Early 357 mag barrel?

[GWCustom]

Over the weekend I picked up a 10" .357 Mag Contender barrel. It like my .218 Bee barrel is what I call a tapered round barrel. The barrel has more taper in it than a 10" bull barrel. It also has the front sight soldered on not screwed on. I got a real shock though when I removed the rear sight to mount a scope and only found that it had two screw holes! If this barrel is collectable I don't want to drill two more holes in it to mount the scope. Can anyone give me some insite into this barrel?
Thanks,
Van

[Jim Stacy]

Is the locking bolt held in by a allen screw ? If so it is definitely an early barrel . The Type 1-2 &3 are differentiated by the lettering on the barrel all one line (name and TC's address) -very early barrel. The adress and TC on two lines , early but not a type 1 . Contact the Thompson Center Collectors association and they can probably answer you questions but the allen screw and adress line is important . I hvae never seen a barrel with only two screw holes and I've been shooting and working on Contenders since 1969. ? My be a pretty early barrel.
Read your post again and over looked "tapered round" not an early barrel since all of them were octgon . May be an early bull but pretty certain they had 4 screw holes , if it is a TC factory barrel.

[GWCustom]

Jim,
 Thanks for the reply. Yes I did contact the Thompson Center Collectors Association. I emailed a fellow by the name of Ron Sable. I got this quick responce back.

Van, that barrel probably has a flat base lug, Yes it is an early one but collector value in min. very few collectors have bull barrels,
 
I would not change the screw holes, a 357 mag is not tough enough to require more than 2 screws,
 
Good Luck Ron

Jim, I agree with you. I have messed around with Contenders for many years and have mounted scopes on a ton of barrels but this is the first one I have ever seen with only two holes. Oh by the way the lugs are two peice and they are held in with a roll pin.
Thanks again,
Van

[Jim Stacy]

The split locking lug , unless it was changed would make it in the 1970-1980 range. The barrel of that vintage , have one also, were pretty accurate barrels . I believe the 30 Herrett was the first bull barrel , also not sure of that. The two screw hole thing is a real surprise ? I have seen early octagon barrels with three screw holes and a relief hole for the elevation screw but that was only on a octagon barrel.