Need some experienced advice

[papawmark]

The wife bought me my dream rifle for Christmas....T/C Encore Pro Hunter....243 cal. My plan is to put the T/C Maxima Scope Mount and Maxima Rings with a Leupold VXII 3-9X50 on her. I think that will make a heck of a good deer rifle here in central Texas. Anyway.....my question is...I've been shooting the Winchester Silver Tip Ballistics and have been told to get away from those! Also, I read a test review article just the other day on my gun in a 270. The test results overwhelmingly suggested using Federal ammo....They were basically saying the gun loved that ammo. Does anyone out there have any experience shooting the Pro Hunter and what results with different ammo are ya'll getting. I see that Federal has this new Fusion round that I may give a try to see how she groups with it.....any suggestions would be appreciated! I just got this gun and don't even have the scope on it yet...but will soon....I want to get setup with a good round to break her in with.....:D

[Coyote]

papawmark - I do have a Encore rifle although not in the cal. you have. My suggestion would be to barrow/steal/beg about 10 rounds of each mfg. that you can find - in the round that your wanting to shoot. There will be one round that your rifle will fall in love with - and some that will shoot like crap. It amazes me that two rifles of the same mfg. and cal. will shoot the same round different. I purchased a 257 BSA roberts (made in England) and it had the round/powder/primer and case inprinted on the barrel that it shot the best. I guess they do things different in other countries. But it sure love the ammo that was printed on the barrel - ;)

[Shakey]

Each barrel is unique unto itself. The only way to find the perfect ammo is to shoot it. In all the years I've played with rifles/handguns, I've only come across a couple of guns that shot the same load with gilt edge accuracy. The vast majority you have to experiment with.

[papawmark]

Thanks for the input. I definitely want to try different rounds in it and see what fits best. I know this might sound funny...but what do ya'll recommend in ammo....I know what's out there pretty much....I used to do abit of reloading a few years back and used hornaday bullets but I've never tried their boxed ammo. My dad had a 742 Rem Semi-Auto in 30-06 and swears by the old Remington corelok. I don't want to get silly with what I head out to the range with the first time...my question is...what 5 brands of ammo would you take out there to see what she'll do? Just looking for some input cuz I'm stressing over getting her all fixed up nice and sweet....lol....btw I've decided to go with a Nikon Monarch 3 x 9 x 40mm scope.

[papawmark]

Well folks, I finally got here all mounted and scoped. I really was fortunate and was able to trade my new regular black Pro Hunter stock and forend for the real tree camo version for $75...that was a good deal. I found a company out of S.C. called Talley..that makes a one piece base and ring setup in the real tree and I went ahead and put the Nikon Buckmaster 3x9x40 real tree camo scope on her. Well....she looks outrageous! So I took her to the range and she shoots like a dream...and really loves the Winchester Super X Power Pt...in 100gr. I finished up my shoot in with a 3 shot .5 inch group and 3 shot .675 inch group....this was at 100 yards. Anyway....I'm gonna post some pics of her. If you hunt...get one of these babies!

Thanks for the advice to all!!:D