But Dave, what if someone you know sees you using something looking like this? Do they provide a disguise for the owner? A true gun nut must own tons of firearms, not one monstrosity. All in jest. Best To All

One other thing, I absolutely abhor a lousy trigger.

The first thing that came to my mind was whether the scope mounts were on the barrel or receiver. The front mount is screwed into the barrel.... The only thing I don't like about the Encore and Contender is the whole you have to either have a million scopes or change it every time you change barrels. They could have had a dedicated scope on this receiver and solved that problem but for some unfathomable reason decided not to.

Amazing that you can shoot such mind boggling groups with a so-so at best trigger Mr. Petzal. You are the man.

I am with the boys in that this rifle is just a little too far out there for my tastes, and I'm a person that has gone varmint hunting with an AR. It kind of reminds me of the Nova shotgun when it had those ridges on the grip. To each his own, and it certainly outperforms any rifle I own. Maybe if I covered it in camo tape it wouldn't be so noticeable.

Do they plan on making other barrels and configurations. Say like the encore, they seem to have every barrel possible for. I guess what Im sayin is Im left handed and people dont realize how hard it is to get an odd caliber. I have always wanted a left hand bolt 220 swift. Short of payin 2500 to 10000 I cant get one. I have thought about buyin a left handed bolt in .243 and having it re-chambered but Im still looking at a sizable chunk of money!

I have always said and lived by the statement, "function over fashion" but the dimension rifle platform is the exception to the rule. I like the overall concept but it is scary enough to haunt a house.

Somebody dropped that gun from the "ugly tree"... it hit every branch on the way down.

It seems to me that a Group C magazine would fit all cartridges in that designation, perhaps they sell you another magazine with each barrel for a bit more profit. On switch barrel guns the scope issue is always present. Seemingly any alternative has negative aspects. Change the scope and have to resight, keep the same scope on a barrel and you have to purchase one for each, etc. Most things ergonomic are usually not asthetically pleasing to the American eye but feel great when you hold them. I think I felt this way when I first encountered one of Harry Lawson's creations many years ago. Once I shot his rifle my attitude was entirely different. I am told that many folks back in the fifties didn't care for the exotic stocks a Californian named Roy attached to his new action. This type of hunting rifle does not seem to have ever been popular in America. In countries where gun ownership is limited I suppose it would be a good idea especially if one had access to small, medium, and large calibers. Nice rifle but I would not buy one given what I already own. If I was starting anew maybe. Its one of those deals, like a T/C Contender, where you can always spend more money for more options.

I'm surprised that you'd need to change the magazine to go from a .270 to an '06. They must be very contoured magazines.

Honestly, people have been doing this sort of things with Savages for a long time. It seems the only advantage here is that you don't have to go a gunsmith to get the head spacing right. I think I'd wait until they get the trigger sorted out though.

Dave, Mount that scope with a set of Talley quick release rings and switching the barrel will be a snap.

That rifle would be good for the one gun man or a European.

I would no doubt misplace a part. Now where did I put that bolt???? No thanks will stick with what I already have in the safe.

It's a sexy looking rifle *system*, but I wonder how successful it'll be this side of the pond. Some continental German-speaking rifle maker came out with the barrel/cartridge swapping thing and it never went anywhere in USA I'm aware.

On TC website this rifle I noted there are either varmint rounds or *deer* rounds offered. No medium calibers. As such only I could see having a varmint barrel and then a deer barrel.

Sorry to get off topic Dave but last year you posted that you shot a 3 shot group with a 375 H&H that measured .373.

Is this possible?
thanks Dan

That gun is butt ugly, and from the hell of a time I had with the Encore I had no I will not get one.

I'm still trying to figure out why everyone thinks this rifle looks so much different from every other bolt gun. And, as bolt guns go, I like it.

Ahem, errr...What would be the sinonim of creep or creepy applied to triggers?
Scary? Maybe, but don´t think that was what you mean.
Shifting in position?
It feels like the trigger is crawling or parts are in friction?
I read that word a lot here but so far have not seen a good explanation of it here or somewhere else.

