Help on contenders

[Coogs]

Need a little education here. Never paid much attention to the Contender, only single shot pistol's I have are a Ruger Hawkeye and a Beautiful WWII bringback, .22 "System Buchell" free pistol. I have recently fallen into a couple barrels, one in .357 Maximum, of course, and now feel the need to put them to use. Problem is, don't know which frame I should be looking for. I know the early frames will not accept the super 14 barrels, when did that change? I have also heard that the G2 frame will not accept the octagon barrels, true? I like the performance of the 7TCU, may be my next quest, or does someone have a better suggestion in a 7mm? By the way, I'm just punching paper, right now. Hope to shoot a match, someday. But from where I live gotta travel a bit. I've got a "couple" of Ruger Maximums I could possible use also. I do reload, a lot, last count about 40+ calibers, so that won't be an issue with a new caliber. Need a little help here. Figured I would get educated and then post an ad in the classifieds, thanks for lookin', Coogs.

[260 Striker]

Coogs, Welcome to TC World. There is lots of TC technical stuff on www.bellmtcs.com. That will keep you reading for awhile!!!! Over the years, TC changed a few angles on locking lugs that caused some of the older barrels to not lockup correctly on newer frames and vice versa. Some barrels would actually lock the guns shut and you had to drive out the barrel hinge pin to get the barrels off. Probably your best bet is to get the new G2 frame. It should give the least problems. If looking for an older frame, look for the "easy open" model which has the hinge pin for the trigger guard just above the trigger. The original frames had the hinge pin at the front of the frame and were harder to open and are the ones that can give fits when fitting newer barrels. Also, when looking for barrels ask if they have the "split lugs". Early barrels had a one piece solid locking lug and also can give problems on newer frames. Your 357 Max barrel almost certainly has the split lugs which are just below the extractor. Some people say the easy open frames had better triggers. Also the newer style frames have a lever on top of the trigger that switches from center fire to rim fire but I fitted one of those triggers to an early frame years ago so that is no guarantee that the frame is not an early model. Again, the G2 is probably your best bet and some of the easy open frames are bringing higher prices than a new G2. I personally look for Contender barrels that have the screw on front sight since most of them will already have the split lugs. Don't put two Contender barrels in a dark safe since they have a tendency to multiply. FYI, Encore barrels will not fit Contender frames.

[Coogs]

260, thanks. Checked out that site, you are right, lot and lots of reading. I'm still a little confused as to what frame to get. Will the G2 take all the barrels, Super 14 and even the octagon? Coogs.

[Hosspower]

I have not noticed issues with super 14" barrels between different era frames.

The only issue I have run into is old frames need barrels with flat bottom under lugs. Majority of barrels you find have a small step built up on the bottom.

Octagonal barrels should also work as most if not all of them are flat bottom. More issues come up with forend selection.

[captainjohn]

Try and find a contender that has a serial number above 300,000, T/C had some heat treating problems that were resolved after that point.(frame stretching from larger calibers ) plus you can get a much better trigger job than you will with a G2
I just bought one last week that had never had a barrel hung on it.

[Coogs]

Thanks again! Absorbing all this info before I make a choice. Want to get it right the first time! Coogs.

[260 Striker]

Coogs, I see we didn't talk about the 7TCU. This is a great cartridge for silhouette use and probably for hunting if allowed. The brass is plentiful and forms with one pass through a full length die as long as you have a tapered decapping pin to expand the neck from .224 to .284. The 7TCU seems to like many different loads and is not hard to find a good accurate load. I have shot matches while fire forming brass and didn't notice any difference in accuracy or sight settings. This can also be a great cast bullet cartridge if you lean toward cast bullets. The only gripe I have with the TCU is having to pull cases out after firing. I started shooting silhouettes using a 10" 30-30 and could just break open the gun and let the brass fall out. This is just a personal nit-pick and takes nothing away from the 7TCU. If you wanted a rimmed 7mm cartridge, EABCO developed the 7US cartridge which is based on the 30-30 case and you could order a custom barrel from them for a Contender. More money though. Standard 7TCU barrels are always seen on Ebay or get in touch with Ed's TCs. He is a good source for TC barrels and has reasonable prices. Bottom line the 7TCU is a great cartridge.

[Coogs]

Another question. Are all Encore barrels marked Encore? Don't know the difference looking at them and don't want to pick up the wrong barrel. C'mon........................I'm still learning Coogs.