SCGunNut, how you liking the .25-35?
I think it's a perfect cartridge in a lightweight Contender. It's a Fox Ridge barrel I ordered in 2003 because I had given up on finding a clean lever gun so chambered. A couple years later, Winchester did a small run of Angle Eject 94's in it and I bought one of those too. I've only killed one deer and one coyote with the Contender, using the factory Winchester 117gr load and it performed as expected. I hope to do more hunting with the Contender this year than I have in the past, with all three barrels. I forget how handy it is until I pull it out of the safe ever so often.
