30-30 Win.

Anyone here hunt with a contender in a 30-30 Win? I just bought one and I am planning on using it for deer this year!

it will be great fun for ya! i have the ackley improved 30-30 in a 14"er. i killed a couple deer, n i know a feller that killed a lil chicken thief red fox

Well if you are the same KYODE I know from another site, you have probably seen it in the classified firearms section.

Oh no!! You mean there is another KYODE! There is another dirtydawg on this site too. He stole my name so he truly is a dirty dog. But then come to realize that he signed up 3 months before me. Guess I am a true dertie dawg then too.

Good solid caliber for a Contender. My longest shot was 278 yards. You do your part and it will serve you well.

No, he is the one and only on both sites!

What is the "other site".

Thanks Ernie. I was sure there was only ONE little buddy from Kentucky, but ya just never know for sure now days.

I am sure you will like the .30-30 Winchester in a Contender. I have done a fair amount of shooting with the .30-30 Winchester in a Contender but never did have the opportunity to harvest a Whitetail with it. I have used the .30-30 Ackley Improved to take a couple Whitetails with excellent results.

Larry

Thanks guys for the info! I am looking forward to shooting it. I dont handload, but after reading the article on the 30-30, it might be a good thing to do since it makes it such a versatile caliber.

My Dad used to use a 14" 30-30. We never really did find a good whitetail load for it to consistantly perform well with. That's why we traded it off. 125 grn jacketed hollowpoint was the best.

The cartridge is NOT very efficient. Shake a live round and you can hear the powder shaking back and forth. In a 14" barrel the velocity isn't what it should be for factory ammo to perform to it's full potential since it is made for a rifle.

Ours was always very accurate, we just never were satisfied with the down range effectivness on a Whitetail. (just my 2 cents)

I hope you have better luck with it. and if you don't, as mentioned above, have it modified to a 30-30 AI.

Trad-Hunter, I don't know if you have read this article on the .30-30 Win by Dan B yet, but it has some good information.

http://www.handgunhunt.com/readArticle.php?letter_id=26

The 125 grain NBT will work good on deer with the 30-30

I have a 30-30 ack in a super 14 and my buddy borrowed it for a sheep hunt. He pulled the trigger at 125 yard's and the 250 lb ram went down no questions asked. I'm taking it on both my Wyoming antelope and Colorado deer hunt this year. I load mine with 125 gn nosler boat tail ballistic tip's.

Lars

Welcome aboard Trad-Hunter. I have used the 30-30 for hunting for several years. The factory rounds will work on deer but leave remove for improvement. I plan to try the 30-30 corbon dpx hollow point this year. I tried the new hornady leverevolution ammo but it did not shoot as accurate as the plain 150 grain soft points. The deer I have killed with factory rounds have not left what I would call good blood trails. One thing on this site you will find (I am new here too.) the group highly recommends handloading for optimum perfomance.

P.S. If you miss a deer do not panic and reload in a hurry. I hate to admit this but the first three deer I killed with my contender I missed with the first shot and killed them with the second shot. The deer ran closer to me after the shot. I highly recommend the wrist ammo carrier for a quick second shot. You will be surprised how quick you can reload.

DeerDad thanks for the info. I will probably shoot factory ammo this year but I am planning on handloading next year. I had thought about using the leverevolution ammo but it is too expensive for me. I will probably shoot federal 150gr power-shoks. That is if they will shoot good enough. I am going to try those and winchester 150gr power points.

I have one in 30-30 as well and load it with 125 and 150 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips. I have only shot an antelope with it but it worked well and the bullet did just what it was supposed to.

It seems people either love them or hate them. My guess it has more to do with shot placement than anything.

I forgot to mention there is a 125grain hollow point available in a factory load but I never hunted with it. It shot ok on paper but never hunted with it (Wal-Mart ammo. Another lesson I learned with my 30-30 is about red dot sights. I mounted a TC red dot on my contender and had a hard time finding a deer behind some brush. The sight worked great at the range or in open woods but in heavy cover it is hard to see the deer with the dot even on its lowest setting. I have purchased some cheaper scopes and got expected results. Save your money and wait till you can get a Burris in my opinion, but I prefer sticking with my iron sights for areas where I will be shooting less than 50 yards. Finding a deer in the scope at less than 20 yards is easy enough but hard to tell where the crosshairs are on the deer. One more bit of info. Sports Academy sells some inexpensive 30-30 Monarch ammo that is good for target practice. Do yourself a favor and practice shooting free hand and not just off the bench it makes a difference. I prefer not to have the butt of the grip touching the bench. I just rest the barrel in a V support. This made a difference when shooting freehand. Good luck.

