I picked up a new barrel for my daughter's Encore. I have ten thumbs so I was pretty proud of myself for being able to remove the old barrel and swap the rimfire adapter for the centerfire parts. Unfortunately, when I got it all together the hammer would not cock. I had this problem when it was new -- it was caused by the bolt through the pistol grip being too long. I couldn't see how this could be the problem again as that had been fixed with a shorter bolt and has not been changed. Nevertheless I removed and replaced the bolt with no effect on the hammer.

I did discover in the process of removing and replacing the barrel numerous times that with the old barrel everything still works fine, albeit it would not be able to fire a rimfire round with the centerfire firing pin in. I also found that if you put in the new barrel without the pin you can cock the hammer, but the holes for the pin in the barrel and frame are not correctly aligned. Once everthing is lined up, no bueno. It will not cock.

I talked to Bullberry this morning and have tried their intial suggestions, and will call them again tomorrow. But although they built the rifle this is a TC barrel and not one of theirs, so it is really my problem and not theirs.

Has anyone seen this? Any suggestions? I was kind of hoping to take this on a last hog hunting trip with my daughter but it looks like she will be shooting my pre-64 Featherweight again, whihch is several inches too long in the LOP for her.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

I am sorry I don't have an answer for you, but if you contact Mike Bellm.

Bellm's TC

He probably knows more about the inner working of the Encore of anyone I know of. He also is very open to help if you can catch him.

Thanks. I stuck it in the safe until next week and will call Bullberry again, followed by TC or Mr. Bellm. Could be the barrel is just out of spec, but I can't be that unlucky. Usually this kind of problem means I am doing something wrong.

As an update --

I spoke to Bullberry and they suggested I send the barrel and frame to them as it sounded like the transfer bar was not being engaged. I boxed it up, and before I even got notice from the carrier that they had received it they had looked at it and adjusted the barrel as the tolerances were just too tight on the frame and barrel for them to work together. They did this at no charge on a barrel they did not make.

They will have it for a bit longer as I have asked them to add their hanger bar system to the TC barrel so as to use the existing fore end they made for the other barrel.

They have made me happy that I chose them to put this together in the first place.

Fred has always been a great guy to work with. He has a very 'common sense' approach to problems and has made some excellent barrels for me in the past.