First time user - questions inside

Jahnj0584

Jahnj0584

CGN frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
48   0   0
Location
Halifax NS
I picked up this TC Impact 50 cal a few months ago for 150$ to get a longer deer season and hopefully second tag this year. I've never shot muzzle before.

From what I gathered all I do now is screw in the breach plug, drop in 2 pellets of my White Hots (dont touch with finger oils), ram the Hornady Bore Driver 290gr (I meant to get 250, oh well) and ram it down solid with the ramrod. I then insert one of these 209 primers, #### the hammer and pull the trigger.


What I find weird here is that the primer pocket is about .160" deep while the primers I have (lucky me?) are about .305 long! Everything I seen so far says these 097 are a direct replacement for 209.

When I fired an empty primer after cleaning, it did go off and I even saw a spark come out the end of the barrel.

Is this all correct? In my mind the primer should sit flat, but then again it also did lock up properly and go off, so really just need some 2nd opinions before I take this to the range tomorrow and have a pipe bomb blow up in my face.

 
Some years ago I bought a perhaps similar TC Omega - was a "sale" I think at S.I.R. - I did say was "some" years ago (my notes say purchase was Dec. 2005). I used the 777 pellets mostly, because I could buy them easily, and I used W-W 209 primers. Maybe was 209A - I no longer have any - do not own that rifle any more. But I do recall what a major challenge it was to push those saboted bullets down that bore - apparently there is /was no USA standard for ".50 Caliber", so can / could vary from like .495" to .505", with TC reputed to be closer to the tight side. After some years, I got some Crushrib sabots with 260 grain bullets - which seemed to be a few thousandths smaller (thinner) than other sabots. As supplied to me, I doubt very much that I could have reloaded a second round in the field - was a MAJOR commotion just to do so standing at a shooting bench at a range. Hopefully your experience will be much less stressful.

I did get a can of "Blackhorn" loose powder - either on the can or their website, says not to use the special "Muzzle Loader" primers that were made - like by Remington - was to be used with real shotgun 209 (209A) primers.

As well, I helped an acquaintance clean up a really rusty, crusty TC Omega - I am very sure that the replaceable TC nipple for the shotgun primer accepted the 209's about perfect. I do recall using "Gorilla" brand grease to lube those threads, when replacing that nipple - was a very tiny firing hole at inner end that was to be checked to be clean, I think. My recollection is that the tiny hole was not to be "wallowed out" when cleaning- for some reason that original tiny hole diameter was important to keep that size. Always had at least one new spare TC nipple on hand - were readily available at the time.
 
Last edited:
I had not heard of #97 primers before - a lengthy quote from a TrapShooter site - apparently quoting from another site:

Quote from Shotgunworld:
"The 97* primer is 209 size (.244") BUT it has an open flash hole. If you look at the primer the hole where the "spark" flashes to the powder charge it is open. Primers these days are sealed with a small paper disc or sealed with a covering. This open hole caused troubles when certain powders were used with the 97* primers. Fine grained ball type powders migrated into the primer opening some times causing pressure problems inside the primer cup upon firing, bulging primers or blowing them. The 97* primer should only be used with large flake type powders like 700X, Red Dot etc. The 97* primer was a target grade primer, mild and was competitive to the Winchester 209 or CCI 209 Trap & Skeet of the day. My old Hercules manuel of 1972 shows loads with the 97* similar for that of the Win 209 with Red Dot. I just happened on to some 97* primers myself. They were a good primer in their day just be sure to use a flake type powder if you decide to use them."

I never handled them, so I can not say this is correct or not - I thought that you might want to read what it said.
 
Shot it tonight. Zero'd it in with 3 shots then got a 1" group at 50y and didn't die. Costs about 4$ per pull as it stands!

I call it a success. Ready for October!
 
If you have not done so before - from much more experienced ML guys when I was starting - take your shot - with smoke, likely not able to see if it fell down or ran off - at ML ranges, deer usually dead, but sometimes 50 yards away from where it was when you shot at it. So, from where you fired, reload again - to be able to go looking, with a loaded rifle in your hands - in case that you need to fire a finishing shot - will be about no time to reload, if you see a wounded one that needs finishing shot. Might want to become familiar with what your jurisdiction considers "unloaded" for muzzle loader - in Saskatchewan, at that time, just had to remove that primer - even though there was powder and bullet in the barrel, was considered to be "unloaded". Gets to be a memory challenge to remember about that charge in there - I did not like to store the rifle with powder in there - had to remember to fire off that last round - usually after the field dressing. An acquaintance had a muzzle loader hanging in basement - must have been 100 years old - and still had ball and powder in the barrel!! So was handled, for generations, by people who did not realize there was a charge in there!

Might have been unnecessary, but my practice for every day that ML got fired - even once - I have soft jaw vise in my shop - barrel into vice - unscrew the primer nipple - clean that bore to shiny - clean that primer nipple - re-lube the nipple threads and re-install. As I recall, it was TC "Bore Butter" that I used as preservative coating within that bore - I am not certain, today, that there is any "magic" about that product - likely any light grease would work fine - AFTER a flush with boiling hot water down that bore and "normal" cleaning with brush and patches. I was probably motivated to keep "ultra clean" bore because of the challenge I was having to seat saboted bullets - is likely that I was using wrong thickness of sabots for that bore - but "clean" most definitely did help - at least for first few shots.
 
Last edited:
Only allowed to use ML for white tails in my WMU, it's the only reason I own one. But I find at the rang or hunting the bore snake is very handy, gets it clean enough to load the next bullet easily for follow up shots
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom