Thompson/Center Contender Pistol: Hoe to Tune, Time, Load, and ...

contentsIntroduction 11 The Contender Pistol—Parts and Prices 92 Tuning and Timing 193 Care and Maintenance 254 Shooting the Contender 315 Accuracy and Performance 37Appendix 49III

chaptertwoTuning and TimingAlmost every new pistol I have purchased in the past20 years has required some hand work, known in theworld of gunsmiths as tuning and timing, to enable me toshoot it accurately. Some of these pistols would shoot aspecific lot of ammunition or a certain handload veryaccurately without any individual hand work. However,for the same firearm to shoot most any ammunition or allgood handloads accurately, some tuning and timing wererequired. The Contender pistols I have purchased are noexceptions.Tuning the Contender to extract top accuracy from itrequires a trigger job. Two surfaces of metal, one oneach of two different parts of the trigger group, requirepolishing before a shootable trigger pull can be obtained.Of course, there are always exceptions to this polishingprocedure, one alternative being to have the two partshard chrome-plated.Jim Ishmael does a fine job of chrome-plating thestriker and the striker notch area of the trigger. I have19

Tuning and Timingadjustments to the Contender. First, adjust the amountof trigger/striker engagement by turning the triggerspring tension screw (part # 36-3) shown in the previouschapter on page 12.Do this adjustment by first opening the action andmaking sure the chamber is empty and the firearm hasbeen rendered safe. Remove any cartridges now, if yourfirearm is loaded. Only after you have emptied thechamber and placed the hammer safety in the safe, centerposition, should you close the action and cock thehammer. Using a trigger weight scale, pull the triggerand observe the pull weight on your scale.You are now ready to make an adjustment to the trigger-springtension screw. With the frame held upsidedown so that you can observe the screw, use the propersize Allen wrench and turn the screw clockwise until thehammer falls safely and harmlessly on its safety mechanism.Now turn the screw counterclockwise just adegree or so. Turning the screw counterclockwise willincrease the trigger pull weight so that the hammer willremain cocked when it is returned to the rear position inthe frame. After this first adjustment, check the pullweight on the scale again. You may have to try severalsmall adjustments before you achieve the pull weightyou desire. A safe, trigger pull weight of between 32 and64 ounces (2 and 4 pounds) may be obtained by adjustingthis trigger spring tension screw, or a combination ofadjusting it and clipping a coil from its length.When clipping the coil spring, you should clip a quarterof a turn at a time until the desired pull weight isobtained. Clipping too much coil at one time can resultin inadequate contact between the trigger and strikersurfaces at full cock, and also inadequate trigger returneach time the trigger is pulled. If this occurs, you mustreplace the spring with a new one.Older model Contender pistols had a very tightly21

The Thompson/Center Contender Pistolwound and stiff spring when new. It is next to impossibleto clip this old-model trigger spring. If the desiredtrigger pull weight cannot be obtained by polishing thetrigger/striker engagement areas and adjusting thetrigger return spring, then the trigger return springmust be replaced with a lighter aftermarket one. If youreturn your old model frame to the Thompson/CenterArms Company, the company may replace it with oneof the new models that incorporate the latest safetymechanisms. Call the company first before you shipthem your old frame to be sure of the action you wantto take. Your old frame may be worth more to the collectorthan the price of a new one, and you may wish toadvertise it or trade it in the T/C CollectorsAssociations quarterly journal.There are other parts of the Contender that requirepolishing. I consider polishing these parts to be part ofmaintenance, as doing so will not usually improve theaccuracy of the pistol. The next chapter covers the polishingof these parts.The best thing about timing the Contender is that youdon’t have to tune the pistol in order to time it. Timingthe Contender is a separate procedure and is the simpler,and perhaps more neglected, of the two. Timing, asthe term is applied to handguns, refers to the conditionof the pistol when the hammer is cocked and the gun isready to fire. This condition should be the same eachtime the gun is fired.For revolvers and semiauto pistols, this condition isno more complex than for the Contender. For all threetypes of firearms, the gun must be in perfect time inorder for it to consistently fire accurately. The key wordhere is consistently. The Contender is timed by theshooter for each shot. The shooter achieves the timingby pulling the trigger guard rearward to release the boltand open the action.22

Tuning and TimingThe amount of trigger/striker engagement is controlledby the distance the trigger guard moves as theshooter pulls it backward each time. If the shooter pullsthe trigger guard backward to a different point each time,the result will be a Contender that is out-of-time for eachshot. The trigger pull weight will then vary from shot toshot, resulting in inconsistent accuracy.The way to correctly time the Contender is to alwayspull the trigger guard back to its maximum rearwardtravel each time the action is opened. This will guaranteemaximum trigger/striker engagement for each shot,with the final result of producing consistent trigger pullweights and accuracy. The firearm will be “in time” foreach shot.23