The Encore only takes Encore barrels and the Contender only takes Conteder barrels, but the G2 will take the new G2 and old Contender barrels. I have the older Contender and I want an Encore, but if I had to do it over again I would get the Encore and not a Contender. The old style Contender is unsafe, the hammer will not stay cocked if the trigger is pulled either while the hammer is decocked or it was cocked to fire and then decocked to not fire. The action has to be broken inorder to be able to cock it again. It is a very stupid unsafe, design and it is very annoying. The Encore and G2 do not have this problem.