educate me

[mydogtwig]

Looking for some education on these T/C.  The action can that be used with a rifle or handgun?  Granted the stock would need to be changed.  I see the Encore and the G2 Contender,  Is the difference the strenght of these actions.  I see one had a bigger caliber selection. 
Educate me on this. 
Me buddy would like to sell me his T/C pistol with 44 mag and 357.  I would like to swap that in for a 17 ackley bee.

thanks from the un-educated

[Kurt L]

if it was sold as a pistol frame it will need to be registered as a pistol also if you buy a rifle frame and use under
16" barrel it also will need to be registered as a pistol.
pistol / rifle barrels all swap back and forth for encore and g2/but not from one to another,encore barrels will not
 fit the contender or g2 etc.
the encore it made to take higher presseres and that's why you see more for them like 270/30-06 ,308 and 300 mag etc
the contender /g2 is not made to take the heavy pressures of a lot of the encore offerings,like wise a lot of people prefer the contender/g2 for pistols as it is lighter and smaller and not so bulky.

[Grumulkin]

1.  The rifle vs pistol frame thing has been addressed ad nauseum on this forum so I'll be brief.  All I believe would agree that it's legal to put a rifle barrel and stock on a pistol frame.  It is illegal to put a barrel of less than 16 inches on a rifle stock.  If the frame was originally sold as a pistol frame and you live in a state that requires handgun registration, it would have to be registered as a handgun whether or not you use it as a rifle.  If you have questions about whether or not the frame was originally sold as a pistol frame, you can call Thompson/Center with the serial number and they'll tell you.

2.  There is another difference in the Encore vs Contender actions.  The Contender is made so you can shoot rimfire cartridges by simply moving a lever on the hammer.  To shoot rimfire cartridges in an Encore, you have to have a special with a hump in it which I think looks a bit dumb (call me picky).

[yooper77]

Factory T/C Encore barrels are available in rimfire cartridges.  The barrel/bore is offset, so the Encore's centerfire firing pin hits the rim of the rimfire case.  It does have a mono block design hump, but I feel its better then a pin selector.  http://www.tcarms.com/firearms/encoreRimfire.php

I choose the Encore over the Contender because I wanted higher pressure cartridges and didn't want to open and close the action, just to re cock the hammer as with the older Contender frames, the new G2 fixed this problem.  The Encore came out before the G2, so I chose the Encore over the older Contender.

I also didn't want the firing pin selector, I have heard of people firing with the wrong selector during a hunt, just to hear the load noise the hammer falling and the game runs off.  I wish they would have when with offset rimfire cartridge barrels on the G2, but then all the older rimfire Contender barrels wouldn't have worked on the G2.

yooper77

[hunterspistol]

The contender is the smaller of the two, is used more often as a pistol. In the days of silhouette(game silhouettes)pistols, the contender had a huge following, still does.  The Encore lends itself to hunting and has a heavier, simpler frame.

     The Contender is what you see in the avatar.  I like them but, I don't plan on shooting a 30.06 or 300 Win Mag round in them either. All a matter of preference.

[mydogtwig]

Well since the original post, I have ended up with a contender.  .44 mag barrel .357 barrel and a 17 ackley bee barrel.  the 44 I am not that impresses with yet, the 357, are shooting 2" groups or better at 25 yards off rest.  The 17 ?  don't know yet, got that tonight. 

thanks for the info.