P.S. Don't try carrying the rifle and pistol make the commitment you won't regret it.

Great info Deerdad! I really appreciate it!

Does anyone have a favorite load for their 30-30 win in their contender? A friend of mine loaded up some rounds for me to try. He loaded up some 125gr nosler ballistic tips over 36gr of H322. I am going to try them this weekend. I was just curious. Thanks!!!

Two main things NOT to be skimppy with is optics and ammo. I buy the best ammo I can find. When you factor in the time and other expences that go into this sport, paying .30-.40 cents a round is pretty cheap compaired with missing your game or having to track a wounded animal. Practice with the cheap stuff, fine tune your zero with the high grade stuff you hunt with. There is also the factor of CONFIDENCE. When you KNOW you have the best, and you KNOW where that bullet is going to hit, you WILL be dragging more meat back to camp.

Trad-hunter congrats on your 30-30. You might be very careful with the rounds your friend loaded for you. It sounded like a hot load to me so I checked in my contender reloading manual #2. Are you sure he used 36gr of H322? I could not find a listing for h322 in the nosler section. I did find it in the speer section and they list H322 max for there 125/130 grain bullets as 33 grains. From what I have seen the Nosler section tends to be more conservative tham the speer section. Good luck with your 30-30 I hope to go sight mine in today. Larry

Trad hunter I found a Winchester supreme round for the 30-30 at Academy sports that Winchester calls a ballistic tip. I will try them out on paper next weekend. This looks like a good factory round for us folks that do not reload yet. Its stats. compare with the Leverevolution. I hope it groups better the the Leverevolutin did.

I hunted with a 30-30 super 14 for a couple of years. I killed my first contender deer with it. Doe at 85 yards, ran about 75yds and fell. I don't have my reloading data for the round, but I was loading 150 nosler ballistic tips. The bullet was right behind the shoulder quartering forward came out the other shoulder. Bullet hole was as big as your thumb. So bullet definitely expanded well. I was shooting an inch group at 100yds off of sandbags.

Longstrides you may be right on those loads. I havent shot them yet but I have done some looking around and I see the same data you found. I will have to ask him where he got his data. Thanks for the heads up!

trad-hunter, I've hunted with a 14" 30-30 Win 'Tender for around 18 yrs. I load my ammo with 150 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip, 34.5 grs WIN 748. I've killed 50+ southern whitetails with this combo. Shoulder shots will drop'em in their tracks, but no exit. A double lunger shot will leave a nasty exit wound. The only complaint I have with this combo is, I don't get much blood trailing practice...LOL...If you hunt larger bodied northern whitetails the results may not be the same....KRal

I asked my friend who loaded the rounds for me and the data he used came from the hogdon manual. The Lee manual had the same data showing 35grs to 37grs of H322 for the 125gr bullet. I think the sierra manual showed something like 32.5 to be max load of H322. Why are they so different? Does anyone know?

Different components (Bullets, Primers, Brass and different barrels) can and will produce different results in terms of velocity, pressure and accuracy.

I have used mainly the 125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips out of the .30 Caliber Contenders I have used for Hunting Whitetail Deer. In the .30-30 Winchester I have used AA # 2230 almost exclusively. An old Gun Dealer buddy of mine developed the load I used to sell as a commercial reload to all the guys that he sold .30-30 Winchester Contender Barrels to that didn't reload their own. I have accuracy tested this load in a half dozen or more Super 14 .30-30 Winchester Contender Barrels over the years for my gun dealer buddy and the results were always the same, 5 shot 100 yard groups from the bench between 3/4" to 1 1/2" at a muzzle velocity of 2400 FPS (give or take 25 FPS).

I also used this same load to fireform .30-30 Winchester Brass into .30-30 AI Brass in my .30-30 AI Super 14 Contender with the same results but that barrel shot that load to 2450 FPS. I also used IMR-4198 with the 125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip to fireform .30-30 Winchester Brass into .30-30 AI Brass in my .30-30 AI Super 14 Contender. Accuracy was right at 1" but I never did chronograph the load.

In my Super 14 .30-30 AI I again used the 125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip with both IMR-4198 & H-4198 in full power loads with great results.

If I was going to use Factory Ammo and not trying to break the shoulder I would try the Federal 125gr. Hollow Point .30-30 Winchester Ammo. I think at the lessened velocity of the Handgun it should perform quite well provided you don't shoot the shoulder.

Good luck.

Larry

Thanks for the great info Larry!

You are very welcome. Good luck on your upcoming hunts.

Larry

so Larry just how much 2230 did you stuff behind the 125 BTs in that do-it-all loading??

Bump