I am working up loads for a TC Omega in 50cal.,useing Hodgdon triple7 FFF,and saboted bullets. How many shots should I fire before cleaning. And what is the best way to clean it?

Black powder and triple seven are two entirely different horses. Triple seven is an exceptionally clean burning black powder substitute and not only is clean burning but cleans up with just water. I use an aluminum rod and brass bore brushes with a patch wrapped around the brush, after using the brush bare. If you can take out the breach plug on your Omega it's sure easier to clean. Finish with some bore butter to protect the bore from rust.

I'll leave it to some of the shooters of black powder to tell you about cleaning that. I've always used Hodgdons Pyrodex or 777. Pyrodex is near as dirty as black powder, but still cleans up with soapy hot water. As for how many shots it really depends on how smooth your bore is. My Remington 700 would be near impossible to load with sabot's after about five rounds and would need cleaned when using pyrodex. With triple seven it could go for fifteen shots. Your barrel characteristics will determine how long between cleaning you can go. My 700 54 caliber was never accurate with sabots, but shot well with Hornedy great plains conicals and surprisingly with a fast twist barrel did exceptionally well with Remington sweged patch balls.

I'd sure take a look at this article in our Beartooth bullet tech notes section. This sure seems to improve accuracy of any muzzle loader I've tried it on.

http://www.beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/48

Never really messed with sabots but I could shot 20 rounds or mare target practice with "P" pyrodex and patched ball in a 54 and the 20th shot would load as easy as 2nd shot. Never got to the point that I had to clean it for loading and accuracy to be a issue. Black powder is a different matter. After 2 or 3 shots, loading was really tuff without brushing bore out some. I have never had the problems with Pyrodex that some seem to have and I never had ignition issues with it either in non inline guns. (that is all I shoot, would not "primitive" hunt with a inline)

Good link Bob, glad you took the time to post it. Well worth reading.

I have a problem child in the form of a .50 traditions inline. I'm acraglas bedding it with pillars just because I've ran out of things to try. Probably wasting my time since the cheap synthetic stock reminds me of a wet noodle.

The lapping I'd consider a good thing even if the only gain was easier loading. With Pyrodex RS this rifle needs to be cleaned every third shot just to get the bullet down the barrel.