T/C Triumph

[JimT]

Hi all... I am thinking about upgrading my Black Diamond to one of these in the near future. I like how it breaks down and uses no tools to clean. Any thoughts or opinions on this muzzleloader would be appreciated. Thanks!!!

[alkazoo]

Hi JimT,,,im no expert in black powder, in fact im a total newbie BUT im a newbie with a brand new Triumph!! I decided i wanted to extend my hunting season here in michigan and try muzzleloading.
My triumph is one month old, I have a Nikon Omega mounted on it with a dednutz scope mount. I took it to the range last weekend and shot 20 rounds thru it, quite the learning experience indeed.!! Everything went well. I had bore sighted the scope and hit 2 inches off bullseye at 25 yards. One or two more at that range and then spent rest of day at 100 yards and even a couple at 150. I tried a assortment of sabots/bullet combos all driven by 100 grains of pellet 777. TC shockwave bullets/sabots, Hornady xpts with thier own sabots and some MMC sabots i had bought. The rifle was grouping 2 inches or less at 100 yards no matter what i shot, i was very happy with the gun and the way it shot. More practice is in store before season starts but i now feel comfortable using it. Here are some of my observations (keep in mind, im new at this)
1: patience....you cant rush shooting a muzzleloader, i had to clean between each shot, the couple times i went without cleaning i had trouble seating the sabot/bullet all the way down to the powder charge (hard to push down, seemed like it hung up about a 1/2 inch above the pellets, i assume this was the black powder residue left over)... once barrel cleaned. everything aok.
2: With a scope mounted, its a pain to unscrew the breech plug. The back of the scope gets in the way of the breech wrench and its hard to turn the breech plug with just your fingers(scope gets in way once again). I found back home on the bench that a good ole set of pliers works fine, there is a flat spot on the breech plug that the pliers grips real well and you can turn without hitting the scope.
3: enjoyed using the shotshell primer system, no problem there.
4:This is a very nice shooter,looking forward to hunting with it, just takes some time getting used to the little black power do's and donts!!! have fun with it!! TC makes a good gun.

[JimT]

Great,,, thanks! I am not new to muzzleloading but am not "into it" either. The reason i started doing it 7-8 years ago was to expand my season as well. My buddy is telling me to get the stainless Kodiak pro thats on sale at Cabelas right now. Aaaaugh decisions....