Deaconllb,
Very knowledgable of some maybe, but not all by any means. As for a real TC expert...no one still alive or reachable is. New unknowns are still found about TC's models, even though their Contender, Encore and even traditional muzzleloader lines (despite the plant fire) are pretty well documented by a few folks. Mostly by very serious collectors and end users, there are none at TC anymore and many of the old records are gone. Alot is still speculated, always will be and like it always has been will continue to be passed on as fact with no documented proof. Documenting proof is not an easy task on some of their lines. I especially get a kick out of folks who swear on their Mother's grave they have had such and such model since not only long before the model was ever produced, but some before TC was even a twinkle in anybodies eye. "But I'm possitve I got my TC Hawken in 1961 because..." was a favorite.
The last of the last version easy open Contender's, both blued and stainless, were made in 1999 with the probability a few spilled over into 2000. There was an official discontinued date, but I don't remember it offhand and most of my data is in storage. TC had been designing and trying to get all the ducks in a row for the G2 pretty much along with the Encores before they came out. So the last of the Contenders (they are not G1's) probably trickled out near the end (speculation). My last Contender bought new was in 1998, and it was among the first of the last version of the easy opens with the renewable breech block. Bright idea on paper (I took a small part in), but not with good QC up front unfortunately due to it being sort of an afterthought with the G2 their top priority then. So it didn't get the chance to prove itself.
I'm not much help on the G2's. As many here already know from previous posts Tim Pancurak and Ken French brought the G2 prototype to the 2000 SHOT Show - not to display or show it to the so called public, but to show to specific old friends that were long time high volume users to get their opinions of it. I was on their list as was Jim Henry that I went to the show with that year. TC's booth was our first stop the first morning of the show where we spen about 3 hours with them (and again on other days). So we were among the first if not the first on their list to see the G2 proto when it was handed to me literally "under the table". My opinion of it is why I know little about their serial number range - enough said. Nor do I remember when the first were actually shipped for sale - only that it was a long time after the show as they were still trying to work bugs out of it and most likely had took heed to the negatives offered by friends at the show to also work on.
With the Encores I did have one of the first that was available to an end user - supposedly. While around 3000 are attributed to 1996 birth dates, that to me anyway is a guess. I got mine May 9, 1997 as a frame with factory furniture only from the first shipment of 80 of same sent to Fred at Bullberry who had his order for them in with TC from day one. And I also got three separate factory barrels on the side - a 12" 454 Casull, 15" 223 and 15" 22-250. It's serial number made it the 4,78X one made. Means there certainly could have been some out in end users hands in late 1996. I just don't know either way for sure personally because I never bothered to do the work to prove it out.
I'll leave it at that... I'm not up to going over all the Contender versions asked for that would require going to and digging my data out of storage.
