First project was ditching the red dot on the Ruger No 3 single shot in 45-70 and switching to a scout scope setup that was a bit experimental. I've been using a Skinner dovetail barrel mount for the red dot which provides a short section of weaver rail for a small red dot, but thought it might also work for mounting a 2x pistol scope out on the barrel if I used only one ring. Yeah, one ring might be iffy given the recoil of the 45-70, but the mount itself is bedded right into the rear sight dovetail, so it's probably more secure than a standard mount that is bolted to the barrel. Here it is.
So far, so good after one box of 45-70 as far as the scope staying put. I do much prefer the scope on the Ruger both for looks and performance. Once I got it dialed in, pretty easy to pour those big 405 grain bullets into the 3" bull at 50 yards.
Next up was the surprise. This is my TC Encore pistol with a 15" factory Encore 22 LR barrel I bought over the summer. It wears a Simmons 2.5-7x pistol scope. The bipod is a Harris.
Now, the Encore has no firing pin selector, so you can't switch back and forth between rimfire and center fire barrels as per the Contender by moving a selector. Nope, when TC brought out the Encore in 1996, it was strictly centerfire, only. So how can you shoot a rimfire barrel on an Encore?
Over the course of the years, shortly before TC was bought out by S&W, TC came up with an ingenious way to shoot rimfire barrels on the Encore. Their solution was to make the barrel in two pieces. The back half of the barrel was drilled a bit off center compared to the usual Encore centerfire barrels so that the Encore firing pin would hit the rim of a 22 LR (or 17 HMR or 22 mag). The front half of the barrel was then attached with the bore perfectly centered, just like any other barrel.
Now this particular barrel has been something of a project since I bought it. Right away, I had trouble when trying to extract better quality match ammo because the chamber was too rough. Okay, I polished the chamber and problem solved. This was to be just a practice barrel for shooting the Encore, anyway. I had no expectations of it being a match barrel as per the actual match barrels you can buy for the Contender. Finally took it to the range for a serious accuracy test. Was not prepared for this, though. Best group, here, but the others were all still right at half inch or less. Very consistent shooter with no pesky flyers.
That puts this barrel right there with my very expensive Anschutz rifles, so, yeah, a very nice surprise for a barrel that took some TLC to get running. I do love my single shots, both rifle and pistol.