First, I am not a T/C hater. They are quality firearms with usually very good performance. I have owned several. Nevertheless, the Dimension is not a new concept and I suspect American shooters may not respond in overwhelming hordes to buy one. The Swiss made SIG SHR 970 rifle did all the Dimension is supposed to do and at a slightly less price. Unfortunately (or maybe not), SIG sold its firearms division sometime around 2000, the new company morphed through a couple of company name changes, San Swiss, SwissArms, but actual production of the SHR 970 appears to have ended in 2002 or 2003. I own several the the original SIG 970, far simpler design than Dimension. Two bolts, Standard and Magnum and appropriate caliber magazines and one could have an array of calibers. In the USA calibers offered barrels in calibers .25-06, .270, .280, .30-06,.308, 7mm Magnum, .300 Magnum. In Europe numerous other barrels/caliber combinations were available. Sometime around 2003-2004, SIG Arms, Inc. of Exeter, NH dropped the SHR 970 from the product line up. A great rifle, inexpensive, very high quality, and all the ones I've owned are very accurate. More power to T/C for introducing this concept to the market, but it has been done before and Americans and I think Europeans did not stampede to the nearest gun store to buy one.

Thanks for the answer Dave, now its more clear to me.

My god, that is one ugly rifle!
I don't care how it shoots, i wouldn't touch it with ten foot pole. There's too many accurate, reasonably attractive rifles out there to waste any time on this one.

This rifle is on the web for $609 already. Gunsinternational.com

focusfront,

plus you can always say it's your varmint/target/ benchrest rifle if someone says it's ugly.

(Aesthetically, it's a combination of Ruger's target stock for the Mini-14, the hogback comb of European rifles [think CZ Lux models), the pistol grip of the T/C Encore Pro-Hunter and the trigger guard of the T/C Icon.)

Dave,you must full length resize your reloads or else the chamber is sloppy. I never full length resize my dog loads,and I've never had one that would fit in two different chambers. Just an observation. A gun nut like you surely just neck sizes your dog loads.

To Hutter: I never neck-size anything. Ever. I've seen so many neck-sized rounds fail to chamber, or stick, in other people's rifles that I never do it in my own. I want those things to cycle, period.

This is an attempt by TC to *economically* satisfy a need that I have been shopping around for. I have essential tremor and *really* need to put a lot of rounds down range to perfect technique. I conquered the archery release, but arrows are reusable.

The failure here, as many have pointed out, starts with the poor trigger. I want the best in a re-use situation. But further I need two things:
An upper limit of .338 or better yet .375 and
one barrel in a cheap plentiful round, e.g., 7.62x39 or 8x57

Beauty? I'll take the brunette that *gets it done*.

Would a 22-250 and a 300 Win Mag be a good overall combination for hunting within the continental USA?

I just took possession of my new Dimension and I must say, based on everything else Thompson that I have seen, I'm a bit disappointed. Fit and finish are what I would expect from a cheap rifle and this one looks and is cheap. I'll play with it a while. Hopefully, it performs better than it looks.

Oh so many people out there want to call The TC Dimension Switch barrel 'ugly' and next thing you know it'll be so ugly they'll start calling it an ASSAULT RIFLE like they like to for the AR's. So sad.

Yes, Focusfront, whats wrong with a rifle that shoots straight? Not a cotton pickin thing!

It's nice to see TC is a well established company underwritten by Smith and Wesson, and, they're offering it at a very modest price (599 at ebaco.c**) and offer left-handed configs. I'm a rightey so I'm good with the standard config. but it is the caliber swapping barrel (and magazine grouping) swap phenomenon that caught my eye. I don't expect to go on the field needing some 'backup gun' I intend to take as good of care with the one I plan to use as the only gun I'll need. Also the fact that I don't need to be an Armorer (which I am in the Army anyway) to reconfigure the weapon platform or worry about headspace and timing gauging makes it user/shooter friendly. It's simplistic! Economic! Ergonomic! Durn pretty too. Its been over a year since its been out so hopefully they'll have worked out the squishy trigger syndrome but there's always enough CLP to lube metal on metal moving parts to go 'round.

Is CLP safe to use on this weapon?

It looks weird, but not so weird when you consider T/C also makes the ugly Encore Pro-Hunter.

As for it's design, it looks to me like T/C's take on the "post-'98" German school of rifle engineering/making. Writer Jon R. Sundra actually wrote an article about that in another magazine. If you look at most European guns (Merkel, Heym, modern Mauser, Blaser), they use the interchangeable concept. Because their bolts lock up directly with the barrel, it is quite easy to execute. Everything is modular and interchangeable: bolts or bolt heads, magazines, barrels. The barrels come already pre-chambered, just attach to the "platform", swap the magazines and bolts/bolt heads (if necessary), tighten everything, and go. The receiver is not a stressed component, just a "motherboard" (in gun terms) for attaching/hanging/pinning/screwing stuff to.