While you can use any caliber for the Contender, you still want to be savvy about your ammo. Here are some recommendations to get you started:
While there are literally hundreds of barrel combinations for the Contender series in dozens of calibers and lengths, with careful shopping, a few will stand out for the devoted off-gridder or survivalist. The .22 LR seems like an obvious choice, but this is one I wouldn’t go out of my way to get. If you already have an accurate .22 handgun that you can harvest game with, lugging around a Contender barrel won’t give you any edge, although it is hard to argue against the potential increased accuracy the Contender offers. Put this one low on your priority list, along with many of the highly effective but essentially unique to the Contender rounds like the aforementioned 7-30 Waters, or any of the other specialty rounds popular for the Contender. Remember: The name of the game here is survival gun, which means common calibers, unless you are well-equipped already to provide the ammo for an oddball round.
In no particular order, I would choose either .357 or .44 magnum due to the commercial success of those rounds. I’d follow it up with a .30-30 barrel, maybe a .223 and a .45-70 for taking big game. If you can find one, and it is legal in your state (sorry, California) a .45 Colt/.410 barrel with a special choke can be had (although sometimes at great expense), expanding your cartridge choices.
Now, obviously, we are looking at getting a few barrels for very common, commercially successful calibers and for obvious reasons; if things ever go truly south, you will have an easier time finding such common rounds over hard-to-find rounds. However, there is a place for less common rounds for the well-prepared homesteader. One of my favorite revolver rounds is the .41 magnum, and this is by no means a common round to find.
Would you use the Contender? Have you ever used it? What did you think of it? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!
Article Source: Off the Grid News
I have several barrels and pistols. Some maybe a bit of a handful but i enjoy them.
So who makes this pistol?
Worked for Thompson/Center Arms for 8yrs before it got sold to S&W. Great platform from 22lr to S&W 500, black powder to shotgun shells…
To get the most bang for you buck find a Encode or Contender that is chamber as a 44/410…
Also these firearms can be turned in to rifles…
Have not look at ot yet but betting its the Medusa
Thompson center!
It won’t work with those fluted cases and they know it, unless the receiver is changed for each different diameter case. Oh wait, I getting detailed and this isnt the place, sorry.
Ok if ya like a single shooter where ya have to reload for each round.
Myke Cantlin
Erik Kruis
Right on
Troy West
Sure on earth never knows what ammo you will find when all goes wrong.
Raoul Duke
Jesse Miller
What??
BS
It’s a Thompson Center contender with interchangeable barrels. It’s a break open single shot firearm.
Wtf
Single shot have better ones semper fi.
Well I guess if you’re planning on picking up random rounds off the ground to stuff in it you’d need this. Most people however can handle buying a tool and the proper ammo for said tool. If a gun is going in my bug out bag so are a couple hundred rounds of the ammo for it… derp…
Out of curiosity, why can’t you put this on one page? Clicking other pages may subject viewer’s to potential computer threats! Can’t you put it on one page?
Why would you carry a single shot pistol, and a dozen $250 barrels in your bug out bag?