ijimmy

Just got back from the range , tryed the 300 shockwaves with 90 grains 777 and harvester sabots , was rewarded with 6" groups at 50 yards[:@] , a real pain to load allso . So on to the 295 powerbelts with 90 grains of 777 , 3/4 inchs at 50 , but the dreaded crud ring was pissing me off . swabing in between shots with solvent and then dry , the crud was bad . I finaly got it shooting about 2-3 inches at 100 and was happy but , thats with the scope , with the sights at their lowest setting the gun was shooting 6-8 inches high , It did this with the 250 powerbelts allso so no surprise but man cant they get these things right , with sabots it will shoot with the sights but the group is awefull .

Well I wish someone would tell me a way to get rid of the crud ring and how to get my sights the correct height . Guess Ill try the new primer sleaves from presision with small rifel primers , anyone have a sugestion for a clean powder ?

LaneNebraska

Just use FFFg American Pioneer Powder(APP) instead of old Cruddy 777[:'(]and all that swabbing between shots[]
And lets not forget all those Trip7 stuck breech plugs--Oh joy[>:][>:]

FFFg Pinnacle Powder is good also from what I hear. It's made by APP as well.

Forget all that 25ACP/small rifle primer hooee[:-] and just get some trouble free APP
Cost alot less than all that conversion stuff

cayugad

I find it strange that your Omega will not shoot well with 300 grain Shockwaves. Is there a reason you changed to the harvester sabots? I shoot the 250 grain Thompson Center Shockwaves that come with their own sabots. I shoot them in my Black Diamond XR and they load easy and are very accurate. I shoot them with 100-120 grains of any kind of powder I like and they are still accurate. I have shot the 300 grain Shockwaves and they were also accurate as well.

Are you starting all of this on a clean barrel? I mean swab all the oil, bore butter, dust, anything else that might be in there out. No lube on the sabot. And make sure you are hitting the witness mark on the ramrod each and every time? When I swab the bore I put a damp patch on the jag and work it in short strokes making the strokes longer as I work down the barrel. When I get to the bottom I flip the patch and do it all over again. Then two dry patches and load as normal. If you are having serious crud problems, put a bore brush on the end of the ramrod. Then wrap a wet patch around the bore brush. Again, work that in short strokes. The bore brush with the wet patch will usually knock the hardest crud ring out of the barrel. If it takes two patches then run two patches.

What primer are you using? They have some of the new muzzleloading primers out there that throw less fire and produce less crud. Also there is the options of other powders. With sabots, Pinnacle is good stuff. APP I have not shot enough to say, although I did shoot a lot of Clean Shot in my life. Also if you could get some Black Mag3 you might want to give that a try.

What's the matter with the sights? You might want to call Thompson Center and talk to a tech. They are more then willing to give you good advice and can help you with any other problems you might have.

Pittsburghunter

Some batches of Shockwaves were sent out with wrong sized sabots if you call T/C and tell them the problems you are having they will send you out some sabots to fix the problem.

As far as the dreaded crudring thing goes.. All powders do it some less some more. T7 wants a bit wetter a patch in my opinion that's all. No matter what powder I shoot I never go more than a few shots between cleaning I want my target to reflect the shape my barrel is in when I hunt. (clean) So why would I adjust the sights to match a fouled out barrel?

If T7 did not perform so well I to would switch but so far nothing I have tried has matched the results I get with it. Someone also mentioned problems with the breech plug getting stuck. just pour a little water down the bore what a couple minutes and the plug will screw right out.

MLKeith

Some of the early Omega rifles came with sights that were set up incorrectly. I have an early one but have never shot open sights (check with T/C maybe they have the records ). I installed a scope first thing and went from there. My Omega will not shoot 777 ffg or pellets without a severe crud ring on the first shot from a clean dry barrel. I'm sure there is no contaminant in the barrel and with Winchester 209 primers it is a mess. I bought the .25ACP conversion and it is about 80% better but still too much of a problem for me. Pyrodex shoots well but is very dirty however it does not make the dreaded 777 crud ring. I shoot Black Mag'3 with great results both for accuracy the lack of fouling allows multiple shots without a swab between. APP fffg works well also and I have some Pinnacle fffg that I have just started evaluating. Looks promising at this point. The .25ACP conversion I like for the ease of handling the primers in the .25 brass as they are a lot easier to deal with than the original 209 primers when hunting and trying to get a second shot off if needed. Elk sometimes will not fall down even when hit well; at least that has been my experience. One big cow walked slowly about 50 yards and looked like she had not been hit with a huge hole through the center of her heart. I had reloaded and was about to shoot again when she finally stumbled and fell.

ijimmy

cayugad , Ive done all thouse things . The reason I tryed harvesters is because shockwaves are VERY dificult to load with the stock sabots , the harvesters are 1 1/2 thousands of an inch smaller , but still are unresonable . The powerbelts are fine , and shoot great , but the crud ring is rediculos , didnt have that with my knight . The sights are a difrant story all the way at the lowest setting , and it shoots 8 inches high at 100 yards , this gun is DIFICULT at best .

Roskoe

My first Omega would shoot OK with sabot/pellets loads, but the 348 grain Powerbelts with 100 grains of T7 hit low and the rear sight could not be adjusted up enough to get it sighted in. I wound up making a stainless steel spacer to raise the rear sight about .105". My current Omega is fine - the lighter sabot bullets with magnum charges are sighted in with the rear sight near the lowest setting, and the heavier conicals with 100 grains of powder are dead on at one of the higher settings. You may need to play with height of the front or rearsight to get an acceptable zero.

I'm somewhat surprised to 295 Powerbelts shoot that much higher than the 300 grain Shockwaves. Would expect the impact to be pretty close with the same powder charge.

ijimmy

Mine is one of the early ones , so it may fit in this catagory .

MLKeith

My Omega is difficult to load sabots also. I finally found that 300gr. SST bullets in Harvester short sabots will load sort of OK. I did find that with 90gr. of Black Mag'3 the 300gr. SST and 295gr. Powerbelt hit within 1/2 inch at 100 yards. Some of the Omega barrels seem to be difficult and some are not. I polished mine with bore paste and that improved it a little. Mine is a stainless .50.

Route4

A friend of mine just bought a SS thumbhole Omega 50. We have shot it a few weekends now. This thing seems to shoot just about anything he puts through it. Mostly using 100 gr 777 and while you can tell the crud ring is there it is not bad at all (compared to my Encore which was BAD). The interesting thing that we found out this weekend is that the new Harvestor Crush Rib Sabots work great. Much easier to load and still hit in the same group with the MMP sabots. He shot some 300 gr XTPs with these sabots yesterday and it was just over 1"! He uses CCI primers and has a Holosight mounted on her. I may just have to trade the Encore for one of these things???