Tell me of your favorite T/C contender for hunting.

[brant]

If you shoot the contender or g2 tell me about your favorite. What caliber? Handgun or rifle? What are you hunting with it?

I had a few and gotten side tracked years ago chasing revolvers. All but one frame was sold. It is a blue g2 that has seen better days but has sentimental value. I was able to snag 2 more stainless g2 frames and am excited about them. When I clean up that blue frame it will become a 44 special carbine with a 20-22” barrel. I have a couple of leupold scopes that will work, maybe the 1 1/2-5x. One of the stainless frames will be an 8-10” inch .44special. Not sure about the other yet.

So I would like to hear what you have and what you are hunting with it!

[squigz]

I have a few barrels and 2 contender frames. Mostly hunt whitetail, black bear and ground hogs.

Not a lot of movement hunting I'll take my 14" 7-30 Waters with a Burris 2-7x or my 35 Remington with brake and a TC 2-7x.

When I'm walking/moving around a bit I have a 10" 30 Herrett with a 1.5-4x

Otherwise, smaller game I generally have my 22 Hornet or my 256 win mag.

I also have a 7mmTCU, 30-30 and 30m1. The 30-30 mostly gets range time because it's such a blast to shoot and I don't shoot the TCU or the 30m1 as much as I should since I enjoy the others so much.

[x101airborne]

My Contender used to get a lot of range time with several different barrels. Has been years since I have fired it at all. My most used barrel was a 14 inch 308 Winchester using heavy cast bullets. I was able to sneak within 60 yards of a corn feeder and one shot from my handgun dropped a 260 or so pound sow right in her tracks. Bullet entered behind the right rib and came out the front point of the left shoulder. After gutting I ran a steel rod through the bullet holes and it was over 30 inches of straight line penetration. Right now, another Contender frame has a 338-06 barrel on it but I haven't played with it much. I still plan on using cast bullets in it just for the economy of it all.

[Encore64]

Brant, you ask hard questions...

I've done Contenders since I was in Jr High and I'm older than most top soil.

My favorite Carbine is my 25-20 WCF barrel. I've also got a really nice custom 303 British, 38-40 WCF and 264 LBC (Match grade 6.5 Grendel) that I really like.

My favorite pistol length is much easier and has been the same for 30 years. It's a 14" 25-35 Ackley Improved built by VVCG which is now MGM. It'll shoot a 100 grn Ballistic Tip at an easy 2800 fps.

Second would be either my Bullberry 300 Savage or SSK 30-30 Ackley.

If I had to pick a single best cartridge for the TC Contender, it would be the 30-30 Ackley Improved...

[bula]

Easy call for me, only have one. A 430JDJ Contender 14" fell into my lap. The scope, from Brant. Trying to get used to a new type firearm, eyes that need glasses, and a scope on a handgun, all at the same time, is slowing the bonding process. It will be a tree stand gun, for deer. Anyone here, have knowledge of, or want to guess how many .430JDJ's were chambered ? Chambered in anything else but a Contender ?

[potatojudge]

I think if you're lugging around a Contender and giving up a repeater, the best use isn't straight walled cases. Sure there's plenty of power there, but you can do a lot better on trajectory going to bottle neck rounds.

I tend to run a small and a large round- one for economy and recoil, the other for maximizing performance of the platform. Could be anything, but mine happen to be 6.5 TCU and 7-30 Waters. 25-35 and 30-30AI would work just as well or any of a number of combinations. For pistols 12-14 inches gets you reasonable velocity. For carbines 16-18 inches keeps weight down on these heavy barrels.

No reason to under-scope yourself on these. Pistol scopes are limited to what's available. For a carbine, modern good glass with illumination and either a drop reticle or turret will help you squeeze some extra range and shooting minutes out of your rig, and magnification ranges mean you can do better than 2-7 or 3-9.

[magnumwheelman]

FIL had a collection of Contenders MRS & I inherited... I doubled it over the next 15 years, then last year sold off about 2/3 of the barrels, trying to reduce some of the calibers I was reloading ( I was reloading over 80 different calibers between all the guns ) I kept the 4 original engraved mountain lion blued frames

just recently got my 1st Encore, & now 3 barrels ( you know how those guns multiply ) now I'm trying to use the Encores & Contenders as companion guns pistols or carbines, for other guns I might hunt with...

probably my favorite barrel is an 18" vent rib .410 / 45 Colt ( can't say as I've ever fired that barrel with 45 Colt, as I have many revolvers, & a lever action in that caliber ) but in .410, in combination with a laminate thumbhole stock, it has taken more rabbits & squirrels than I can count

other than the .410, the barrels I most hunted with were the 10" 22 Hornet, & 14" 7-30 Waters, both of which went with me every time going prairie dogging, ( yes I know 7-30 is much more gun than needed for a prairie dog, but I always get 2-3 per trip, out about 400 yards or so, which I found pretty rewarding shooting with a single shot handgun ) & my Super 14, in 45-70 has been with me many times deer hunting... I did keep my super 14 35 Remington barrel, which I think would be an awesome Deer hunting gun, but with so many tried & true combos, I've yet to draw blood with that one yet...

My newest Encore barrels just arrived about a month ago... they include a stainless 500 JRH carbine barrel, as a companion to my 500 JRH BFR, & a stainless 9" 50-70 barrel, a handgun as a companion for my 50-70 Martini single shot rifle...

