Thompson Center has been against that for decades, but few listen.

 

...but few listen.

And STILL someone says, "well, I've done if forever..."

 

I have had hammer extensions on my three contenders for over thirty years, and they all get shot frequently, never had a problem. I can't safely let the hammer down on a scoped barrel without one.

 

I broke my hammer on my G2 44mag before I installed the TSOB rig. We don't want your .357 to become another causality. SW had mine 4 weeks.

 

contender

Send it to Thompson Contender.
They will probably replace it for free.
I have sent Contenders to them a few times for one thing or another and have never been charged.
It only took a couple weeks for them to get it back to me each time.
They even payed the shipping.

 

I read this and cringe. Why, because I have a hammer extension on both mt G1 and My G2 Contenders. I saw where some Contenders have a hammer that has cutouts in it, I figured those would brake with the extension, but mine is a solid hammer and I would not think it will break with an extension. I have already shot several rounds and when I bought it used the extension was already on it. Not an extension I liked so I put a Bellum extension on both. I will keep my fingers crossed, I really like the extensions on them.

 

I suggest a higher scope mount.

 

I'm wondering, you that have had the hammer spurs break, were the extensions aluminum or steel?

 

The one I have that is broken is made of steel. It is an early one with the open groove in the center.
David from jax

 

Three Contenders and countless thousands of rounds fired out of them at silhouette matches, hunting, and target shooting. Must have been lucky, never had one break.

 

Same here. 3 Contenders & countless rounds. No broken hammers.

 

The hammer is made of cheap cast alum. Very brittle . The extension is heavy and the end of the trigger is very very thin. When gun is fired hammer breaks. Smith says don't use the hammer extension. The older contenders had a little heavier hammer but still cast alum. The also said don't use hammer extensions.

 

Also if you break the hammer you have to send it back to smith. There are no replacement hammers you can buy. If you send it back and did you a trigger job there goes your trigger job. Smith will reset trigger back to factory specs. 4 moth wait to get a new hammer.

 

They did return me my trigger job parts in a ziplock. Tricky to reinstall.

 

I was told by TC back in the late 80's not to use a hammer extension. When I needed more clearance I went with medium height rings instead of low.

 

Either Belim or TC told me not to use them when I was having misfire issues. Said the added weight slowed the hammer down enough to cause misfires.

 

Must have been T/C, Bellm sells them on their website. I have a lightweight aluminum one on mine, six barrels, and haven't had any issues with misfires and still running on the OEM 1979 springs. Not bragging, just the facts. The snarks need to knock it off.

 

Never had any problem with an ext on my hammer and I bought my Contender within a year or two after they came out. But I would hate to lose the trigger job one of the guys did for me at the club. He did an absolutely fabulous job. Now I have another headache to think about. I'm getting to old for this!

 

No headache, if it aint broke don't fix it.

 

Is there a difference between the Contender pistol and rifle hammers or between the G-1 and G-2 frames? I bought an early G-1 in .222 caliber long ago but never fell in love with it and traded it off. Around 20 years ago I ran across a G-2 rifle that had seen very little use and bought it I installed a light weight aluminum extension on it as the comb was barely high enough to use a scope with low rings. Somehow I missed any warning about the hammer breaking but have had no trouble with it. When I read the post saying the hammers were made of aluminum I just had to check to see if that was true as I have never heard of a firearm hammer made from aluminum. I will admit that there are multitudes of things I have never heard of. Anyway, I either have a Contender with a steel hammer or something I have never encountered before, a magnet that sticks to aluminum.

I plan to leave the extension off as I really don't want to lose the good trigger on this rifle. It's a bit fiddly but I can manageand I would lose my cheek weld with any higher rings.

 

Either way. I ended up taking the extension off both my G1 and my G2 after reading this post. Figured I would not poke the so called bear.:bthumb:

 

Good idea. TC recommends against using them...good enough for me.

 

I had one on my old G1 Armor Alloy Contender and never had an issue but I took it off after reading this thread. I can get by without it and I would rather not break a hammer and send it back.

 

Arrowhead has it right they are not made of aluminum.

 

I run them on all my contenders.

Just about every gunmaker recommends that you do not modify the gun from stock. I bet you guys don’t modify any gun right?,,,,,,

 

I use a Millet Red Dot, to problems with hammer.

 

I’ve had spurs break on two guns, one on a G2, and one on a Encore. The G2 had to be sent back, the Encore, I was sent the spur. Neither, gun had extensions on them. Both, broke within a weeks time of each other. It’s not a cheap fix, if you have to pay for it. Mine were covered, they both didn’t have many rounds down them. Probably, Chinese metal being used, there metal has high failure rates.