If you have been in a cave for the last couple of weeks,

Gary Reeder
[subject]
Monday, July 08, 2024, 17:22 (217 days ago)

this might get your attention. Greg Ritz, who used to be one of the owners of Thompson Center, has bought the company back. No work yet on when TC will start putting out the Contender and Encore but he wouldn't have spent the money just for grins. I expect good things from Mr. Ritz and hopefully the TCs will start rolling off the line before too long.

I’m happy that one company is making a tribute Contender

WB
[subject]
Monday, July 08, 2024, 21:26 (216 days ago) @ Gary Reeder

But to me the G2 Contender is the perfect outcome. It’s stronger than the old original but light as well. The perfect handgun for me as I’ve grown a bit older. That and the 7mm GNR covers about everything. I do have a bigger .35 and .378 but I’d really need to be going for something big. The 7mm covers everything else and has zilch recoil with a brake. I mean .223 level recoil with a 140 gr. at 2400 fps!

It makes a super sweet little carbine as well.

I have to agree with WB (AKA Scotty Boggs)

Gary Reeder
[subject]
Tuesday, July 09, 2024, 12:43 (216 days ago) @ WB

The TC G-2 is the finest TC ever made. It works for just about every caliber that the TC is chambered in, including over 100 calibers that I have developed thru the years. For the last 10 years or more my main hunting handgun has been a custom G-2 in 41 GNR. It started out as a 14" 41 Magnum barrel in 1978. I cut the barrel down to 9" and rechambered it to the 41 GNR. That caliber has done more for me than probably half of my other calibers put together. The 41 GNR has taken 11 Bison, Watusi, and Yak, but also has taken bull elk, Nilgai, and various other large game for me thru the years and if I did my part they were one shot kills.
For hunting medium to large size game that 41 GNR will do what it was developed for. I guess you would call it my "go to gun". The 41 GNR barrel started life on a Contender. Then as the G-2 came about I moved that barrel to a new G-2 frame and there it sits today, waiting for our next adventure.
[image]

The older Contenders are a bit glitchy to those

WB
[subject]
Wednesday, July 10, 2024, 07:18 (215 days ago) @ Gary Reeder

who have never used them before. No doubt there have been many a fellow on his stand, to find at the moment of truth, that his "Contender" has had the trigger bumped and the hammer will not cock! The action needing reset! The G2 not only has that remedied but a guy can sit perfectly safe with the hammer fully cocked and the firing pin selector positioned to "safe". This only requires a simple (even with gloves) movement to flick it over to the correct firing pin striker and pull the trigger. You DO remember which is the right direction.

I set Roman up with a kit to give him his handgunning start. I can't imagine a better rig for a young man. 14" custom in .30 GNR (shoots Wal-mart .30-30 perfectly) and topped with a nice solid mounted Burris 2x-7x. We shoot a 150 gr. at moderate 2400 fps. About what a .300 Savage manages, no need to push it too hard. Recoil is mild and it will do anything a .30 cal. rifle will out to the limits of the optics. Younger son will no doubt be a 7mm GNR man like his pop, so I figure he will go that direction, in stainless!


[image]

When the Contenders first came out in 1967 or so

Gary Reeder
[subject]
Wednesday, July 10, 2024, 12:45 (215 days ago) @ WB

they had a lot of rough edges but for handgun hunters we were in heaven. The first couple of years they were chambered in calibers like 38 Special, 45 Auto, 22 Hornet and such. No calibers for hunting deer size animals but for small game hunters it was a whole new world.
The Contender at the time had a rough trigger and cocking the hammer was just as hard. Changing barrels wasn't easy either, sometimes having to beat the barrel pin out with a hammer. Plus if you cocked the gun but were not able to get a shot you could just sit there with a cocked loaded gun or you could hold the hammer, pull the trigger and let the hammer down. But as was mentioned above to cock the gun again you had to open the action, slam it shut and then cock the gun again. A lot of movement and noise but no way around it.
The thing is, even with all the hoops we had to jump thru we loved that pistol. Whether it be hunting squirrels or deer we actually had a real honest to God hunting handgun and a good chance to take whatever game we were hunting.
A year or two after the gun was introduced a handgun scope was introduced. Even though it was only a 1½ power scope with long eye relief we thought we had it made.
Those were the days. I really miss them but don't think I could go back to those early days. We are spoiled these days. We have calibers that we can "easily" take a Cape Buffalo or a bull elk with and with our high powered optics shots at 200 yards are pretty much child play.
We didn't know how much we depended upon the current Contenders and Encores until the company went under. It was like we lost a good friend. We had to go cold turkey there for a couple of years with no Contenders, G-2s or Encores available. We have been building custom TC barrels since 1978 but for the last year or so no parts have been available to build those custom barrels. But now with Thompson Center being bought again by Greg Ritz, one of the original owners, hopefully we will have the TC guns and barrels to choose from again.

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