once more the idea of a single shot pistol dances through my fevered brain. For years I've looked on gun show tables, pawnshop shelves and gunshop displays, but rarely have I found a Contender or Encore of any vintage for sale at a reasonable price. Still, the idea of a 10", straight wall chambered pistol tickles my fancy. I'd given up on the idea with the demise of TC, but SSK's bringing their new frame to market caught my attention.

The problem being, what caliber? I can't see spending a bunch on multiple barrels, would rather have just one frame dedicated to one caliber as I don't get up north often enough to put much lead through them anyway, so why complicate things more than need be?

So far my cogitations have yielded a 10" barrel with a straight wall case chamber. I don't see any need to mess around with bottle neck cartridges in such a piece, although the WCF family DOES beckon enticingly. A 38-40 or 32-20 or 25-20 could be entertaining in a 10" barrel, but brass is a forlorn hope in today's market and I can't see tooling up for producing such rounds as the cost of the firearm itself is considerable.

So now I'm thinking along the lines of "What do I have that could be interesting in such a platform?"

Calibers I load for when up north include:

• 32 SWL
  
• 327 Magnum
  
• 38 Spl
  
• 357 Magnum
  
• 44 Spl
  
• 45 Colt

Besides those I also have dies/brass/bullets for 45-70 and a bit of brass for 38-55. But I figure those aren't exactly the best choice for efficiency in a 10" barrel. I figure the 45 Colt would be able to come close, if not exceed, the performance of the 45-70 in that short of a barrel, and I've a bunch of 300 gr projectiles that I'll never use in my Rugers but would be interesting in the singleshot. I think.

I'm tempted by the 327 as it would make a fairly decent varmint rig and would be more efficient in burning magnum loads of powder than my wife's shorter barreled Single Six. But I don't think it's exactly a deer cartridge. The 32 SWL would be a dandy small game/plinking pistol, but that caliber is already pretty much designated for my wife's use in her Single Six as she detests the bark of the magnum rounds.

38 SPL would give good use from WC to 38/44 rounds, but again, it's not really enough for serious deer hunting, although a really dandy small game whacker.

It wasn't that I didn't like them or hadn't shot them as Bro' Dan and Dad had a bunch. It was just a rabbit hole I decided not to go down. That changed with Dad's passing and I now have a frame and barrels in .44 Mag, .35 Rem and .17 Rem. I disremember the barrel lengths but the 44 is short, the 35 is medium and the 17 is long (sorry for the technical terms). I have shot the .35 but haven't touched the other two yet.

So, none of the above answers your questions. You seem to be thinking about viable deer whacking rigs. The .357 is usable but I might prefer the greater usability (and charm) of the .44 Spl if it's available. The .45 Colt would also tick a lot of boxes.

but keep getting a 500 Server error today... don't know what's going on.

I had Pachmyer Dominators loaned to me. One in .44 Magnum and one in 7mm-08. That one was Hal Swiggett's ... he had 10 loads that would stay under an inch at 100 yards. I always considered the single shot pistols to be short rifles. They worked very well with rifle cartridges. The .30-30 shines in them as does the .35 Remington. And a lot of others. The 12" 7mm-08 yielded ballistics as good or better than a .270 rifle.

Oh. The Dominator .. on the 1911 chassis ... was rude with heavy recoiling rounds. A really good muzzle brake was a MUST-HAVE.

--
Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

a 38 spl with open sights at Raton one year. Can't remember who it was, but I've been intrigued ever since.

I’ve owned 4 Contender frames over the years, and more barrels than I can recall, both pistol and rifle. I’m a firm believer in the utility of the little rascals, even though I find myself without one currently.

When the Encore was introduced I felt it was too big and ugly, chambered in cartridges that I had no interest in firing from a handgun. However, a chance encounter with an Encore rifle some years ago lit my interest strongly, to the point that I now find myself with 9 rifle barrels, mostly in mundane (read: common, find ‘em everywhere) rifle cartridges, but also a few oddballs, like .500 S&W and 8x57 Rimmed (which works with rimless brass just bueno).

