[north country gal]

Now we're talking. We have a large Contender collection. Have been shooting them for almost 30 years, now. I shoot our 45-70 on a Super 16 carbine rig. Loads of fun. As long as I stay with Trapdoor loads, recoil is very manageable. The slip on recoil pad helps, too.



Have never tried that stock design, though. How do you like it?

 

[north country gal]

Yes, glad I stopped by, which I do, now and then. Wouldn't want you guys to forget me.

Gemihur, those are wonderful Contenders and I do love Contenders. I now collect vintage Contenders, but the Contender has always been my main shooting gun when I get serious about shooting groups. All my personal best offhand groups have been shot with my Contenders.

Here's a Contender with some custom wood that a friend found for me on his travels. The barrel is a 44 mag, but, of course, I shoot this one with a wide variety of barrels. Beautiful as that grip is, though, that deep cut for the palm of my hand at the top of the grip is just plain nasty when shooting the 44 mag, so I now shoot this frame with the milder stuff. Whoever shot this one, likely designed it for shooting something a bit more recoil friendly. This frame now wears a Bullberry 32 H&R mag which is one of my favorite barrels.

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[north country gal]

Since the topic is fun guns, thought I would expand the idea a bit and define what I regard as my "fun" guns. While I certainly have fun with any guns I shoot and while Contenders are the mainstay of my shooting and our collection, to me the Contender is more of a serious gun. It or the CZs are what I grab when I'm chasing down those great groups.

For me, my fun guns are what I shoot when I want to relax, do some plinking, just have a good time and not worry too much about shaving tenths of an inch off of group size. Maybe a better way to describe these guns is your favorite plinker. Anyway, have several of these little Browning SA-22s, now, and can shoot them all afternoon and never get bored. They fit me like a glove and, of course, the quality is second to none.

My favorite plinker.

 

[north country gal]

Thanks, RR. The beauty of the SA 22 design is that you can easily remove the barrel from the action and then entire trigger assembly for easy cleaning. Designed specifically to be easy to clean.

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[north country gal]

Dennis, trust me when I say this, but the Japanese made SA-22s lack for nothing compared to the Belgium made guns, either in fit or finish or accuracy. You'd have a hard time telling one from the other unless you looked on the barrel to see where the gun was made. I have both. You'll pay more for one made in Belgium, but only because it was made in Belgium, not because they were better guns.

As for the price, yes, they are pricey, but considering that there is absolutely no plastic, no aluminum, no stamped parts, only wood and tooled steel in any SA-22, not to mention excellent accuracy (as in half inch at 50 yards), the price is actually reasonable.

Here's my first group, yesterday, with a brand new 2018 SA 22, right out of the box. Have done the same with two other SAs, by the way. You'll spend as much to get a 10/22 to shot as well, anyway. Worth every penny to me.

 

[north country gal]

Yeah, the little Brownings have been around for a very long time. First one hit the market in 1914, in fact.

Danwin, shouldn't be too hard to find a good used SA 22. Lots of them around. The Winchester 63, though, is going to be a real challenge to find because they get gobbled up by Winchester collectors and tend to sell very high. Love to find one, myself, but they are extremely rare in our neck of the woods.

 

[north country gal]

I think he Browning SA-22 was originally a Remington model-24. Beautiful little .22 you can carry around all day.


I may look for a Taurus 63 which is a decent copy of the Winchester 63 but a less expensive.

Actually, yes and no on the Remington Model 24. The Browning SA 22 was a John Browning design. The original SA 22 was an FN gun, production beginning in 1914 in Belgium, but FN didn't start importing the SA-22 to the States until 1956. Meanwhile, Remington was licensed by FN to produce the SA -22, here in the U.S. as the Model 24, starting in 1919 and running though 1949. The Remington was not exactly the same gun as the original FN version being made in Europe and in 1935 Remington added some more tweaks their own as the Model 241. The original, though, was the FN version and the current SA-22 is a direct descendent of that original FN gun from 1914. If you can find a nice model 24, though, you'll be getting basically the same gun, though the Remington never had the fit and finish of the FN version, in the same way a Remington Model 11 shotgun was a plainer version of the famous Browning Auto 5.

Have never run across a Taurus. Might keep an eye open for one, though. Thanks for the tip.

 

[north country gal]

Now and then, I've come across a light to moderately used Japanese SA 22 for $400 to $450. Don't necessarily pass one up that sows moderate use. The design of these guns makes them almost impossible to wear out and new parts are still readily available.

 

[north country gal]

True that. Same for the 300 Savage. Both Savage rounds are more at home on the Encore platform.

Yeah, I have a heavy backlog of both Contender and Encore rigs to get tested. Bought some nice barrels over the winter and now that spring is here, lots of shooting to do.

Speaking of 300 Savage, here's a new Encore barrel that is a bit out there. It's a Custom Shop 15" heavy bull barrel in 30-06 on an Encore Pro Hunter frame. The 30-06 does take a hit in velocity out od a 15" barrel, but we're still talking 300 Savage out of a rifle performance, here. Yeah, I know, what's a nice girl like me shooting such a monster, but did take it out in the snow for a quick test and recoil is ... uh, stout, but doable. Accuracy is excellent, though, from my initial testing. Will report back when more testing is done. (Scope is a Leupold 2.5-8x. Nothing else will do on such a beast.)

 

[north country gal]

Thanks, Jimmy.

The Encore is actually not bad at all with factory 125 grain loads and even sweeter with the Reduced Recoil factory loads. Still just doable with factory 150s, but the 150s are where I stop. Factory 165 grain hunting loads are too nasty to shoot for long and no way will I mess with 180s or 220s.

I do like the extra weight of the Encore, too for handling some Contender class chamberings. For instance, my Contender 14" 44 mag barrel really soups up velocity and recoil to 44 mag rifle levels and is not easy to shoot. On the other hand, my Encore with a 12" 44 mag barrel is no worse to shoot than a heavy 44 mag revolver, but with the same huge increase in performance as the Contender. Light enough, too for offhand work, though just barely. By the way, this is a 1996 4 digit serial number Encore frame on this one - first year for the Encore.