Just found out about this and am disappointed to hear that Bullberry is shutting down. The made two barrels for my Contender and both shoot LIGHTS OUT!

https://www.bullberry.com/

Very sad. Only have one of their barrels. It's a dandy.

I had experience with him twice. One was a very good experience and the other was a joke. The .223 barrel I got from him did twenty shots in under an inch at 100, though.

Owned several of his barrels, visited the plant and did an article about him and his products.

We don't read much about Contenders these days; perhaps their time is past, also.

You may be right Rocky, but some of us antiques are going to hang onto them for awhile yet.

Dan

PS: Pigs hate them down this way.

PPS: Is this sufficiently "tacticool" to survive? I hope so because Mr. Sneezer is a cold hearted bastid.

This is the best backpacking rifle ever made.IMHO

Dan, Mr Sneezer is indeed a potent pig puncher. Chambering?

My tenders aren’t going anywhere. And when I’m gone my left handed shooting son will carry on.

Why it is the world famous .30 Sneezer. World hasn't figured that out yet.




185 grains of pure pig poison.


Working load these days runs about 1050 fps with a kick in the butt from Blue Dot.

What's in the grooves Dan?

That's a bummer, I had a custom Encore made by Virgin Valley Arms years back, and they shut down shortly thereafter......always thought about getting another barrel or two made for it.....

Tim

I lube them with dilute ALOX and when it is close to dry dust them with a mix of motor mica and graphite. They are sized .309 after the lube job and shot from a 12" twist barrel....they don't ever lead the barrel.

Have done the same with the Lyman 31141 w/o the gas check and it works as well. 5 shots on the top target. No Bull Berries.

Neat.

Years ago when Dad was casting/sizing a bunch he used Tamarack 50/50. It sure was sticky and I liked to put motor mica on them too.

Few years ago it took me months to sell a Contender with .223 and a 45/410 barrels at fair price, no one seemed to want it.
I understand, and don't miss it.
We used to have a fella at all the gun shows in this area selling T/C items, his display seemed to shrink and now AFAIK is gone.

The article mentions that Fred’s right hand man at Bullberry is looking to continue in Fred’s footsteps with the barrel making.

That case looks to be just a titch smaller than a 30 Herrett, which I suspect would work indistiguishably. Parent case for the Sneeze?

Whenever I see that cartridge mentioned I think of your article and my father taking up deer hunting with a Contender so chambered.

Well, another drift, sorry, but would like to know mold mfr. & alloy for those Beautiful bullets.

The parent case is the .357 Mag and I'll be the first to say the idea isn't original. Couple of other fellows have done similar things with the .38 Spcl and .357 Mag cases, but theirs were largely directed at jacketed bullets and full throttle. I went with my gut on the longer neck and intent to shoot subsonic with lead only. Bullberry's staff panicked a bit when I asked for the 12" twist, maybe because they are accustomed to those new fangled J-bullets? The case has very close to the same internal volume as the .300 BO. Like +/- a tenth or two of a grain.

Anyway, the alloy in the pictured bullets is 30:1 and I've since hardened it up a little with alloys that run in the range of 10-11 BHN. The 20# pot gets about 10-11 ounces of tin, 16 pounds of lead and about 3 pounds of clip on WW as I recall. The recipe is buried in the books somewhere but that's close. In the pic below is one made from the slightly harder alloy.


Not terribly relevant but the one of the left is a paper patch bullet for a .45-70 and on the far right is an AP core from an AK-47 that couldn't penetrate my hard head.


Mould maker was Steve Brooks https://brooksmoulds.com/index.html and the reamer was cut by Manson Reamers. https://mansonreamers.com/ I have nothing but the highest praise for both of those gents.

How very kind of you to remember it, mathman.

I never heard of a 30 Sneezer.

Unfortunately I had more of the latter than the former.

Because you weren't looking over my shoulder when I invented it?


My other Bullberry barrel is a .22 LR

I had 41 of Fred's barrel's over the years & everyone of them were great! I think I had 8 that had shot under .100" at 50 yds. Still have many of the targets on my wall. When Fred made his safari to Africa he invited me to join him, we had a wonderful time hunting together & took several nice animals between us. Great guy! He's had some back problems for many years, glad to see him stepping down & enjoying himself.

Dick

A very good thing apparently coming to an end. Enjoyed an interesting visit to their place in Hurricane and have enjoyed their barrels even more, especially a matched set of carbine tubes in some effective chamberings.

Sad to see them go...they made a quality product. I think the day of the contender is over

Did you catch that with your helmet?

Never saw that coming. I know I love my Contenders but I don't see to many being used anymore.

Especially at $400+ per barrel. By the time you get quality mounts and scope on one, you'd be talking nearly a grand per chambering. And people think golf is expensive!

Was cracking a joke. It came in thru the tail rotor pedals between my feet, penetrating some fiberglass and the cross tubes that connected both sides of the cockpit controls, bounced off my boot spinning like an angry bee by my right foot. It was HOT.

Rocky is right about cost, it takes a bit of loonyism to own one due to cost. That said, purchasing extra barrels for a receiver mitigates that to a fair degree. I have two set ups, one with standard contour barrels, .22 Short Match and .30.30, both from T/C. My first .30-30 barrel had to be returned to Fox Ridge due to improper dime, but the replacement is a jewel. The other has two Bullberry barrels, .22 LR Match and .30 Sneezer, both threaded. They all shoot wee little groups and to date a bunch of pigs. And a deer or three and a wide variety of pests.

