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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
The Contender wood grips are horrible. The rifle in any stock is piss poor. BUT!! The contender pistol setup with Pachmayer rubber grips is a sweet shooter. It will tame the 44, 30-30 and 410. easy peasy. The same brand grips will also do wonders for the Super Blackhawk which you seems to enjoy, I assume, with wood grips. The Blackhawk you might get by, the Contender need the rubbers. Pachmayer makes a matching forarm as well. Nice look and it works.
IMHO, 90% of your shooting success with any powerful handgun is in the grips.
