Contender

Look up what you want at https://www.budsgunshop.com Then use Buds fine a dealer search . Order and ship. There is a 45/70 listed in barrels, but out of stock the 2nd time i looked.

This Barrel is available. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1...ntour-1-in-14-twist-14-with-muzzle-tamer-blue The adjustable sight model is discontinued.

Specialty Pistols is a good resource of information. There are two Contender frames, the Early ones and then a later Generation 2. Some differences occurred over the years with the design and some parts are not interchangeable, i.e grips and some of the internals. there also are variations in the barrel designs to make the Contender more ergonomic.

I have a Generation 1 with a series of barrels, still trying to learn all of the nuisances of the beastie. Barrels in 22 LR, 22 Hornet, 223 Remington, 30-30, 357 mag, 44 Mag, and 45/410.

there are several custom barrel makes that can get you pretty much any barrel that is less than 308 pressure into the Contender.

Standard Barrel lengths now are 12", 14" & 23". Previously 10" & 16" were common. I have all of my barrels as 10" variations.

Currently I'm waiting of a new grip, that way I can attach a pistol brace to make my tree stand gun.

Your not limited to what Thompson Center offers for barrels. There is a healthy aftermarket for contender and encore barrels that are much higher quality than original T/C barrels and you can get nearly any chambering your heart desires.

https://matchgrademachine.com/product/build-a-custom-barrel/

Others to check out are

Bullberry barrel works
SSK industries
E Arthur Brown

They all make high quality barrels in a wide aray of chamberings and lengths. I have two contenders and my father in law has a contender and an encore. If I were going to buy a new one I would buy just the frame and stock, and then I would order my barrel of choice from match grade machine.

I have a Bullberry Contender carbine barrel (221 Remington Fireball) and a Bullberry Encore rifle barrel (6.5x55 MS). Both are well made including the stocks that I ordered to go with them.

I've had SSK Industries rechamber a 10" T/C barrel, 22 Hornet to 221 Remington Fireball and the work was well done.

Both companies would be good sources for barrels in additional chamberings and custom lengths and profiles. I have not dealt with E Arthur Brown so no comment.

While kind of an apples to oranges comparison, I prefer my first generation Contenders over the Encore. The Contenders have adjustable triggers while the Encore does not. It was alot more difficult to get the Encore to shoot well than the Contenders.

I understand that the G2 Contenders are small versions of the Encore so I have hesitated investing in one. I may be wrong though as I do not have first hand experience with the G2 Contender.

The last part for my pistol brace arrived last night.

Had always used the Pacmayhr grips and never realized how much better it carries with the original wood.

My G2 pistol has a .30-30 barrel, topped with a Leupold 4X, which I love, and a .45-70 Super 16 barrel which I detest. Recoil was so horrendous at purchase, I had it Magnaported. Better, but still absolutely no fun at all with factory 300 gr loads. If you reload for .45-70, great, but if not, I found the factory 405 gr loads nothing at all, and the 300 gr loads ridiculous for recoil. And it you fire it indoors at a pistol range, you'll piss a lot of people off.

Stevie-Ray said:

My G2 pistol has a .30-30 barrel, topped with a Leupold 4X, which I love, and a .45-70 Super 16 barrel which I detest. Recoil was so horrendous at purchase, I had it Magnaported. Better, but still absolutely no fun at all with factory 300 gr loads. If you reload for .45-70, great, but if not, I found the factory 405 gr loads nothing at all, and the 300 gr loads ridiculous for recoil. And it you fire it indoors at a pistol range, you'll piss a lot of people off.

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you think thats fun at an indoor range? try a 14" 35 Remintgon full house load.

I have several TC barrels, and although TC contends the G1 and Gen2 actions will accept all the Contender barrels, they do not. Some of my barrels function fine in one model, but they will lockup in the other model. And some barrels work well in both! Go figure.

The only aftermarket barrel I've purchased was a 14" 44-40 from Bulberry in Utah. It takes about three months if you order an non-mainline caliber. Nice people. Talked me through what I wanted and I received a beautiful result.

