FWIW, you have an T/C Encore not a Contender. There's been 3 different models offered by TC. Originally there was the Contender. Then in the 80's the Encore was introduced. The Encore has a bigger frame and able to handle higher pressure rounds like the 308 that the Contender was not able to due to pressure limitations. Then there is the "G2" which is an updated Contender that looks like a scaled down Encore but still retains the same cartridge limitations as the original Contender. No biggie, just helping with the terminology.

To remove the rear sight, just completely unscrew the elevation screw and it will open up exposing the mounting screws. Be careful not to loose the little spring underneath. Simple job. Also start with reduced recoil ammo or use light bullet reduced loads if you're a reloader. Full power 308's will take a little getting used to in a pistol.

 

One more question. Does this gun have a hammer block safety? By that I mean if you are cocking the hammer with a round in the chamber, and your finger slips off the hammer spur, will the gun fire? Or does your finger have to be depressing the trigger when the hammer falls?

 

You're the second person I've been acquainted with who purchased an Encore without seeming to understand what they were getting into.

The first guy didn't know how to open the action until I showed him and was FLOORED when I told him he could convert his Encore muzzle-loader into a rifle, shotgun, or pistol configuration, with almost unlimited chambering options. He knew it was an Encore and not a Contender, though.

I'm not sure about having anything like a "hammer block safety", but the older Contenders have a 3-position selector on the hammer spur (rimfire, centerfire, and in-between) that I never found much value in, as far as a safety goes. When I shoot and hunt with my Contenders, I just leave the hammer down until I'm ready to shoot, which keeps it safe.

 

You're the second person I've been acquainted with who purchased an Encore without seeming to understand what they were getting into......

I'm not sure about having anything like a "hammer block safety"...

So, just to be clear..... I don't know, "what I'm getting into". But you are. Yet you cannot even answer a simple question pertaining to it's basic operation. Thanks for all of your "expertise".

 

Congrats on your encore purchase. I hope it is as accurate as I am sure it should be. I don't have any experience with Encores, but I love my Contenders. Question as to how to remove rear sight has already been answered, but I thought I'd tell you that as far as scope mounts, I've always used Weaver's 92A on my contenders with a lot of success without a lot of expense. Don't know if this mount will fit an Encore, but I am sure that Weaver makes a mount for it. By the way, what barrel length did you get? One of my first was a 10" in 30-30.................... Recoil was a lot less than pleasant.

 

Mine is a 15" barrel in Stainless, with the black hard rubber furniture. I'm really looking forward to cranking it up. With only 1" less barrel than a lot of 16" rifles in .308, I won't be experiencing much loss of velocity. And a lot of the slower burning powders should work well. I'll be interested to try out my favorite handload of 42.0 Grains of Varget behind the 168 Gr, Sierra Matchking bullet.

 

Just a quick camera picture of the gun.

 

Just in case anyone is interested, it does. It took me all of 5 minutes to look it up. I'll have to remember that next time, before I waste time asking all of these overly critical, "Internet experts". Who try to dazzle me with the sheer tonnage of what they don't know. ​

https://www.tcarms.com/pdfs/uploads/manuals/TC_Enc_ProHunter_Pistol_Spec_Sheet.pdf​

"It features a patented (Patent #5680722) automatic hammer block safety with a bolt​

interlock,....."

 

Here are a couple of You Tube videos showing the .308 Encore being fired. It seems quite controllable. I have 2 Magnum Research BFR's in both .45-70, as well as .500 S&W Magnum, so I can't see it being any worse than those. My Remington XP-100 in .35 Remington is also very controllable. I'm really looking forward to shooting this gun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVl9m4TArlQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awDjkfOdRI8

 

Congrats on your adventure into Contender / Encore land. I own and shoot both generally as pistols and have been for nearly 40 years. Definitely purchase or load some reduced recoil ammo for the .308 and take that thing to the range. Keep the iron sights for now and learn your new pistol.
I do scope mine, I'm a bit older than you and my eyes aren't what they used to be. I prefer rifle scopes opposed to extended eye-relief, but I'm shooting from the bench at targets. Hunters generally prefer the extended eye-relief for quicker acquisition. Weaver makes a mount for Encore barrels.
.308 is a handful in a pistol, I think it has somewhat more recoil than a .44 mag.,but it has been years since I shot .44 and my .308 has a muzzle brake now. There are several hold positions folks use for these pistols, do some research and practice.
The Contender / Encore 'platform' can be addictive, beware of additional barrels sneaking into your safe. Have fun and be careful.

