gary reeder
several years back Ernie French was the head of TCs
Sunday, June 28, 2020, 15:39

custom shop and we hunted together at the old Celebrity Handgun hunt in Texas. We talked a lot about the various calibers OK for the Contender. The Encore wasn't out them. For years, from 1985 up to '95 or so when the Encore came out we chambered a lot of the old time cartridges in the Contender. Cartridges like 303 Brit., 300 Savage, 250 Savage, 30-40 Krag, 225 Winchester, 30 Carbine and a few others. Ernie agreed with all of them but he was hesitant about saying the 7.62 X 39, 7X57 or 358 Win were OK. At that time the only 7.62 X 39 was only available in military ammo which was way too hot. We had rechambered several 357 Magnum 10" bull barrels into the 358 Winchester and had no problems other than rough recoil. This was before muzzle brakes were acceptable in handguns. We never did any in 7X57, 7.62 X 39 and very few in 30 carbine. The 30 Carbine was available back then as it is now chambered in the Ruger Blackhawk. There are few rounds that will really ring my bell like the 30 Carbine in a revolver. Almost put you on your knees. No ear muffs back then. I would stick a couple of cotton balls in my ears which helped a bit but still would really get my attention. I traded my 30 carbine Ruger off for something else due to the loud crack.

But of the cartridges mentioned above we chambered a lot of barrels in them and never had any trouble that I can remember. I never chambered any in 7.62 X 54. The Mosin Nagant surplus rifles weren't as readily available back then like they are today so I don't remember ever having anyone asking us to chamber it in a contender.
When the Encore came out Ernie kept me in line on what cartridges TC didn't like at all, like the WSM and WSSMs and most of the high pressure stuff like the Weatherby cartridges, the Ultra Mags and such. The problem with some of them was mostly the variance in belt sizes. That was and in some cases still is a problem with those cartridges. A few thou difference in the belt thickness or width can make a lot of difference. We were building quite a few barrels in 300 Win Mag , 7mm Rem. mag and such and had had no problems, but I figured Ernie knew a lot more about what the Encore would handle well than i did so we dropped all the belted magnums. TC was building a few 300 Win mag barrels but Ernie was trying to get them to stop. The 416 Rigby was OK due to no belt. Also our 450 GNR, 416 GNR, 9.3 X 72 and 9.3 X 74 were ok in the Contender although they had about all the fun you could stand in recoil. In '92, '93 and '94 I took the 416 GNR and 450 GNR and the newly developed 378 GNR to Africa with me and they did great. A lot of recoil in a lightweight Contender but we knew back then to expect heavy recoil. Today we seem to wimp out and if it doesn't have a brake on it it isn't popular. But the Contender handled them well. The scopes didn't live long but the guns did OK.