Because this is Rimfire Central and not many seem to have them in the Rimfire calibers, don't know why, they generally shoot well.

 

Don't seem to be a lot of us using the .22 LR barrels. I have a G2 with the 23" match barrel and it shoots exceptionally. I've shot several 1/4" groups at 50 yards but I'm just getting use to it, still waiting for a good scope. I'm presently using an old Tasco 2-7x World Class scope that has a 100 yard parallax. It also doesn't focus very well at 50 yards. If you can live with a single shot they are excellent rifles.

Garry

 

I have a 12" and 23" 22lr barrel, both with match chambers. They are both good with most ammo, great with Wolf MT. They are both bull barrels and a bit heavy for anything but the bench. Forgot to include the 23" 17 HMR, shoots like a laser!
FM

 

Sort of a 'crappy' pic but I use this one with the 21" factory 22 barrel quite frequently for squirrel hunting. Dunno how it would do shooting paper as all I've ever done is sight it in at about 40yds. Shoots squirrel heads regularly as long as I'm capable (not always the case ) using CCI SV, S-K Sd+, or Wolf MT. Don't like shooting at the bench; due to the break action configuration it ain't as comfortable for me to shoot as other turn bolt or autoloader guns. I have a buttstock 'sleeve' not shown, that holds a dozen rounds of 22LR ammo handy for quick reloading or follow-up shots. Makes a neat, handy woods-walking rifle...

Also have a 10" heavy barrel in 22LR & another frame which started life as a dedicated handgun, but seldom use that anymore. It shoots very well but I ain't a handgun hunter so it languishes in the vault while that frame wears a 7-30 Waters carbine barrel & I take a deer or two with it every year

 

10" Contender barrels

Its been my experience the match chamber barrels will shoot with or better than most rifles in the same price range. I'm also very happy with my centerfire barrels. All my TCs shoot better than I do

 

The .22s are a hoot to shoot in the TCs. I have a dedicated Encore frame for the rimfire barrels. The tenders have the ability to choose rimfire or centerfire easily, but the Encore either needs a special firing pin assy, or an offset barel.

The 16-1/4" Bullberry is certainly capable of MOA accuracy.

Greg

 

TC Contender and Encore shooters spend more time shooting than talking. I have two 10" bull barrels and a super 14" with iron sights and a TC scoped TC custom 15" barrel, all in 22 LR, which I use on 3 different frames. I suggest you check out - http://ThompsonCenterAssociation.org/.

 

Here is my 22lr.

When I go to the range, this barrel always comes with me. It is much more accurate than I am.

 

Thats the barrel I want. 10" or shorter octogon. My gun is an early one, but I rarely come across a 22lr barrel like this.

 

I have three .22 LR barrels for my Contender -- 12" blued match, 14" SS match, and 23" stainless match. I haven't had a chance to mess around much with the 12" and 23", but the 14" is the proverbial tack-driver for me.

I'm really hoping to put the 12-incher through its paces soon, once I get an appropriate scope for it...

.

 

I don't know about everyone else, but I just see rimfire barrels as a given and have questions about other aspects. Also, there used to be a picture thread for T/C rimfires, but it and a lot of other threads seem to have disappeared.

 

When I bought my first Contender there were no bull barrels. There were no Super 14s and there were no carbines. I walked into Sportsville USA in Torrance, CA and said I wanted a 22lr Contender. The guy behind the counter was a Contender guy but he thought I was nuts. I figured it was a no brainer.

What I did not realize is that you do not by a frame and a barrel. You buy a pistol. There was not a 22lr Contender on the West Coast He told me he could get almost any of the many center fire rounds but he could not get a 22lr Contender.

Up to distributor level. Not a single Distributor had a 22lr Contender. We had to order one from T/C and they did not have any barrels. It took almost as month to get my 10" Octagon (I say octagon now but then it was just 10" or 8 3/4" all were octagon).

The following weekend my brother in law took his 9" Single Six and I took my new prize. We each took a brick of CCI Blazer and a quart of water. We took a quart of water each and parked the car at 8:00 am at the top of Tapia Canyon in the National Forest (Los Padres or Angeles I am not sure) when we got back to the car it was 4:00 PM and we had been out of water for between 2 and 3 hrs and were dehydrated

I had one box of Blazers left. I had shot 450 Blazers. One at a time.

 

Actually I had shot Contender Handguns for over 20 years before I ever even thought about acquiring a Rimfire Barrel for the Contender. You see I believe I was under the same impression as a lot of other shooters whereas I could limit myself to hunting or shooting with a single shot for certain activities but when it came to rimfire I wanted a repeater.

