I'm not from Tennesee

[Bee-Kay]

I ended up on this board when I was searching for info on Contender barrels and fitment issues. I think that there was a thread that came up in one of my searches.

Anyhow I just bought a Contender frame online and I'm discovering that the quality control isn't what it was 20 yrs ago and the barrels aren't as interchangable as they're claimed to be.

If there are any sites that I ought to visit or material to read with info on that stuff, feel free to fill me in.

Thanks in advance - Have a great midsummer day

[Omega]

Meh, we can always use some insight from behind the Liberal Curtain  , so Welcome Aboard.

[Ronald_55]

Nice to meet you. I warn you though, you might get jealous and move east when you see some of the stuff guys post on here that is not CA compliant. 

[Bee-Kay]

Thanks for the hospitable welcome.

In the county where I live a lot of us heat our homes with wood. If we could, we'd become our own state, but then the rest of the state would have to buy their water from us.

There was an old thread on TC Contenders that I was following and wanted to reply on. I'm having some issues that I promise myself I won't let me have headaches over.

[KahrMan]

One of the members here, @Dolomite_supafly knows a lot about contenders.  Maybe he will chime in.

[xsubsailor]

 First of all, welcome to the group.

We pulled into your beautiful town back in '68 or '69 for liberty. I think the whole town turned out to see the submarine tied up to the dock at your local lumber yard. Without a doubt, it was one of the nicest and warmest welcomes we ever had. We were really surprised when the town provided the beer for the "Beer Ballgame" in the form of a beer delivery truck  (we couldn't empty it). The game started out as us vs. the town but as people started falling out, anyone that was sober enough just filled in on which ever team needed a player. 

[Dolomite_supafly]

Is it a new G2 frame or an older frame?

[Bee-Kay]

Hey

My batteries ran low for a bit

My Contender frame is a G2 and I bought a barrel on Ebay for a .41 mag because I have a bunch of ammo that wants to be fired.

I bought the barrel prior to buying the frame because I saw one on Ebay and got the brilliant idea that I would buy that barrel and then pick up a frame and have some fun doing some pi             stol shootin on the rifle line. They don't offer .41 mag in a complete gun.   The barrel is supposed to fit.

I just bought the frame and it's still in the dealer going thru the mandatory FFL treatment 

I did have a chance to test fit my barrel to the new frame and what I have is about .010" headspace behind the rear face of the barrel.

And the safety mechanism that prevents the hammer from being cocked when the gun is open won't disengage even though the gun does close.

I had the opportunity to take my barrel to a dealer who has a new G2 in his case and he was good enough to let me try my barrel on his new gun and everything functioned perfectly. Indicating that I have a defective frame.

It seems as though the pivot pin hole was bored too far away from the breech.

That's what's goin on with my Contender

Edited August 9, 2017 by Bee-Kay

[Bee-Kay]

There was a great thread on this forum from 2014 discussing that very issue.

I am hoping to figure out what the next step is to be.

Repair the frame? Return it? Modify it?

Gary Reeder tells me that lately there have been a lot of frames with similar issues. His solution is to build custom barrels that match the defect in the frame.

I'll probably end up taking this to the gunsmithing board

Edited August 9, 2017 by Bee-Kay

[A.J. Holst]

Please accept my virtual welcome to the Volunteer State!

Info abounds here, just need to ask.

I also think this is the best gun forum on the 'net.

[MP5_Rizzo]

5 hours ago, Bee-Kay said:

Gary Reeder tells me....

Welcome to TGO and I hope your problem gets resolved.  If it were mine I would ship back to TC.

Wow, the name Gary Reeder took me back in time.  I can remember back in the late 70's and early 80's when he was a regular at one of my local gun shops. He was a Tennessee resident back then before he moved to Arizona.  I see he's still churning out Custom guns.  I recall he had one of his early custom pistols for sale at the local gun shop listed as the Gary Reeder BMF. I'm sure you can guess what BMF stood for.  Even though he doesn't use the BMF term now I see he's making even bigger custom BMF pistols in all of his custom wildcat cartridges.

Edited August 9, 2017 by MP5_Rizzo

[Bee-Kay]

1 hour ago, MP5_Rizzo said:

Welcome to TGO and I hope your problem gets resolved.  If it were mine I would ship back to TC.

Wow, the name Gary Reeder took me back in time.  I can remember back in the late 70's and early 80's when he was a regular at one of my local gun shops. He was a Tennessee resident back then before he moved to Arizona.  I see he's still churning out Custom guns.  I recall he had one of his early custom pistols for sale at the local gun shop listed as the Gary Reeder BMF. I'm sure you can guess what BMF stood for.  Even though he doesn't use the BMF term now I see he's making even bigger custom BMF pistols in all of his custom wildcat cartridges.

Gary's planning an Africa hunt right now.

He's a guy who has managed to turn building custom guns and hunting with them into a profession

[MP5_Rizzo]

6 minutes ago, Bee-Kay said:

Gary's planning an Africa hunt right now.

He's done several so I suppose he's getting pretty good at by now.

Reeders Past Hunts Click Here

[Dolomite_supafly]

I would send back the G2 frame and find an older, used frame. The older frames will work with 99% of the barrels out there while the newer G2 frames may have problems with certain barrels. And it seems pretty random which makes the process of finding a barrel that will fit much harder. If you decide to keep the G2 frame you will always be frustrated with your barrel selection. Another reason is the fact you can find older barrels in pretty much any caliber while the newer ones are pretty limited unless you order custom barrels and even then you might not be able to use the barrel with the G2 receiver.

[Bee-Kay]

On 8/9/2017 at 4:55 PM, Dolomite_supafly said:

I would send back the G2 frame and find an older, used frame. The older frames will work with 99% of the barrels out there while the newer G2 frames may have problems with certain barrels. And it seems pretty random which makes the process of finding a barrel that will fit much harder. If you decide to keep the G2 frame you will always be frustrated with your barrel selection. Another reason is the fact you can find older barrels in pretty much any caliber while the newer ones are pretty limited unless you order custom barrels and even then you might not be able to use the barrel with the G2 receiver.

It sounds like you've owned a few contenders.

This is my second one, I had a Gen1 before this.

In a conversation that I had with Gary Reeder, he told me that there are some G2s that will only fit nbarrels that he has made for them.

In another conversation with Mike Belm, he told me that there have been design changes for different series of Contender frames within each generation.

This discussion is a bit premature because my frame is still in the FFL shop where it will have to stay for another 9 days from today before I'll be able to pick it up.

I did have a chance to try out my barrel, a .41 mag from an older contender from back in the days when the factory still produced .41 mag barrels. The dealer let me try my barrel out at the counter to see how the fit is. It would snap shut nicely but I couldn't cock the hammer.  Something that's interesting is that on a different G2 that he has my barrel fit perfectly and there was no hammer cocking issue. 

That's all I can say for now. If I could I'd send it back or trade. I got it online.There's good news though, TC (S&W) offers a rebate of $75  for purchaces made during 2017

Maybe I'll collect the rebate first then send it back, that will compensate me for the transfer fees lost.

It's difficult to recommend buying a Contender to a friend, knowing the issues with barrel fit. Every bit of literature out there from the company says that any barrel made will fit my frame, and that is simply untrue.

Edited August 11, 2017 by Bee-Kay

[The mailman]

I think Thompson Center was bought by S&W.  Welcome to TGO
by the way.