Oh you can get .45-70 in Encores. I have had both. Still have a contender. Still tons of used stuff on Contenders on gunbroker and elsewhere. For new stuff, try Eabco.com . Bulberry, T/C, and others offer "custom" barrels in about any caliber you can think of, or for $50 less, more of the standard calibers. I think eabco has it's own brand now, no? I need another .357 maximum bbl.

Eventually I must have a quarter bore for my contender collection.
Either a 25-35 or a 25 TCU. Both will use brass that is everywhere. I'd REALLY like a 25-35 Ackley Imp but would settle for the standard chamber at first.
Biggest thing though is that both have that "what caliber is that?!?" factor as well.

I'm currently hunting right this moment with a new T/C Contender G2 rifle in 6.8 SPC. These guns are still being produced and sold by any FFL dealer. You don't need an "authorized dealer" or whatever it was you said. Any gun shop can order these guns from a number of different distributors.

Having previously been an Encore owner/shooter, I never really fell in love with the guns. They were just too long for the kind of woods hunting that I do. I wanted something in a shorter overall package and I didn't need the extra heft of the Encores for the larger calibers that they are capable of shooting. I went with a gorgeous blued and walnut G2 Contender rifle with a 23" barrel in 6.8 SPC. Even with what's considered a full length barrel, the gun is still overall shorter and handier than most carbine rifles. For hunting calibers, the 6.8 SPC and the 7-30 Waters were my favorites in terms of factory offered barrels. Yes, there are custom barrel makers that can chamber the gun in all kinds of really unique and cool calibers, but if you read their wait times, it's at least 6 months and more like a year wait.

And with the Contender, you get the ability to flip a switch on top of the hammer and turn it into a rimfire rifle. 22LR, 22WMR, 17 HMR, you get a LOT more versatility than the Encore in my opinion.

I might have a couple more barrels that didn't make it into the picture.



The Contender is a great platforms, so long as you stay within its limitations. You can get a barrel chambered in .45-70, but you really want to stick to Trapdoor pressure loads. People have stretched frames on the Contender shooting the warmer .45-70 loads.

That is one reason people recommend going to the larger Encore frame for larger calibers.

As noted, recoil is fairly stiff as well. I can push a 300 gr. bullet through a .45 Colt to almost the same velocity as my standard 300 gr .45-70 Contender loads. But the Colt load produces much less recoil. I could safely push the .45-70 harder, but I don't really care to.

double tap.

I have two Contenders and a Encore rifle.

My dad and I shot sillioute years ago and had problems hitting the rams.....SSK rechambered a .44 mag to .444 Marlin for us and very few rams went untouched after that. As I recall without looking up our data, we were shooting rams 15'-16' above the target but were lucky enough to have a large rock formation behind our set giving us several sight pictures.....it worked.

If you're going to shoot a 45/70 I suggest an Encore frame.. Recoil will be much more tolerable and you can let the caliber reach it's full potential. I suggest a full bull barrel by MGM.

I have made my own before, after seeing what they sell for, they cost more than some complete firearms and are just a barrel, ejector, bolt and lug. You can buy the ejector and bolt, I turned the barrel and machined the lug then TIG welded it on.



This is the first 20 shot, 60 yard group out of that one.

I love the little carbines
Jimmy

Well, it did happen 14 months ago...

I get David White to thread and pin a maximizer on to qualify for carbine use then I build some furniture to suit my needs

Got my first whitetail deer with my Gen 1 Contender "Super 14", chambered in 7mm TCU. It was good for more than just my silhouette shooting.

I get an F today for reading comprehension, sorry Gemihur.

gemihur said:

I get David White to thread and pin a maximizer on to qualify for carbine use then I build some furniture to suit my needs
View attachment 816752

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Where did you get the grendel barrel?!?

I have a contender with maybe 10 barrels. 22, 22mag, 38, 44, 45/410, 22 hornet, 223, and 30 herrett. The 44mag is compensated from the factory I believe, and I have barrels ranging from short to the super 14s. Both wood and black rubber pachmayer grips. Got a wood buttstock too, but no barrels to make it legal, so it sits on a shelf waiting for a 16" barrel to find it's way to my safe.

A number of barrel makers will make you a grendel barrel in any length you want. Match Grade Machine makes excellent barrels.