Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Thompson Encore???

Has anyone shot the Thompson Encore centerfire? Thinking about buying one but want to know a little about them first.... Opinions on action, accuracy, and dependability....all opinions welcome...... thank you!!!

Which centerfire? I have a pistol with 15 inch barrel in 250 savage very nice pistol, a little fussy to get to shoot good as the forarm is really finnicy with pressure, alot of work and she is a shooter now.Never have had a rifle other than a muzzleloader in Tc

Trigger is nasty, generally quite a bit of creep and typically on the heavy side. The action on mine is smooth. As a rifle it feels good to me; comes up nice and is comfortable. Accuracy wise I guess it depends. I have had great barrels and 1 terrible barrel. But the bad one I sent back and had a new one in 7 working days. So I cannot really complain on that. If you want a lot of info try Specialty Pistols.

Long

I got my encore receiver from foxpro (TC custom shop).

My trigger is sweet at 4lbs with no creep.

Spot

I had one as a handgun that I'd considered using as a basis for a rifle, but then ended up selling the handgun. I'd had a contender for years, and see the encore as a step backwards in physical size sveltness.

Downsides I found were the action doesn't have a stout enough hammer spring to fire militiary primers, mine was .308 and wouldn't fire milsurp.

Accuracy was so/so on mine, and that seems to be the rule from folks. I have a hard time with a modern centerfire that won't put 3 shots at or under 1" at 100 yds, as there are way too many that do it regularly.

The appeal to the system is being able to change calibers, but when you add scopes to the barrels, it isn't as cheap as it appears.

My thoughts are, for the same $ you can get a quality bolt action that will likely out shoot it, handle better, and have a few in the mag.

If you really want a single shot, shoulder an encore, then shoulder a ruger #1, cycle the actions in each. If you want the single shot, you'll choose the Ruger.

I asked myself what the encore would do better than other rifles I had, and the answer was nothing. If they cost 1/2 as much as they did, they'd be appealing, but for what they cost, I just can't see it.

I own several Encores and barrels and would choose them any day over a bolt gun. In fact, I have a Wby Mark V, two Remington 700's & two Ruger 77's that all sit in the safe while my Encores go to the woods. Solid, dependable, accurate and lightweight. I have three barrels: 280 Remington (Thompson), 7mm Wby (Shilen) & 300 Wby (Shilen). They all shoot one hole groups and give me no trouble.

These rifles are universal in application, easy to carry and are quite versatile. Both of my frames & several barrells have taken well over 25 animals in just the past two years.

Never needed a follow up shot.

Ruger single shots are heavy, bulky, front end heavy and cumbersome. They are NOT quick-reload-follow-up-shot guns. They have weak extractors. Accuracy with them is a sometimes thing. They most definitely do not offer the versatility of a switch barrel rig. I wouldn't have one. You can scope a heavy barrel Encore and still come under the weight of a Ruger #1 right out of the box. They are not terrible investments but my money would be better spent on a bolt gun if a Ruger single shot were my only choice.

The Encore is certainly not a high end gun, nor is the Ruger. However, I would choose the Encore any day. All of mine are one hole shooters with three shot groups.

My personal preference: I love thumbing a hammer back for the shot.

I'd rather own an A-bolt..........

I'd rather own a hi dollar Kimber piece of junk..........

Save your money, don't buy that boat anchor.

I think the new ones are pretty good. They like customizations just like bolt guns. If you buy a complete setup, I'd turn the factory barrel, do a trigger job and go with one of the custom barrels from bullberrry or OTC. Might also take a look at the new bergara barrel being sold thru Midway, supposed to be a ton of value for a really great price. Also, put some money into a hanger bar system or some sort of freefloating of the forearm. You can easily add a stronger hammer spring and if necessary a slightly larger hinge pin from Bellm. Typically with a little work an encore can be made to shoot right up there with a bolt gun. A lot of folks just don't know or don't wanna take the time to customize them like a bolt.

As much as I like the change barrel single shot systems, as they let tinkerer/experimenter handloaders try several loadings fairly economically, the accuracy does fall shot of what can be done with a bolt gun.

Sure you can fiddle around and tune this and that and get it down to a 1/2" gun. But when you tune a bolt gun you get down to 1/4" and hummers down to 1/8". I've never seen or heard of an encore or contender in the 1/4" or under realm, and I've known alot of folks that use them.

I think the best advice is go to a gun shop and shoulder one. If it feels right to you and you want to try one out, go for it. If it doesn't feel right to you, than no amount of tinkering will make it fit you.