Iowa Cornfed

I've used it since it came out and HIGHLY recommend it. I too can reload about as long as I care to shoot when sighting in or just shooting and it does not seem to be any harder to load from first shot until last. Then I just clean it when I'm done. I also recommend using Harvester Crushed Ribbed sabots. But I really like Blackhorn 209.

Very cool. I like the dark antlers too! (You'll need to change your handle from 8-pointer now though...) Sometimes when I'm setting out in rainy conditions on stand I think about all the folks who miss out on some real memorable outdoors time!

VERY nicely done WVdeerhunter!!!! Looks like Mr. Buck is in a whole lot of trouble if he makes the mistake of getting in your sights! I had a T/C Thunder Hawk that I thought was the bees knees, until I got the Triumph. I think it's hard to beat T/C. Good luck on your hunt!

Yeah, the first deer I killed with my Triumph using the Shockwaves was kind of a normal deal, it went down fairly quickly but a couple after that I had the small in and out hole so I thought I'd go a different direction. But I'm pretty sure with the accuracy you described with the load you're using you won't have any issues at all. Good luck!! (BTW, I killed a 10-pt Monday evening at about 60 yards quartering away. Hit him a little farther back than I wanted to, and he didn't react at all. I began to wonder if I just missed. The doe went about 10 feet and the Buck just stood there and looked to the South on high alert for a few seconds, then he took about three steps and I saw him wobble. He laid down right there and in about 10 seconds he put his head down and was done. Kind of an odd.)

Before I went to the Barnes Expanders and the Blackhorn 209 I was using Pyrodex loose powder and the T/C Shockwaves. I thought they were accurate as can be, but I was getting complete pass-through with real small entrance and exit holes. The deer would be dead, but I might have to track him 200 yards. I don't know if I was pushing the bullet too hard or what, but I just thought I needed something with a really big hole in the front so the Barnes fit that bill. I don't know for certain what the difference is, but for the last three years I've had virtually no tracking jobs. (That is a huge benefit to me when I shoot one in the evening) One other thing on Blackhorn 209, I've heard more than one that BH209 likes to be really compacted so even though I generally do that anyway I'm more aware of it or at least try to be sure I pack it in there real good.

I hesitate to resurrect this old thread, but I just finished another successful early M/L season and while searching the net for info on the Triumph this popped up. Hard to think 4 years have passed! Anyway, I imagine by now most folks using the Triumph have learned the best bullet/sabot/powder combos for them but I thought I'd share what I finally settled on. Because the T/C bores tend to be a tad tighter than a lot, I wound up using the crushed ribbed sabot from Harvester Muzzleloading which makes for WAY easier loading. This year (and last) I used a Barnes Expander 300 gr which is just probably overkill. I use them because I have them and they group real good. I used 250 gr 3 years ago and actually think I'll go back to them for next year but figured I may as well use up these 300 gr first. I also changed over to Blackhorn 209 powder. I'm using 110 gr and I also use a CCI 209M primer. This combination allows multiple shots before swabbing - in fact I never do during sight-in, generally just clean it once the session is over. And there is really no noticeable difference in effort from load 1 to say 15 that I can detect. I just re-load and shoot until I'm done. While sitting on stand with my fleece gloves on yesterday I still wished my Triumph had some type of checkering on the pistol grip and forearm because it is SO slick, but all in all I am just very glad I bought this gun. One other thing I should note; while sighting in I had a couple times where the primer went bang but the powder did not. I knew it had to be the flash channel being fouled. I pulled the breech plug and took an 1/8th inch drill bit in my fingers and reamed the channel over and over again. Each time I was amazed that primer residue kept coming out. In the future I'll do this more frequently than every four years! Anyway, that's where I'm at now and I just thought I'd make an updated post reply.