[seminolewind]

I used to hunt exclusively with Contenders until I started reading about Single Actions on this forum with you guys. My current Contenders, both in 309 JDJ, haven't been hunting in five seasons, but before I semi-retired them, sixty-six whitetails had been tagged using various Contender frames and barrels. The favorite barrel that started my Contender hunting is in 30-40 Krag caliber with four port mag-na-porting, a 2x Leupold scope and Pachmayer grips. I spoke directly to JD Jones at SSK Industries about load development when I bought it. That barrel alone has sent home thirty-five deer. I started using a Contender with that barrel back when we hunted out of Baker climbing stands. If you've ever taken a Baker elevator ride then you know what I'm talking about.

[medicdave]

Relatively new to the Contender game, but for me they make a handy little carbine. Mine is currently setup as a 7/30 waters with a full bull factory barrel I cut and crowned at 20". With rynite stocks and a VX2 2-7 on board it balances in between the hands and hangs steady offhand in defiance of it being just shy of six pounds. Shoots lights out and took a spike this year with no issue. Impatiently waiting on a 327 federal barrel of the same specs to arrive from MGM as a companion to my single seven.

[treborsnave]

My carbine set is a 22lr, 223, and 30-30. With those three barrels I'm covered from ground squirrels to deer out to reasonable range. There's a neat spot to hunt whitetail that FWP limits to archery, shotgun, and handgun (straight wall cartridge, barrel under 10.5") so I have a 44 magnum barrel specifically for hunting there.

[brant]

I like y’all’s set ups so far. I picked tune rifle and pistol barrels in 44 special for 2 reasons. First is that It is my favorite revolver round and I reload a lot for it and I have stored up bullets, brass primers and powder back when I saw things getting crazy. And secondly here in Louisiana our primitive firearms season requires a 35 cal or larger. I always take that week off for vacation to hunt. I’m already hunting with 44 specials in a 44 magnum rifle and love it. And on 2nd thought that rifle barrel will probably be more like 18-20”.
I really like the idea of the 30-30AI for something with more reach. The 7-30 Waters also makes me think. I bought a set of dies for the 7gnr from Reeder years ago, maybe let him finish that plan for me. That would be a fine little stalking rifle. I have no particular joy for 357 magnum handguns but love the rifles. It the 357 maximum is really calling may and again. I let one go once and really wish I had not.

[parallaxbill]

While I've killed the most deer with my 7-30 Carbine, I've killed several deer including two doubles with my Super 14 Magnaported 35 Remington. Also several with my 10" bull barrel 41 magnum and a lot of squirrels with my 10" match chamber 22 rimfire.

My go-to T/C deer rifle is my 24" Encore in 6.5x55 Swede.

[edk]

Contenders here for going on 25 years. At the beginning pistol cartridges were well represented in the barrel assortment however as the single action revolver bug bit they largely faded for the reasons potatojudge pointed out. Still hanging on to a 22LR and 357 in 10" for general use but have gravitated to longer barrels in bottleneck rounds. At present alternate between 22Khornet and 223AI for varmint work and for hunting. Here in NH where the deer can run larger and the ranges short, a 15" 35 Remington from VVCG gets the job done. Steve Stratton suggested cutting a counterbore for Krag brass and furnished the barrel with an additional extractor allowing the switch back and forth to/from 35 Rem. It has worked out just great and fortunately having previously laid in a quantity of the now discontinued Hornady 35 cal single shot pistol bullets there's no looking back!

[45MAN]

ONLY CONTENDER PISTOL EXPERIENCE HERE, ALL TIME FAVORITE IS A 14" 6.5 JDJ SHOOTING 120gr SPEER FLAT BASE BULLETS @ 2,500fps. IN RECENT YEARS HAVE ALSO HUNTED WITH A 12 INCH BELLM 357mag TO 357max RECHAMBER AND A 10" 45 COLT BARREL, I REALLY LIKE THE LATTER AS IT MAKES FOR A COMPACT/PORTABLE STAND GUN.

[sixshot]

In the 80's & 90's I was really into the TC's, had 41 barrels, mostly Bullberry's & most were wildcats. Everything from 17 MachV's, the 20 VarTarg's & 20 BR's up through all of the TCU's, just about any wildcat you can imagine right up to a full house 458 for an Encore that Fred at Bullberry built me. That barrel is now in Africa. I had quite a few carbine length barrels built for my kids with a dog knot on the end. That is about the last 4" were full diameter which made it easy for them to open because of the extra weight.
I won a 500 yd rifle match once shooting a 14" 7/30 Waters Imp. although it took a while because we all kept missing at first, long story. I took many deer, elk, antelope & one bear with different calibers. Hundreds & Hundreds of Rock Chucks bit the dust from dozens of calibers of Bullberry TC's. I took 2 of them to Africa in 2001 when Fred Smith, owner of Bullberry invited me to join him. I took a 6.5/284 & a 338/284 & shot several head of game.
Had an article published in Varmint Hunter magazine about 8 different Bullberry pistol barrels that had shot groups under 1/10" at 50 yds, I think all were wildcat calibers. It will be interesting when Tyrone chimes in, he's killed a bus load of deer with his 7/30 Waters.

Dick