10" 44 Contender barrel weight

[Junior1942]

Anybody know what a 10" octagon 44 mag Contender barrel w/iron sights weighs?

[45 2.1]

Not enough to be used on a contender with full loads. I had the hotshot barrel.................:mrgreen:

[Calamity Jake]

Anybody know what a 10" octagon 44 mag Contender barrel w/iron sights weighs?

Don't know what it weighs!! But the 10 bull I once had, when fired with full loads killed on both ends:-D

[timkelley]

Not enough unless you like pain. I had one about 30 years ago when I still tho't I was tuff. That barrel with a full load would make me cry after two (sometimes one) shots.

[Junior1942]

There's an 80 acre or so thicket in the river bottom near me. Ol' Mossy Horns hangs out inside it during hunting season. It was logged ~30 years ago and they left the hollow oaks. Those scattered oaks are huge and each has a clearing beneath it due to the trees oozing tannic acid. You can sit on the ground beneath one of those oaks, and the deer have made tunnel-like trails branching out from the oaks like spokes of a wheel. The only way for a man to get down one of those trails is on hands and knees.

I intend to do that this coming season, and my weapon will be a 44 mag pistol along my belly. As my Ruger 44 SBH weighs 3 lbs, 2.8 ozs empty, I'll use a fiber optic sighted T-C Contender if the weight is less than my SBH.

[lathesmith]

I'd say that you would shed about 10 oz or so compared to that SBH. Like others have suggested, shooting that 10" barreled 44 mag Contender is an excercise in pain.
I have often noticed that a shorter barreled revolver often "seems" to have less felt recoil than an identical revolver with a longer tube with the same loads. I wonder if one of those 6 1/2" TCA Contender 44 mag barrels would have the same effect? If so, that would make a great package for a low-crawl through the brush.
lathesmith

[redneckdan]

I had a 10" octagon .357 Even the .357 with hot loads would bark. Using the stock grip it would start to rub the skin off my thumb in about 3 shots. Pachmyer grip helped immensly.

[jhrosier]

Shooting the lightweight Contender is a survivable event, with the right grip.


http://images49.fotki.com/v1502/photos/5/590147/2786028/contenderhuntergrip-vi.jpg

This is the older "Hunter" grip.(not mine, found on the web)
I have them on all of my Contenders and they are simply the best grip that TC ever offered.

The original TC grip was designed for maximum pain.
The Pachmayr grip is too narrow to control the gun and I always hated the look of the TC grip with the rubber thingy embedded in the back.

I have fired my 12" 45-70 barreled Contender with the Hunter grip and lived to tell about it.

You also might consider wearing an Uncle Mikes shooting glove on your gun hand.
I wear them when shooting the heavy hitters and sometimes forget to take them off when leaving the range.

http://www.midwayusa.com/midwayusa/staticpages/highres/598959.jpg

Jack

[Rockydog]

I've got a Contender in 10" Octagon 45LC and a 7-30 Waters 10" barrel. The Waters is far more punishing than the 45 with full house loads. Recoil between the two is very different IMO. The 45 gives a slow but heavy shove. The 7-30 has a brutal snap to the recoil. Gloves help immensly with both rounds, speading the recoil further across the web of the hand. I've got Mr. Ugly, the Factory grip with the rubber strip. RD

[mtgrs737]

I shot a 14" contender in 30-30 win. quite a few years ago, I got a pachmyr grip and had it magnaported so it was a little nicer to shoot. Great gun and accurate too. Get the Pachmyr grip for sure.

[Junior1942]

I've got a Contender in 10" Octagon 45LC and a 7-30 Waters 10" barrel. The Waters is far more punishing than the 45 with full house loads. Recoil between the two is very different IMO. The 45 gives a slow but heavy shove. The 7-30 has a brutal snap to the recoil. Gloves help immensly with both rounds, speading the recoil further across the web of the hand. I've got Mr. Ugly, the Factory grip with the rubber strip. RDIf they have iron sights, reckon I could talk you into weighing one of them?

