Iam a wantabe handgun hunter. I have never hunted with a handgun but Iam looking forward to doing it.I have an encore rifle and Iam thinking of converting it into a handgun.Iam not sure what caliber to use. I will be hunting deer and then later bear and elk But first I have alot of learning to do.I would appreciate
any advise from you guy.Thanks in advance for any info.

Best advice you will get is to read this ( converting TCs from rifle to pistol) before you consider changing your rifle into pistol configuration.....

Very interesting.
Another newbe/wannabe handgun hunter who is also looking at the Encore. Been around the handgun scene for 35 years as a Federal LEO and after reading that BATF letter, I am still confused.
Seems to me this whole thing about going back and forth between a rifle and handgun hinges on the stock.
Doesn't the BATF really mean they don't want you to use the 15" pistol barrel on the frame with the rifle stock?
Why wouldn't the BATF have forced TC to make two different frames if it was a legal issue?
Since this is my first post I apologize if this has been all wrung out before.

I have to be honest, I have a frame set up for each configuration. It is not worth any trouble. I seriously doubt you would have any problems as long as you had either handgun or rifle in legal parameters. I am just not going to take any chances.

Duane

My concern is not the legal configuration because in washington there is no advantage to handgun hunt rifle and handgun season are the same.if I changed the configuration then I would leave it as a handgun and hunt with it or I have also been thinking of buying a contender starting with a 22 or a 17 barrel and learning with it before buying a 30-30 or barrel like that for deer hunting.I want to learn right so that I shoot well.

No, the letter means what it says......there is no legal difference between buying an Encore rifle and converting it into a handgun or, buying a Remington 700 rifle and converting it into a handgun......what you end up with in both situations is an unregistered short barreled rifle....the federal definition of a a short barreled rifle is a weapon, made from a rifle, that has a barrel less than 16" in length &/or an overall length of less than 26"......penality is up to $10,000 in fines and up to 25 years in prison......

As far as difference in frames goes, there is no law that requires the frames to be made different or even marked different.....the BATF doesn't make laws, they enforce them.....

Will you get caught??? Who knows??? But the question is.....is it worth the risk over a $300 frame???

You should be concerned with the legal configuration because it is a federal felony to convert your rifle into pistol! This has nothing to do with state laws.

If you are looking at Contenders, go ahead and jump in......you won't have any trouble handling a 30-30.....but, if you handload, I'd suggest the 7-30 waters over the 30-30....it's a better round, and, maybe the best factory round you can get for deer hunting with the Contender platform......

The BOTTOM LINE is, buy a pistol frame to begin with. The legality lies with the origin of the FRAME. If you have a frame that left the factory as a rifle it must ALWAYS be a rifle and conform to the regulations, 16" barrel minimum and 26" overall length. If you have a frame that left the factory as a pistol it may be converted to a rifle with the addition of a buttstock, but then must also carry a barrel length of at least 16" as well. You cannot put a buttstock on your 10" .44 Mag. Will you ever be checked, unlikely, but I know of some who have had their numbers recorded by authorities. It is not worth taking a chance on, and besides we are always looking for a reason to buy another gun ;-)

OK, now with all the legal stuff out of the way let me say WELCOME to bare-hunter and Yakgeek. Nice to have you here.

Well deer are easy to kill compaired to bear and elk. I'm glad to see you chose the Encore platform as it can handle the higher pressure cartridges than the Contender can. So that makes more choices available especially if you don't reload. Do you reload? I would say start out with a barrel that is adequite for deer and practice alot to become proficent with the encore and then as you mentioned later move up to another barrel that has the thump for bear and elk. A 7mm-08 would be great for deer and practice.

I have a 223 barrel for my encore and it's just plain fun to shoot. Great practice with little to no recoil, and it's cheap to feed. Do you have any varmints in Washington like rockchucks? Ther are great practice. If you can hit a rockchuck at 100 yards then you can hit the vitals of a deer at 100 yards easy.

Thankyou guys I dident think about the legal issues so to be safe I will leave my encore a rifle and buy a contender to start with.I have never reloaded so I think the 30-30 would be good to start with and then a 17hmr for my annual rat hunt to southern oregon. Iam really excited about this new from of hunting. so thanks again.

Bare-hunter, welcome aboard and I'm glad to see another northwesterner on the board. I'm down here in Tillamook so only an hour or two from you. I shoot wheel guns so I can only tell you that when I played with contenders my favorite cartridges were the 7-30 waters, 309jdj and the 375jdj. I would use the 7-30 or 309 for deer and the 375 elk and bear, I never did score with them but all three were very accurate and had ample power. I also found that my 22lr match barrel would out shoot my 22mag and 17hmr barrels but that was just my experience. where in southern oregon are you rat hunting?

Glad y’all joined us!

Duane

hey wapitirod glad to see another moss back on the forum I hunt in burn aand have for several year but it is getting hard to get permision anymore with all the paid hunters and liabilty for farmer hopfuly I will get to shoot another couple of years.I have heard you have great blackie huntin in the burn.thanks for the advise I found out today I can buy 7-30 waters ammo at sportsmans warehouse so that my be my first contender

You will like the 7-30 Waters, it is a great round to learn to shoot handguns with. There is very little recoil or muzzle blast. This makes a lot of difference. If I take too much time away from firing my .45-70, I have to "relearn" how to shoot it.
My 7-30 has me spoiled because it shoots so well with much less effort from me. Factory ammo from my barrel will do about 1.75" at 100 yards and my own loads with 120 gr Nosler BT will do 1", sometimes under that. If you don't start reloading, Reeds Ammo offers 7-30 Waters ammunition also. Good luck and let us know how you like it!

http://shop.reedsammo.com/category.sc?categoryId=77