If you had to choose between the 30-30 or the 35 remington barrel which would you by for deer hunting? I am looking for a replacement for my 375 JDJ barrel. I was thinking about the 375 winchester but factory ammo maybe hard to find. Any other ideas?

i love the 35rem for deer. my second choice(by only a smidge)would be the ackley improved 30-30....as in 30-30AI.

I would also strongly consider the 7x30 Waters.

For all out flexibiliy...go with the 30-30 as it has the easiest to find factory ammo. It would be my #1 choice of the two you have mentioned. The .35R is a wonderful round but factory ammo can be tempermental as far as firing in some barrels that I've tried...it a headspace issue w/ the smallish shoulder and non-rimmed case head. You also have the 375JDJ so there is no real need for a .35 caliber cartridge.

Gary mentioned the Waters...great cartridge if you handload. Factory ammo is scarse.

Wow, everything I was going to say has already been stated. I think you are getting great advice. I think Federal is the only person that makes 7-30 Waters ammo, but it is worth it if you are willing to keep it stocked.

i have all three.. 30-30,35 & 7-30 love them all i use the 7-30 the most.. if you dont reload only federal sells a factory load and they are 25-28 a box plus shipping..you can get little factory sellers that sell custom ammo but thers even more $$$$
but when it comes down to the cost to shoot and you dont want to reload.. 30-30 hands down you can walk in to a bar,tire,barber shope in the middle of eastda bumb and they will have 30-30 shells..

if it came down too it my 30-30 and my 22lr barrels would be the last two barrels i own just cause the cost to shoot them is so low compaired to the rest..


if i would get a new 30-30 barrel it would be an AI hands down even if i dident reload for it cause you might change your mind down the road and you can shoot factory ammo from it and it forms as you shoot it... just get a nice little bucket toss the emptys in ther and your good to go down the road..

Dave

You won't beat the 30-30 for bullet selection and availabilty. Factory ammo can be found everywhere. The Ackley version is also hard to beat.
Doug

Yeah , You cant hardly beat the 30-30 ack . But thats my opinion.

Lars

OK another question from the "wish he had a specialty pistol"

You are talking about the good ol' 30-30 round that is used in the winchester 94 lever rifles right? So this is a great round out of a handgun? It's just a 100 to 150 yard round out of my lever action, what makes it so good out of a specialty pistol?

But out of a Contender that is just about as good as you can get with a factory round. Most only consider the 7-30 Waters a 200 yard round. But just as the Hornady book states, “Only the handloader will see the full potential of this round.” And they are right. People like JD Jones and Reeder have done marvelous work taking the Contender to its limits. But then you have the option of either paying big bucks for premium ammo or reloading it yourself.

The 30-30 has just the right capacity to be efficient from a short tube. Plus the fact that factory 30-30 ammo is loaded with bullets that are designed for slower velocities of the carbines makes them proficient from 14" 'Tender barrels. Unlike most .308 or 30-06 ammo that is developed for use in long guns at 3,000 FPS which can't be attained in a short tube. You are also selling the 30-30 short from your rifle, back in the day when I was a youngun a lot of the elders carried 30-30's and they shot a lot of whiteys clear out to 200 yards+ with regularity.

P.S. The factory Federal 7-30 Waters bullets are not the best medicine from a short tube with the slower velocities. I specifically asked Sierra about that some time back and was told that their 120 Game King would not perform well at handgun velocities. The Nosler BT is a real killer in the Waters though and all I will use.

I have all three barrels as well. For the reloader the 7X30 is the ticket. For those that do not reload it is a toss up when you consider the Hornady Leverevolution for both the 30-30 and 35. This using a soft pointed tip slug for use in a tube magazine. These should work great in the Contender. The hornady web site lists velocity at 200 yards of 1916 FPS and 1304 ft-lbs energy. Not bad for the "OLD" 30-30 round using off the shelf ammo.

I believe a 30-30 win is better out of a specialty pistol than the winchester 94 lever action is because you can handload spire point bullets for the single shot pistol. In the tube feed rifles only round nose bullets are recomended due to the chance of primer impact on firing.

The 30-30 has been sold short for a long time, especially in a handgun length barrel. The Herrets were designed to be more efficent in a handgun, always thought that kind of statment was crazy. I threw efficency out the door the first time I ever shot a "rifle" round in a handgun, never looked back.

Still a lot of garbage out there that doesn't make sense to me?
The 30 Herret can do every thing the 30-30 can. The 357 max can do everything that a 35 rem can? Both of the little ones may do as well with light to medium weight bullets. Go to anything over the norm and lets see.

The .35 Rem can indeed be a pain with some barrels and ammo. As others have said,I'd also go with the .30-30 or 7-30.

My vote goes to the .35 Remington. I have the .35 Rem. in both an XP-100 and a Contender (rimmed). The main problem with this round in the Contender has more to do with particular barrels, rather than brands of ammunition. That was the reason the .35 Remington Rimmed was created. For the hunter, the most efficient bullet weight is 200 gr.. Using bullets designed for .35 Rem. velocities, expansion is reliable and efficient. My go to bullet is the inexpensive R-P 200 gr RNCL over either H-322 or AA-2520.

The 357 Maximum and the .357 Herrett are good cartridges, but neither can equal, nor beat, the .35 Remington. Especially with the heavier bullets. I have both the Max and the Herrett, and have hunted with both, but Mr. Oehler does not lie. In a Contender 2,000 fps with a 200 gr. bullet can be easily reached and/or exceeded without the use of frame stretching loads. In a bolt action, the .35 Remington can come surprisingly close to the .358 Winchester. The smaller 35s are fine cartridges, but are simply not capable of pushing a 200 gr bullet ar these speeds.

For the new gun purchaser, both the Max and the Herrett are handload only propositions,with some laborious case forming required for the Herrett. Neither are currently available as factory cartridges. Then there is the difference between a .35 caliber hole and a .30 caliber hole. "Size does matter." I have a number of different calibers in hunting handguns, but keep coming back to the .35 Remington because it works so well. Just MHO derived from almost 40 years with the .35 Remington.

While I also like the .35 Rem. in an XP, the original question dealt with a need for factory ammo. As you know, the .35 Rem. Rimmed is not factory available.

500 WE, You are correct, but it would depend on the individual Contender barrel whether factory .35 Rem ammo could be used. I have heard the later production barrels have pretty much eliminated the headspace problem, but have no first hand experience with one.

BTW is your 500 a Freedom Arms, or an Encore?

35 rem with 180 hornady ssp cant go wrong. works great on deer and hogs.

sawfish,
I own 2 .500WE's, both of which are FA's. One, now a convertible, was originally a Field Grade .50AE, which was retro-fitted with one of the early WE cylinders. The second is an octagon barrel Premier Grade. To my knowledge, no one has yet offered a .500WE Encore barrel. T/C did once offer one in .50AE, as did Gary Reeder.

Thanks 500 WE. I have not seen an Encore in that caliber, but I did not know if FA had chambered the 500 WE in its new single shot pistol. My understanding is that the 500 WE is a proprietary cartridge of FA, and brass and dies are only available through FA. Much like the JDJ Cartridges and SSK.