Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots TC Contender Barrel Accuracy

Anybody know if there is much of an accuracy difference between the Thompson manufactured barrels and those from some of the aftermarket barrel makers? I just bought my first TC Contender and it came set up as a carbine with an MGM 17 Hornet barrel that is extremely accurate. Thinking about another barrel or two (maybe a rimfire, maybe a 223) and just wondering how good the stock barrels are comparatively.

Aspen ,

I’m not familiar with MGM but I’ve never heard anything but good reports .
I can personally vouch for Bullberry. I’ve got a 22K Hornet that is sub moa & a SS 209x50 Encore muzzle loader that has accounted for many nice bucks . One “ ranged “ at 161 yards . I’ve also had 2 stocks made by them .
A .223 Remington bull barrel made by the T/C custom shop FoxRidge that is also sub moa .

I have nothing since S&W took over but some less than pleasing reports have surfaced but I’ve got no personal knowledge .

I would definitely go with one of the aftermarket custom shops . Bullberry guarantees moa , I’ll bet the others do also , but don’t be in a hurry .
Soup

The stock rifle barrels are generally ok, figure 1 to 1 1/2 moa. You might find a sub moa load, but if my goal was top accuracy I'd pony up for an aftermarket barrel.

Good info guys. Sounds like it is best to stick with aftermarket. Hadn't heard of FoxRidge so I'll have to check them out.

FoxRidge was T/C's custom shop and it is no longer in business, as such.

Ah. Ok, thanks.

Bullberry barrels are superb! Over the years I had 41 different barrels & 8 of them had shot under 1/10" at 50 yds (handgun barrels) Fred, owner of Bullberry & I hunted Africa together in 2001 & took several head of plains game & Fred took a world record handgun Waterbuck. Factory TC barrels can also be very accurate with good handloads. My favorites, 6 TCU, 25 TCU, 250 Savage Improved, 6.5/284 & the 338/284.

Dick

The Bullberry barrels I've owned were like yours, Dick, very accurate. The only caveat to these barrels, IF there is one, is the requirement for a hangar bar fashioned forearm. I like the system but it does call for the purchase of a forearm from Bullberry or make one yourself. I own several MGM barrels currently and they are all very accurate, as well.

I've had nothing but excellent accuracy and fit from MGM (have had 5 of theirs, currently have 3, all on New Hampshire-made G2s). I believe, but cannot prove, that MGM made many or most of the old Custom Shop barrels, too.

My only experience with Bullberry is their re-barrel of a Ruger #1 .45-70 to .250-3000 for me. Superb work and superb accuracy.

Wow, that sounds like a heckuva lot of fun! I haven't had a TC handgun before but did have a bolt action pistol with 10" barrel. That thing could shoot extremely well as long as I had it on sandbags. Out in the field it wasn't quite so easy for me to shoot unless I could find a really solid rest.

Good to know on the Bullberry forearm. And I've only got the one MGM barrel so far, but I'm sure liking how well it shoots. With the 25 grain Hornady hollow-points it is shooting cloverleaf groups. Here's a couple pics of it in the field from a few days ago when I took it out sage rat shooting. The frame came with wood forend/buttstock which I swapped out for a folding stock so I could pack it easier.

I had a Bullberry Contender barrel in 6mm/30/30. The best it would do was 2" groups so I sent it back. I had Mike Bellm rechamber 2 factory 30/30 barrels to 208 Bellm. Both shoot well under 1 inch groups.If you checkout Bellm's website he shows how he chambers concentric with the bore, not with the outside of the barrel. S&W bought T/C for the T/C barrel making capability. However, T/C never could figure out how to cut chambers concentric with the bore. Some T/C barrels were chambered in gang drill presses . I thought this was solved but I recently saw an Encore barrel that I could see the runout looking thru the bore. S&W replaced the barrel. My MGM barrels shoot quite well but are spendy.

I have been shooting T/C for 40 + years and have had excellent accuracy with these chamberings
22LR Match 12"
22K-Hornet 10"
221 Fireball 10"
7 TCU 14"
30-30 AI 14"

These guns will shoot MOA.

Jim

Are those T/C barrels? The fireball (either 221 or 17) is a cartridge I've never shot but would sure like to give it a try!

Had a custom bullberry handgun barrel in 218 mashburn that took quite a bit of loadwork to find a load that shot to my expectations. As I recall it was with a sierra 45 gr sp, and it was 1/2 moa. Most everything else was moa or moa and change. It was fun shooting at the head of the 150yd turkey sillouette, basically I couldn't miss once I adjusted the elevation.

My daughter has a 221 fireball rifle, it's a hummer with 50 gr V-max.

If I were to do it again I'd go with the 221 fireball, not as finicky and if you request the barrel be cut with a rim you can use 360 Dan Wesson brass for a rimmed case.

There was always much talk of T/C barrels being good, but often their chambers being questionable. I have re-chambered factory barrels that shoot just as good or better than my customs. (1/2" - 1/4")

I've had manyregular factory, "Fox Ridge" ones, Virgin Valley, OTT, SSK, Bullberry, MGM, SSK re-chambers of factory, Belm factory re-chambers, Bain & Davis factory re-chambers and unmarked mystery barrels... I have to say I was least happy with Bullberry on many levels.

Had a half dozen factory bbls.........they were fine.
Have heard of some bad ones.

The ,223 Super 14 bbl was cheap, proly of bad reputation, due to the scope base holes being shallow and prev owner not shortening the screws.
I took about 1.5 threads off the screws, removed the loctite and it snugged up fine, shot great.

My Super 16 .35 rem was 1" at 100 yds.
I did add weight to the forend though, made the gun way easier to shoot (shot in rifle form).

I can only speak directly to Contender handgun barrels. In factory TC barrels, my Super 14 223Rem shoots really well, sub 1inch 5 shot groups are the rule. My Super 14 30-30 with a brake shot 1inch to 1.5 inch 3 shot groups pretty regular. My 10inch 22 Hornet (later re-chambered to a K-Hornet) was so-so. Sometimes around an inch but often closer to 2 for 5 shot groups with many different loads. My Super 14 44Mag will keep them in about an inch and half for 3 shots although I have done very little load testing so it may do better if I tried. These are all handguns shot off a rest at 100 yards. I had a couple of acquaintances that were big into Contenders for awhile and tried them all. They swore by MGMs. One had some trouble with a Bullberry 222 that had to go back eventually.
I did have a Virgin Valley (early MGM) Encore rifle barrel in 17 Mach IV that shot very well once I got a pillar-bedded forend on it. 5 shot groups less than a half inch were pretty common.
If accuracy were my goal from the beginning I would order an MGM but that's not to say a factory barrel won't shoot well enough.