Yeah I think shot placement may have been the issue too. I probably could have described the set-up better than I originally did. I'm not sure how accurate my saying quartering toward me was now that I think some about it. Here's the set-up: I was in a ladder stand say at the 6 o'clock position on a clock; He comes out of the opposite timber line about 100 yards across a cut hay field at about the 1 o'clock location veering to my right, or as if he would have intersected the 2 o'clock position on a clock. So with a slightly over and behind the shoulder impact, and the somewhat downward angled path of the slug, it got lungs and some of the stomach. The liver and heart were unaffected, but the leg was broken and I wonder if that wasn't due to the fall since I hit him just behind the shoulder. Anyway, I think this 100 yard shot is probably the longest shot I've taken at a deer with a shotgun too. Most of the deer I've taken on my ground end up being between 20 & 50 yards or so. Our season is set after the rut, so if you're hunting ground that isn't being pushed by drivers, these post-main-rut deer are just kinda starting to get back to more normal feeding and bedding patterns and herding up more. And it's generally a lot colder, so because of all that most guys group hunt to get 'em pushed out of the timbers. But I never really got into that, so I go solo either in a climber or ladder stand, or still hunting. If you set up right you can get some close in shots at standing deer. (I don't think I'd be very good at shooting running deer being pushed out of a timber... they're pretty fast and I've only used a scope on a gun for the past 3 seasons, I don't think a running deer has anything to fear from me!) But the other side of that coin is that absent any post-rut activity, or some really hungry deer, and you can go quite awhile without seeing any (or much) deer movement during the first gun season (the 2nd week of December), lots of bone chilling sitting. (Our late ML is on now and runs through Jan 10th. That's chilly too.. but I'll probably go out this evening if the blizzard we're starting to get allows me to) Anyway, I'm rambling... hey thanks for the replys guys.

Wanted to get back on here and post that I did down a pretty big 8-point with the AccuTips. He was about 100 yards quartering toward me. Hit him just above and behind the shoulder, he humped and ran directly toward me, past me, and I heard him crash as he headed down the ravine behind me. So..., he ran that 100 yards, then another 25 or so in the timber behind me, then down that darn ravine. I wound up having to get my ATV and winching him out of there with the help of my boy. I found no exit hole, and I hung him up. We've been in the deep freeze ever since and he's froze solid. In other words, I've yet to skin him and cut him up. I'll know more maybe then. But anyway, I felt confident when I took the shot at 100 yards, I just wish it'd have been a bang-flop thing. Maybe next year I'll hunt down in the hollows so he'll run to the top and into the fields after the shot. It'd sure be easier on me!!!

Well this might not be the definative last word on all this, but I touched off 3 times today at 100 yards being sure to grip the forearm solid and pulling back on both the forearm and the pistol grip. 2 shots looked almost like one hole, perfect left/right windage just below the bullseye and one was to the left of those two by about 2". (I could have pulled that one too) All were about an inch low at 100 yards. But again, the two that looked almost like one hole were just perfectly in line with the vertical target line and just about an inch below the horizontal target line. I wasn't willing to start toying with my scope settings with only a week until deer season, and only 10 rounds left, just to get it up an inch at 100 yards. Besides, I was reasonably happy. I know at 50 yards three shots make a ragged hole every time, and I now feel like at 100 yards, if I do my part it should be all good. On a side note, my brother-in-law was sighting in his 870 using Buck Hammers. His last 3 shots @ 100 yards all connected in a vertical string. He was quick to tell me "If you get tired of spending a lot of money on those expensive sabots, go with Buck Hammers" If I recall, he paid $6.00 a box at Bass Pro for his ammo...

Thanks for the info stcif, I haven't gotten back out to shoot yet, (been working on a toy box for a grandchild) but I'm real hopeful that the results will be more to my liking once I correct my technique. I was thinking that since these new sabots shoot so fast, they'd act more like a centerfire rifle, so I just had applied zero pressure on the forearm. But there's probably not a lot of centerfire rifles that recoil quite like these Accutips make my 12ga jump! Thanks again for the info!

Well, I've been doing some research on this some, and it may actually have something to do with how I'm holding the gun. I've been shooting off a bench with sandbags and pulling the stock tight to my shoulder, but no real pressure on the forend. When the gun goes boom, it jumps off the front sandbag to the left (I'm left handed BTW). Some of the reading I've been doing seems to point to that as maybe being the problem, saying that a guy should have pressure on the forend, in fact actually pulling back on the forearm as well as the pistol-grip. That may be it right there. I never had the problem with sighting in for the SST's, but these Accutips have more felt recoil. That big hunk of metal I'm guessing. Anyway, I'll have to see how pulling rearward on the forearm effects the 100 yard groups.

