I accidentally fell into the Contender trap a few years ago and it has frankly ruined me. I already had a nice original Contender frame and several barrels but lately laziness has taken hold and I decided I needed another frame so I could leave one frame set up dedicated to what I was shooting most at the time. Locally I found an original non easy open Contender for sale and after negotiation I purchased it this past Saturday for $350. The gun came with the original checkered thumb rest stocks and forend and a 22 Rimfire 12 inch octagon barrel with a 1.5 TC Lobo scope. The gun also came with alot of questions as follows.
Hammer Safety
This gun had the original screwdriver switch hammer as did my other frame. However, the slide safety had been gutted from the hammer. The seller (a genuinely good guy) seemed perplexed when I asked him what had happened to the safety. I showed him my contender and he stated he had never seen a hammer with a safety like that. Further he owned another Contender and it was gutted in the same way. I can see how this may have been desirable as the safety could be activated as the gun was drawn during a hunt. I personally have found safeties on hammer guns to be a bit redundant. Is the removal of this safety common in the contender world? Are there any concerns I should have regarding its removal?
Forend Attachment
As I stated earlier the gun had the original thumb rest checkered grip and checkered short forend. Upon switching barrels in the new frame I noticed that the screw position for attaching the forend was different than any other barrel I had. Further, the included forend won't work on any other barrels. When did TC change the position of the forend screw? I find it odd that I now have two otherwise identical octagon 12 inch 22 barrels with the only difference being the position of the forend attachment.
Match Chambers
On the included 22 barrel, the chamber is significantly tighter than on my first barrel. I have nit miced the chamber but I am thinking it is a match chamber. Are the octagon barrels marked anywhere to denote they are a match chamber?
Barrel Pitting
This is my last question, I swear! This is actually not so much a question as a riddle. I did not do my due diligence in buying this gun. I examined the bore but it was pretty dirty and I figured it would be fine. I went straight from purchasing the gun to the range and upon giving the gun a few swipes with a bore snake discovered some pitting. Upon getting home I gave the gun a more thorough cleaning confirmed the worst. The pitting is in a lazy spiral about starting about one inch past the chamber. It makes a complete rotation around the barrel not following the rifling and sops about an inch up from where it starts. From shooting so far I can say that it does not affect the accuracy of the gun but I haven't bagged the gun yet and done extensive tests.
Now I have owned in the neighborhood of forty or more different rimfire guns over the years. Some of my really old pre turn of the century Stevens have significant pitting but I can honestly say that I have not seen pitting, except in the most neglected guns, in any modern guns. Further the pitting I have seen does not display this strange pattern. Does anyone have any idea what caused this? I have come to three distinct possibilities. First a prior owner could have stumbled upon a really old corrosive rimfire round and fired it through the gun and then not properly cleaned the gun. Second (and this is stretching) a drop of blood could have fallen down the bore and cased this pattern. Finally, there could have been an impurity in the stell making it more susceptible to corrosion. Anyway you cut it, its strange.
Thanks for your time!
