I've had T/C Contenders since the Early 80's. I have 8 barrels and 2 Actions. Delivery started in August 1968 with the first 500 starting with SN 1001, Those sold out and the second batch continued in September 1968 with 1501. I have a 10" 357 Mag, Octagon barrel, that was shipped with action 1607. I bought it off the original owner, but I couldn't talk him into selling me the action.

There are 3 types of Contender Actions. "Original", "Easy Open" and "G-2" (which looks like a baby Encore) There are several gazillion T/C Actions and about 4 times that many barrels, along with a number of aftermarket barrel makers. If you go to any gun show you will see quite a few actions, barrels and NIB sets for sale. I don't believe new production will ever resume, because the market is over saturated already.

My assortment includes:

10" Bull 22 Hornet
10" Oct 221 Fireball
10" Bull 221 Fireball
10" Oct 357 Mag
12" Hunter 375 Winchester
14" 22 LR Match
14" 44 Mag w/Mag-na-port
14" 7 TCU

Of what I owned, the 10" Bull 221 Fireball is the most accurate, and a 14" 223 with a rail mounted Phantom scope was the worst. After 3 years of trying to get a fair group out of it I gave up and sold it. The most spectacular is the 375 Win with Factory ammo being shot at dusk! The muzzle flash is a little bigger than a large beach ball! (The Recoil is not a lot more than the 357 Oct. The "Muzzle Tamer" porting does a fantastic job of recoil reduction and controllability!)

I have a friend with a 14" 22 Hornet, we have gone head shooting "Improvised Targets" at distances out to 275 yards. Off of sandbags and laying down, I didn't miss one of the 15 consecutive shots on "Pop can" sized targets Using Factory Hornady 35 grain V-Max ammo. Advertised Velocity is 3100 FPS in a rifle. In handloads the same bullet will maintain 1" groups @ 100 up to 3250 FPS, but my gun maintains 1/4" groups @ 100 staying with 3100-3150 FPS. (Powder; H 4227) Like I said earlier my 10" Bull 221 Fireball is more accurate than that (50 grain Combined Technolgies Ballistic Silver Tip over AA 1680).

I hope you will jump in and enjoy the pleasure of a good single shot handgun!

Ivan