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I have had this Contender for some time...



It was bought a few years ago at a gun show, fairly cheap as it was extremely hard to open.

I finally got around to taking it apart to see if I could get it to open easier, and was successful - but alas, after my "repair", the gun would not cock. - The hammer would not engage the sear so it couldn't be fired.

It served as a paperweight for some years. I never did feel like messing with it again, and was too lazy to box it up and ship it to TC for repair. It has a .22lr match barrel and should be pretty accurate - but my Ruger MkIII Hunter has been so accurate that I just never felt motivated to fix the Contender.

Then I moved recently, and ended up with an amazing cardboard box collection after unpacking etc... And today I found a box that was about the right size for the Contender.

I casually opened the action, to make double-sure that it was not loaded, and then thumbed back the hammer, like I have done hundreds of times, to remind myself once again why I was going to all that trouble with the box.

I guess I must have scared it by preparing a box for it, because now the hammer stayed back, just like it should!

The gun apparently fixed itself. It functions perfectly!

I've been dry-firing it repeatedly, whacking the cocked hammer with the heel of my hand, to see if I can get it to slip - all to no avail. I can't get it to malfunction, now.

I can't figure out what happened, there.

In any case, it's off to the range tomorrow, to see how it shoots. I showed the gun to my son, telling him how it fixed itself - and I was informed that it was his gun, all along!

I don't know how that happened, either.

The gun heals itself because it decides it has rested enough. As for the other, I'm sure you just don't remember giving it to him.

It turned out to be a shooter. Even with my old eyes and the open sights, it was easy to bounce old shotgun hulls around at 25 yards.

I used to wonder why there were shotgun hulls all over the pistol range... Now I know.

I asked my son how he got the impression that the gun was his. He said that I asked him what kind of handgun he liked the look of, and then went and bought one just like he had mentioned.

I often buy ailing firearms of a type that I have not worked on before, fix them, then sell them to finance the next purchase plus any parts I might have had to buy. - This is, in part, how I educate myself as I can make any mistakes on my own gun, and develop confidence to work on somebody else's gun of that type, should the occasion arise.

Since he had taken a shine to the Contender though, I just suggested that he ought to keep it in his safe, now that it's working.

Then he hit me up for a .44 magnum barrel to go with it. That request set me up perfectly to suggest a haircut and a job.

Then he hit me up for a .44 magnum barrel to go with it. That request set me up perfectly to suggest a haircut and a job.

I like yer style!