I have an opportunity to buy this rig at 82% quality(haven't seen it yet). It has packmyer grips as well. I've heard some unfavorable things about the 10" .222 Rem barrel though. I was thinking that if the condition of the overall rig is acceptable I might go for it. There are some other barrels I've got my eye on. Any thoughts on the price of this rig and the 222 caliber?

Thanks

Run ,don't walk to buy it. Frames in every gun store I've been in are bringing $220-250 range with nothing else. The new G2 is almost $300 just for the frame. I have no xperience with the 222 in a Contender, but I havn't not been able to get one too shoot some combo pretty good from every caliber I own. Basically you'll be getting the barrel and grips for free and can always sell or trade up from the 222. Yes I would jump on this deal. The only downfall would be if serial # is lower than 192000 and it doesn't have the easy open trigger gaurd, but this still isn't the end of the world either. T/C will for I believe $75.00 will totally re-do frame ,trigger and gaurd with everything new inside.

Dittos on the go and buy it. If you don't like the barrel, you can get an easy $125-150 for it, that means your getting a frame for $125-100. The packmeyer grips are great, and the grip and forearm add $50 to the cost of a bare frame.

I just paid $175 for a blued frame, which was a pretty good price.

I had a 10" 218 mashburn bee, and it was a great little barrel. The 222 should be fine in a 10" tube, and remember, you don't have to load full patch loads! It's not the recoil as much as the report with the short tubes that I find objectionable. No reason you shouldn't be able to get 221 fireball performance, and that is ideal IMHO.

Reiterating on the selling the barrel deal, that is one of the great things about contenders. Most of the barrels I had were used, and I was able to sell them for what I paid for them, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less, but it evened out in the end. Just educate yourself as to what good deals are on used barrels, and what calibers sell and which don't before taking the plunge. There really aren't many chamberings somebody won't want to try, so just keep an eye out for good deals.

I got my Contender for $250 with a 10" .22 LR barrel and a 4x Burris Scope with target turrets and an adjustable objective. I wasn't even looking for one at the time, but I saw it at a local shop and jumped right on it. I haven't found one that cheap before or after that. Most new barrels cost nearly that much for common calibers, or more for custom barrels.

I later picked up a 10" .222 Barrel, and I have to say I like it a lot. The report isn't all that loud for a handgun, its not as bad as a .44 mag revolver. It shoots very nice too. It groups Remington factory 50 gr PSPs into an inch or so at 100 yds. Recoil isn't really much to speak of. It's about like a .38 Special, the gun is pretty heavy, so I guess that takes most of the jump out of it.

I've got a lot of irons in the fire as far as handloading goes, so I really haven't got around to loading for it yet. I'm going to try and work something up with a 40 or 45 grain bullet, so that I can still get decent velocity (I'm hoping to get better than 2700 fps). I haven't even chronographed factory ammo yet.

If it is a newer model I would jump on it but some of the TC's I have seen are very old and you might have trouble getting barrels to fit. They used to make nickle plated (armor cooat, some king of plating) version that wouldnt work with any other type of barrel or frame.

Good luck TC makes some of the best pistols on the market IMHO.