If I confessed, it is exactly that feature that attracts me most. In a single rifle I can fire 7 of the most common cartridges in North America. I am often reminded of what has befallen the Nordic countries, whose masters have insidiously introduced a yearly tax on EACH firearm owned. It is, apparently, stiff enough that many ordinary citizens have chosen to sell off their firearms, in part or in total. Should our democratic “leaders” here in the States ever catch wind of THAT idea, I feel that my Encore would be the best choice to circumvent such a strategy.

YMMV

Otony

Like Hoot until late, I have so far avoided Contenders. Mainly because I know my self and know I would want several calibers and to get the most out of the they would need scopes as well and I am just too cheap to drop that kind of coin!

That being said, how much does shooting shorter cases affect accuracy? I’m just wondering if something like a 357 maximum would give you a great amount of versatility. No problem on deer and maybe even slightly bigger critters with the right deep penetrating bullet in the max. Magnum would also work on deer (it has for me a few times here in Indiana) and 38 special could be used of roll king, practice and small game. I will say that suppressed 38 specials out of a lever gun are one of the funnest things I’ve ever shot!

--
https://facebook.com/M2bKydex/

has long been on my dream list...

I have something more than 30 barrels. I prefer the carbine length but have 8-25" in .17 HMR to 28 gauge shotgun. I have 2 of the new SSK-50 frames and others (I was surprised how many when I inventoried at the time of the "flood"). I like them as much as I like my leverguns when used as a rifle, don't really use them all that much as a handgun except in .22 LR and .223 Rem but do shoot them. I do have a recommendation.

.357 Rem Mag. All the others are interesting, fun even but the .357 Mag seems the most useful, brass is about as available as anything else, bullets, primers, powder likewise. 10" barrel performance is useful. Versatility is exceptional. If a rifle i.e. 21" barrel, .357 Maximum is better, really all you need if you want to play at being practical. Small charge of Bullseye in .38 Special case with 200 gr bullet is as close to suppressor quiet but effective as they come but with 158s or 180s one can load to move the bullet right along.

I was shooting my 10mm Auto barrel, set up as a 16"+ carbine with folding stock and peep sight on the SSK-50 frame, at a 4" plate at 100 yards. Don't know the load other than it was a 180 gr. cast bullet and the gun was accurate enough to hit that target repeatedly, offhand. Supported by some sort of rest most could do the same (or learn to) with the 10" gun.

I personally think that the .44 Mag 10" is the most unpleasant to shoot and I have shot as many as 100-150 rounds in a session from both my 4" 629 and Redhawk. Why? Don't know. Just seems that way.

I like the SSK-50 frame. Shoots my 10" .22 LR well, too. Straight up aces with a friends 6mm-.223 barrel.

--
Sincerely,

Hobie

I have played with the contender quite a bit and hunted with them some . As a handgun I really never fully warmed up to them, but they are fun to shoot. For a while I was going to do something similar to your idea of a 10” iron sighted barrel in 32/38/44/45… but I never found a barrel at the right price. I do have all of the other bits so I guess it wouldn’t hurt to start looking again. I have an early saw handle grip that is very comfortable but is not great for recoil. I thought it would be perfect for that application.

As a carbine the they really seem to shine. Two of my favorite setups are a 16” 35 Remington that is under 30” long and weighs 5 lbs with a scope, and a 21” 22 Hornet that I had threaded. Suppressed it is just slightly louder than mini mags out of an unsupressed 22 LR rifle.

I'm no recoil junkie (quite the opposite) so am narrowing my thinking towards the 32 - 38 range of choices. With the upcoming delivery of 327 brass, that makes a lot of sense. Sheri doesn't care for the bark of the mag loads in her Shootist Bisely, and I've always wanted to play with the round in a longer barrel to get more out of it. The downside, as you've noted, is the cost of barrels. A sightless one could be ordered for only $20 more than the action itself. Ouch! At this point it's just an idea. Who knows if I'll ever be able to follow up on it? Only time, that shameless gossip, will tell. I keep thinking of last year's stint in the hay fields and how handy it would have been to have a flat shooting popper on the tractor with me. A 10" singleshot would have been quite handy.

I still would like a lightweight handy single shot 327 carbine.