Contender Sight Question

[kentucky yeti]

I recently bought a Contender barrel in .35 Remington. It had a Redfield 2.5 scope, which I sold on here. I'm more comfortable with iron sights. So, I bought a set of "old but like new" Contender sights online. They arrived and look awesome. They had the screws too! I installed the rear sight, easy enough. Here it comes... I installed the front sight front screw. The barrel hole for the rear screw is barely visible. There is no way to install the screw. Did he give me an incorrect front sight? Surely all T/C Contender barrels are drilled and tapped the same? Thanks for any advice.

Rear Sight is nice:

1 by kentuckyyeti, on Flickr

Front sight looks good too:

2 by kentuckyyeti, on Flickr

T/C (not aftermarket) barrel:

3 by kentuckyyeti, on Flickr

4 by kentuckyyeti, on Flickr

Uh-oh, where's the tapped hole?:

5 by kentuckyyeti, on Flickr

There it is:

6 by kentuckyyeti, on Flickr

 

[Dan in MI]

That's a strange one. I have two NIB sights labelled "Super 14" and they have he same spacing as my drawer full of 10" take offs.

 

[wheelgun1958]

Perhaps different barrel lengths have different spacing? Or as you said, maybe it's not a TC sight.

 

[arfmel]

It sure looks like the T/C sights I have

 

[contender]

I'll have to check,, but if my faded memory is correct,, there were (2) different hole patterns & as such, different front sights for some barrels.
Let me look into it.

 

[contender]

Ok, I dug into my parts to check things. All of my barrels & sights have the same hole pattern. And yes,, that sight you show is a T/C sight.
The only other sight I found was a soldered on one,, (older) and it's a longer sight. It's also narrower. That may have been what I was remembering.
I'll have to dig into my catalogs & see what comes up.

 

[wheelgun1958]

Undrilled from TC and custom drilled later?

 

[Johnnu2]

KY,
I measured two front sight hole positions on two of my Contender 10" barrels.
For starters, my front sights sit much far forward on the barrel than yours does. Both my sights' front edges sit perfectly even with the muzzle of the barrel. In both cases, the first HOLE (forward) is only 1/4" in from the tip of the barrel.
I measured one of the front sights that I had off the barrel of my 10" .221Fireball and the HOLES measured
1 1/2" center to center. As good as I can see, the total length of the sight measures 2 1/8" long tip to tip. BTW, my sight looks exactly like yours. Just to be sure, mine are the old Contenders and NOT the Encore or G2 or whatever else has come along (maybe yours is from a different generation?).
Hope this helps,
J.

 

[crstrode]

Thompson Center made many different guns in many configurations.

Some are interchangeable, others are not. Some barrels are drilled and tapped for one sight configuration only, others have multiple drilled and tapped holes that accommodate different sight base patterns.

The rear sights were made with several different heights with several different screw patterns. The same goes for the front sights. Be aware that black powder guns made by TC used sights, that at first glance, are very similar to those used on Contenders.

When it comes to Contenders, they were offered in different models. Original, generation 2, Encore, etc, etc, etc. Even within each generation there are nuances that sometimes limit interchangeability without some fitting or modification.

You just gotta look closely and measure with precision before plunking down your $$$.

 

[contender]

crstrode, you are correct about the many different T/C products.
HOWEVER,, if you study the pics & info in the OP, you will see that it's plainly a Super 14 Contender bbl. And if you read the posts,, you will see that we have studied the rights for just the Contender barrels.

I've been thinking on this issue & haven't had time to dig into my T/C catalogs etc. It's a puzzle for sure.

 

[gemihur]

Super 14's had at least two designs of front sight base to barrel.

The top one is a newer design.
The bottom one requires a drift of dovetail to access front screw.
Indeed, the spacing may be different.

 

[rkrcpa]

Here are two configurations that I have. The barrel with two holes is a 44 mag "Super 14". The barrel with three holes is a 41 mag "Super 14" that came to me with front and rear iron sights much like Gemihur posted.