My 2 Encore setups. Top is a 7mm/08, bottom is a 18” 6mm Creedmoor. Also have 223, 460 S&W, 45-70 and 7mm Rem Mag barrels.

I had a 16” 7-08 ai Encore with the factory camo stock that I used for 3-4 years. Fun gun to shoot and I stacked up some animals with it. I don’t think I ever used the same bullet 2 years in a row.

Nice stable, congrats!

I want your 460

You don’t need a 22-250 barrel do ya?

Do you have one? May be interested.

Pm sent

I have two frames as well and several barrels. 280 being one of my favorites.

I don’t know what it is about the encores but I sure like them. I have bought some higher end bolt guns in the same caliber that I have encores in and when I go to the ranch 9 times out of 10 I grab the encore.

I don't get it. I'll admit, I don't own, nor ever have owned one, so feel free to correct me if I am wrong. They don't have a way to free float the barrel, so surely they will suffer in the accuracy department when compared to a bolt gun in the same caliber. Correct?

all three of my barrels where sub MOA. The stock forearm can bed pillar bedded if need be but since the forearm doesnt touch the action for-say it doesnt really cause issues.

biggest issues would be lock time(hammer) and I guess action lock pin could get some play

with no action the gun is super compact and really safe loaded. especially if you have and HD hammer spring

I don’t claim to be any kind of super marksman or expert on the subject but I can shoot my encores in the same caliber better than my tikka or proof rifles. I am sure there are lots of variables but I have a half dozen different caliber barrels for the encore and every one of them is a tack driver.

I think a lot of my draw to them is how short and compact they are. With the same length barrel an encore is significantly shorter than a bolt gun because well there is no bolt.

What's your accuracy requirement? They can shoot inside MOA in a lot of instances. My longest encore shot, 310y and she tasted delicious

The compactness as Bobo stated is the appeal to me but if I had a kid that was starting, just like my Dad started me...it would be a single shot with a hammer because of safety reasons. It definitely fits that bill and does it well.

Saying that, they aren't a match rifle but they are a single shot so I wouldn't use it for that anyway. They make an awesome short compact 16" suppressed rifle...that and the newbie are in my mind the two best applications for it. I sold mine only because I started building my own bolt guns and it just didn't make sense for it to be sitting in the safe when I could carry one that I machined. Otherwise, I'd still have mine...it was one of my favorite hunting rifles.

I understand the compactness, and safety appeal. When I bought my son his first rifle, it was (and is) a handy rifle in 357 mag. Short, compact, and safe. 357 mag is a 100 yard and less proposition regardless of how small of groups it shoots, so I was never worried about that so much. If memory serves me correctly, it's about a 2 moa rifle.
My accuracy requirement? As accurate as I am able to load for it. For me and the majority of my rifles, that is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/2moa. Well, I guess that's not really a requirement, but more of a goal. Requirement would be based on the rifle. Mostly sub MOA is my requirement. I give a little leeway to my leverguns.

This is 3 shots at 100yds off a bench with a bipod. Many will tell you that you can't use a bipod with the Encore or Contender
Mike Bellm sells trigger, hammer and locking bolt springs. The kits are about $60-$80 IIRC. They address all of the potential draw backs mentioned. This particular forearm is not bedded.

Three shots from a 12” Encore in 250 Savage

I'll confirm what others have said, the lack of action reduces overall length and weight of the rifle. That was the biggest draw for me when I had mine built for Elk hunting. Mine has a 26" barrel with brake and is still shorter than a long bolt action with a 22" barrel, lighter weight too.

As for accuracy, I would not consider mine to be as consistently accurate as a good bolt gun. The single shot has a couple of things working against it in this regard. One, the forearm is definitely attached to the barrel, nothing can be done to eliminate that, but there are a couple of ways that effect is minimized. My rifle was built by Bullberry and uses their hanger bar system which employs a bar attached at the two factory screw locations, then the forearm attaches to the bar with a single screw. It freefloats the forearm as much as it can be from the barrel, the only place my forearm touches anything is where it contacts the hanger bar..Early tricks for this used a couple of o-rings on the screws between the forearm and barrel, I've seen where some bed the forearm to the barrel.

Another thing that works against them is the fact that the barrel is attached to the frame with only a pivot pin and the locking mechanism. So there's inherent frame stretch and whatever tolerance in lockup to deal with as well. TThe main thing people are doing to minimize this is the use of oversized hinge pins.

The trigger is weird, it doesn't have a hard back wall, there is over-travel when the trigger breaks then it resets when you let off, something else to get used to.

The most critical thing I've found to getting accuracy out of my Encore is where I place the front bag when shooting from the bench. Consistency is key, but I have also found that the closer I can get the bag to the hinge pin the tighter my groups are. The farther out towards the end of the forearm, the worse they get. It makes sense if you think about it.

Now, it may seem like I'm being critical of the design by what I've written above, I am not. What I point out above are more observations than anything else. Mine is a 280AI built on a Shilen blank, trigger is 2.5lbs with no creep. When I'm doing everything right I can get 1/2" 3 shot groups from mine at the bench, and as wrong as I can do everything I might see them open up to around an inch. In the field, mine hits what you point it at. I've had it on paper and pigs out to 300yds, and while it gets picky on paper, I've never noticed the slight degradation in accuracy on animals. Now I won't be trying to shoot 1k yards with it, or even a 100yd BR competition, or anything like that, that's not the rifle's purpose. So as long as expectations remain realistic they are a great platform.

Take my intended use out of the mix and throw a 16-18" barrel on one in a caliber that performs well in that short a tube, and you have an ultra compact very capable little rifle. Or anywhere in between. It's a cool platform.

I have found all my barrels to shoot MOA or better. 1/2 groups pretty normal with the right load. However I think the best thing about these guns is the versatility. For years I traveled working for the National Wild Turkey Federation, I carried an encore with a 280, 22-250 and a 12ga barrels. I could hunt anything from turkey, varmints to elk if I got the chance with one gun! Only thing I could not do was skeet where I needed 2 shots.
It was nice having the versatility in a small package.

My 270 barrel is a tackdriver, it is an old 24 inch Prohunter barrel. I was testing a scope for tracking and shot three three shot groups and a 4 shot groups right at and under 5/8ths of an inch.Every shot touching for sure. Kinda puts the hamper on getting another barrel.

I only had customs barrels EBCO and MGM, sub moa is pretty easy as long as you are good with lock time and stick to good fundamentals. if you love sub pound triggers and quick boom, it will take alot to get use too

Lock time is not that bad and the triggers are easily made light.