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TC Encore Rifle

AmbroseAmbrose Member Posts: 3,224 ✭✭✭✭
edited May 2018 in Ask the Experts
I am thinking about buying a TC Encore rifle and am trying to decide what caliber barrel to buy for now, I'm sure I'll purchase more in the future. Will use mostly for deer in TN. I already have guns in 30-06, .270, .243, .300 Win Mag, and .308, while I'm not against being redundant in calibers I was thinking about trying a different one, maybe the 25-06, any recommendations??
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Comments

  • AmbroseAmbrose Member Posts: 3,224 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    A SIL has one of these and likes it. He wants to get another barrel and use it for a black bear hunt in Canada. I recommended the .450 Bushmaster cartridge but I can't find an Encore barrel in that chambering. Do they make one?
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  • charliemeyer007charliemeyer007 Member Posts: 6,572 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I think several aftermarket ones were made, most seem on back order now.

    Bear hunting I'd like a repeater. Sort of a review on the 450. https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2017/5/4/tested-the-450-bushmaster-ruger-american-rifle-ranch/
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  • rufe-snowrufe-snow Member Posts: 18,650 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    According to the Blue Book, the Encore rifles have been out of production for awhile. This might be a factor, in the nonavailability of the barrels?

    I personally owned one of the Thompson Center, Hunter Models, back in the 90's. It was a single shot break open, like the Encore but heavier. I had 7 mm Mag & 12 gauge barrels for it. Neither were fun, shooting from the bench, or anyplace else.

    I don't know your BIL's tolerance, for heavy kicking rifles? Might reconsider the .450. And suggest something along the lines of a 7 mm-08, or 6.5 Creedmore. If he is at all recoil sensitive.
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  • He DogHe Dog Member Posts: 51,593 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Rufe, like many things in the Blue Book, that is incorrect. The encore is alive and well on the T/C website. The encore and contender can still be had as can a choice of barrels. There are also after market barrel makers, and a good search engine like DuckDuckGo can find many of them.
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  • pip5255pip5255 Member Posts: 1,625 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    beyond this it is custom.

    https://www.eabco.net/TC-Encore-ProHunter_c_3562.html
    just because you could doesn't mean you should
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  • yoshmysteryoshmyster Member Posts: 22,014 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    If you're going .450 Bushmaster why not just go with .458 Socom? I mean if you're going with custom. Also has a better bullet selection.

    Or go with tried and true .45-70. Also the .45-70 barrels will be easier to find new and used.

    Edit.
    How is a pistol round okay for deer while a rifle round is not? Let alone for a bear? Pretty sure a deer can't climb after your * in a tree stand but a pissed off bear can. Oh I forgot this is Canada, eh [:D].

    dfletcher - I believe a rimmed .458 Socom is a 45-70 [:D].

    Is MGMM a good barrel maker? The .458 Socom was just a suggestion to where the .450 Bushmaster stops preforming.
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  • AmbroseAmbrose Member Posts: 3,224 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I don't know why he wants to use the Encore for the bear hunt; he has other rifles, including a .300 RUM, so it appears he is not particularly recoil sensitive. He has kept taxidermists in business, judging from the mounts in his house. A single-shot rifle would not be my first choice for a bear hunt but he likes that rifle and wants to use it. I will offer him the use of my Ruger American in .450 and will also suggest a .45/70 barrel for his Encore. The .45/70 would be perfect but the down side is that it's not legal to deer hunt with in this area while the .450 is. I don't yet know if that's a factor for him, so it's a subject for my next discussion with him.

    I appreciate the advice and the information that the .450 is indeed available for the Encore. I wondered if that rebated rim was a problem for the extractor.
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  • charliemeyer007charliemeyer007 Member Posts: 6,572 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Perhaps it's a short range thing like shotgun slugs so case length is a factor.
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  • dfletcherdfletcher Member Posts: 8,178 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by yoshmyster
    If you're going .450 Bushmaster why not just go with .458 Socom? I mean if you're going with custom. Also has a better bullet selection.

    Or go with tried and true .45-70. Also the .45-70 barrels will be easier to find new and used.

    Edit.
    How is a pistol round okay for deer while a rifle round is not? Let alone for a bear? Pretty sure a deer can't climb after your * in a tree stand but a pissed off bear can. Oh I forgot this is Canada, eh [:D].


    I tried to get a 458 SOCOM barrel from MGMM for my Encore barrel. Response I got was that the heavily rebated rim caused a problem fashioning an extractor so they don't offer it. Evidently there's a rimmed "458 SOCOM" like cartridge out there, but that didn't quite work for me.
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  • JimmyJackJimmyJack Member Posts: 5,509 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Bushmaster wouldnt be my first choice for bear hunting.
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  • SCOUT5SCOUT5 Member Posts: 16,181 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    A company in Utah chambers for that round in after market Encore barrels. MGM (match grade machine).

    CVA chambers the round and the whole rifle is cheaper than the barrel for the Encore. You can find the CVA rifles on the GunBroker auction side.

    I'm seriously considering getting one as the cartridge is legal for deer hunting on public land here in Indiana. I was going to get a .454 casull barrel for my Encore but started looking at the 450 Bushmaster and it seems to be a better cartridge.
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