thompson center contender

[kparrott154]

hi everyone,

i'm looking to buy a contender but need some help. i'll be mostly using it ohio for coyotes, small game, and deer. if you could please help with barrel choices it would be great. i also might use it in P.A. and kentucky for deer and maybe bear in P.A.
thanks

[OhioOutdoorsman]

TC contender - .223 for coyote/small game. .17HMR and .22LR would be marginal for the big coyotes we have in OH. .30/30 or .45-70 for deer/bear. The TC guns are light so I'm might lean to a .30/.30.
Don't see one caliber to do it all with the contender. There will be a few yeh-hoos that say that a .223 is a legit deer caliber.....but this will be a small minority of hunters who like to do head shots on small deer. Not advised in my book.

Consider TC Encore - Here a .243 or a .25-06 would take care of all of the game you want to do. Remember that you have to buy a scope for each barrel. The .243 might be a little light for bear and the .25-06 mught be a little heavy for smaller game (squirrels, etc). Consider getting the heavy 26" barrel instead of the 24" as the encore is a light gun and the weight/length will help with recoil/accuracy.

[Dclewis]

Hey Kparrot,

The beauty of the contender is the ease of barrel replacement. After the initial purchase, barrels can be bought relativly cheep. You can find decent deals on e-bay and find them at Cabelas and Gander mtn.
Having owned one for a while (the original contender) I find that one barrel can not do it all. Buy your setup with the barrel you think you will use most , then buy others down the road for other uses. I wont recomend any particular barrel as I think its a personal thing to decide whats right for you. I can tell you that I own the following and each has its use;
-357 mag
-357 herrit
-375 jdj
I plan on adding a small caliber soon for plinking and small game. Id recomend staying away from the 375. unless you prefer a round with brutal recoil.
My brother in law shoots a 7mm.tcu and loves it . I may consider this but will have to load my own rounds.
Remember, the whole idea of the contender is that your not stuck to one caliber (its beutiful). Check out this link for some cool custom grips from Georgia Jim. http://www.olegeorgiajim.com/
I will post a pic of mine on my webpage at http://home.hvc.rr.com/dvoutdoors/
Have fun and good shooting! Dave

[OhioOutdoorsman]

Check out foxridge outfittersoff of the TC website. They offer reasonably priced "custom" barrels for the contender/encore in some pretty rare and wildcat calibers that may serve as a dual purpose gun. But you'd have to handload, something i'm not into.........yet.

[Gibbonian]

For my 40th birthday a couple of years ago my wife bought me a Thompson Center Encore that was engraved in gold and was stainless. She had the barrel set up with a customized 10" .454 casull. Now this gun could drop an elephant so it was setup as a backup for elk and bear hunting. I then bought a .243 15" barrel for deer hunting and this was awesome as well. I even use the .243 for coyote and raccoon. My latest barrel is the .50 cal muzzleloader barrel and with the brake open receiver it is just awesome! For fun my 8 year old son and I use the muzzleloader for squirrel hunting and he is doing great, with only 20 grains of Pyrodex. It's almost shooting the squirrels with a slingshot and our shots are head intended shots only. Great family gun as well as a serious hunting or target gun.