Did anyone see the writeup in this month's Sixgunner of the new Sigarms Blaser pistol?

Interesting straight-pull bolt switch barrel system....think folks in the industry are recognizing the gaping hole left in the market by the discontinuation of the Contender and T/C's failure to produce the G2?

Accor4ding to the article by JD Jones, the test gun also came with a Harris bipod, and performed well using the bipod on the factory stock.

Features interchangeable barrels, scope bases, and interestingly, left or right hand bolt handles. Comes with a three shot magazine.

To my thinking, here seems an example of a company actually taking notice of the marketplace, and the noticable glaring blunders of T/C in failing to produce the G2 in the TWO YEARS following the discontinuation of the Contender.

Sean,
I don't get the Sixgunner, so I was unable to read the article you mention. Is this new specialty handgun a rear or center grip design? Was there a "suggested retail" price?
Is this basically the Blaser rifle cut-down to make a specialty handgun? From what I remember of the rifles they were quite expensive, but had a high level of quality and versatility. Any pictures you could post?
Thanks
xphunter

Sean - You might be right about someone filling the Contender sized hole currently in the market. T/C has done a lot of things wrong in my opinion regarding the ol' Contender/G2. The least of which is basically thumbing their noses at the rabidly loyal silhouette community.

I would like to see more competition in the barrel switching handgun arena. I've seen MOA become a relatively popular choice to the Contender with a superior design. The biggest problem there is price and a design that still isn't the greatest for rimless cartridges.

As I get more into silhouette shooting, I find myself becoming less interested in the Contender (although you would never know it from my level of barrel purchases!). Saliva has been flowing from my mouth in increasing amounts regarding MOA's and XP-100's. And now you tell me that there might be another excellent choice. Cool! I hope it can be feasable.

Let's forget for a moment about Contender frame stretching issues...(as if that is something that we could forget about). The fact that Contender's attain their level of accuracy is more a testament to their easily tunable trigger and the level of shooters/reloaders out there. It can't be the lock time! It can't be frame rigidity! It can't be the quality of barrels (mostly thinking of factory stuff here)! Don't get me wrong, the Contender meets my level of acceptability at almost every count...it's when I really start picking nits that I find there is much to be desired and where we could get MORE. I'm sure that this is the type of stuff that Mike is championing.

Well it appears that I'm almost through with my rant. One part of me hopes that there is not another pistol introduced that would cause me to have to start a whole new wave of barrel purchases!

I would be most interested in any information that you could supply regarding this article.

Sean,
Thanks for answering my questions.
I sadly agree with B_Koes about the TC. I quit using both the Contender and the Encore for for a primary hunting handgun for many of the reasons stated. When I get another Contender or G-2 it will have Match barrel & chamber with best fore-end set-up I can find at the time. Only accurate rigs are interesting to me. I guess what I mean by accurate is .5 MOA or better at 100 yards. I also am interested in wringing out the Competitor handgun. It seems to be a dark horse among us with just a few on the forum using them. They are more cost effective than the MOA Maximum, with a center-grip design, adjustable trigger and interchangeable barrels.
xphunter

Ernie, The Competitor, i believe, has some serious potential. I have not had the time to spend with it that i would like but it is performing decently so far. I am currently workin with a 14" 7tcu barrel that i recently purchased and Sierra's 130SSP bullets. I hope to get more shootin in once i start vacation in a few more days (assuming the weather cooperates)..... Will post results here.