The day of the Contender won't be over for me until I no longer can aim and fire one. All a fellow needs for this fun is a couple of good frames/stocks and a bunch of fine barrels - some in unique chamberings.

10X

Damn!, That'll get you blood moving aye!



Was the joke funny?

Not my call, you tell me.

Well, lets hear the joke.

Checked zero on my factory .35 rem super 14 yesterday.
Like the old ones just fine.

The real problem with Bullberry going out of business is that the hanger system they used to mount barrels is now gone. That contributed greatly to accuracy.

Dan, I had an AK slug souvenir, too! Mine came in through the floor and lodged in the ONLY piece of "armor" in the plane - a sheet of Kevlar the size of a mouse pad in my seat pan. The slug stopped less than two inches from my "bullberries." Crew chief dug it out and gave it to me with a strange kind of look on his face. Don't know what happened to it, unfortunately.

I guess that keeps us on the "bullberry" topic huh? LOL!

Was making fun of my hard head.

Rocky, I always wanted one of those 12.7 cores, but we didn't have anything that would slow them down.

That's why I ordered one yesterday.........


They still have em............. $15 a piece....

Funny thing - and lucky too - I was shot at with everything from a crossbow to a SAM, but the only things that left holes were .30-cal. I quit counting at a half million rounds fired at me. I never counted the holes, thinking it was superstitious.

do those hangers only attach to bullberry barrel setups?

all mine are factory stuff. accurate enough i reckon for now.

i've understood that a bullberry bbl requires their attachment setup.

SSK in Pa is actually going to make a G1 Contender frame early next year. I think SKK is run by one of the guys that invented the Contender at TC. New frames interchange, but have improved metallurgy. They are going to be 275.00, comes as a receiver just like an AR, pistol or rifle. So SSK is taking up some of the slack.

https://www.hausofarms.com/SSK-50-FRAMES_c_2185.html

The Bullberry hanger system fits any Contender barrel, but then only to a Bullberry forearm.

After a short time I only paid attention to the structure around my head, but lost tract so I only counted the times I didn't have holes within 6" of my noggin. 3 times during the first tour.

They weren't using Bullberry barrels I guess.

Outstanding! Ordering one soon. I only have 2 G1 frames three would be perfect.

I just spoke with Troy, he will be continuing the Bullberry 'shop'...

The website is currently being updated and should up in a few days with new ph. numbers...

If you're worried about a 'new' gunsmith taking over.... Troy has been the one doing most of the chambers for the last 18 years................

Hangar Systems will continue.......


www.bullberry.com

That's great news for all 'tender lovers, muffin. Thanks for the update.

Website changes.....

https://www.bullberry.com/

Are those button barrels or cut?

Tyrone, they use blanks supplied by outside sources such as Douglas etc, etc. No easy answers to the question.

Apparently Bulberry knows how to pick them & finish them! *That* is a skill worth paying for!

Talking with Troy the other day, they use Wilson Bbls. button rifled..................

Too expensive AFAIC.

Apparently Bullberry is back in business with different ownership, but same competence.

Same 'smith' that has been doing the work for the past decade or so.......... Troy.


One of his 'earliest' under the new name......

I've found that single shot handguns/rifles don't need much skullduggery to keep them from leading. I shot thousands of cast bullets made from straight quench cast wheelweight alloy through a .357 MAX barrel and soon forgot all about the possibility of leading the barrel. My hotter loads were doing 1750 fps and lubed with whatever alox was the cheapest at the time. No leading ever.

My most recent cast bullet experiment was the Martini Cadet shooting plain base commercially cast bullets of an unknown alloy at 1700 fps. I cut them down to 128 grains from 170 grain bullets intended for the 8mm Mauser cartridge. Cutting them down removed all but one lube groove so I painted liquid alox on the bore riding nose of the bullets after they were loaded into the case. No leading

Every so often I would run a dry rag through the barrel to remover the soot and the bore would shine like a new dime.

Revolvers are a different matter. The transition from the cylinder to the forcing cone into the rifling would leave lead streaks in the first 3" of the barrel with the hotter loads made from quench cast WW allow,....especially with plain base bullets. Gas checked bullets were more forgivable.

Fella can shoot pure lead max loads from a .44 mag w/o leading if they’re paper patched. 🥴 You don’t need to ask how I know.

Somehow, sorta, I don’t often stray from shooting bullets made from newfangled stuff if the cartridge was originally blessed with lead. For example, my .30-30, an aging Mod 94, was recently guilty of shooting a wad of Lyman 311041 at BHN 9-10’ish at ~2100 fps w/o leading, running about 1.5” at 50 with 5 shots groups. No quench involved. Lead that’s sized to throat dim is easy to work with.

Should try some in my .30-30 Contender barrel one of these days. I expect they will push 2200 FPS and tickle MOA.

AHHhhhh! Naked lead, fouls and shoots fer chitt!?!?!?!?

Group nearest the bull is THREE shots, 50 yds, from the rig above. So far has never left a trace of leading.

232 grns, Alox lubed, 1000fps.

300 Blackout

Back to the bench today, 300 Blackout, 50yds, 5 shots............

I think I'm done with this one... it's pig ready!

If you would stop using those little plastic people and dogs for bullets you'd have a nice round hole in that paper..