Recently I bought (got raped) some TC parts
enough to build 5 Contender/G-2 barrels and 5 Encore barrels. So among all the cartridges out there I get to build barrels in 10 of them.
My question here is this. If someone told you they would give you the Contender barrel of your choice, what caliber would you want it chambered in. Next, if that same someone were to give you an Encore barrel, what caliber would it be chambered in? Now nobody is going to give you a free barrel so don't get all excited. This is just to see what barrels you Misfits would like should that happen. In other words what Contender barrels would you like to see and what Encore barrel would you like to see chambered in what caliber?
This is a semi serious question here. So no off the wall answers like 50 BMG and such.
A few years back I asked the question of what were your favorite songs from the 60s and early 70s and I got answers like "Why don't we do it in the road" by the Beatles or "my ding-a-ling" by Chuck Berry or "Nuts, hot nuts" by Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts. (For you youngsters those 3 songs were actual songs and some were even played on some radio stations.)
So get serious here. Your favorite chambering in the Contender and your favorite chamberings in the Encore.
I always wanted to spring for a .50AK pistol barrel
with brake of course. In pistol length, not a pirate, not actual carbine. Somewhere in the middle. So I could shoot .510 GNR to .50AK or anything in between. I've got about everything else, but told myself I needed one of those.
I also should have never sold my last .378 GNR Encore pistol barrel. I used it at the Y-O to shoot a nice cull buck. I was sick that year but shot once, at a solid 100+ yds. Bang flop. That was very satisfying. I had it mounted. Still use the .378 in my FA, but that Encore was a solid world conquering rig.
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I have never owned one but I think I would like a Contender
in .22 Hornet with an extra barrel in .22 Magnum.
The Old Contenders were so far ahead of their time
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.
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Nice. But I doubt I will try to get one.
I am too set in my ways and comfortable with them. 
The only singleshot handguns with scopes that I ever messed with was the Dominator. One in .44 Magnum and one loaned to me by Hal Swiggett in ... 7mm-08 I believe it was. He had 10 loads for it that would shoot under an inch at 100 yards. It gave 270 Winchester rifle velocities from the handgun. Both it and the Dominator were extremely accurate but I have always preferred the sixgun.
If you decide to get a Contender, get one of the G-2 models
instead of the Contender. They are so far ahead of the old Contender and almost equal to the Encore. When the G-2 first came out I used one on an Africa hunt and that sold me. I had one of my 378 GNRs and one of the 338 GNR along with my little 9" 41 GNR in the G-2 and they did everything I asked them to. When I got back I began to weed out most of my Encore frames except for a couple that I run some "large" calibers in, like the 450 GNR and 476 GNR. The loads I run in these two barrels are too "warm" for the G-2 but just barely.
I think guys that are jumping on the old original Contender (serial number under 225,000) are not knowing that this version of the Contender is not the best model ever made. When we were young and the Contender was younger the bad sides of the Contender like hard to open, hard to get the locking pin out, not working with some barrels with low serial numbers and so on were overlooked due to it being a great new handgun for hunting. Even with it's flaws it was still the best hunting handgun on the market. But buying one in that serial number range these days is probably not the best way to go unless you are a collector. I saw 2 of these early guns yesterday that a collector would go crazy over. But they were a bitch to open and most of the newer barrels would not fit the frame.
In the later days Thompson Center solved all the Contender problems. You could send the action back to TC and for around $50 they would put the easy open system in the gun and clean up the other down falls that had plagued the gun for years. Unfortunately, TC is no longer around. They may come back, or may not. But the G-2 frame solved those problems except the problem of some of the older barrels not fitting and working on the G-2 frame. Even with that the G-2 is still the finest all around frame TC ever designed.
The Encore is the strongest frame TC has ever made but you have to accept the extra weight to go along with the strength. If you are not planning on getting into some of our extra hot and higher pressure calibers, then go with the G-2. It is that simple. Most of my frames these days are the G-2 and other than the hotter calibers I mentioned above the G-2 will do everything I need it to.
So, are you saying
that I shouldn't get too attached to my original four digit serial numbered Contender?
is yours a slabside like mine
#157x made in the very first run ![[image]](images/uploaded/20230603233454647bce1eac80c.jpg)
summer of 1967