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Posted: 12/3/2009 8:14:16 PM EDT
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Got a quick question for the smart ones here.....
A friend of mine (a damned good friend fer sure) just said he'd give my son an older model Thompson Contender. He bought it second hand with a .50 Alaskan bbl. on it, only to discover that it had very unreliable ignition. like 80% of the time. He seems to think that perhaps the frame got tweaked from someone putting a Gonzo balls out cartridge like the .50 Alaskan on that frame. It sounds like the primers are being consistently struck in the center....Maybe the frame is tweaked somewhere, and it's creating friction on the hammer and slowing it down? He was amazed to find out how complex a Contender was inside when he looked at a schematic for it. Soooo......without any of us having laid eyes on the specimen yet....any other ideas what challenges we may be faced with here? Does anyone have any experience with T/C customer service, inhouse gunsmithing, TC specialists, etc.? My first thought thus far is to beg, buy, or borrow a different TC bbl. to try on it, just for shucks and grins. After that all I can think to do is look it over for friction spots, check out all the springs, and dig out ye ole micrometer to check out the frame. Any other thoughts or ideas on getting this beast up and going would be appreciated. (and FWIW, no...we will NOT be firing it with the .50 AK bbl.) |
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The .50 Alaskan is NOT safe for the Contender action, or the G2 for that matter.
I do not think the frame is not tweaked, I think it is toast. My thought is that it is stretched so far that it gives inconsistent ignition, let alone the headspace issues stemmed from it. Retire that frame and get a new one. The family has two G2's along with a bunch of barrels. My wife loves her Contender (.22LR, .223, and 6.8 SPC). |
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Three issues:
First, as RedFalconBill mentioned, that cartridge is not suitable/safe for a Contender frame. For safety sake, the bbl should be destroyed before someone gets injured. The Encore frames can handle it but not the Contender series. The frame may well be damaged. It maight be worth checking out with a standard bbl to see if it locks up firmly. Second, when chambered for high recoil cartridges (especially excessive recoil cartridges), you run a high risk of catching a front sight between the eyes (go ahead, ask me how I know). Third, the light primer strike you mention is a symptom of improper headspace in your barrel. Either the ammunition was improperly reloaded or the chamber was cut too short for factory ammo. This is keeping the action from fully locking up and results in light strikes. The 80% misfire ratio indicates that sometimes the action fully closes & sometimes it doesn't MLG |
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I appreciate the responses y'all. The Contender has landed in my grubby paws, and sits beside me as I type.
Happily, there was a miscommunication. The psychotic, evil-what the hell were they thinking .50 Alaskan bbl. no longer exists. In it's place is a .357 Magnum bbl. I haven't had a chance to personally try it yet, but will give further info when I get a chance to. Lock up is VERY tight and secure feeling, and for what little it's worth I'm not picking up any defects with the naked eye. Everything LOOKS perfectly normal. Right now, the plan is to call T/C and see what they think about the matter, although considering the fact that I'd like to some day shoot some stouter loads out of this gun (not .50 Alaskan  ) I'm really leaning towards just getting a new frame, and stripping what I can off this one.
Shipping alone IF repair was likely would be $120 tota, and that's assuming it didn't take a couple hours for a competent gunsmith to determine that this frame is trash. Seems a bit safer bet to just strip the bbl, grips, peep sight, etc. and start over again. |
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It might be a weak hammer spring or a lot of spooge in the breechface. You can pull the breechface out pretty easy (one screw in the back) and clean it out. Watch out for the firing pins and springs which will fall out of the breechface when you get it out. Hammer springs on the old Contenders seem to break often. I've changed mine out twice so far, and I have a real old pre-crossbolt safety model. Hammers are fairly light on these pistols, so you need a decent spring to move it fast enough. Of course make sure your hammer nose is set for the centerfire position and not the rimfire position. Either way, you probably want to get it checked out if it was fired with the .50AK barrel. They can seem tight using hand pressure on the barrel but if the "bolt" on the bottom of the barrel lug does not engage fully because the mating surface for the bolt on the frame is gouged you might get an unwanted surprise. |
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Quoted:
It might be a weak hammer spring or a lot of spooge in the breechface. You can pull the breechface out pretty easy (one screw in the back) and clean it out. Watch out for the firing pins and springs which will fall out of the breechface when you get it out. Hammer springs on the old Contenders seem to break often. I've changed mine out twice so far, and I have a real old pre-crossbolt safety model. Hammers are fairly light on these pistols, so you need a decent spring to move it fast enough. Of course make sure your hammer nose is set for the centerfire position and not the rimfire position. Either way, you probably want to get it checked out if it was fired with the .50AK barrel. They can seem tight using hand pressure on the barrel but if the "bolt" on the bottom of the barrel lug does not engage fully because the mating surface for the bolt on the frame is gouged you might get an unwanted surprise. encore versions have headspace problems with some barrels, it can be fixed by shimming the breach block, it is held in by one screw be aware of the firing pin and spring, there is a right way and a wrong way for the spring. |
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Quoted: I believe the OP said "older model contender", but that is interesting regarding the Encore. Is this seen mostly with T/C barrels or aftermarket ones?Quoted: It might be a weak hammer spring or a lot of spooge in the breechface. You can pull the breechface out pretty easy (one screw in the back) and clean it out. Watch out for the firing pins and springs which will fall out of the breechface when you get it out. Hammer springs on the old Contenders seem to break often. I've changed mine out twice so far, and I have a real old pre-crossbolt safety model. Hammers are fairly light on these pistols, so you need a decent spring to move it fast enough. Of course make sure your hammer nose is set for the centerfire position and not the rimfire position. Either way, you probably want to get it checked out if it was fired with the .50AK barrel. They can seem tight using hand pressure on the barrel but if the "bolt" on the bottom of the barrel lug does not engage fully because the mating surface for the bolt on the frame is gouged you might get an unwanted surprise. encore versions have headspace problems with some barrels, it can be fixed by shimming the breach block, it is held in by one screw be aware of the firing pin and spring, there is a right way and a wrong way for the spring. |
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