Does anyone make a muzzle loader barrel for the Contender. And if so has enyone shot one. North Carolina says rifle only for muzzle loaders so it would have to be a carbine. Cost is a factor as I can buy a cheap BP rifle for around $100. Thanks Lone Hunter

EA Brwon used to list a .50 ML barrel for the Contender i believe. The barrel would be a LOT more than $100 though....

LH, I'm also looking for a Contender muzzleloader barrel. I'll pass on what I've found out so far...
I didn't see a listing for muzzleloader chambering at EA Brown at present. (www.eabco.com/barels01.html)
Gonic Arms (www.gonicarms.com/), Virgin Valley (www.virginvalleyguns.com/), Bullberry [www.bullberry.com/), and Van Horn (www.mygunroom.com/dvgunshop/vhbarrels.html) all make muzzleloader Contender barrels (although I didn't find the ML listing at Van Horn's new site). All of them will be a great deal MORE than $100. The Gonic looks good, but their brochure makes it appears as if the barrel is compatible only w/ their forend, which costs almost as much as the barrel. I'm not sure of this as I could never get them on the phone to personally discuss w/ them--kept getting their answering machine. All the others are compatible w/ regular forends. BB, VVCG, and VH utilize 209 primers. I'm probably order a VH in the next few days. Spent about 30 min talking w/ him on the phone. Very friendly and knowledgeable guy who's been in the business more than 30 years. I don't think there's that much difference in the BB, VVCG, and VH barrels, but the VH barrel is a little less expensive; also, shop time is only running about 3-5 wks; the latter's important to me as the early ML deer season here opens up late October. In addition, I already have Contender barrels from everyone except VH. I've read some really good comments on VH's barrel's recently at this site. Gary T.

[ 08-11-2002, 02:50: Message edited by: Gary T ]

Lone Hunter, I just went through all this myself. There are several manufactures of muzzleloading barrels for the contender and encore as listed above. Everything I found though was over $300. So I decided to go with one of T/C's inline rifles, the Omega. For just a little more you have a complete rifle. The blued/syn. stock version was $339 and the realtree pattern version was $409. I just picked mine up today at Buckeye outdoors here in Ohio.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I would love to have a ML barrel for my Contender. It's alot of $ for only 1 extra week of hunting. Thanks, Lone Hunter