I bought myself an Omega Z5 Weathershield for Christmas and had the chance to get it out to the range for its initial session this weekend. When I first got the package, I looked the gun over and though that for the $300 I spent on it, it was a great looking gun. The finish was very nice and gives the appearance it will be very durable. Time will tell on that one. I put on a TC Maxima scope mount and warne rings with a nikon buckmaster scope. This is when I noticed the scope mount is off from top dead center by a few degrees, just enough to notice when looking down the side of the barrel. I also noticed that the barrel seemed to have spots of less resistance when loading tight sabots, like it was slightly wider in some spots. Has anyone else noticed this in their omegas? I have shot a White Whitetail for the last 10 years so I am not sure if this is normal or not.
I took it out with the following bullet/sabot combos:
Traditions APB (parker hydracon?) 250 gr with EZ load sabot
Hornady SST 250 gr with both EZ load and short black mmp sabots
TC Shockwave 200 gr with MMP 50/40 sabots
I started with 100 gr of pyrodex (forgot the t7) and the APB bullets. First three shots were a triangle at 50 yards, but it was about 2" CTC! The shots felt good, so I decided to try something else. Backed off the powder 10 grains and shot a group with the 200 gr Shockwaves and it was about an inch at 50 yards, about 3" high. I decided to move out to 100 yards and start doing some testing. I shot a few groups with the 200 gr SW's again as this is the bullet I would like to hunt with. I got groups from 1.75"-2" with 90 gr of pyrodex. Good enough to hunt with perhaps, but I would like to fine tune this with t7 as the pyrodex was very dirty. Just for comparison, my last 3 shot group was with the Hornady SST's in 250 gr with the short mmp sabots. It measured just over 1.25". I think I might have to try that one some more. And I still have some of the Buffalo SSB's in 285 and 325 and some 240 gr .40 cal bullets from PR bullet to try in the 50/40 blue mmp sabots.
One thing I noticed was that on the blue 50/40 sabots I was losing petals, is that normal with the thicker petals on that sabot? The short black mmp had all petals intact on all three shots.
I took it out with the following bullet/sabot combos:
Traditions APB (parker hydracon?) 250 gr with EZ load sabot
Hornady SST 250 gr with both EZ load and short black mmp sabots
TC Shockwave 200 gr with MMP 50/40 sabots
I started with 100 gr of pyrodex (forgot the t7) and the APB bullets. First three shots were a triangle at 50 yards, but it was about 2" CTC! The shots felt good, so I decided to try something else. Backed off the powder 10 grains and shot a group with the 200 gr Shockwaves and it was about an inch at 50 yards, about 3" high. I decided to move out to 100 yards and start doing some testing. I shot a few groups with the 200 gr SW's again as this is the bullet I would like to hunt with. I got groups from 1.75"-2" with 90 gr of pyrodex. Good enough to hunt with perhaps, but I would like to fine tune this with t7 as the pyrodex was very dirty. Just for comparison, my last 3 shot group was with the Hornady SST's in 250 gr with the short mmp sabots. It measured just over 1.25". I think I might have to try that one some more. And I still have some of the Buffalo SSB's in 285 and 325 and some 240 gr .40 cal bullets from PR bullet to try in the 50/40 blue mmp sabots.
One thing I noticed was that on the blue 50/40 sabots I was losing petals, is that normal with the thicker petals on that sabot? The short black mmp had all petals intact on all three shots.
