I am kicking around the idea of selling my .44mag barrel for my Contender in favor of a smaller caliber. Since I bought a .45-70 barrel, the .44mag just seems to be unnecessary. I thought that a 10", iron sighted 6.5 TCU would be a good gun to pack along while rifle hunting; for those targets of opportunity that pop up. I would like to keep iron sights on it, just to make it easier to carry, and so I can just use the same holster. This whole thing is just a thought at the moment but any opinions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrew

I think you will be better served by 7 mm TCU in the 10".

There are more of them available and apparently the slight increase in bore diameter makes performance slightly better.

That said, Glen Fryxell wrote that he took mulies to almost 200 yards with 120 NBT and AA 2520 for 2200 fps at the muzzle.

Either are easy to form and the 7mm is fun with cast boolits just for plinking! Kinda less selection of 6.5 cast.

Everyone I have talked to or corresponded with, said the Nosler 120 BT is THE ONLY hunting bullet for the 6.5 TCU

Good luck finding one, TC was getting shed of all they had in stock for a decent price a couple of years ago, but they have moved UP in price since then.

Ed or Ron will be your next best sources of barrel location . . . other than classifieds in the sites frequented by the TC groups.

A friend gave me about 14 new boxes of nosler ballistic tips 100gr and 120 gr .264 cal. last year so I had to buy a barrel.Ed had one with dies real cheap so I bought it.It does shoot the 120gr well but the 100 gr do pretty also.I have a 7-30 waters and a 7mm supermag and you do have more selections with 7mm bullets I don't know if they are more accurate than 6.5 I can't tell much difference.The 6.5 tcu will shoot I really like mine.

I had a 6.5 some years ago and sold it. I've always kind of missed it. One of the reasons I chose the 6.5 over the 7 was bullet design. If you look at the different manufacturers info, and different load books, you'll see that almost all 6.5 bullets are designed to work at slightly slower speeds than the 7's. Anywhere from one to several hundred feet per second. That sort of thing helps out giving more reliable expansion when your dealing with short barrel pistols like this.

The 6.5 TCU is a great round and you'd do well to choose it.

I have noticed that this is not the most popular caliber in the used barrel adds. I definitely see a lot more of the 7mm TCU. My only real reason for considering the 6.5mm over the 7mm is that my father-in-law has a 7mm TCU barrel, and I wanted something a little different. He really never uses the barrel, but he says that it's so much fun that he would never sell it. It sounds like both are worth considering though. All I ever hear are good things about any of the TCU calibers. Thanks for your comments.
Andrew

They are both similar in capabilities so you really couldn't go wrong with either of them. I see the 6.5 about as much as I see the 7 in the silhouette community where we look for that small edge in the BC of the bullets in 6.5 (especially in the 120-140gr range). Most of the barrels that I see are in 14" variety as production compliant barrels (10") aren't as common becuase many shooters just bypass this category. If you're set on something "different" then hold out for the 6.5, but if you're looking for cheap barrels and dies then pick a 7mm. You won't be dissatisfied with either.