Thompson Center 20 GA Encore Pro Hunter

[dannyb]

I know this will sound strange. I have a TC Encore Pro Hunter frame (and a couple of barrels including a 12 GA with screw in chokes). The only 20 GA with screw-in chokes is their turkey smooth-bore barrel with front fiber-optic sight and a rear sight. If I wanted to configure the 20 GA for trap shooting, is the rear sight removable?

[dannyb]

Ok, to answer my own question now that I bit the bullet (or shotshell so to speak), is that the front and rear sites are soldered in, not dovetailed, so not easy to remove for an amateur klutz like me.

[Steeltrap]

Why not use your 12ga. barrel for trap? If you really wanted to use the 20ga. I doubt a gunsmith would charge you much to remove the soldered sights and install a front bead.

[dannyb]

I have a 12 ga. on another T/C frame. My wife, on the other hand, has a weak left arm left over from a really nasty spiral fracture and needs a light shotty just to have a hope of busting a couple of birds. I do have some legit trap guns with not horrible recoil (20 ga Webley & Scott O/U) but it's still a bit heavy for her.

[dannyb]

So now that I've admitted to owning the 12 ga. vent rib barrel with 3 T/C chokes, after owning it for 12 years (got it at a Valley Forge Gun Show before the Casino days), I finally took it out for trap shooting today. I have never seen another one of these even used for sale. I suppose that the argument is that the barrel is too short (24") and the idea of closing the action, then cocking a hammer, and then calling "pull" was against this from the start. Now understand that in my best glory days, I shot 17s and 18s fairly regularly and only occasionally shot anything over 20 in a round. Then I had serious surgery on my right shoulder. After a 3-year hiatus, I started shooting trap again. I sucked. I did best with my S&W Super 1000 and a Modified choke - shooting roughly a 12 or so on my first three outings after the hiatus. Given the sucky performance, I decided to try a few of the other things I had lying around including the 12 GA T/C .So this week, I opened the long-stored vent-rib package removed the 30-06 barrel and fore end of the T/C Pro-hunter, and installed the 12 GA barrel and fore end. Patterned it with a modified choke, and went on the trap field. Got a 12 the first round. Thought about the short barrel compared the the long bang sticks everyone else was using, so I installed and improved modified and tried again. I had the prep routine down now - load:close:cock:aim - and found the sweet spot for the well-padded Pro-hunter stock. I ended up with a 15; most of the birds that I hit were creamed. So, I've progressed from suck to bad. I'll take it.

[dannyb]

OK, so I'm probably talking to myself on this thread. From time to time I cruise Gunbroker and eBay to see if there is another 26" (I got it wrong when I wrote 24") vent rib with chokes TC shotgun barrel. Two weeks ago, I found a 20 GA 26" used vent rib on Gunbroker and bought it. I'll give a range report when I get out there again. I've been recovering from ankle surgery (getting old is not for the faint hearted), so it may still be a couple of weeks before I can go.