A friend of mine just bought a 10 inch 30-30 Contender and wants me to reload for it. If you guys don't mind sharing, what loads do you use?

http://www.handloads.com/loaddata/defaul...=Powder&Source=

You've probably already been here. They don't have many loads for handgun 30-30 but what is there should give a good idea, as the loads are from a contender.

There are a few in the members services:

http://www.handgunhunt.com/promo/membership/features/searchLoad.php

I have a 14" barrel. I load H4895/35gr with a 125gr Nosler Ballistic tip. Shoots under an 1" consistently at 100 yds. This powder might be a little slow from a 10". You might want to go with 4198 IMR or Hodgden.

I used a load much like the one above with a hornady 130gr SSPB

Bullet seated .010 off the lands.

I was up in the 36-36.5 range

Be sure to start low and work up.

Mine shot less than 1" at 100 yds

In my G-2, I use 36 grains of H-4895 with a 125 Nosler ballistic tip, I also had good results using IMR 3031 with the Hornady 130 grain sspsp#3020

I've just got into Contender hunting this year, but stumbled across the Barns 110 gn TAC-TX bullet which i've been reloading over RL7 and been very happy with. I'm shooting ~ 2500 fps in a 14" barrel. I started with recipes published by Speer for their 110gn bullets and stopped before I hit their max velocities of ~2700 fps based on primer pressure indications and energy. Brass still looks good after 4 reloads, but I am only neck sizing. The bullet is designed to function at the lower 300 whisper/blackout velocities (full expansion at 1300-1400 fps, or ~400 yards) and very well suited to slower moving 30-30 loads in pistol barrels. I didn't spend any time trying to wring the last bit of accuracy out of the load, but usually end up with ~1" groups at the range at 100 yards off a bench.

I reloaded the Barnes flat tip copper 150gn and never got it much faster then 2150 with a variety of powders. Based on the minimum full expansion velocity for that load the max range was ~150 yards.