Pick up most any outdoor magazine in a bookstore and you’ll find more articles and evaluations on the largest array of new guns that I could ever imagine. If you’re a gun enthusiast, then you probably need to build a bigger gun safe if you want to keep up with all of the new offerings in the way of firearms.

On the other hand, what would you do if (Heaven forbid) some politician had new laws passed that would limit us hunters to only owning one gun? How could a single gun ever satisfy our needs when we have such a vast array of things to hunt? It’s a question that I’ve been asked many times when I attend gun shows.

My personal choice of a single gun that would satisfy (nearly) all my various hunting trips is a Thompson Center Encore Pro Hunter that I began to assemble about six years ago. It was a purchase that I put a lot of thought and research into before I made the decision to “build” my own personal choice of a “do-all” gun to hunt with.

The T/C Encore is a very well-made, single-shot, break-open gun that allows the owner to substitute different barrels on one platform. Some have described the building of a gun like this to building a stereo system, where you can improve the overall product by upgrading a single component.

For my personal hunting needs, I’ve assembled seven different barrels that can be easily assembled on the basic receiver of the stainless steel and synthetic stocked T/C Encore. I chose stainless steel and synthetic because I felt that these things were about the most weather resistant and durable materials available.

My first choice as a barrel was a 12-gauge shotgun barrel set to shoot 3-inch shells. It’s outfitted with a wide range of choke tubes that range from improved cylinder to a rifled choke tube for shooting slugs. This choice of barrel and attachments makes this one most versatile of all the other barrels for the Encore.

It’s capable of shooting anything from clay targets to large and dangerous game at reasonable ranges. It’s a plausible home defense gun (VP Biden approved) and ammunition is readily available most anywhere.

My choice for barrel No. 2 is a very short, magna-ported barrel with good open sights chambered for the mighty .450 Marlin Magnum cartridge. I wanted a gun so barreled to be lightweight (yes, it kicks like a mule and it’s loud!) and easy to transport in thick woods. The .450 Marlin is only a little less powerful than the well-known African big game cartridge, the .458 Winchester Magnum. Ammo for the .450 Marlin is readily available. For hunting really big animals — from bear to moose to cape buffalo — in close quarters, I felt that this was a good choice.

Choice for barrel No. 3 is the versatile .270 Winchester, one of the more favored and versatile cartridges of all time. This was a little hard to decide on because this class of cartridge has so many similar cartridges, such as the venerable 30-06. I chose the .270 because ammo is available just about anywhere (at an acceptable cost) and it is a proven long-range, easy-recoiling cartridge. With the proper bullet, the .270 is capable of taking most any game animal in North America.

Cartridge of choice for barrel No. 4 is the well-known .308 Winchester (7.62×51 mm NATO). Only a tiny bit less powerful than its predecessor (the U.S. Military 30-06), the .308 is proven to be very accurate and versatile. Like the .270, the .308 is very versatile and can take any animal in North America. The fact that this is a cartridge that is of U.S. military origin and is in current use will help to insure that you can expect to find ammo for this gun for many years to come.

Also a U.S. military based cartridge, the 5.56×45 mm NATO was chosen for barrel No. 5 because of its readily available ammo, which should be available for a long time. Its non-military interchangeable cartridge is the ever-popular .223 Remington. Even though both cartridges are virtually the same, there are some differences.

The military 5.56×45 mm NATO cartridge is slightly more powerful than the .223 and some rifles will not handle the higher pressures of the military cartridge. The T/C Encore has no trouble at all with either cartridge. And for varmint hunting and even deer hunting (with the proper bullet, liberal wildlife laws and trained hunter), the 5.56×45 mm NATO can take animals ranging from (big) rabbits to animals as large as African plains animals.

My choice for chambering barrel No. 6 was the old standby .22 Long Rifle cartridge. Ammo is now available everywhere (it’s availability is improving recently after the shortage). For everyday use as a small game-hunting bullet, this cartridge is hard to beat. Ammo is relatively inexpensive and it’s a great cartridge with which to train youngsters or novices.

Barrel No. 7 is chambered in what many outdoorsmen refer to as a “primitive rifle.” This barrel is designed to be loaded with black powder from the muzzle, and then have a .50-caliber bullet rammed down on top of the powder. A cap is loaded into the breech of the barrel to initiate the black (or more version of black powder). Somewhat complicated to load and keep clean, the “primitive status” of this gun is under question because of the way sights, powder and sabot wrapped bullets have caused this muzzle loader to evolve into a great hunting gun.

All of the barrels sport open sights and are tapped and drilled to mount a wide variety of optical sights. Scopes are outfitted with quick release rings and add a lot of versatility to the gun.

I’m sold on the use of the older stand-by cartridges as opposed to some of these new super magnum types of ammo. Ammunition is usually easier to find and these cartridges have proven themselves over time. If the cartridges have their beginnings in our military ammunition, that’s all the better.

The only time I’ve felt “under-gunned” with this single-shot gun was with the 12 Ga. shotgun barrel. There are definitely times when one misses with the first shot and needs a rapid second shot to finish the job. Carefully picking and choosing your shots is necessary with guns like the T/C Encore. When I leave on a trip that involves multiple types of hunting, it’s a treat to be able to take one, cased, basic gun with two or three extra barrels that are designed for whatever comes my way.

Now that I think about it though, it might be really nice to add one more barrel to this one gun battery of hunting weapons. Maybe the .300 Win. Mag. barrel would be nice to have on the topside of the line up. We gun owners are never satisfied.