Best cal. for Encore pistol

[muleman69]

Like to buy an Encore to hunt deer/predators. What would be a good choice for cal.?

 

[yorketransport]

If you're using a factory barrel then the 7mm/08 and 243 are excellent choices. In a custom barrel a 260 or 6.5 Creedmoor would be good choices and they'd split the difference between the 7mm/08 and 243.

 

[AWS]

Not an encore shooter but have shot and hunted with a number of break action rifles over the years, mostly Euro drillings and combo gun and find that shooting a rimmed cartridge is much easier to work with. Cartridges like the JDJ line, Euro cartridges like the 5.6x50R, 5.6x52R(22 Sav. Highpower), 6.5x57R, 7x57R or even the venerable old 25-35 Win and 30-30 work well in a break action firearm.

Combo 12ga/5.6x50R Mag

Combo 12ga/5.6x52R

Drilling 16ga/16ga/6.5x58R(very obsolete but still effective)

There is a reason that almost all sxs stopping rifles and Euro break action rifles are chambered in rimmed cartridges. I makes them more reliable to load and extract.

I've tried a couple of combo guns with rimless cartridges, a 222 Remington and 223 and found they were just a pain with the cartridges slipping past the ejector while loading and slipping past the ejector while extracting.

 

[muleman69]

Not an encore shooter but have shot and hunted with a number of break action rifles over the years, mostly Euro drillings and combo gun and find that shooting a rimmed cartridge is much easier to work with. Cartridges like the JDJ line, Euro cartridges like the 5.6x50R, 5.6x52R(22 Sav. Highpower), 6.5x57R, 7x57R or even the venerable old 25-35 Win and 30-30 work well in a break action firearm.

Combo 12ga/5.6x50R Mag. Looks like you have it figured out,thanks

Combo 12ga/5.6x52R

Drilling 16ga/16ga/6.5x58R(very obsolete but still effective)

There is a reason that almost all sxs stopping rifles and Euro break action rifles are chambered in rimmed cartridges. I makes them more reliable to load and extract.

I've tried a couple of combo guns with rimless cartridges, a 222 Remington and 223 and found they were just a pain with the cartridges slipping past the ejector while loading and slipping past the ejector while extracting.

 

[lb-ft]

7-30 Waters.

It’s the upper end of recoil tolerance for me.

Was hesitant to try a wildcat but it is an absolute piece of cake. One pass in the inexpensive 7x30 die and ready to load. Fire forming loads are powerful and quite accurate; no problem consistently hitting rams and most fell with 139 BTSP/IMR 4064 in 15” bbl.

Cheap, rimmed, flexible. What’s not to like.

 

[muleman69]

7-30 Waters.

It’s the upper end of recoil tolerance for me.

Was hesitant to try a wildcat but it is an absolute piece of cake. One pass in the inexpensive 7x30 die and ready to load. Fire forming loads are powerful and quite accurate; no problem consistently hitting rams and most fell with 139 BTSP/IMR 4064 in 15” bbl.

Cheap, rimmed, flexible. What’s not to like.

How far out are you hitting the rams?

 

[JSH]

308 with 15” barrel

I find it to work well for what you asked about. Factory ammo galore and you loose little off of rifle velocity.

 

[muleman69]

308 with 15” barrel

I find it to work well for what you asked about. Factory ammo galore and you loose little off of rifle velocity.

sounds good ,but I need non-lead here in commiefornia,I wonder when the immigrants have to start using non-lead????

 

[Lone Hunter]

sounds good ,but I need non-lead here in commiefornia,I wonder when the immigrants have to start using non-lead????

I had a .308 win with a 15" barrel. I shot Sierra 165 G.K's. Very accurate and recoil wasn't that bad. If you don't like the recoil then go to the Barnes 130 gr. That will help on recoil and satisfy the commies law. I also had a .223 15" barrel and it was very impressive on varmints and accuracy wise. You can get ammo for either cartridge pretty easy or load you own.
The above choices mentioned are good also. Had a 7/08 that shot good in a 15" but already had several .308's so I stayed with the .308..

 

[jetboat]

My fav is a 375 JDJ. the 7x57 is second.

