Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots What chambering for woods deer in contender carbine?

I have wanted one for a long time and Just pulled the trigger on a stainless G2 frame.

I am trying to decide what to do for a first barrel. My intention is use the carbine to hunt woods for deer with a very small chance of bear. Typical ranges would be 50 yds, but with a rare possibility of up to 125 yds or so.

I have been thinking of 30.30 35 rem or 357 Max, is there some other clambering I should consider?

I see there are a couple of companies making contender barrels is there any reason to prefer one over another? any to avoid?

For your intents, the .35 Rem seems tailor made. The .375 Win or .38-55 would be worth considering if you handload. The .35 is much easier to feed though.

Any of the rounds mentioned here would be fine, but only the .30/30 can be easily fed, either by factory ammo or by handloading. Ammo and brass for the others ranges from scarce to unobtainium and that situation is only likely to get worse. If you take the hard road and get one of the problem children, at least the G2 won't toss your brass in the weeds.

If you handload, bullet choices for the .30/30 are much wider too, although some may be too tough to expand reliably at lower speeds.

357 Herrett if it were me - but I just like odd stuff lol

or one of the JDJ's

I could dig a .30-30 on a G2 frame.

I am not sure of the limitations of the action but my knee-jerk reaction to your question was .358 Win.

One of the JDJ's would be cool too as Jeff said.

Of the three you mentioned, I would probably buy a .357 Maximum from MGM. You can load it with .357 magnum brass, according to Mike Bellm, and can do so with carbide dies or a Lee Loader. And you can shoot .38 Special wadcutters in it during the off season for practice and small game, and get really expert with it.

Either the .30-30 or the .35 Remington would work fine. So would the .44 magnum and the .45-70, for that matter, or the 7-30 Waters. No bad choices here (except maybe the .358 Winchester, a great cartridge but probably too much for the G2, sorry War Eagle).

I have a 30/30 (pistol), but; probably the conventional wisdom might be 35 rem. to cover the bear. The 35 was popular back n the G1 days. I would suggest a tree stand for the latter

Hogeye mentioned 44 and that seems a sound option.

If I go 35rem or 357 max it looks like a custom barrel. Is there a consensus on who to make the barrel?


I see there are couple SSK, MGM, EABCO, bulberry.

SSK's look a little more pricey, but the others seem to run pretty much the same. I see some bad reviews on MGM and Bulberry. EABCO says lead times are long on their website.

My experience is with Encores, but:

My first was from SSK. JD can be a little prickly to deal with,
but he liked what I proposed (a 9.3x74r) so he was pretty agreeable with what I wanted, that time at least.

T'SOB scope mount is a work of art! I bought a blued barrel,
and the blueing is beautiful. Worthy of a fine custom gun.

A little pricey, but worth it in my opinion.

Have a couple MGM barrels, professional looking with the etched logo and caliber markings. Owners were terrific to deal with, love those folks. Most accurate Encore barrels I have.
Only negative is that at least to me, scope mounting is sort of an afterthought with them? They offer a mount base of their own that is very nice, but only four screws offered on a sporter weight barrel, and it hangs out in the air at the front, a gripe of mine with Encore scope mounting in general.
It WILL flex if you push on it, I don't like that.

Mike Bellm, have one barrel from him, a Bergara 308 he poked out to 300 H&H. He has an acceptable if not pretty fix for the scope mounts, he adds two more screws if you request, one tapped into the barrel, and the other snug down against the barrel and lock-tited. It works.

My sample of one, the caliber marking is hand stamped, and not very neatly... used a hyphen stamp to make a "+" so it reads
300 H+H, and pretty sloppy at that.

MGM makes extremely good barrels and they are great people to work with. My G2 Contender barrel is in 17 Hornet and it's a hoot to take out.

I'm a fan of the 357 Maximum for the reasons mentioned above and also that you can, with proper loads, take that 150 yard + shot, if needed.

You can also fire regular .357s and .38s in it in a pinch, which is where you'll find yourself from time to time.

Just checked Midway and Grafs for ammo and brass. Midway's got squat, but Grafs has Jamison ammo and brass in stock, priced reasonably I'd say. If you decide on this one, better hop.

If you have no caliber restrictions I think either the 7-30 Waters or 30-30 would be my choice. I had a standard TC Hunter(muzzle brake) 30-30 handgun barrel that shot very well. A Waters with 120gr Ballistic Tips would seem to be a great lightweight deer rifle. I have fired a Contender Carbine in 375JDJ that shot very well but the recoil was a bit sharp and in my opinion, more bullet that really needed for deer.

I used to have some friends that played with a lot of Contender and Encore rifles and handguns (mostly handguns) and they tried easily a dozen different barrels and chamberings from TC Custom Shop, Bullberry, EABrown, SSK and MGM/Virgin Valley (VV was their original name). Chambers included 17 Mach IV, 20PPC, 222, 223,6PPC, 6BR, 30BR, 30-30, 357Max, 41Mag and 44Mag. Our experience with MGM barrels was fantastic and they are my first choice.

For those who have shot the 357 Max's were you able to shoot magnums and specials with reasonable (soda can busting at 50/75 yds) accuracy? did the front of the chamber get nasty?

Pappy thanks for the 357 brass tip, that helps.

The 357 Mag shoots well for plinking. You may not experience accuracy like you want with the 38 Specials. Bullets need to make quite a jump from the short cartridges.

I've fired a lot of .357s and .38 Specials in my MGM-barreled .357 Maximum G2 carbine and the only thing you have to do is clean the chamber now and then, just like you would have to clean a .357 revolver after shooting a lot of .38s in it--except it's ONE chamber, not SIX.

The problem isn't rust--unless you're one heck of a slob and only clean every other decade. It's fouling just ahead of the shorter case, and right in the front of the chamber where the front of the longer case sits. If you let that area get too gunked up, it may cause extraction problems. I've never experienced any such thing and think you'd have to let it get pretty cruddy to have a problem.

And don't discount the regular .357 Magnum for deer in the woods. I killed many whitetails and a couple pigs back East with a .357, mostly a handgun. Any decent hit with a good bullet will do the job. A .357 rifle is easier to hit with and MUCH more powerful.

I had given 357 a thought, I would be pretty comfortable with it for deer in the woods, but I felt that it was a little light for a bear (not that the bear here are very big).

The Maximum is about the minimum I am really considering. I like its flexibility. I am set up to reload 357 mags so the maximum would be easy to add reloading wise.

30-30 is a safe choice, we all know it would work like a charm at the ranges I am looking at, there are lots of proven bullets (and I have a little itch to try the 140 monflex). I am set up to load the 30-30 as I have a 94win.

The 35 rem of course would work, but brass is scarce these days. and I don't have dies. Its also the one with the most recoil. As I want to keep the carbine as light as practical I wonder if it won't kick a bit in 35 rem.

Many thanks for the comments. I committed, a 21" stainless 357 Max barrel from MGM and 200 cases from Grafs.

Now to decide on bullets.

180 Xtp and 180 swift A frames are what I'm gonna play with in my maximum. I was planning on a 24" barrel from MGM

I set up a Contender in .30-30 a few months ago. I got a deal on a new TC barrel.

If it doesn't shoot I'll get a MGM.

I already have some of the 140's to load up when I get some brass emptied.

Those would be my choices as well. The A Frames are priced like gold nuggets, but should be good for the occasional bear. I'd also add the Speer 170gr Gold Dots, but have yet to actually see any for sale.