on the buttstock I got directly from T/C it says right on the buttplate/pad embossed on it, do not use with barrel length less than 16", I may still have that buttplate since I replaced it with a recoil pad. I'll look when I get home later.
That would be a frame that started life at the factory as a rifle.
John's is a pistol from the factory so that doesn't hold true. He can put a pistol length barrel on it as long as it doesn't have a shoulder stock on it. Once it has a shoulder stock on it, it's a rifle.
that's what the buttplate came off of is a rifle buttstock, if you read my 1st post that's what I said to him.
Gotcha. What I meant to say was that a Contender pistol from the factory won't say that. Totally legal to bounce back and forth between rifle and pistol barrels on a factory original pistol. Totally not legal to do it with a factory original rifle frame. The only physical difference between the 2 would be the serial number.