What changed my mind was the forming of an informal Rimfire Bench Rest League at our Indoor Shooting Range. Since I regularly hunted Deer and Varmints with my Contender Handguns I quickly purchased a Super 14 .22 LR Match Contender Barrel for one of my frames. To say I was amazed at the accuracy of that Super 14 .22 LR Match Contender Barrel would be a huge understatement. No I didn't win our competition that winter but shooting against all of the guys with Rifles they knew I was there as I finished 3rd if I remember right (I finished first shooting a Custom Ruger 77/22 Rifle). For the next several years I only shot the Contender Handguns in our informal Indoor Rimfire Bench Rest League (all the rest of the competitors shot Rimfire Rifles).

I currently do not own a Contender but do have an Encore Rifle and am seriously considering getting a Rimfire Barrel for it. I've never shot a Contender or Encore in Rimfire Configuration as a Rifle and may have to give that a try.

Larry

 

My 10" match barrel is very accurate with Eley ammo. It's favorite was an old case of Fiocchi Biathlon from the 1980's. I finally ran out of that stuff about 4 years ago.

 

I was reading Dean's post and noticed a missing photo, due to photobucket.

I restored the photo that Dean had originally posted on 1-13-2013.

I plan to restore Dean's missing photos, as I read his posts.

Sadly, Dean passed away at 68 on Dec. 7, 2020 from Lymphoma cancer.

He'll be deeply and greatly missed, especially by me.

Marilyn [Dean's Loving Wife]

:F

 

I bought my first Contender in the early '70. I had a .22 lr., .256 Winchester Mag, and a .44 barrels. I found that when plinking with the .22 that I could go through a lot of ammunition, while everyone stopped to load their magazines I was still shooting. The gun and three barrels were stolen in '76 and I have waited until this year to purchase another Contender; what a lot of wasted years.

 

My first in the mid-70s was a second owner .22 Hornet 10” octagon with a dinky integrated rail 4x, maybe a Bushnell. It was crazy accurate with my borderline OL blistering handloads quickly trashing my brass as I tried to compete out-gunned by buddy’s Model 70 Varmint .243 busting/leaking water filled jugs at great distances.

I traded out of that one and soon as they came out I bought a new complete Super 14 with .22LR Match along with a 14” in .44 Magnum. Later on I bought a 14” .223 Remington barrel. When the Carbines came out I bought another one complete with 21” .22LR Match along with 21” .22LR standard chamber (for my youngin) and another .223 but at 21”.

I used the .44 deer hunting and for blowing up groundhog noggins and water jugs. Except for the deer I did same with the .223. I kept tuned up with and by far most often shot the .22LR barrels getting what I thought was excellent accuracy from the Match barrels even though the best ammo available locally (far as I knew then, the best manufactured) was CCI Mini-Mag HP. I would sometimes see an odd label but I didn’t pay it any attention if it wasn’t both HV and HP.

The 14” barrel out shot both Carbine barrels and I often thought of sneaking it for awhile dressed as a carbine but always feared an unlikely visit by the wrong individuals at the worst possible time. Now that I’ve become aware of the existence of “real” .22LR accuracy oriented fodder I may be dragging out those Contenders more often.

 

There are a ton of reasons that rimfires fly under the radar in the TC break action firearms.

1. A new chamber is just remove/replace a pin away.

2. Whole families of wildcat rounds that always seem new and exciting.

3. Big, badass rounds like 45-70, 458 win magnum, 416 Rigby that are more fun to read about than actually shoot.

4. Likely no other series of firearm benefit from handloading more than the T/C guns. These discussions fill pages of postings.

5. Several custom barrel makers that supply huge numbers of cartridge possibilities, including exotic, including the old and formerly extinct, including putting pointed bullets on chamberings that have never had those projectiles installed before. These barrels come in lengths from perhaps half a foot up to a length as long as anyone. The possibilities are endless.

The rimfire just gets lost in the shuffle. I think most have a .22 barrel or two. Truth be told they likely pump more rounds down those tubes than the rest combined. They just don't get the comments the other exotics get.

I love my .22 barrel. I can use it anywhere, even where big boomers are not welcome. I don't have to spend the evening before tied to the reloading press, and even when I do, I usually send just as many rimfires downrange as the centerfires. As a side plus, I can shoot a rabbit and actually have something left to eat. I can shoot all day for just a few bucks, centerfires cost a few bucks per group.

