Thompson Center Contender Pistol Problem Fix

[Lemmon]

I have a Thompson Center Contender Pistol 1st generation with Pachmayr grips. This set up has not been touched in over 20 + years. The action will not open. I did everything I could think of including asking it politely to please open up. I removed the Pachmayr hand grip and tried opening it up without that old rubber grip. It opened immediately. The problem I assume is that the rubber in that old grip had over time hardened and would not allow the trigger guard to go back far enough to unlock the action. The trigger guard would go back some but not enough to do the job. I took my knife and cut out the area immediately behind the trigger and permanently eliminated the problem from happening again. I hope that this helps some one else. It sure had me bothered for a few days thinking about it.

Lemmon

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

I've run into that before, with the grip screws tightened up enough, that the rubber grip squished slightly & got thicker, causing the trigger guard to not open all the way... I was able to fix mine, by loosening the grip screw slightly... which was enough to allow opening... trimming extra rubber from the guard area is a good idea, if the guard is hitting the grip at all, even before the rubber starts getting stiffer ( it could prevent problems during cold weather hunting... for example )

 

[Standing Wolf]

The problem I assume is that the rubber in that old grip had over time hardened and would not allow the trigger guard to go back far enough to unlock the action.

Yea. I used to work for a company that made rubber rollers for printing presses, whose tolerances are sometimes less than a thousandth of an inch.

Rubber tends to age and lose dimension with time, partly because it's an unstable organic compound, partly because it's actually more like an extremely viscous liquid than a solid.