Anybody shoot one? Seems like it would be a great choice in the Contender due to the rim.

The 225 is a little hot for the 'Tender, but would work if you are careful.

try it in an encore?

I sort of disagree here. The 6.5JDJ designed by SSK's JDjones is based on this case. I've been shooting mine a lot. As they state, I think it's perfectly fine in a Contender. It used to be a factory chanbering but is now a Custom shop chamber only. Mine shoots extremely fine. I do think that a 223 is as good and brass is very cheap and easy to come by. The rim is nice in the TC.

Sorry guys, I stand corrected. The 225 is no longer avaiable as a Custom shop chanber for Contender. It is Encore only. I have an old Fox Ridge catalogue from the early 80's and it was listed. I guess the lawyers got to em!

I have a 14" stainless .225 Win. Contender barrel. It's one of relatively few that SSK has made, and I've been extremely pleased with it. If you're an HHI member, you may recall an article I wrote on the topic a couple of years ago. One can run it a BIT faster than a .223, but the handloader must also be careful to hold pressures to around 42-43000 PSI. That's not necessarily easy to compute, because much .225 loading data was pressure tested as CUP's, not PSI. To my absolute astonishment, H4895 proved to be the powder to use in my gun.The rim is nice, the case is strong and easy to work with, and accuracy is satisfying.
I suspect that JD probably wants to know who he's making a Contender .225 Win. barrel for, to avoid having it end up in the hands of a high velocity, high pressure loony. I'm not such a person, and he knows it.
I don't particularly like Encores, so I wanted mine in a Contender. For an Encore enthusiast, a .225 Win. barrel would be a fine choice for varmints. THEN, you can even hot rod it.