I think I know the answer to this question, but is it a common practice to mount rifle scopes on contender pistols? My 10" 22 RF barrel is very accurate. I was thinking of mounting a 3x9 Leupold rifle scope on it. Does a set-up like this work well?

It works well if you don't mind sitting down at the bench to do MOST of your shooting, and afterwards can convince yourself you're still shooting a pistol.

I have used rifle scopes on several pistols, some worked great while others broke my damn shootin glasses! LOL! A 22lr would work GREAT with a rifle scope. One thing to remember, that Leupold 3x-9x is parallax corrected to 150 yards (if i remember right), other than that it should be great fun!

I think a rifle scope is the preferred choice for a rimfire barrel. You don't HAVE to shoot it off a bench as it is steadier offhand to hold than using a pistol scope. You get a bigger field of view and you have a choice of much higher magnification. As MSSMagnum mentioned, parallax can be an issue so I would recommend a scope with an adjustable objective. This pretty much gives you the best of all choices. I have a 4-12x mounted on a .22 short barrel and a 6-24x mounted on both a .22 LR & .22 WMR barrel.

i'm using a 4x16 riflescope on my 14" 22lr match barrel, and also a 4x12 riflescope on my 14" .223 contender. i use 40gr nosler bt's with blue dot powder in the .223, so recoil is reduced just enough to make it work for me. i like both setups really well, but the only way to see if it works for you.....is to try it
i have no problems using them from the bench, or in the field with sling supported shots.
i'd recommend an AO scope also, even though the leupold is a great scope.

Thanks everyone. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna put the 3x9 Leupold on the 10" TC 22 match barrel. I've had a cheap 4x pistol scope on it before and it was ungodly accurate using PMC ammo.

Well, I put the 3x9 on the 22 Contender. The target is 5 shots at 50 yards. I didn't have a real solid rest, so I think it can do better.
Later on I shot paintballs taped to the 50 yard target. That was kind of fun.
I'm going to try this out for a while. I'll have to try it in the field and see if it works. Using the rifle scope on the pistole' is kind of like peeking through a keyhole.
Thanks for the help.