I didn't have my phone to take pictures and I passed on the offer to shoot it :( I pass on so many but from here forward I'm going for it! He explained to me the setup he had but today's barrel was the 7mm-08 setup.
This is the round:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7mm-08_Remington
I don't know what it would achieve out of this barrel length but it was a concussion! It peaked my interest since you can swap to about anything from .22 on up. He said one of his favorites was his .454 Casull barrel.
I don't think you can shoot 7mm-08 out of a Contender, it must have been an Encore.
He called it a Contender. I don't know what the difference is.
Both are single shot break action handguns. The Contender was first and was designed to handle mid-pressure rounds, but not high pressure rounds.
The Encore came later for rounds in the 60,000PSI + class. It is basically beefier.
As a general rule, the shooting public at large calls a Thompson/Center handgun a Contender.
I'ld be very surprised if it was a contender. No doubt is probably was and should be an Encore for those pressure levels.