(I tire easily) rearranging my Contender cabinet. I lined up all the barrels and the complete guns I had assembled them all the "extras" I happened to have. I completely emptied the cabinet all 3 shelves. Once that was done I unwrapped all the barrels and guns to see what I was dealing with. I have 4 barrels with no rear sights and scope mounts. Now the 357 Max does not have a front sight so I needed to put a scope on that one to be able use it. I no longer shoot IHMSA so I didnt need the scope on the 6.5" 22LR so that was the first change. This gun had the T/C
"Quick change" scope mounting system just remove the locking screw and push against the spring and the scope just slides out they you can slide it into another base(if you have one I don't) I wonder if they even still make this scope mount. So I changed this whole unit over to my 357 max gun. I also at this time put my new pachmayr forend on this barrel again for the extra weight towards retarding some small amount of recoil. The 22 10" bull has a weaver rail mounted on the gun but it does have a front sight so if and when I wish I can replace the rear sight
if/when I want. For now I will leave the scope base on the gun thick could change at any point. The 223(Super 14 fixed front sight) barrel has a rail mount and scope on it and I left it alone other than to whipe it down. My 30-30 is my other 14" barrel this one has iron sights on the barrel I left them alone I also have a pachmayr forend on the barrel for the extra weight to aid a bit in recoil control which it does just enough as this barrel while a bit stiff to shoot is not uncomfortable and as a matter of fact I enjoy shooting it. Its a fun and unique barrel to shoot. Cheap too I usually stock up on 150 grain factory loads when they go on sale during hunting season. I occasionally buy a box of accrillators when I can find them at a gun show too. My super 16 45/70 barrel I put on my oldest frame becouse it doesnt have the "easy-open" feature and the extra weight of the barrel helps in opening it. I also put a set of the older designed presation grips on it - the ones with the air-pocket in the rear. I left a wooden forend on it as it requires a carbine forend and all of those I have are wood or rynite(which is way too light on this gun) the second frame got the 45/410 barrel with the choke mainly becouse I love shooting the shotgun shells on our clubs plinking range. This gun also has iron sights but since I can't get the choke off as yet I can't shoot ball ammo out of it. but never fear the other 45/410 barrel I have does have both sights. both guns have octagon barrels but the choked gun clearly has an older rear sight. Both guns also have the perminate front sight on them. I replaced a rear sight on the 22 6.5" barrel and mounted it on my third and last frame. So that takes care of all three frames. Now I just had barrels to clean up. The rest of my barrels all have their own forends mainly wood of one design or other from every era of T/C. Now I got a small brain storm I have a rynite shoulder stock and forend for a carbine conversion. I also have a savage "camper" take down case. from a savage model 24 "camper version. It was a 22lr and 410 gun and a take down gun. I never owned the savage but got the case brand new from a gun show. the stock and forend both have swivel studs for a sling so i put some QD sling swivels in with the stock I also have a 1" black nylon sling I will put in there with it. In the other side of the case I put the super 16 22 lr barrel with the rynite forend on it. Now I have a complete 22lr carbine conversion kit perfectly packed in a short rifle case (just about 18" long) and put the whole thing together. all I need is a frame and I have a 22 carbine. So I can carry this and have both a pistol and carbine close to hand, great package. My other barrels I placed in silcone socks or wrapped in silcone cloths and now I started to put the guns and barrels away. The guns with their respective barrels went into the top shelf of my gun safe they took up the whole shelf with the exception of my 3 NAA mini-revolvers. The barrels I carefully placed on the bottom shelf of the contender cabinet. they were lined up neatly from back to front the 22 carbine kit I placed in the very back of the shelf with the two super 14 barrels. Now for the rest of the stuff. I have a small kit I put together in a plastic case that fits in your back pocket, in it I keep the T/C universal tool assorted allen keys that fit the contender a small screw driver for removing forends and the choke tube wrench for the shotgun barrel. a small flat screw driver with tiny blades for adjusting the sights and a piece of wooden dowl rod for removing barrel plugs to make changing barrels easier. This went into the bottom shelf with the barrels. I had about 6 forends 3 carbine forends made of wood and an older chote forend of plastic. there are two older bull barrel forends and 1 octagon forend all wrapped in bubble wrap. I also wrapped 3 competor grips (the last style on the Contender) one with a custom made but piece made of alum and screwed onto the grip this also had a sling swivel mounted on that.(there is a sling swivel on a barrel band mounted on the 30-30 barrel the grips came from this gun originally too) all the bubble wrapped forends and grips were placed in a canvas money bag and put in the top shelf along with the walnut shoulder stock which was wraped in a soft cloth and bubble wrap and placed in yet another cloth money bad and placed on the top shelf along with the simmons red dot sight which I am thinking of mounting on the 10" 22 LR barrel. I also have 2 royal crown bags(soft cloth bags) with small part in them 1 has an assort mend of general stuff the other has a duo scope mounting system and a couple sets of rings along with the T/c rear sights I have removed from barrels to mount scope systems. These went onto the secont shelf along with the two rifle length silcone socks. Well that completes my rearangement and now everything is neatly arranged in the cabinette and easy to find my only mistake was in not labeling the barrels somehow befour I wrapped them in silocone socks or cloths I need to get some tags to hang from each barrel from the office suppily store and do that thus making finding even the correct barrel easy. while this took more time than I thought I am very pleased with how it came out and I got all 3 frames in the safe which I could'nt do befour. It was also the first chance I had to do this since I unpacked almost 2 years ago. I am happy now I got to play with my contenders for a while even if I couldnt shoot them. It took longer than I expected due to my low strength and pain threshold. I had to go and rest 3 or 4 times befour I finished the job but I got it done. Its been a good day and all my contenders are in a row. Looks neat and well ordered too. I like it time well spent.
Jim L
