Wife bought me a TC Encore

[Sockeye66]

Not to muddy the waters even more, but another site to check out is Gary Reeder's site. His custom 280 GNR cartridge for an Encore is IMO as good as it gets for an all around hunting cartridge. My experience for break actions is with Contenders and Bergara Apex's and as has been said here, Mike Bellm is the authority on TC's. Your wife didn't buy you a rifle, she bought you a whole new world of shooting options and information seeking.

 

[muledeer01]

Love Encores but not with hard kickers.

Lol, I got rid of my 30/06 in pistol configuration because it started to get boring shooting it, I seriously considered getting a .300 win mag barrel for it, most custom barrel makers wouldn't sell me one without a muzzle brake. I thought about a 16.5" .300 win mag barrel but decided to use it for fodder for another project.

 

[171farm]

Everyone has given some great advice already on upgrades (springs, hinge pin..). Incase you didnt know, Smith & Wesson discontinued the TC line and is actively looking for a buyer so all TC branded stuff will soon be hard to find. The following links are some places that you can get parts and pieces plus some barrel resources.

https://www.bellmtcs.com/ - Mike is the man when it comes to fine tuning plus he carries a good bit of stuff
https://www.hausofarms.com/ - Marty is a good guy to deal with, he does a lot of projects with the Encore. He is working with SSK Firearms (Lehigh Defense) to make G2 frames. Has been long in the making so not sure if it will actually come out
https://eabco.com/tcref.html - They carry all kind of stuff for TC including custom barrels
http://www.edstc.com/ - Ed is an older guy that forgot more than most will ever know about TC's, he is best to deal with via email or phone but his site is usually up to date
https://matchgrademachine.com/ - Sells stock and custom made barrels (seems to be one of the leaders in barrels along with eabco)
https://www.bullberrylegacy.com/ - Custom barrels, recently changed hands of ownership
https://www.shultzprecisionrifles.com/ - Jr is more of a gunsmith but does work on TC's such as adding spring kits and threading of barrels

I know Im missing a few but gives you a good place to start look at.

 

[FlGunner]

Yeah heard that S

Everyone has given some great advice already on upgrades (springs, hinge pin..). Incase you didnt know, Smith & Wesson discontinued the TC line and is actively looking for a buyer so all TC branded stuff will soon be hard to find. The following links are some places that you can get parts and pieces plus some barrel resources.

https://www.bellmtcs.com/ - Mike is the man when it comes to fine tuning plus he carries a good bit of stuff
https://www.hausofarms.com/ - Marty is a good guy to deal with, he does a lot of projects with the Encore. He is working with SSK Firearms (Lehigh Defense) to make G2 frames. Has been long in the making so not sure if it will actually come out
https://eabco.com/tcref.html - They carry all kind of stuff for TC including custom barrels
http://www.edstc.com/ - Ed is an older guy that forgot more than most will ever know about TC's, he is best to deal with via email or phone but his site is usually up to date
https://matchgrademachine.com/ - Sells stock and custom made barrels (seems to be one of the leaders in barrels along with eabco)
https://www.bullberrylegacy.com/ - Custom barrels, recently changed hands of ownership
https://www.shultzprecisionrifles.com/ - Jr is more of a gunsmith but does work on TC's such as adding spring kits and threading of barrels

I know Im missing a few but gives you a good place to start look at

Yeah I heard that S&W bought them and odd looking to dump them off. I'm going to buy some spares and I already chatted with a couple of those guys there about fine tuning. I really appreciate all of the info that you guys have provided me. I will show some pictures here soon after I get here out on the range and shoot her some more.

 

[171farm]

Yes Im not so sure what the idea was around Smith initially buying them...maybe they wanted a presence in the hunting rifle market and determined it didnt make sense and are exiting? They killed the muzzleloader line and a few of the bolt rifles during their tenure so who knows. I do see they still have the TC LLR (Long Range Rifle) posted on the S&W site so who really knows. Seems like they had an agenda and either never acted on it, did and it didnt work out as they thought or we have yet to see what it was. Hopefully a buyer steps up and does the brand justice this time.

 

[Old Rooster]

171Farm I agree but they did make some accurate rifles.
I have a T/C Venture with a 5R barrel in 300 win mag and put a few very expensive rifles to shame with the accuracy.
I used to own several fancy wood stocks for Encore's with the matching fore end's but over the years I traded some and sold some for a different project and wish I had saved the better walnut stocks with matching fore ends.Maybe a fancy Laminated stock and fore end is in my future but not until the present no ammo and no powder and no primers problem is fixed.

 

[171farm]

Old rooster, for sure. I have a compass in 6.5 creedmoor and it shoots pretty darn good. My dad and brother both have one in 300 win and they are the same. It might not be the sexiest gun on the rack but it does the job it's supposed to and at a great price.

 

[Coldfinger]

So my lovely wife bought me a TC Encore from a friend of ours at her work. It's got a .50 cal muzzleloader barrel and a rifle barrel. Not sure the caliber. She bought it Friday and is picking it up tomorrow. Decided to tell me tonight. So my question is this……I'm not sure of the caliber of the rifle barrel, but I know I will look for a 7mm Rem mag barrel as I have a lot of components…what kind of accuracy can I expect to see from an Encore rifle? I have read several threads and see some love em and some don't.

I had the heavy barrel 7mm mag 26". It would shoot 168 grain Berger's in ragged holes I was impressed with it. Give it a Bellm Trigger job and some nice wood you won't be disappointed!! My 22-250 15" barrel would shoot 3/4" groups with the factory sights at 100 yards when my eyes were 20 years younger!

 

[SCshooter]

I have an Encore in 7mm Rem Mag. Barrel was custom by Virgin Valley Arms which morphed into Match Grade Machine. I use oversize hinge pins from Mike Belm and had a trigger job years ago. The rifle shoots about 0.5 moa with decent hand loads.

 

[Larson562022]