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

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