"Touching at 100" that's what I've been seeing a lot of in various posts, and I'd be sold too if my gun would do that. That's been my hope all along, just because of all the glowing reports. Now I'm beginning to wonder if it has to do with whatever the twist is that my barrel has. I'm shooting a Traditions ALS 2100, which they don't make anymore. (I bought it at Bass Pro Shops on a close-out 2-3 years ago. It's a gas operated auto that's a Baretta knock off, supposed to even be able to interchange parts, etc.) I've sent an email to Traditions to see if they can tell me what twist my gun would have. Anyway, if it has some rate of twist that just won't stabilize a 385 gr projectile out at 100+ yards, then I'm OK with that. I'll just need to get the right combo, one that gives me the accuracy and on game performance I'm looking for. The gun/scope combo (Leupold VX-1 2x7) is accurate out to 100 yards with the SST's, but they're 300 gr, so maybe that's it - Maybe this gun just won't handle 385 gr stuff. But boy did I want them to perform!!! I could hardly wait to pile up Mr. Big (And I still might, just that it'll probably be at 50 yards or so...) My boy has bought 6 boxes of the Accutips in 20 ga to use in his Mossberg 500 combo set-up. Hope they work in his gun. Thanks for the reply!

Accutips OK, I know this thread is a little dated by now, but I have a problem that I'd like some input on. I had been using Hornady SST's but didn't think the on-game performance was all that, so I bought into the hype on the Remington Accutips. The whole thing about a 385 gr slug and the air holes in the tip that made for just awesome accuracy, yada, yada. So I set up at the bench, shoot at 50 yards and just get a ragged hole. I was happy as can be! So far, so good. Nice accuracy, and kicked like a mule. I just know these things are going to be killers. Then I touch off at the 100 yard target. A tad high and left, with a 2 7/8" group. Not happy, but I guess I should have been.... Today I took 5 shots, 3 at 50 yards - again ragged hole dead center. 2 at 100 yards....., low and right 4" apart! So..., if the thing shoots lights out at 50 it can't be the gun or scope right? And if the things won't group at 100 it about has to be the ammo doesn't it? I don't know, I think I'll use these this year and try something else next. Just frustrated a little. Most deer I kill are under 50 yards anyway, but it'd be nice to have confidence in 100+ shots just in case. You just kinda think when they get over $2.00 a shell you should be able to expect a little better accuracy.

I assume most folks probably do shoot 'em clean. I don't generally though. I've however proven to have a bit of a longer learning curve than others! Thing is, all our kids are out of the house and it's just me and my wife. So for the past few years when I was shooting my TC Thunder Hawk, I'd head straight for the garage when I came home (I hunt only on my own ground) and store my gun there. Never had a problem even if I left the No.11 cap on. No mis-fires or anything, and no corrosion problems that I could ever tell. This year after switching to the TC Triumph using 209 primers, I did the same thing pretty much. Well we had rain during the early ML season and I'd sat out in it for 5 hrs. I have black duct tape over the muzzle so no rain gets in. Next day after sitting for 4 hrs, and tall and wide 8-pt comes out and walks to within 50 yards, gave me a standing broadside shot. "Click" I thought "...hmmm, wonder if the hammer isn't striking the fireing pin hard enough?" So I pull back the hammer again and "click" Well I do this 5 or six times and he finally bolts. I get home and put in a new 209 primer and "Boom" it thundered like it knew how. No powder prob, but apparently my primer got a bit damp somehow. So I said all that to say this. I do not think the charge itself should be impacted if left for a couple days, but that's just my experience. I'm guessing some of the folks on this forum know a whole lot more than I do on the subject, so maybe they'll weigh in. I guess I kinda think shooting it clean would be a good habit to get into for most situiations for several reasons (safety being #1 and reliability #2, maybe some corrosion issues as a 3rd reason) but again, hopefully some others will chime in.

Thanks for the welcome. I've been reading the various posts wherever I can find them concerning what powder/charge/bullet combination to use. Because the Shock Waves I have are so tough to load, I'm kinda tempted to try out the Powerbelts. I read somewhere (might have even have been this forum) that the lead Powerbelts tend to fragment if pushed too fast, so I'm thinking about trying out the PB Platinum. If they load easier that'd make shooting the Triumph a whole lot more fun for me!