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

+1 here. Good choices. The 180's are good medicine in the Max.

In the late 80's early 90's I had 21" Contender barrels in .223 ,7mm TCU, 7-30 Waters, 35 Remington, 357 Maximum and a 16" ported barrel in 45-70, they all killed deer and coyotes .

The 45.70 weighed less then 4.5 lbs with a peep sight. Was just the gun for those tight willow thickets.

I also had a Gonic .45 cal barrel that I could use for muzzle loader season.

F

I think I will start with the 180 XTPs, I have a couple of boxes speer 180's too.

Any body try the XPD 140's or will they just loose thier petals at 357max speeds

357 Max, 30-30, 7-30 would be my suggestions.

Funny you say this, I have a Win 1885 in .30-40.

The TC barrels have that screwed-up chamber, with no throat, that works, or not.

I would look at a 44 mag or 45 Colt barrel. MGM will make you a 444 Marlin barrel.

30.40 Krag

I had a 357 Max barrel made by MGM but it was a 14" handgun barrel. I shot one mule deer and one antelope with it. I lost interest and sold it. Both animals were shot at about 100 yards.
I thought it was a very good cartridge but brass can get hard to find.

I just made the same choice and picked the .35 Remington in an MGM barrel. I will probably shoot the Hornady Leverevolution factory loads and reload the brass. New Hornady brass is available now at Midway.

I like the EGW picatinny rail with aluminum TPS rings.

Good luck with whatever choice you make.

The most common question of all. And the answer is the same one offered by all the sages. The 7-30 Waters!
Granted, the only commercial loads available are Federal 120 gr. but I assure you that bullet will do everything the 30-30 ever dreamed of and at a heck of a lot further distance.
Reloaders realize the full potential of this round.
More people have been won over to the contender with this round than any other. The handgun that thinks it's a rifle... and in a carbine, it's precision can only be described as surgical.

EABCO makes brass, or used to, for the 7x30 from .30/30 by hydraulic pressure, I believe. Also .375 Win. Don't know how it compares with the real stuff, strength-wise.

At least with the Contender you aren't stuck filing the ends off Ballistic Tips.

I had a Contender back in the day with 14 inch barrel, 4 power TV Lobo scope in 35. Wish I had that one back. Now I still go for stuff a little different. I'd go with a 300 Savage. I knew guys long ago with 300'a in there Contenders. Ammo is still available at Bass Pro and on line. But, like most Savage rounds that can change any minute, Joe.

That was a T/C Lobo scope but my smart phone changed it, Joe.

I was pretty torn on the cartridge choice. In the end I choose 357 Maximum, but every day or so my mind would swing in a different direction.


One factor which I didn't bring up was Ohio and legal cartridges there. of my choices the 357Max was the only one that was Ohio legal.

I bought a couple of boxes of the Hornady 180 XTP to get started. I think the Hornday bullet is only rated to 1700 or 1800 fps, and I hope to see 2000fps or so in my 21" tube so I may give the 180 Swift a look as things develop. If I am lucky I can practice with the Hornady and hunt the swift. I also have some of the 180 speer FN, but they might be a little tough for the Maximum.

I am curious as to what the 140 XPB would do in the Max.

I would vote 7-30 waters, I have shot more then a couple of animals with it's ballistic twin the 7mmbr out of pistols and rifles and all were quite dead. The reduced velocity makes ballistic tips ( either 120 gr or 140 gr) perform like premium bullets. With all the new powders in the appropriate burn rate , this could be a fun experiment....

Over the last few years i've played around quite a bit with assorted custom barrels in .357max, .414supermag, and .445supermag. My .357max barrels are a 21" factory, and a 22" custom shop stainless tapered carbine, and both shoot fairly well with plinking loads (.38spl and .357mag).

i tried the Barnes XPB in my 357max barrels, but accuracy in my guns was not as good as i got with the hornady 180gr XTP, or the Speer 180 FNSP. Have shot a few deer with the speer 180 running close to 2000fps from the .357max, .357herrett, and .357B&D; had no issues and they performed well at around 2000fps.

If you can find the, also give the Hornady 180gr single shot pistol bullet a try; it has been suspended from production but i see them show up now and then.

Super 16 in .35 Rem.
Was not keen about the short bbl.
Added weight to synth forend to help stabilize it.
Worked great.
Shoots good, and is paid for.......so am just gonna run it.
2 for 2 so far.

Nice setup. Factory rynite stock with a paint job?

Factory stock. Had camo'd it, but changed my mind so stripped and redid in what I thought a kind of old school color.

Kydex cheekriser, secured by Velcro. Works great.

Forend hollows filled with epoxy and 7.5 shot. Easy to shoot offhand well.