 

[86alaskan]

For a multi use light game caliber I'd go either 7-30 or 308. I have both and would use either for what you're doing. The 7-30 will give you a bit less recoil and still be plenty for reasonable pistol shots. My 308 15" barrel will hold hunting accuracy out past 300yds with a good scope on it. The real key to the 7-30 is to reload, most any factory stuff I've ever found was made for a lever gun with short flat nose hollow point bullets. They'll kill, but don't fly far very well.

 

[Stepsjframe]

For deer size game and smaller, mine sports a .308 Win. 15" barrel. I use Sierra 135 gr. SSP bullets. Note: I would advise you not to get the T/C muzzle tamer brake. It make the gun simply too loud to shoot. With plugs and muffs, my ears rang for a week.
For Boar, Black Bear, etc., I use the 12" .454 Casull barrel.
Between the two of these, I am ready for just about anything I intend to hunt with a pistol.
Good luck with whatever you decide upon.

 

[Lone Hunter]

MM,Also, get either a good field shooting rest or a good pair of shooting sticks. You will need them in the field and be thankful you did.

 

[HandgunHTR]

Here is my take based on quite a few years of hunting with a handgun. For newer handgun shooters, the recoil and noise of the 7mm-08 and .308 will probably be too much to handle. Not calling your man card into question, but without a buttstock, proper trigger control and recoil control are hard. Add to that the increased blast from those cartridges (you need about 18" to get full burn) and you have a recipe for little practice and therefore quite a lot of missed shots.
These days my favorite Contender barrel is a 14" 7-30 Waters. My favorite Encore barrel is a 12" 7TCU. Neither have too much recoil and the muzzle blast is much less than the "standard" cartridges. Both will reliably kill deer out to 200 yards with my loads.
Another really good option would be a 6BR. You would get full burn and there are some really good all copper bullets available in 6mm that will work well at those velocities.

 

[muleman69]

Here is my take based on quite a few years of hunting with a handgun. For newer handgun shooters, the recoil and noise of the 7mm-08 and .308 will probably be too much to handle. Not calling your man card into question, but without a buttstock, proper trigger control and recoil control are hard. Add to that the increased blast from those cartridges (you need about 18" to get full burn) and you have a recipe for little practice and therefore quite a lot of missed shots.
These days my favorite Contender barrel is a 14" 7-30 Waters. My favorite Encore barrel is a 12" 7TCU. Neither have too much recoil and the muzzle blast is much less than the "standard" cartridges. Both will reliably kill deer out to 200 yards with my loads.
Another really good option would be a 6BR. You would get full burn and there are some really good all copper bullets available in 6mm that will work well at those velocities.

Are 6br barrels available? Would be a good place to start as I have the dies. Really would like to do a 6.5x47 one day

 

[tharger]

45/70 ammo last a long time

 

[Racebannon3855]

Another vote for the 7-30 Waters! I spent a decade trying a bunch of different hunting handguns and settled on a 7-30 Waters. Easy to make cases, lots of available projectiles and not finicky to load for. Several great projectiles that work at handgun velocity.

If I remember correctly, JD Jones talked about how the .308 Win was very forgiving when it comes to barrel length. If you want a 30 Cal that's a good choice, I used a 14" 30-30 for a few years and it was easy to load for. I am working with an 18" 7MM-08 and I am not happy with the velocity loss versus our other 7MM-08s. I have tried enough short barreled 243s to know that they also suffer in short barrels. Muzzle blast is fierce with any of the 308 family, the 7-30 is loud but not as aggressive.
Contenders weigh less, Encores have more options on the high power end. The Sierra manual that I have shows load data for most of the big calibers in handguns.

Good Luck and Enjoy!

 

[3Ackleys]

Are 6br barrels available? Would be a good place to start as I have the dies. Really would like to do a 6.5x47 one day

Match Grade Machine makes them- they list 22 diff. 6mm cartridges for the Encore
https://matchgrademachine.com/chambers-list/

 

[bsekf]

I like rimmed AI cases, they seem to shoot better for me. 7 Waters or something based on the 444 case or the 307 case. Since you are going custom, have the shoulder pushed back and leave the neck a little longer in the 308 family. However we do have a Plain Jane 6BR made by OTT and it shoots .5MOA.

6 BR, BRA or Dasher are hard to beat for a varmint cartridge.

Bill

 

[mmcu]

A good deer / predator cartridge would be the .357 Maximum.