Lorcux

Well, I hafta say that all the hype about the Thompson/Center Omega is...... TRUE. I traded in my Remington 700 MLS and bought the Stainless Fluted barrel with grey laminated Thumbhole stock. These guns are hard to find. Out of 6 gun shops with 75 miles, only 1 dealer could order one. I topped it with a 3-9X40 Simmons and went to the range yesterday to lay her down on a nice sandbag. I will get a nice Leupold later, season is next weekend. I just grabbed the scope off my .22 Marlin .
I was amazed on how accurate the rifle shot. I sighted it in at 100 yards. TC really made a nice gun here. The laminated thumbhole stock is awesome.... I shot polymer tip sabots last year and was very please with the performance in my Remi 700 MLS. The Wal-Mart(s) have been cleaned out of polymer tips . So, I bought some regular hollow point sabots. But, to my surpirse, Thompson/Center willingly included a 5 pack sample of their ShockWaves with my gun. After I sighted in with the TC Mag Express Sabots, I shot the TC ShockWaves Sabots. I had a few flyers, but as you can see, they group almost perfect. About 1.5 inches high at 100 yards. They grouped better than the hollow points, but the hollow points aren't that shabby either. I guess the Mag Express will be ok to hunt with. I definetly will get some more ShockWaves!!!!

Oh yeah, and the "cleanup" was a breeze, thanks to Hodgdon 777!

I highly recommed this muzzleloader to anyone debating on which to get.



TC Mag Express Sabots 1.5 inch group at 100 yards




TC ShockWaves 1.25 inch group at 100 yards.

m.t.hands

they shockwave looks like the thing, whats that one doing at 3 o'clock, btw welcome and enjoy this site, best of luck this season, what charge are you shooting with the 777, the reason i ask is i'm hearing people say to drop you charge down 15-20% over pyrodex and regular bp, i'm shooting 100grs (2 pellets) pyrodex

Lorcux

I shoot 2 50gr. 777 pellets. I have never shot anything but 100 gr. I think maybe next summer, I may try some loose 777 and vary my mearsurements to get the best shot group. Seems some people disagree the idea of 150gr. Kinda not needed. I have only killed bucks with muzzleloader and both was with 100gr. Both ran 20 yards and fell over. 150gr may be ok for long range shots, but my honey hole won't permit a 200 yard shot.
I pulled the one at 3 o'clock. But, I think it would have hit a deer. It is just around 4 inches from center. Thanks for the welcome and good luck with the ole smokepole this season.

m.t.hands

i've got 2 m/ler's that are 150 gr. capable but the most i ever shoot is 100grs. no need to kill on both ends....

good hunting

newguy23

Did you have any trouble loading the shockwaves... In mine it was extremely difficult to get them down the barrel... Any suggestions?

m.t.hands

new guy what kind of m/ler, there was a post the other day on this board about hard loading, you might try a search, a friend of mine has a t/c and he is having loading problems, he bought the gun used and we are going to try some ideas we saw on the other post and see what happens. best of luck on yours and your season.

here is the other post

http://forum.hunting.net/asppg/tm.asp?m=751483

Lorcux

Hard loading ShockWaves, YES. Seems they are hard to load I think. But, the Mag Express hollow point sabots were hard to load also. The key for me was sending a wet cleaning patch down and then a few dry ones. This seemed to help alot. TC recommends no type of "aid" in the form of oil, grease, or bore butter to put on the sabots. The sabots are to be loaded dry.

newguy23

I also have a Omega SS thumbhole fluted barrel... I could not deal with how hard the sabots are to load, so I have switched to powerbelts and have had great success as well... I can easily hit a pop can at 100 yards with 100 grains of AP...

And yeah, I love the gun, worth every penny... I have noticed that everyone on here that has gotten one is very impressed. It is my first muzzloader and might be my last, I can't imagine being happier with anything else. Anyone else love the trigger, what a crisp break, at 4 pounds it is great!

I topped mine off with a 4x burris compact scope which fits it nicely...

One thing I am getting used to is that this is my first laminate stock and I don't like the fact that they aren't checkered at the forend... Is this possible to have done at a later time?

MLKeith

I have an Omega .50 stainless (not the fluted barrel or thumbhole stock). I find the sabots difficult to load also. Switching the sabots to Harvester brand sabots helps a little as they are a little thinner and load somewhat better. I really want to shoot the Hornady 300gr. SSTs on my elk hunt this year if I can find a method of doing that without taking a hammer along to load the rifle. If all else fails I will go with the Powerbelt 348gr. bullets as I can get them in the rifle. I may try polishing the barrel with JB bore paste. I did that on a Pursuit LT I bought for my brother in law to use hunting with me this year and the results look pretty good after only 50 passes up and down the barrel. My Omega barrel looks pretty smooth already but maybe it isn't. I have not shot a lot of bullets through it.

Wolfhound76

I've been happy with my thumbhole stocked Omega. I use the sabots because I get great accuracy with them. They would be difficult to load if I were using the crappy factory ramrod. I prefer a PowerRod. Much easier to get the job done. I now own 4, one for each of my ML rifles.