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and yes an contender or encore is a real gray area for the BATF since you can swap barrels and stocks in a minutes or so and is an industry "standard". I think the reason the BATF lets them get by with this gray area is that they are single shots that are almost a purely huntnig and target shooting gun and have a very very slight chance of being used by some thug in robbery or such.

Actually the BATF tried to prevent TC from selling their Contender Rifles, arguing that they would be SBRs. The case went before the Supreme Court in "United States v. Thompson/Center Arms Co." It was a close one. A 5-4 decision.

Analysis of the Supreme Court Opinion in Thompson/Center Arms

On June 8, 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Contender pistol and carbine kit are not a short-barreled rifle under the National Firearms Act, 26 U.S.C. §5845(a)(3). This means that a consumer may possess the pistol with its 10" barrel and may use the kit parts to make a rifle with the 21" barrel, as long as the shoulder stock is not assembled onto the receiver at the same time as the 10" barrel.

Justice Souter, joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice O'Connor, wrote the opinion of the Court. The Court stated the issue to be whether a short-barreled rifle is "made" by the aggregation of finished parts that can be readily assembled.

The government noted that a bicycle is still a bicycle even when unassembled. The Court rejects this analogy, because the Contender items can be assembled three different ways, and are intended to be assembled only two ways.