[jhrosier]

If they have iron sights, reckon I could talk you into weighing one of them?

Junior,

My .45 Colt 10" octagon barrel with open sights weighs 13.8 oz.
I imagine that the .44 mag would go another couple of oz.

ETA: add .56 oz for the smaller bore

Jack

[James C. Snodgrass]

According to my scale the standard 10" bull 44 weighs 20 oz . My SBH Bisley weighed 3 lb 3 oz with a 7 1/2 barrel and ivorex grips . I don't shoot the 44 with heavy loads to often but it is doable , just get it sighted in and go hunting . James[smilie=1:

[trickyasafox]

A G2 contender with a 23 in barrel weighs 5.4 lbs according to their website- They don't list any pistol barrel weights or frame weights individually. I have an encore with a 10 in 44 mag barrel- want me to weigh that? My guess is your set up will be a good few ounces lighter, but it may get you close.

Found it in the TC website:

a G2 Contender will weigh 3.25 lbs with a 12 in barrel and 3.75 lbs with a 14 in tube- So I think you can hope to come in just shy of 3 lbs with your set up.

[Junior1942]

Thanks, guys. Looks like I'll go with my SBH at 3 lb 2.8 oz and also have extra shots. But I could have had SO much fun camo-ing the T-C barrel and installing red front and green rear fiber optic sights.

[jhrosier]

Junior,

I would go with the gun that shoots the better 100 yard group.
It sounds like you might not get a second shot in the thick stuff anyway.
I have shot the 10" Contender at 100 yards and it will shoot as well as a lot of rifles.

Jack

[Junior1942]

Jack, in the thicket I'm talking about, a 30 yard shot would be a long one. Yep, even with the SBH a second shot isn't likely if the first one doesn't knock him down.

[trickyasafox]

By the way- I liked the new article on the web page. I think I'm going to be taking the 10 in 44 encore out this season by me.

Are you just fitting on fiber optic sights, or do you know where some are available? the ones I have found for the encore say specifically for the 209x50 muzzle loader barrel. . . and I don't understand why they would be proprietary.

Just checked. son of a gun they are proprietary.

[Junior1942]

Tricky, I intended to make fiber optic sights fit if I couldn't find some already made to fit.

[lathesmith]

Tricky, that 12" Encore 44 mag outfit outweighs a 10" Contender 44 mag by a pound or more. They are BEEFY! When I had one of those on my Encore frame I felt like I would tip over when I held it out to shoot it! On the positive side all that weight helped dampen the recoil, it's not nearly as unpleasant to fire as the Contender 44. But geez, weight-wise, it was approaching the weight of my Ruger 96/44 carbine. As mentioned, a Contender 44 mag barrel weighs in at 20 oz more or less, so the total weight mounted on a Contender frame is in the 42-45 oz range. That Encore will top 56 oz easily, probably more like 60oz +. A hefty rig indeed!
lathesmith

[trickyasafox]

its a huge improvement over my 15 in scoped 7mm-08 setup though! I didn't realize the encore was so much heftier than the contender. I knew the frame was beefed up, I guess I just didn't realize to what extent!

[Geraldo]

I don't mind .44mag or .30-30, but my barrels are 14" and have scopes, so they are a bit heavier. My tolerance of their recoil may also be tempered by the fact that I owned a .375 JDJ barrel at one time.

I have an octagon 10" .357 barrel and I was surprised by the recoil, which seems worse than the same barrel in .45 Colt.

[softpoint]

I had read of someone years ago that collected the little 10" octagon .44 barrels and rechambered them to .444 Marlin. Called them "Mountain Contenders." The pistol handles that round just fine, although I don't know what kind of velocity they were getting. Should be a nasty little kicker with the original wood thumbrest stocks....:mrgreen: