Hello-

I’ve just gotten into pistol shooting in the last year or so, I have a TC Encore .50 caliber muzzleloader- I’ve gotten different info online about turning it into a pistol. Can I buy a pistol barrel/grip for it and start using it as a pistol? I’d use it mostly as a shooter but would like to turn it into a hunting gun in the near future. Is it possible/legal?

There should be a simple answer to your question, but politics keeps getting in the way. The safest course is to buy an Encore pistol or frame, then add rifle barrels later. One purchased as a rifle initially must stay a rifle. The last I checked, pistols could still be fitted with rifle barrels and stocks, but there was a time when the BATF said it was illegal to do so, a bureaucratic decision. If the 4473 you filled out when you bought yours said "rifle", better not fool around. Much cheaper to just buy another frame than hiring a lawyer.

Your Encore can be used in any format you so desire, legally. Only, if you mount a rifle stock the barrel must be at least 16". No other restrictions.

Sorry, you are WRONG!

If an Encore frame is purchased as a long gun it CANNOT legally be turned into a pistol. If an Encore frame is first assembled as a long gun it CANNOT legally be turned into a pistol. The exception would be unless one changed its designation through the BATFE which would involve a fee, paperwork and waiting; that route would not be worth it.

An Encore frame purchased/assembled as a pistol can then legally be changed into a muzzle loader, a shotgun or a rifle and then back again to a pistol legally.

This issue with the BATFE was settled over TWENTY YEARS ago.

You cannot legally assemble a rifle with a barrel less than 16 inches in length.

Blah, blah, blah.

All these keyboard jockeys ponder this & that with their imagined rules & regulations.

I just put mine together in whatever fashion suits the hunt & go hunt.

Pistol either way but rifle only as rifle. Federal law. Check it out. Ed k