My .22 barrel is very important to me. I have thousands of rounds of ammo, and it is all shot in single shots. You can tell just how often I shoot them.

Greg

 

I thought it was funny when I would shoot 90% as much as my friends with revolvers and semis.

The thing is if a guy has a revolver he does this:

Load, load, load, load, load, load, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

Then he has to start all over

Meanwhile I am doing this:

Load, bang, load, bang, load, bang, load, bang, load, bang, load, bang

I am loading and shooting while he is loading only. You really do not give much away.

A funny story about this is my friend Dan that hunted with his 552 Rem that held 17 rounds. We pulled up in a spot and he climbed into the back of his pick up to load 17 rounds. Meanwhile I was shooting my 8 3/4" 45 colt. We were hunting jack rabbits. I put a round in as I step from the truck and 20 yards away was a jack...BANG, Load. I walked around the front and there is a jack Bang, Load. Unbelievably I walk around to the side he got out on and not 30 yards away is a jack sitting very still Bang, load. Three jacks in about 3 minutes.

Daniel is still loading. Next thing I hear is him dumping what had to be 15 rounds out of his 552.

"Daniel what are you doing?"

"I unloaded we are leaving!!"

"Dan we just got here"

"Yeah and you killed all the rabbits"

"Dan I am sure there are more the place is crawling with them"

"We're going somewhere else"

I will never forget that and at times I still remind him about it

 

I have two rimfire barrels for my Encore frame that are both super accurate and fun I have a 15" factory .17 hmr barrel and a 12" MGM .22 mag barrel. It is a great platform with either the Encore or the Contender in rimfire!

 

I own a pair of .22 rimfire pistol barrels . . .

. . . one a 10" bull .22lr, the other a 10" octagonal .22 WMR barrel. I really haven't shot them very much, the centerfires get more attention. That is really strange, as in rifles, I shoot my rimfires more than my centerfires.

I plan on scoping the bull barrel and keeping the octagonal iron sighted.

 

I had to sell all my Contender stuff ten years ago in a really rough time in my life. Sold them to my very good friend with the understanding if anything happened I could buy them back. Then he died of a massive heart attack and the family did not want to honor an agreement they knew nothing about (can't really blame them).

I probably shot my 10" 22 LR barrel as much as all my others combined. I had a 2X Luepold scope on it.

Then last year my friend Mike the Gunsmith got a 14" .223 with an early frame like my old one. It was in almost new condition. Has a 4X Swift scope I almost did not buy it as I was put off by the .223. I then decided to buy it and sell/trade the .223 barrel.

Then I got to thinking about it, the military M-4 Carbine is only a 14.5" barrel and it uses some of it's powder gases to run the rifle so the locked breech T/C was probably almost identical in performance. I bought ONE box of WalMart 40 rd Winchester 45 gr Varmint to make up my mind.....

THE FREAKING PISTOL SHOOTS LIKE A LASER !!!

6 boxes later I have a bunch of formed cases.

BUT my next buy will most likely be a 10 or 12 in 22LR barrel. Last night I saw a 12 inch octagon TCA barrel NIB. If I had the money right now it would have been mine. I need a 10 or 12 inch bad. I would consider a 14" but I think the 22 is going to be a plinking pistol and off hand plinking is tough with the 14".

One way or another tough I need a 22 barrel:bthumb:

 

I see there is a chamber insert kit available (only ~$30) that will allow one to shoot either .22LR or .22WMR (2 different inserts) in a .223 barrel.
Seems like a cool idea but I really wonder if such a configuration could provide any reasonable level of accuracy. I'd like to try one in my .223 rifle.
Anyone have any experience with these?

 

I have not shot them myself but in tests I have read they shoot p;retty well but not as well as a dedicated 22lr barrel.

I think a 22 Mag insert in .223 might work better because of less free bore in the insert and a .224" jacketed bullet rather than .222 lead bullet kin the .224 bore.

 

My Custom 22 lr.

I made the stock and fore end from blanks. My 1st attempt at stock work. I threw the stock in the trash about 3 times, but it kept coming back. [ I think my wife want's to keep me out of the house ] MGM barrel. There are a few T/Cs in this area.

Nice lil gun. Shot my 1st 100 the other day in N.Y. State Sporter League.

:bthumb:

Link

 

Link, thats a nice looking rifle and you did a very good job on the wood. I like the profile on that stock.

 

Good Shootin' Link , Sorry I wasn't there to see it. Hope to see ya tomorrow