1st off... mine is also a Contender, not an Encore...
I have a 14" hunter barrel ( thats a ported 14" barrel ) that I used for deer hunting for many years... mine has rubber grips & forend, & wears a 2-7 power Burris posilock scope... muzzle blast & concussion are greater than the recoil... with any field rest, I can put 3 shots touching at 75 yards... it recoils, no doubt, but not worse than a 44 mag in a lighter gun... the heavier Encore should be easier shooting... longer & ported barrels will make it quite managable
I have a custom 10" 45 Colt barrel, that I'm now loading as hot as the frame can handle, & the gun makes my knuckle bleed within 6-8 shots, every time I shoot it... I switched to the 45 Colt for hunting deer, as it wears a set of Williams fiber optic sights, with the ghost ring rear... I found the longer gun & the scope wasn't working as good, when I changed hunting areas, to a private thicker woods, with public hunting on 3 sides... the deer were closer, & moving more, & with the 2-7 scope, even on 2 X I found it difficult to track moving deer... the fiber optic works much better... I also started doing more downed tree blind hunting, & had deer close enough, that the longer barrel wasn't an advantage