 

I've got an old (4 digit serial #) contender frame that I bought used (no paperwork) that I've carried hunting often with hammer down. Never knew (or bothered) to check about hammer block. Still felt safe carrying it hammer down. Glad to know that though. Going to check this old frame to see what it has. I know it has the "3 stage" selector on the hammer.

 

Congratulations on your purchase of your first T/C Encore. Encores and Contenders are very addictive. I know since I got my first in 1974 and have been accumulating (not collecting) frames and barrels ever since. If you are wise, give it too me before the addiction takes hold .
I knew next to nothing about them as well when my father handed me my first one at the airport in Los Angeles after my first tour in Vietnam. Feel free to learn as you go. The T/C's are very user friendly and if you are a handloader who loves to tinker with loads, they are a dream to shoot.
A word of advice as you get started and you handload - Don't start out hot. People get discouraged quickly by them when they often start with full house loads (I have gotten cheap barrels that way). Throttle your loads way back to start and work up. Maybe a lighter bullet too would be good. Unique is a good powder to learn with and 10-12 gr is a good place to start.
Have loads of fun!!!

 

Let me get this out of the way: YOU'LL BE SOOORRRY.

It took me three additional barrels and almost $1000 to get over my affliction.

The original Gen 1 Contender had a hammer-block safety, coordinated with a set trigger arrangement. Loved the set trigger, but the hammer block turned out to be the cause of many light-strike misfires. Was snookered into many dollars in unnecessary springs and bits by Mike Bellm, none of which did any good at all. The solution was simply stretching the spring which retracts the hammer block, By increasing the preload, it accelerates the block out of the way faster. Cost: ZERO$$$

The Encore is a more robust frame, but still suffers from a lockup system (the sliding bolt) which American shotgun makers discarded before WW1. NOT, in my not-so-humble opinion as an engineer and gunsmith, suitable for the big, high pressure cartridges. The Gen 1 should never have been used for anything more than .38 Special and .32-30. Even .30-30 and .35 Remington would result in stretched frames. The Encore might be OK for those, but I'm skeptical of the .308 in it.

I honestly don't know and don't care whether the Encores have a hammer block safety. Having recovered from the T/C virus, I never want to see another one ever again.

 

I love my two Contenders and seven barrels. Had one set up for IHMSA Production and one for Unlimited. .22LR and 7TCU barrels for both (plus a few extras). When I first got into Contenders, 35 or so years ago, a gentleman named Jim Henry lived near me. He had some sort of rep relationship with T/C and he would help new Contender owners with trigger jobs and he would check and fit the bolt lugs for an absolute super-tight lock up. He did one for me and then showed me how to do it. It wasn't hard to do, but that was a long time ago. My Contenders have the finest triggers on any of my guns. As far as the lockup goes, I'm sure the frames and barrels were safe as they came from the factory but it was obvious that the lockup could be improved by custom fitting each barrel to a particular frame, which was why I had one frame for the Prod. barrels and one for the Unlim.

 

Just for the record- (chapter 19), the "Contender" has a different and dangerous trigger arrangement than the later Encore.
Under one very specific circumstance, a Contender can shoot you in the chest. All seven I know of were fatal.

 

Just for the record- (chapter 19), the "Contender" has a different and dangerous trigger arrangement than the later Encore.
Under one very specific circumstance, a Contender can shoot you in the chest. All seven I know of were fatal.

Jack, Could you elaborate a bit on this? This is the first I've heard of it. And I have to admit it seems a bit strange how a single shot pistol can shoot you in the chest???

 

Best Encore I have is a 7/08 15". Best Contender is a 7/30 14" and next is a 7 TCU 14". Worst Encore is a .450 Marlin 15". Worst Contender...no such thing!!

 

Take the elevation screw out of the rear sight tip it up and you will see 2 screws that hold the rear sight assembly onto the frame.

 

I bought a T/C Super 14 in the Rem 223, Back in the 70's Love this pistol, For Chucks, & Coyotes, With some good hand loades, It will out shoot some Rifles, Out to 200 yards.

 

BillT-- I assume you have a Contender to try to see what happens.
This is not all the story but covers the mechanics of it. Chapter 19 "Unsafe by Design" covers it better.

All seven victims were carrying a Contender in the shoulder holster that was sold for that gun. All seven bent over to move a rock or pick up wood or in one case, another gun. The Contender falls from the holster and the butt hits the ground hard enough to RELEASE the passive safety block. Once the block is released, the hammer can fire the gun by impact of any kind.

TEST--- With the gun reset by opening the barrel and then closing, gently pull the hammer back slowly until you hear a slight click. That is the safety block falling out of the way and removing the block in path to the firing pin. NOW, anything that hit the hammer also hits the firing pin. The hammer hits the ground just after the butt and fires the gun while it's pointed straight at you.

