WB
The Old Contenders were so far ahead of their time
Friday, June 02, 2023, 07:18

The interchangeability aspect is taken for granted but a marvel owed to Eli Whitney himself. The 10" Octagon is such a nice light rig with the flats adding rigidity for the bulk. They weigh about what a big revolver does. Adding a period Bushnell Phantom 2.5X makes a sweet 3-1/2 lb. hunting gun. Even with a full diameter 10" as Steve Herrett and Bob Milek used in the mid 1970's were handy and true "Handguns". The advent of the .357 Herrett and metallic target shooting spawned the "Super 14", where things started to get wild into the mid 1980's. When the Encore came things got really over the top. The G2 Contender is more or less a miniaturized Encore with the two firing pin addition. Probably the very best platform produced. The 5 lb. Contender kits are very fine serious hunting guns. Encores will weigh 6 lbs. fully rigged with a good scope, more than many mountain bolt carbine rigs!

The original concept set up for small game, as you describe is still desirable. I made a "resto-mod" from an old 1974 vintage TC and a "new" Reeder 10" barrel in .255 Banshee, I also have the .240 Banshee but in 12" stainless. I did have to modify a vintage forend to fit the full bull barrels. Both on the K-Hornet Improved case perform beyond their size and give reasonable case life. I'd highly recommend a K Hornet chamber over a regular Hornet as they shred cases in short order, case head separations. You can find the .22 Long rifle or Hornet barrels reasonable now as they are overlooked many times. Both are .224" bores and can be re-chambered to .22 WMR, Hornet, .218 Bee, whatever. Even paying for the re-chambering it's likely less than finding a barrel in those calibers.