Contender or Encore 45 Colt

[HEAD0001]

Anyone have a Contender or Encore in 45 Colt. It seems everyone I see will shoot the 45 Colt cartridge, or the .410 shotgun shell. Can you tell me a little bit about the barrel. Is the chamber cut exactly the same way that a 45 Colt only chamber is cut?? Does accuracy suffer in the 45 Colt because the barrel will shot the .410 shell?? Thanks, Tom.

[Ed K]

You need to get a dedicated 45 Colt barrel. The combo 45/410 doesn't cut it (as a 45 Colt shooter). I had Bullberry make me one up.

[C A Plater]

I have one .45/.410 barrels that I only shoot .410 out of and a custom MGM .45 Colt barrel for my Contender. The combo barrel is reamed way long to take a 3" shotgun shell. A .410 shell will not fit in the .45 only chamber. I treat the combo one as a legal way to shoot shot shells from a handgun. With the choke it works fairly well as a shotgun. Lots of free bore and shallow rifling is not going to do you any favors in the accuracy department. With the shotgun mode I've broken some clays and bagged some bunnies with mine and is great fun. The dedicated barrel is deadly accurate and a serious big game round.

[Lloyd Smale]

a few years ago i bought my father a encore in 410/45. Ive never fooled with one and heard all the horor stories about accuracy with them. I loaded 9.3 grains of herco and a rcbs 255, a load i use alot in 45s and that gun shot it into an inch at 25 yards. Now that was the first load i tried in it and never felt a need to go any futher but it shows you that they really can shoot. My dad isnt a handgunner and wanted it mostly for bird hunting but wanted the option of a bullet in case a deer happened to come along. I put a redot on it to make it easy for him to shoot and not only did it shoot well but when sighted in for the bullet the shotgun pattern was also perfectly centered with the dot.

[10x]

Does T/C make a Contender barrel in 45 LC only?

[C A Plater]

Does T/C make a Contender barrel in 45 LC only?

They used to because I used to have one. I have not seen them listed for a while except for the custom shop. I don't know if the shop is still in business but check Eds TC to see if he has any. My current LC only is a MGM barrel. Spooky accurate. :drinks:

[jh45gun]

You need to get a dedicated 45 Colt barrel. The combo 45/410 doesn't cut it (as a 45 Colt shooter). I had Bullberry make me one up.

I disagree I have the combo barrel on an Encore frame and I put good sights on the rib instead of the bead rear notch factory set up. The sights I bought were Williams Slugger sights which is a fiber optic sight set and made to fit on shot gun ribs. They fit right on the 45/410 barrel. When I sighted it in at 25 yards I put 5 shots into a two inch bulls eye. That is good enough for me. Since then I have plinked with it and bounced pop cans all over the place with it. As with Lloyds experience I too have found they will shoot with a good sight set up. My load is nothing fancy the Lee SWC 252 grain bullet and the standard 8 grains of Unique load. I feel at pistol ranges it would be no problem to kill a white tail with this set up and load.

Lloyd how does your dad like it for bird hunting I shot several grouse with mine last year and several again so far this year. As long as you keep the distance 25 yards and less it is a killing machine.