD3]

So you don't have any 200Gr.?

I would pit the 200 vs 250...

How often did you swab the barrel?

Keep us posted.:smiley_bril:

 

[Matt]

Sight it in at a farther distance than 25 yards bud. Probably what is happening is you are catching the bullet on the up-side of it's trajectory. This picture is a little exaggerated as to the extremity of the incline, but the barrel is actually pointed slightly up, giving the bullet an arching trajectory. So, by sighting in so close, your are in effect extending your far zero. By far zero, I mean that there are 2 points where the bullet intersects your line of sight, near zero and far zero. Try zeroing it at 100 yards, you will have much better results.

 

[hickslawns]

Pulled the breach plug and ran a dry patch down the barrel, flipped the patch and ran it out again after EACH shot. Probably overkill. I also let the gun cool down 5-10min in between. Definitely overkill. Takes dang near 5 min to pull the plug, run patch, reload, etc. There were three of us shooting too. I would shoot one and let my Dad and his friend fire away for awhile. I am heading out tomorrow again.

Matt- I see what you are saying, but it doesn't make sense. If I am dead on at 25yds, then why is it 4" low at 100yds? It should still be on the uphill climb of the trajectory. This is what had me confused. I was hoping to find it a couple inches high, then back out to 150yds where it should have been pretty close again. Then I was going to see how much drop I got at 200yds. I am a bit puzzled. In all fairness, I only got one shot at 100yds and it started to rain pretty good. This could be as simple as I just made a crappy shot. I don't think so (I can see a couple inches) but it certainly is possible. I had a pretty solid rest I was shooting off. Catching up on TOO for the day and heading upstairs to clean the muzzle loader and try again tomorrow.

On an upnote, if I aimed for the vitals, they all would have been kill shots from 25-100yds which would probably cover most shots anyway.

 

[Matt]

I don't know why I read 4" high in my mind....

As far as cleaning while firing, I don't pull the breech plug while shooting. I do that later. But, I do run a spit patch (yep, good ol' saliva) down the barrel then a few dry patches, followed by a fouler, followed by a nipple pick.

 

[CJD3]

I don't pull the breech plug either when shooting. Just at the end of the day.
I do swab after each shot and follow up w/ dry patch.
I start at 50, then go to 100 yards.

Hope tomorrow gets you dialed in!

 

[hickslawns]

Breech plug wasn't bad. She is purtied up again and ready to go. I will probably snap a primer off in there before shooting one. I did clean the barrel thoroughly and use some more bore butter. I will keep you posted. Speaking of posted, I took a picture I can use to update the "Gun Porn" thread.

 

[Ohiosam]

Forget shooting at 25 after you get on paper.
Depending on the bullet with Pyrodex being dead on at 25, I'm not surprised you are low at 100. 100 gr Pyrodex with a 250 gr bullet probably has you around 17-1800 fps at the muzzle, T7 will give you about 10% more and BH209 will be another 5-10%.

What bullets are you working with? Personally I would keep with the 240gr and heavier bullets.

 

[Buckrun]

Do you have a chronograph? You can use mine if you want. It is an old one but last time I used it , it was find. It would be easier to figure the bullet trajectory if you know how fast it is going.

I wouldn't use spit as a patch. Salt in your spit will rust the barrel. I know when sighting in it isn't in there that long. But I still wouldn't start that practice.

I don't use Pyrodex but I would still think you would need some kind of lube on the patch to clean between shots. There are a lot of good cleaning lubes out there.

 

[Bowhunter57]

Forget shooting at 25 after you get on paper.
Personally I would keep with the 240gr and heavier bullets.

hickslawns,
I agree with Ohiosam, on the bullet weight selection, but YOUR Omega may like lighter weight bullets. Whatever works best. :smiley_bril:

Once you get the bullets on paper at 100 yards, I'd start working on getting it sighted in with the load you intend to use for hunting. Then I'd check it at further yardages. You might have to sight it in 1" high at 100 yards, to get what you want at 150 yards.

Personally, I'd rather compensate for drop at longer yardages, than I would want to be off zero at the yardages I'm most likely to be hunting. That is to say: I'd rather my M/L be dead on or no more than 1" high at 100 yards, all the while knowing it's hitting 2" or 3" low at 150 yards...a distance that I might not be shooting.

YOU have to be comfortable with the way YOUR M/L is set up for the distances you'll be hunting. Good luck!

Good hunting, Bowhunter57

 

[Matt]

I wouldn't use spit as a patch. Salt in your spit will rust the barrel. I know when sighting in it isn't in there that long. But I still wouldn't start that practice.

I don't use Pyrodex but I would still think you would need some kind of lube on the patch to clean between shots. There are a lot of good cleaning lubes out there.

Like you said, I don't think the liquid rests there long enough for any kind of rusting to be an issue when just sighting in. I use a bore solvent when I clean, and have also used just straight water to clean as well. As long as you dry everything up good and put a thin later of good gun oil on, I would think everything would be ok. Also, I use powerbelts and don't use any kind of bore butter or sabot lube.

