The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Handguns => Topic started by: billt on June 17, 2020, 09:26:14 AM
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This is my .308 T/C Contender Pro Hunter. If you look at the lower picture, just behind the trigger, you can see a shiny ground pin protruding about 3/16" out toward the frame. It has what looks like a small snap ring on the end of it. I never noticed it before, and wondered if it was normal? I've seen it on other Contenders as well. It almost looks as if the frame has built in clearance for this.
The gun shoots perfectly, and the trigger is quite good. I just wondered if it's a normal feature. Nothing seems loose, or out of place. I'm not all that familiar with these guns. This is the only one I've ever had. And I know you used to build them.
(https://i.imgur.com/RRaoGpW.jpg?2)
(https://i.imgur.com/LluK9sI.jpg?3)
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Bill, That's one of the G-2 modifications.
My original style isn't set up that way.
I believe that is your trigger return spring.
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Thanks!
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Glad to do it. ;D
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That's not a change they made on the G2 Contenders. That's not even a Contender, it's an Encore. I'm surprised someone hasn't said anything about it yet. So much for Tom being the expert. As for Bill not knowing what he owns? ???
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Encore's and G2's use the same hammer springs. Encores and G2's use the same trigger and sear springs, none of which will work in Contenders. All the barrels for all three frames use the same locking bolt springs in the barrel lug. Encores and G2's all use the same hammer extension. Barrels for all three have the same scope base hole spacing, and use No. 6 x 48 screws.
All 3 use 1/16" diameter roll pins for the extractor, and 3/32" diameter for the locking bolts. But Encore pins are longer to accommodate the wider lug it uses. The same 4 x 40 trigger overtravel screw size is used for all three. All three frames have an interlock, to prevent the frame from firing a round unless the barrel's locking bolts safely engage the frame far enough. And push the interlock back far enough to permit the frame to fire a round. I simply had not noticed that pin on other Contender models... Encores or otherwise. Hence my question to Tom.
Just because they rename a gun when they come out with a different version of it, doesn't mean they re engineer everything inside of it. An Encore is basically nothing more than a beefed up G2....... Which is a beefed up Contender. You're trying to make a mountain out of a molehill... All while standing on the asshole button at the same time.
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No, I'm not Bill. And I just thought you had so many guns you forgot what that one was. What you just said is that all three guns have some things in common, the old Contender and Contender G2 have some things in common that the Encore doesn't, and the G2 and Encore have some things in common the old Contender doesn't. I don't disagree with any of that, but the G2 Contender is still a Contender and the Encore is a different gun with a different size frame. That's why original Contenders and G2s have interchangeable barrels, but you can't use them on an Encore, or Encore barrels on either generation of Contender. But the G2 isn't just a beefed up Contender like we've been led to believe. It's almost the same thing as a smaller Encore, but it still has 2 firing pins and a selector on the hammer for rimfire or centerfire. Here are some pictures I found online of both sides of a Contender G2 frame that's been cut away at the factory so you can see the insides better. I don't see the pin and snap ring you and Tom were talking about, but maybe you guys can point them out to me. My eyes aren't quite what they used to be, what with the cataracts and all. Maybe there's "G3" version of the G2 that has those parts in it but I never saw them before.
P.S. If the same trigger overtravel screw is used in all 3 pistols, why doesn't your Encore have one in the trigger guard like the Contenders? Did they use the same size screw somewhere else?
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Of course changes were made. I never claimed otherwise. Common sense dictates you don't need a rimfire firing pin mechanism on a gun that has been beefed up for the sole purpose of firing high powered centerfire cartridges, (.308). These guns were modified for the purposes intended. Mainly to fire higher energy cartridges. Because that's the direction sales were going.
And I never claimed the barrels would interchange between any of them. I never noticed the pin and snap ring on ANY single shot Thompson pistol until I bought mine. Which is why I asked Tom about it.
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Well, like I said before, "That's not a change they made on the G2 Contenders. That's not even a Contender, it's an Encore." And those parts are only on the Encore, not the Contender, G2 or otherwise. You can look up what parts they have in common again if you want to, but the Contender and Encore are two different guns, or three actually. The reason you never noticed that on a Contender before is the same reason I didn't see it. Because it wasn't there, and Tom the expert was wrong about it being a G2 modification. Unless it was a modification that was done to G2s at a later date that I don't know about. That's a distinct possibility. I'm not omniscient and never claimed to be. I don't know what else there is to say about it. I'm not trying to be an asshole (it just comes naturally ;)). I was just stating a few simple facts. There's no reason to get bent out of shape about.
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. I'm not trying to be an asshole (it just comes naturally ;)).
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. I'm not trying to be an asshole (it just comes naturally ;)).
I was joking, hence the wink. I'm really not trying to be an asshole, but it may appear that way sometimes to some people. And that's no joke.
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A contender is nice way to say 'Bang'
Here's a 14" SSK Bbl in 444 Marlin
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A contender is nice way to say 'Bang'
When you care enough to send the very best.
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That A Hole J. D. Jones was why they had to come up with the G-2 and the Encore.
They were scared witless he'd blow some one up and They would get sued. ;D
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When the custom shop had .375 Winchester barrels I kept thinking that would be a good caliber to have for my Contender. But I don't reload and didn't think factory ammo would be all that great in a pistol. Eventually I quit hunting and didn't didn't have any use for it other than plinking, and there's cheaper ammo for that. Like .44 Magnum or .223 Remington. If I want to shoot it really cheap I have a chamber adaptor for .22 LR that fits in the .223 barrel. Then all I have to do is turn the selector on the hammer to rimfire instead of centerfire.
Here's a picture of 2 .375 Win. cartridges with a .38-55 and .308 between them for size comparison. It's more or less a .30-30 case necked up as far as it will go "stuffed with a hat-full of powder" as I saw another cartridge described in a gun magazine years ago.
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A 6x223 that needed a wrap
(https://i.postimg.cc/v8CX8KpV/6x45-with-shrouded-forearm.png)
(https://i.postimg.cc/ydwFVm4p/444.jpg)