First of all, none of it falls on me as that I did not do anything.
Secondly, do you seriously contend that if someone put a reload at a less than starting load with pressures WELL BELOW SAAMI specs and the firearm suffers a catastrophic failure, then said person is at fault for his injury merely because he used a reload and the manufacturer said no to do so?
Unbelievable..!
Lest anyone get overly invested in the "Brian used handloads" line of reasoning, remember that TC manufactured, and for all I know still does manufacture, barrels and thus firearms that could not be used with anything but handloaded ammunition. I happen to own two of those barrels - a .30 Herrett and a 7mmTCU. There are many others besides those two examples.
So, despite what the manual is saying about not using reloads or handloads, the reality is that TC is/was well aware of, and significantly responsible for, the use of handloads/reloads in their products.
P.S. No SAAMI specs on those cartridges at the time of barrel manufacture either - so there goes that line of reasoning as well.
The above is true. At one time TC made barrels in many wildcat chamberings such as mentioned in the quote above. I have barrels in the .30 Herrett, .357 Herrett, 7mm TCU, and at one time they cranked them out for other non-standard calibers. In addition there are a few custom makers of TC barrels for the Encore/Pro Hunter and G2 Contender such as:
Note how many chamberings are not available in factory loadings that will require converting brass by forming, handloading and fire forming. The implication is that TC and S&W ought to have known that their product could and likely would be use with an aftermarket barrel. At one time, pre-S&W, they operated their own custom shop to provide the same service.
Getting back to the original Contender. It was my pleasure to compete in IHMSA handgun silhouette competition during the decades of the 1970's and '80's with a Contender. TC heavily supported the sport with various chamberings such as the 7mm TCU, that required wildcat ammunition, and provided parts free of charge to competitors, I still have boxes of parts from TC.
Immediately we noticed that there were a few problems. The first of these was that the frames between the pivot pin and the standing breech would stretch, rendering the frame useless. I had TC replace one such frame. The attempt to solve this problem is found in the reinforcing boss cast into the frames resembling the Nike "Swoosh".
The other significant problem was that the barrel locking bolt would retract under recoil allowing the barrel to open. TC modified the bolt by splitting it in half so that neither half would generate sufficient inertia during recoil to retract. The unlocking pin was modified to allow it to float within the bolt. While that solved the problem, we never knew if the two-piece bolt was remaining solidly in contact with the frame or bouncing without unlocking.
A third problem was in the effort to unlock the action by squeezing the trigger guard. I recall a modification was made to the trigger guard frame/relationship, however time has dimmed the details. Overall, the TC was a design that evolved over time with actual field use revealing the flaws and shortcomings. The original Contender also came with a set trigger that could be reduced to mere ounces of let-off, I understand this feature has been replaced with a more lawyer friendly trigger.
Headspace in bottle necked cartridges, both Herrett chamberings, the TCU chamberings, .30-30, 7mm IHMSA Rimmed and others wasn't much of a problem as headspace was set to the individual chamber and barrel to frame fit during forming, by setting the neck/shoulder back until the barrel would just snap closed. This headspaced the cartridge on the shoulder, rather than the rim. However, the frames still stretched and over time would need to be replaced. Apparently, from reader comments, this condition still exists to some degree.
My opinion is that the TC platform, while robust to a degree, is less than satisfactory for high pressure cartridges, whether loaded to SAAMI specs or not. If one is going to spend the amount necessary for a TC Encore they may as well invest in a Savage rifle with easily interchanged barrels, or a Remington 700 converted to use a Savage style barrel nut and barrel combination. If the hunter wants a single shot there are better choices such as the Ruger #1. I can not see the TC as offering any worthwhile advantages over more conventional rifles.
