Bunch of quiet Contenders

[GarrettJ]

I'd bought another T/C Contender a while ago, and had a couple of barrels just begging to be chopped & threaded. So I shipped them off to Chris Hipes in Dallas and they came back much improved. I had the .357 barrel cut to around 6.5", which puts the thread shoulder just in front of the forend. The .22 barrel I had chopped back to 4" to keep most any ammo subsonic (CCI Stingers still go supersonic - I had to check). And I have a .300 Whisper that I bought from SSK a number of years ago.

And while I've had Bowers CAC-45 and a CAC-22 suppressors for a dozen or so years now, I recently added a VERS-9S from the same manufacturer. So I thought I'd sight in the newly shortened barrels, and see how they all worked out.

Early on, I'd had a .44 Mag contender barrel threaded and an adapter for the CAC-45. I found the POI shift to be excessive. I was hoping the .357 would work out better. I tried shooting the .357 with both of the Bowers cans plus an SWR Trident-9 as well as shooting unsuppressed. I found it throws to a very different POI for each of these setups. (As much as 6" to 8" at 25 yds.) So I'm going to have to pick just one can to use on this barrel.

Interestingly, the .300 Whisper seems much less affected by switching cans around. I've currently got it sighted in with a heavy Triple-X Warrior suppressor, but it still kept the group pretty close to the same POI with any of the other three cans mentioned. Maybe it's the smaller diameter bullet. I was shooting some flat-point 150 gr. bullets for the .30-30 as well as some 220 gr. SMKs.

I was shooting some UMC 130 gr. .38 Spl., and there was quite a difference in sound from shot to shot. I was running these over the chronograph, and I wasn't getting wide velocity swings. Maybe it's unburned powder collecting in the can and lighting off every few rounds. Not sure. I didn't think to try shooting any of these wet. That's got to sound impressive. I think now I'm going to have to go work up some mouse-fart .38 special loads and see just how spooky quiet I can get the .357 barrel.

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[Dogmann]

Very very cool!

[Ranger99]

very quiet

[Lonegun1894]

Would you mind either posting here or PMing me with Mr. Hipes contact info regarding the cutting/threading?  Seems you're satisfied with his work and the last place I used, well, I won't be sending them anything else again.  Thanks.
 

[GarrettJ]

Would you mind either posting here or PMing me with Mr. Hipes contact info...

PM sent

[Lonegun1894]

Thank you very much!  Can't wait to get mine threaded and ready so I can get more use out of it.