Encore 10mm has arrived!!!

Geeman · July 20 2014 09:36:31 AM MDT

New toy in the form of a new barrel for the Encore.

Greg

N1vraM · July 20 2014 11:27:20 AM MDT

Beautiful! How does it shoot with the new barrel?

MCQUADE · July 20 2014 01:48:11 PM MDT

Now that is SWEET!!

The_Shadow · July 20 2014 02:36:09 PM MDT

Yes indeed very sweet! ${$default_cool_smiley}$

Geeman · July 20 2014 03:36:59 PM MDT

Quote from: N1vraM on July 20 2014 11:27:20 AM MDT
Beautiful! How does it shoot with the new barrel?

I have yet to send the first round down range. I just got the scope transferred form a different barrel last night.

If its like any of the other Bullberry barrels I have, it will shoot less than MOA once I find the load. That's why I have a 2.5x8 scope. I hope it will shoot at 100 yards.

Greg

Geeman · July 20 2014 03:51:32 PM MDT

It was about a five month wait for this one.

Bullberry chambers are tight. Some of my prior barrels required new brass and they needed to be length sized before loading. This one is tight, but did chamber one of my reloads.

The barrel is 9" long and the stubby little pistol weighs in at 5 lb, 3 oz.

I'm not expecting recoil to be an issue with Underwood type ammo. I think I'll keep that level of ammo as a practical maximum, even though I think this platform would do well with a hotter loading that an autoloader would tolerate. I just don't want to blow up a gun because I mixed up handloads.

Greg

MCQUADE · July 20 2014 05:23:05 PM MDT

That setup will definately handle "nuclear" loads.

SagSlim59 · July 20 2014 07:44:18 PM MDT

Great looking set up!

Geeman · July 22 2014 08:42:36 PM MDT

Spent a little while at the range today.

I shot the only jacketed handloads I had loaded. The loading was 9.2g of 800x under the 180g Hornady HAP, and was a warm load for the Glock and the Witness. I thought this would be a piece of cake in the Encore. While it handled it fine, the much tighter chamber did raise the pressure and the primers were quite a lot flatter than when cycled through an autoloader. I didn't shoot over the gates, but I think this was really cooking along out of a 9" barrel.

The fired brass was measuring either .423" or .424" inches, while the virgin Starline brass measured .422" I was wanting to get the pistol sighted in, and try a quick series to check group size. I sent 40 total rounds down range from 25, 50, and 100 yards. There was no real rearward recoil, but the muzzle did have a flip up on the shot. Overall, very comfortable to shoot from the bench.

Group sizes (five shot) were running a bit larger than I expected. 1.02" at 25 yards, 1.63" at 50 yards, and 2.70" at 100 yards. This was about double what I was thinking might happen. This is the first time I tried this style shooting with hand loaded ammo. I might simply need to take greater care, such as seating the bullet as a separate operation than the crimp.

I'm just getting started and I'm confident I'll be able to get things shooting a bit tighter.

Greg