I've had a few different Contender Carbines over the years. My first was a .17 Remington with the 21 inch factory barrel. Pretty accurate for 16-17 shots before fouling took over, then it had to be cleaned thoroughly. It lead me to switching to a 700 BDL for my .17 Remington use. At various times I had a .357 Max 20" and .32 Mag 16-1/4", both from the TC custom shop. Good shooters. If frames were readily available I might try again .. probably .30-30.
I currently have one Contender in handgun form, a G2 with a 1 pound trigger Bullberry did for me. The TC grip does not seem to handle recoil well at least not for my hands. One barrel is a 12" .44 magnum and frankly I can't handle it I keep it .. for now .. with intent to roll some .433 round balls in liquid alox and push 'em with 3F BP just for schitzngigglez. I also have a 14" .30-30 barrel and I have not fired it, after the .44 I'm a bit skeered of it. It may go away unfired. I like the .45/.410 barrel with .410 shells when I'm working my way through high grass under the alders trout fishing. .410s at short range fix rattlers properly. I wouldn't want to shoot it a whole lot in one sitting. The barrels I use most are a .22 LR match barrel punched to .22 magnum which is the most accurate .22 magnum handgun I've ever shot and likes the CCI +V ammo which I have a substantial amount of and an old 10" SS .357 barrel which seems to like anything I put through it from std .38 loads to "rocks 'n' dynamite" .357 silhouette loads. (Example: 17.5 grains of 296 under a 158 grain XTP .. definitely, definitely keep that one away from the J frame.)
When it comes to recoil, to me that TC with the .357 barrel kicks every bit as much as my 4-5/8" barreled Ruger .44 mag single action with max 240-250 grain loads. It's effective but not a lot of fun.
One of the negatives (for me) with the TC carbine is scope position and eye relief. With a standard Leupold mount, the scopes are too far back to get a good sight picture. Someone .. Virgin Valley maybe .. used to make a long spaced 4-hole mount from aluminum. This was very good for Contender Carbine use. I hate putting a heavy steel mount on such a light rig but right now I think probably a long, 6 hole base requiring 2 additional holes to be drilled and tapped would be the way to go.
Tom
