Wow! What a neat event! Yesterday afternoon I attended a factory sponsored Thompson Center Arms Co. range day fest in Butte, Montana! What a riot. There were all manner of arms there made by the T/C people - pistols, Rifles, muzzleloaders and lots of each. In addition to the T/C arms a private fellow was also there with a single shot 50 BMG and was selling shots with it at $10.00 apiece and $5.00 for any additional shots! I was surprised at the number of folks that shot that big iron! They had a steel plate hung at 600 yards for use as its target. The plate was about 20" square I am guessing and painted orange with a small black circle in the center. That Rifle could shoot! It was handloaded with a large VLD custom Bullet (Barnes I think) and I traded $1.00 and an icey cold MGD beer for one of the live rounds. It had a muzzle brake and the area for 20' around it was taped off due to the blast and concussion!

A 12 year old girl also shot it and she did well. I watched through a spotting scope as a young man fired 3 shots with it and the group was (I am guessing now) less than 4 inches there at 600 yards! The 50 BMG was scoped with a large tube large bell Leuopold and the recoil I observed on the mostly smaller folks that shot it was SEVERE! None of the shooters complained at all though and the echo from the huge VLD bullet hitting that plate was impressive in its self! WHHOONNNNGGG!

Back to the T/C guns! The factory rep had brought along at least 18 - 20 guns and I shot most of them. I used a G-2 Model T/C Rifle in caliber 17 HMR to shoot a 3 shot group at 100 yards of less than an inch! Oohh did I tell you the warm evening wind was stepping right along at 12 - 20 MPH!

Another Rifle I enjoyed shooting was the T/C Encore in caliber 223. It was the stainless Model with camoflage stock (fiberglass) and it had a Redfield high power variable scope on it. It shot 3 PMC's into just at 1/2" at 100 yards. I also killed a litre pop bottle filled with water with this one as well as a 17 HMR T/C pistol. These bottles were sat at 125 yards. My partner "big Brad" really wowed the attendees there as he first killed one of these water bottles at 125 yards in the high wind using a 50 caliber T/C muzzle loader - standing - off hand! A pleasing applause followed his shot with this strange to him Rifle. He followed that up with a litre bottle kill with a T/C scoped pistol in caliber 375 JDJ! I was relayed a story that this caliber has killed several Elephants in Africa! I would get no closer than 25 feet from that pistol when anyone shot it! There was also a Rifle in that caliber and Brad made another fine shot with that one on the litre bottles! He finally missed something at 230 yards with a 50 caliber T/C muzzleloader. He was shooting at a fist sized white rock in the berm - again offhand and unsupported but his miss was quite close at maybe 10" low and dead on for left and right!

They were loading all the T/C muzzlestuffers with pellets and jacketed bullets. Accuracy was impressive! My friend Brad had just bought a T/C muzzleoader 5 days ago for his upcoming New Mexico Elk Hunt. He had not shot his muzzleloader as yet and put the factory guns through their paces and the rep showed him disassembly and cleaning procedures. Both of us are muzzleloader-illiterate! But now we are off on the right path. Brad bought nearly $100.00 worth of muzzleloader bullets powder and supplies! I traded another icey cold MGD for a 375 JDJ round for my collection! It is always amazing to me what an icey cold brew or pop on a hot day will do to open up folks to giving advice and direction!

The triggers on all the T/C products were great - at least!

The factory rep had at home his very own brand new 204 Ruger T/C Rifle barrel and he says it is splendidly accurate. His personalized license plate was "GO4N8ER".

What a great guy. His next demo is in Billings as I recall and he travels the west from El, Paso north to Montana in his home working range. What a great job!

The rep also relayed that all T/C rimfire and centerfire frames and barrel production is now nearly 30% behind demand!

I learned a lot about the T/C line. I just fell in love with that T/C Encore stainless Varmint Rifle in 223. But unfortunately that new Model Encore is not available with the hammer firing pin switching device that allows for shooting rimfires ammo (like the 17 HMR, 17 MachII, 22 L.R. and 22 Magnum barrels) so I will have to settle for the G-2 Model that is in blued steel and is somewhat smaller width (strength?) of frame. Oh well the 17 HMR heavy barreled T/C Rifle I shot was both handsome and accurate.

The T/C people really won some great PR and favor among all that were there and special attention and opportunity was provided the young shooters who came with their parents!

Good for the T/C people!

I only have one T/C product now and its a pistol with a heavy 14" barrel. I use it mostly as a go along rig when I am travelling but not specifically on a Varmint Safari. This pistol is amazingly accurate in my estimation and has accounted for quite a number of Varmints.

The factory rep did forget one Rifle back at his office and that was the newish 22 L.R. autoloader T/C has come out with to compete with the Ruger 10/22's. He really raved about the accuracy and function of these new Rifles. He also stated that the new 17 MachII barrels for T/C Rifles and pistols is now in production! This should be an interesting little cartridge.

All in all a great afternoon and evening. I safely dodged all the Deer on the way home. I got in at 11:30 PM and went right to bed. The T/C event had been scheduled to end at 7:00 PM but the rep stayed til 8:30 PM and we all really picked his brain.

Look for this T/C event in your areas as apparently this is a new sales/good will program. I really think it was time well spent.

Hold into the wind

VarmintGuy

VarmintGuy,

Mike at OTT makes a rimfire barrel for the Encore frame.
Here is a link to the page on his site. web page

I have an Encore & really like the range of higher pressure calibers available in this stronger frame as
opposed to the Contender/G2 offerings.

Another site to check out for great information is
Mike Bellm's web page

Tons of great information there as well as guys who specialize in rechambering some of T/C's standard calibers to rimmed versions that are made to work well in the break open type pistols & rifles.

Just thought you might want to check these sites out..Bruce

Oulufin: Thank you for the direction Bruce - I appreciate it.
I am off to view these sites and get a little more familiar with things before I jump in with both feet.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy