SMI Encore barrel

[encoreguy]

Does anyone have a SMI barrel on their Encore? If so, how do you like it and are you shooting smokeless out of it? I have never fully understood the ventliner purpose in the Savage and I know SMI does not use one in their plugs. Is this an advantage or disadvantage? I love the feel of my Encore and am debating on buying a SMI barrel or Savage (about the same price). I do not see the advantage of a .45 over the .50 so I would probably go with a .50 with a 1 in 26" twist to split the difference in a 28-30" barrel. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[HighTechRedneck]

I have decided that I am going to get a .45 cal. SMI. Just have not decided what I want to put it on yet. The Encore is a good posibility since I know where there is used one fairly cheap rite now. I know that I can easily sell the barrels that this guy is selling with it, and get my $ back + probably 1/2 what the SMI will cost me. I just have not decided if I realt need an Encore just yet. The itch to buy new barrels for my Contender has already cost me too much, and I know that an Encore will be worse.

Then again I do have twin nephews that will start hunting in a few years. A pair of Encores with 2 or 3 barrels each would be great to start them with. Only draw back to that is I would either lose the SMI to one of them if I did that, or have to buy 3 frames so I could keep the SMI.

Chances are that I'll buy that Encore for 1 of the twins, and have the SMI built for an H&R shotgun that I already have in the gun cabinet.

 

[encoreguy]

If you already have a Contender you might see if SMI could do the barrel for it. There is no better factory trigger than the old Contenders.

 

[Rifleman]

I have to disagree, the old contendor triggers will not overcome the long locktime of the open hammer design. I don't mean to make anyone feel dumb or bad, but it is just clear to me that your exposure to truly fine triggers has probably been limited. The Savage Accutrigger is a much superior trigger to any trigger that T/C has ever used. The Accutrigger is not the best trigger ever made, I am not saying that. But for a stock trigger on a production gun that is in that price range, it is a very good trigger. Easy to adjust to your particular tastes as well.
I am not knocking SMI either, I count the Names as friends and they make good guns. I would just not use a T/C as my base gun for a SMI unless of course I allready had one laying around.

 

[Joe Name]

The contender frame is to small for the .50 The Encore works better for both calibers 45 and 50. Now for a good trigger with a very short lock time a Ruger #1 fits rite in there. I myself use a New England action with a pistol grip style stock. trigger set at 4 pounds. The pistol grip stock seems to make the trgger action better for me anyways. But the sweetest trigger that I have felt in a long time was on a Remington owned by none other than the RIFLEMAN. I wonder if that trigger is stock.

 

[encoreguy]

I have to agree with you on Riflemans M40A1 :lol: . A very nice trigger. I am not saying that the old Contenders triggers are like a Jewell trigger. However the older original (before the days of lawers) Contenders that had adjustable triggers were some of the finest factory triggers to be found on any gun and I will argue they are better than Savages, but you have a very good point on lock time. Joe I wondered if the frame was a bit too small for a muzzleloader barrel. I have seen a few made in .45 for the old frames, but the Encore is a much stronger action.

 

[Anonymous]

the old contendor triggers will not overcome the long locktime of the open hammer design.

It is tiresome to agree with Rifleman all the time, but he's right.

The Savage 10ML-II has the fastest locktime in the industry: 1.60 milliseconds. :shock: