Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Newbie with a G2 Contender

Ok, I found a great deal on a G2 and put it on lay-away at the local gun store. What great things should I expect or what detriments do I need to look for? I am getting it with a .204 Ruger bbl and a .17 HMR bbl which I am going to be selling shortly after I get it. (no interest in the .17 rimfire craze). I am planning on getting the .45 cal Blackpowder bbl and then something to use for high power. I am not sure if the 7-30 Waters or the 7mm TCU is the way to go. It is a rifle model not a handgun.

Mark

This has worked for me. "then something to use for high power." You don't mention what you want to do. I had MGM make me a 30/40 krag barrel and it shoots better then me. The Contender is a nice carry gun. Your also able to get barrels in 45/70 and JDJ375 but those are hard on the shooter

http://www.matchgrademachine.com/

the .45 muzzleloader barrels havee been discontinued, so if you see one grab it up. i shoot one, have taken a few deer with it, makes a nice rifle. They also offered a .209x50, seems i head it was to be dropped also, but it is a "step-up" profile & is a tad heavier.

i have had MGM build quite a few barrels & have been pleased with them all, in both rifle & pistol format.

in a carbine, the 45/70 was a must-have for me, i hunt the timber a lot, but i also like my .35remmy & 7x30. and the 30/30Ackley Improved, and 3 flavors of hornets. and i cant imagine not having my 25/20, and my .445supermag is handy, and....you get the point. the 'tenders make a great little rifle setup.

Thist first barrel I'd buy is a 300 Whisper barrel with a 1:8.... Forget the 30/30 next would be a 22 Hornet.

.357 Maximum.

I was referring to "Silhouette" shooting when I said high power. Sorry for the confusion. I understand I am not going to have the normal velocity option but am interested in trying my hand at it. Considering just using a 7-30 Waters and experimenting with bullet weight until I found one that I like. Or possibly the 7mm JDJ.

If it is a handgun I would get a 30-06 handgun barrel. If it is a rifle I would get a 30-06 rifle barrel.

If it's not registered as a handgun, be careful. The state of MI is not particularly friendly to handgun owners, especially unregistered handgun owners. Thinking of words like 'felony' and 'prison' and 'forfeiture of gun rights', none of which are good things.

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Big Redhead -

He said G2, so that's a Contender, not an Encore ... so it's not available in '06. In case you were wondering.

Movin' on:

I have not been very happy with TC's quality control. I've gotten a high percentage of TC products with problems. Their repair service is good, but I've had to use them far too often. This includes muzzleloaders, contender frames, and barrels that don't fit them. I've also had too many barrels that just would not shoot well enough. I've had pretty good luck with the straight walled cartridges, not so good with bottleneck cartridges. This is both standard factory and TC custom shop barrels.

Probably the worst I've had was a 14" .204. It was all over the place and the muzzle blast was just stupid for what the cartridge delivers. A similar .223 was not much better. I had a .22 hornet barrel which had sloppy chambers which, when combined with minimal to undersized factory brass, meant not only could I not reload the fired brass, I even had a couple factory rounds cut off ahead of the web leaving the case body in the chamber. And a custom shop 22" .221 fireball carbine barrel that wouldn't keep a 3 MOA group.

On the plus side, I've had very good luck with their barrels chambered for straight walled pistol cartridges like .32 mag, .357 mag, and .357 maxi. My current .357 magnum barrel is a late manufacture 10" barrel from just before that config was discontinued. It's good for half inch at 50 yards with a lot of different loads. Another great barrel is a late manufacture 10" .22 LR "match" barrel I got bored with and punched to .22 magnum. With the tighter LR bore, it probably runs a little higher pressure but it shoots like a dream.

On other angles ... I'm not real happy with the balance and handling of the 14" barrels when you add the weight of a scope up top. 10" barrels work out better. Some cartridges work better with the longer barrel, though. Little bit of a balancing act to do there. I haven't messed with the 12" barrels other than a .45/.410 barrel. That's an interesting setup. Shot patterns are nearly useless at 10-15 yards but it's a freakin' shredder for snakes between your feet ... makes regular handgun shotshells look pretty lame.

My next barrel is probably going to be a 14" in .357 maxi or .30-30, scoped just long enough to work up a load, then back to iron sights.

Tom

I havve a factory 223 bull bbl that will shoot sub-MOA all day.
With 60grn V-Max it is good for deer. 40grn works great for crows.
I have several MGM bbls-- 7-30Waters; 357MAX; and 44Mag all in pistol bbls. All work for deer and hogs. I like the Burris pistol scopes in 2X or 1-4X vari.
I also have a factory 30-30AI bbl that will shoot 5/8" groups @100 with 125NBTs. Scope is the Bushnell 2x6.
Contenders are addictive and fun to shoot.

Coach

Again, the .357 Maximum. They're as easy to load as a .38 special and they shoot very hard and accurately.

I had a 10" .357 Maximum TC Contender that I shot IHMSA with. I started out shooting the cast RCBS .357-180 SIL bullet with H4227 at about 1550 fps, but after a while I changed over to the RCBS 35-200 FN cast bullet.

I cast them from straight wheelweight alloy, quenched, and lubed them with garden variety alox. They weighed 215 grains.

Contenders have long throats and I seated the bullet out,...just inserted it into the case deep enough to cover the lube groove.

I shot it with H4227 for a while and had no problem taking it to a bit past 1500 fps, but it really came alive with WW680. I found that you couldn't get enough WW680 in the case to get into an over pressure situation. In fact, unless you loaded the case virtually full, you would find that the outside of the cases would be smoked because it wasn't generating enough pressure to cause a seal between the case and the chamber.

I took the 215 grain bullet to a bit over 1700 fps out of the 10" Contender with WW680 and never saw the first hint of excess pressure indicators. After firing, you could tilt the barrel up and the cases would fall right out. There was never any flattening of the primers.

It is a very accurate load at that level and would just slap those 40 lb steel rams to the ground out there at 200 meters.

WW680 has been discontinued, but AA1680 is very close to its burning rate and I would expect similiar results.

Launching 215 grain bullets out of a 10" Contender at 1700+ fps really lets you know that something is going on out there at the end of your arm.

Welcome to the wonderful world of single-shots!

Having owned Contenders for over 25 years in a variety of calibers ranging from .45-70 down to .17HMR, I am a bit biased about them.
My favorites, and most used, are all carbines. I love my 21" .22lr match, 21" .223Rem. bull bbl, and most of all, my 21" .30-40 Krag.
The Krag might not be the most popular cartridge out there right now, but it will do just about anything you want to do in North America.
Using anything from 100gr. "Plinkers" to 180gr. Partitions, critters inside 300yds are in serious trouble!
Using the .22lr match bbl, I took money away from non-believers in Grand Junction, CO last spring by whacking golf balls at 67 lasered yards. I told the critics that I could call the direction of the trajectory of the golf ball by hitting it in a particular place and then proceeded to do just that. I was using CCI Subsonic ammo.
My .223 bbl carbine is my "tractor gun" when working around the ranch. Coyotes, crows, and other varmints are fair game!
I have fixed 6x scopes on all three bbls and don't feel handicapped at all.

Ed

Thanks for all the info guys. I will probably have MTM make me a 7-30 and a .45 muzzleloader bbl and will probably "have" to buy a 45-70 (got dies for it so it would be a waste not to right. ).


Mark

For deer, I am running a .30-30 AI in the 23 inch barrel that shoots 150 Hornady's really well. That thing is a shooter. For varmints I have a .223 that shoots 50 grain VMax into tiny groups, and a .22 K Hornet that is a hoot to shoot and cheap to load. Currently I am seting up a 10 inch .30 Herrett barrel just for kicks. I am having to wait for a good scope. It currently has a 2.5 Recoil Proof with rail mount that came off my Renegade, but I want slightly more magnification. I can't believe it took me so long to get hooked on Contenders, but I am hooked pretty bad.

Tom,

A poor assumption on my part. Thanks for the rebuke.

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Never saw it mentioned as rifle or pistol, I would be interested in the 17HMR if you do decide to sell and it is pistol 10" to 12" model.