What is the general opinion of these rifles and pistols?
I am thinking about building up a set with medium heavy
30-06, or 300 WM .223 or .22-250 and 12 ga for long gun and .308, and .44 rem mag pistol and I am tempted to try a 45-70 barrel in the pistol also 26" in the rifle and 15" in the pistol.

What attracts me is one gun but muli calibers and so any time I get a notion to try out somthing else i just need a new barrel. :)

Any thoughts or opinions?
yes ?
no?
what calibers in each and why?

They are pretty decent firearms. I'd pass on the 45-70 pistol unless you are a hardened shooter of magnum handguns...they can be a bit of a handful.

Chamberings pretty much depend on what you want to use them for. There are some new 28" fluted stainless barrels out that might be interesting in the small bore large capacity rounds.

Be cautious though, some guys get into these things like some sort of out of control disease when it comes to the barrels.

Ernest:
I'd have to go with what KciH said. If you reload, you can turn the .45-70 into a kitten for practice and a lion for fun and business.

By the way, when you get the bug for more barrels, you may find that you will also want another frame so you can compare cartridges and the like. Remember, one is for pistols and one is for rifles and carbine barrels. If both end up with pistol stocks at the same time, what you tell your spouse is up to you. If your spouse is shooting oriented your life is simpler if you tell her you thought she might like to shoot with you and be prepared to buy a new frame. Don't know what it is but they seem to fall in love after shooting these Contenders and Encores, but I can't blame them the same thing happened to me.

Regards,
Gene

I have an Encore, originally bought it for a 454 Cassull barrel. The 454 was difficult because of the sharp recoil. I could shoot the Magnum Research BFR in 454 much easier. Sold the 454 and bought a 450 Marlin barrel for the frame. It is the 15" with muzzle brake. I really like this barrel. I have loaded it from 1200 fps to 1600 fps with a 420 gr FNGC bullet. The upper level is stout, 5 or 6 rounds are enough from the bench. The 1200 fps load is accurate and can be fired much more. Have been using a Saeco spire point 405 gr lately, it is looking to be accurate also. The 45-70 should be a versatile round in the Encore. I think a rimmed case is more easily extracted by the Encore.

while I've never had any extraction problems with rimless cases in the Encore or the Contender I tend to agree with Bigfoot. This is not a condemnation just an observation, there are more possible things to go wrong with most single shot arms using rimless cases. Most of the problem has to do with how the extracter gets past the cartridge body then snaps into the groove, get dirt in here and you may have problems. The guys with rolling block rifles and pistols that use rimless ammo, know that the problem in these is that when loading, the rim of the rimless round (sounds odd, doesn't it) can go past the extractor and create a loading jam.

As stated before, I have experienced no such problem in the Encore or Contender, or for that matter, in the Ruger #1 or #3.

Regards,
Gene

Speaking of the Encore desease, I have it. I got my first frame and barrel shortly before christmas, a 24" factory .243 Win barrel. I now have 2 frames and 8 barrels, I got rid of the .243 Win. I have 1 pistol barrel in .44 Mag 12" T/C blue. 6 rifle barrels; .17 Ackley Hornet 24" Virgin Valley Custom blue, .223 24" T/C Stnls that I had cut down to 16 1/4" and recrowned (Shoots 1/2" groups at 100m all day long), 6mm BR 26" T/C Custom Shop full bull blue, 300 Win Mag 26" T/C Stnsl, 338/06 26" Virgin Valley Custom blue, 45-70 24" T/C blue. And 1 shotgun barrel a 20ga rifled slug barrel in blue. Not to mention all the stocks and forearms. It can be addictive. But they all shoot great. The adaptability of the rifle/pistol is second to none as long as you do not mind it being a single shot.