New contender

[contender1]

As my handle here suggests,,, I own a "few" contenders.
Many feel the recoil is painful in larger calibers,,, especially the skinny 10" bbls. I have only found that true with the factory wood grips. A 10" 30-30 skinny bbl was nasty to shoot. Yet,,, a few decades ago,, I added Pachmyers to my frames. The "set" consists of a grip, a forend, and a barrel block. There is a short block for the 10" bbls, while the 14" bbls take the longer block. These blocks are made by Pachmyer, for their forend. I have added barrel blocks to all my spare barrels.
The 44 as well as most other Contender calibers benefit from a set of Pachmyers.
I've taken over 100 whitetails with mine,,, in 7x30 Waters. That's a mild recoiling,,, sweet shooting,,, scary accurate handgun.

[Tatume]

There is a short block for the 10" bbls, while the 14" bbls take the longer block.

As I stated earlier in this thread, this is not true. There is only one block, and one fore end. I've owned Pachmayr fore ends for Contenders for several decades, and my oldest is identical to one I bought last year. I've copied the link to the Midway listing, which clearly states this fact: one block fits 10" and 14" barrels equally well, as does the fore end.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/31...forend-adapter

[contender1]

I see the part you linked from Midway. That is the long one.
You are correct in that it can work in the forend. BUT,,, if you look at it,, it has 2 screw mounting holes to match the 14" bbls. In the 10" bbls,, there is only one mounting screw. And then the screw to mount the forend to the bbl.
BUT,,,,,,,,,, But,,, there is a shorter one,,, with just one mounting screw to the bbl, and the screw hole for the forend.
I can take pictures if you do not believe me.

And we all know that Midway as well as most internet stuff CAN be wrong.

[TCLouis]

One has never lived until they have shot 5 full powered 44 Mag loads out of a 10" octagon barreled gun with the original wood grips.
Gadfry after the first one I was afraid I would shoot the chronograph before I finished the string.

10" bull barrel is not bad and I'm betting one could get all of the velocity they need without going full throttle.

[shorty500M]

Have always had to watch WHAT EXACT GRIP that I used, found out years ago that whether its rubber or wood manufacturing tolerances apply and sometimes there isn't enough space between grip and guard for my knuckles. Meaning that 2 identical grips would give different felt recoil

[Ed K]

Don't lose sight of the fact that the Contender was conceived as a small bore firearm so that the associated grips were originally not designed with heavy recoil in mind. As bore size was increased and the gun was wildcatted a wider range of grips became available. So sure it can be set up with a 12" 375JDJ and uncomfortable grips but the factory did not do that to anyone.

[jimb16]

I just repaired my contender pistol grip today. I was shooting max loads out of the 10" 44 mag barrel with it and the recoil was so fierce that it literally blew a chunk out of the grip! Split the piece out right along the grain. The recoil was not so bad that I wouldn't shoot more, but when its splitting the grip that is just a bit too much. The gun could handle them, but the grip couldn't. I pulled down the rest of those loads and dropped the charge a bit. Whitetails don't require grizzly bear loads anyway!

[Leadmelter]

The Pachamyars with the air cushion help but I suggest when you get ready to shoot the beast is have a glove on and five sticks of gum in your mouth to bit down on.
Yes, it is that crazy. First aid kit would be helpful.
Leadmelter
MI

[TXSlade]

I've never really found recoil to be painful. But, I had a Contender in 44 magnum that destroyed scopes left and right, and the mounts that held the fore end on? The two pieces kind of dovetailed in and I guess then the factory ran a punch on the dovetail to lock it? this was over 20 years ago, my memory isn't perfect on the exact method. But I remember the pieces the screws went in to sliding right out of the dove tails. I sent the barrel in to TC, they sent a knew 44 Mag barrel. And after awhile, the fore end fell off again.

Lol, the first time I shot it, I though that gun was a ***, it was all over the place. Took a bit for me to figure out I had broken a new scope.

I also had a .222 Rem barrel, it was a tack driver.

[Leadmelter]

Call SSK and get a T'SOB mount and a Leupold scope.
Leadmelter
MI

[Tatume]

If the mount is working fine, the T'SOB isn't going to do any different. But if you're ready to drill and tap two more holes for a six screw mount, the T'SOB is an excellent mount.

Leupold scopes are good, and I use them, but it appears your current scope is working too. If you destroy another, go Leupold.

As far as the dovetailed bosses go, I don't worry about them being loose in the dovetails. What does it hurt? My 309 JDJ had loose bosses, and I asked JD Jones what he wanted to do about it. He told me to tap beside each one with a center punch. Problem solved, and it never recurred.

[Moonie]

My first pistol was a Contender in 7-30 Waters, I added a 10" 357 Max barrel later and that barrel was a stomper. Currently I have an Encore with a 270W pistol barrel, 500 S&W pistol barrel and a 7.5" full bull 300BO barrel (with can). I no longer think the 357 Max is a stomper, the 500 S&W with full power 440gr loads requires a glove as something on the frame removes skin from my trigger finger between the knuckles if I squeeze the trigger with the tip of my finger...

[enloe]

I have owned a T/C Contender for a lot of years and have a few barrels for it.
14 inch ported and scoped 45/70
14 inch Magnaported 30/30 with Silhouette sights
14 inch 35 Rem barrel no porting
10 inch 22 Barrel
By far the 35 Barrel kicks worse than any of the others