Have a couple of the older Contender frames and pistol barrels ranging from .22 rf and .22 Hornet up to .45 Colt. I tend to like the older 10" barrels, octagon for the lighter cartridges and bull for the .45, etc. Wide range of used barrels available and you can buy/sell them easily. (see Ed's Contenders: http://www.edstc.com/ )

Only have rifle barrels (.250, 6.5x55) on my Encore frame.

I tend to think of the Encore "pistol" as a very short rifle. As noted in the prior post, it can handle the .243, etc class cartridges and the Contender is limited to the .223, .30-30, etc.

Check the weights-- probably 3 to 3.5 lb for a Contender/G2 and 4+ lb for an Encore -- wide variations due to the various barrels.