T-C was sold because a fraud was committed on the Court in some of these cases and the judge came down very hard on the owner.

 

Jack, to make sure I'm reading you right, the Old Contenders are only unsafe when the hammer is at half cock? If the hammer is all the way down (and never been placed at half cock) it is safe? Thanks. I've always carried it with a sling X my chest. Don't think that it could fall in this way. Also I don't ever remember having mine at half cock.

 

That's a very interesting bit of history, JBelk. I'll be certain to have the gun secured, if carrying it in a holster. I didn't know that was why T/C was sold.

 

I didn't know that was why T/C was sold.

I've never heard it either but like everything else on the internet, just because somebody said it doesn't mean it's true

 

I don't THINK the court records are sealed or under protective order. I didn't sign a protective order when I worked one of the cases that was scheduled to be re-tried in Boise and did some prototype work on several guns. Then I was notified all the cases had been concluded. That must have been in the late '90s.
Read the story. There's much more to it. I've SEEN the two video tapes in question.

 

Court cases are one thing, company sales are something else. If you say the company was sold because of fraud fair enough, I can see you're a lot more emotionally invested in this than I am.

 

"Emotionally invested"?? I'm answering a question with the facts as I know them. Is that somehow offensive to you?

What I was told by the lawyer that hired me---A Federal judge somewhere forced the owner of T-C (You can look up his name) to divest himself of ALL firearms related businesses, pay monstrous fines and is prohibited from being in the firearms business in the future. It was my understanding, he got away very lightly. The alternatives involved hard jail time.

FWIW--The shop I started in suffered losses by theft of an employee. During the time of investigating what was gone, ATF found enough irregularities in the books that all three owners were given the same treatment by a judge. Divestiture, prohibited from the gun business, fines and years of probation. A good friend of mine bought the shop and I ran it for him for a year after that.

Fraud on a Federal Court is one of the very few crimes that does NOT have a statute of limitations or repose. A judge can grab you YEARS down the road and make you pay in a BIG way. Don't EVER lie to a judge!! There's a lawyer in Texas now that lied on Ozero's immigration program in really big trouble. Even F. Lee Bailey was disbarred and prohibited from practicing law due to misbehavior.

 

Jack has done a few laps around the track concerning legal matters involving guns. He has no cause or reason to lie. I trust what he says because several courts have and do. That said, my Encore Pro Hunter will never see the field or a holster. It will be strictly a range gun. Hopefully, very LONG range!

 

Jack has done a few laps around the track concerning legal matters involving guns. He has no cause or reason to lie

I haven't accused anybody of lying. I've been involved with the sales of companies before it's normal to hear lots of different stories why a companyty was bought or sold. If Jack is 100% right about the sale, great. I'm still heading the range with a Contender this afternoon like I always do

 

Your Encore is a totally different action using a different safety system.

One of my everlasting gripes and one of the reasons I wrote my books is that gun companies don't have to tell their customers when a gun is FOUND to be defective. They just quietly go away. That's exactly what happened to the T-C Contender. They introduced a new model and extolled its many virtues but are not required to say a word about what is a SERIOUS defect in the Contender which was dropped from manufacture.

The lesson to take away is this--- The Contender sets a passive safety that keeps the hammer away from the firing pin UNTIL the hammer is cocked part way. At that point, the safety is disengaged but is not RE-engaged until the action is broken open again. SO, if you almost get a shot, but let the hammer down and try to sneak closer, the gun is UN-SAFE in a big way until you break it open to reset the safety block . It differs greatly from other handguns and rifles in that regard.

 

I'm still heading the range with a Contender this afternoon like I always do

I think that's great. Will you admit you now know something about that gun you didn't know before?
I'm in it for the education and have taken tremendous risk to tell the 'secrets' that need to be told. Feed back is always nice.

 

Indeed I have. When the striker is engaged the hammer block is held in position by the sear until the trigger is pulled. That part I knew. The "carrying" issue I hadn't thought about is that if the striker has been tripped by the trigger, the hammer block is just held in place by the spring force of the hammer pinning it against the frame. In that case, movement of the hammer can drop the hammer block and therefore the hammer resting on the firing pin.

The second part I learned is that my two little angels are at the door ready to head to the park to play with dad before going to camp and I'd rather spend time with them than arguing over company sales

 

Sorry, should have checked before last post. My frame is an old 4 digit serial number. It does not seem to be able to half cock, but does have the 3 position selector switch on the hammer. If I see what I think I am seeing the hammer is resting on the firing pin in either "R" or "C" but not when in the middle, so carrying it loaded with the switch anywhere but in the middle is unsafe......??