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Larry Weishuhn

Encore Love Affair

My introduction to the Encore started before any one knew what the new gun was going to be named. I took the first animal ever taken with the new gun, a pistol chambered in .308 Win., a Maine moose, then a Colorado Shiras moose, then a sizeable 6 x 6 elk. J.Wayne Fears I might add took the 2nd animal ever taken with what would become known as the T/C Encore, another Maine moose - but this one in the rifle configuration and also chambered in the .308 Win. The day before that Maine moose hunt, Ken French handed me something wrapped in a plain brown paper. As I wrapped the gun, it was love at first sight. Incidentally Mark Laney and others at the T/C factory had finished the new gun only the day before… Proto-type or not…it was love at first sight. That love affair has been a long a faithful one. I introduced the Encore (which it was named 3 days before we went to print) pistol and rifle to the world through the pages of SHOOTING TIMES and HANDGUNNING in early 1996 where at the time I served as the “hunting editor”. A little over a year later, Gregg Ritz, then Marketing Director at T/C, and I were in a race to see who would be the first to shoot an animal with the newly developed 209 x 50 Mag Encore muzzleloader barrel…many may not even know that the original Encore was a rifle and a pistol and that the muzzleloader barrel came later. As it worked out I took a 7 ½ feet squared record book black bear, that charged at less than 8 yards, on Arizona’s White Mountain Apache Reservation about two weeks before Gregg Ritz shot a black bear with the 209 x 50 Mag Encore, his in Canada. Thus not only was I able to take the first, third and fourth animal ever taken with the T/C Encore, I was also the first to take an animal with the muzzleloader version as well. My favorite gun, and firearm of choice has been the Encore since before as mentioned above we knew what it was going to be called. I’ve been faithful these many years, with only a few “slips”, where I used the T/C bolt action Icon, and that at the request of the powers that be at Thompson/Center Arms. As a friend of mine said not too long ago…”Weishuhn you were shooting Encores before it became the cool thing to do!” Over the years I’ve used my Encore pistols on a wide variety of game from of course whitetails, moose and elk, but also buffalo, caribou, pronghorn, bear too and a variety of other North American game. I’ve also used the Encore pistol in South Africa. In terms of rifle, my Encore rifles have accompanied me to Europe for red stag; Argentina for buffalo and red stag, New Zealand for red stag, chamois, tahr, wild hog and sika deer; Africa for Cape buffalo, numerous greater kudu, gemsbok, zebra, and a wide variety of other plains game. Back here in North America I’ve taken grizzly bear on down with my Encore rifles. The only species I’ve not yet taken with my Encores are Alaskan brown bear (which took with another pistol years ago), polar bear (which I have no desire to hunt) and the four subpecies of wild sheep (time will tell whether or not I hunt these). It’s truly satisfying seeing all those who now shoot and hunt with Encores, regardless of whether rifle, muzzleloader, shotgun or pistol. We’ve only just begun! To my way of thinking, based on many years of hunting and using almost exclusively the T/C Encore since the year before (starting 1995) it was introduced to the public that there is no finer hunting gun in the world, regardless of whether you use it as a rifle, muzzleloader, pistol or shotgun!