 

[hickslawns]

All I shot yesterday was Powerbelts and 100gr Pyrodex. Just trying to get the scope close and try different weights bullet from there. No spit Buckrun. Just a dry patch to get the crud out. Amazing what a dry patch was getting out of there. I did use solvent last night for the thorough cleaning and then more bore butter. I realize my first shot will not be much to use for a judgement today. Just trying to get the barrel seasoned. I will work at 100yds today and let you guys know how it is. Thanks

Sam- Just the 245gr powerbelts so far. Once I am comfortable on paper I might try some 295gr just to see. If they are consistent with the 245gr I might not even worry about it at least for this season. This is more a killing mission for me on this year's muzzle loader season. Property owner needs a cape and one of my employees has three kids and hasn't gotten a deer yet. He will get the meat. Reduce one doe, and donate her to these two parties is all I am worried about. I guess I should feel fortunate we have a property with too many does and I do not need the meat. Check that, I do feel fortunate!

 

[hickslawns]

Update on today's shooting. I am all over the place. Up/down is consistent. If I was left I would adjust the appropriate number of clicks and it would still be off. I would think "Okay, now we have it perfect." Walk down range and it would be 3" right. Adjust for dead center, shoot, and it was either way left or in the same spot on the right. I honestly think we are experiencing a bad scope. I was having fits with the Remington 700ML the last 2 years and didn't want to spend the $70 to upgrade to 209 primers. Figured why throw $70 into a gun that would still be $100-125 gun when finished. Sold it for $100 and put that towards the Omega. Mounted the scope and thought I would be shooting dead nuts this year. Guess some of my experiences the last two years can be attributed to the scope and not the old muzzle loader. Think I might put some chalk marks on the scope for remounting purposes and sight it in open sights. If I get consistent groups, then the scope is going back.

For what it is worth, after running low on Hornady XTP's I tried a handful of the Powerbelts just to see if this would make a difference. Nada. Shot about the same, maybe a tad better. Not real sure though because I don't trust the scope right now.

We were also using a Leadsled for the rest on the back of a truck tailgate. My buddy is heading to Texas for the week and I kept it so I can keep dicking around with the Omega to figure it out before next week.

Thoughts?

 

[CJD3]

Powerbelts were all over the paper for me too. Hope you get to try the other brand and weights.

 

["J"]

Okay, I haven't really been following this but if you pull the scope and shoot open sights and get a good group then yeah I'd agree with the scope being the issue.... But if you still have the same problem it's the powder/bullet selection.... Just got to eleimanate the culprit.....

 

[Buckrun]

Phil go to the gunshow today! It is probably your best chance to get some different bullets to try. Also if you want to try another scope I probably have something you can use for deer season coming up. All my scopes are 1" tubes. Give me a call.

I don't think I have heard what cal. the gun is.

Just went and checked. All I have is a scope called Challenger by Weaver it is 2.5 power. I have no idea where this scope came from. Probably on a gun that I had bought and switched it out. It looks good and 2.5 should be ok for deer and a muzzleloader. Its yours to use if you want it.

 

[Geezer]

Well tried triple 7 - Pyrodex - Jim Shickey crap - power belts - triple 7 primers and finally got it right with 100 gr by volume of Blackhorn and 250 gr shock wave super glide by T/C - and Win 209 shotgun primers - that Blackhorn cleans up so nice with powder solvent - dang

Shooting a TC -.50 cal pro hunter SCHWEET

Something about power belt bullets be'n undersize so they load easy - just doan sit right wif muh - never got the accuracy from them i wanted - dang jus say'n

 

[hickslawns]

I guess the only issue I have here is I used the Hornady XTP's with sabot for most of my shooting. I shot half a dozen of the Powerbelts just to see if it would make a difference. Same issues.

I will get out there with open sights and see what it does.

CJD- I was able to find some 200gr Shockwaves at Walmart last night. Our "big" Walmart has nothing for ML bullets. Headed to Wapakoneta store and there were only 3 boxes of ML bullets. They were all 200gr Shockwaves. I bought 2 of the boxes. I cleaned the crap out of the gun again last night. I always do. Pretty anal about my muzzle loaders. I now have 200gr Shockwaves, 250gr Shockwaves (5 came with the gun), 245/295gr Powerbelts, and 250gr Hornady saboted XTP's. I am pulling the scope, putting up 3 sheets of targets and shooting 3 each of the above listed bullets open sights with the Leadsled. Clean gun, and multiple bullets on a solid rest should tell me something. I will just shoot at 50-75yds open sights and see what they are doing. Might need to bore sight the open sights first. I had to pull the rear sight in order to put my scope on there, but it will get me on the paper in order to verify grouping. I think I will stick with 100gr Pyrodex so this remains consistent. I could be off, but I really don't think it is the powder. There are too many guys using either 100 or 150gr Pyrodex with the Omega for me to believe I am off in this category. Seems like my search of the internet showed that a high percentage of guys were having great success with 100gr Pyrodex.

The other consistent variable is the Primers. I was using 209 primers from a brand new box of 100. Was using the Winchester triple 7's. I will not change these either.

Buckrun- I might take you up on that. Honestly thinking open sights out to 100yds is not going to be a problem for me. 300meters open sights on the M16 range was never a problem (10+yrs ago on the pop-up range). 100yds with a solid rest should not be an issue. I hope to know something soon. I need to get this dialed in or the Muzzle loader season will be a non-hunting event for me this year. I would rather stay home than wound an animal. Might need to get to the gun show as well and see what is out there.

 

[Buckrun]

Is the Omega a .45 or .50? I just picked up some .45 cal. 200gr Shockwaves for a friend of mine and some of those trip. 7 pellets. He has shot several groundhogs with his Encore .45 at around 200 yards with this combo.

 

[CJD3]

Hang in there Hicks.
I know it would be more fun working up a good load if you had more time. Your getting the load closer by isolating. Hope the Shock waves do the trick!