What is your favorite .30-30 Win. load for the original Contender?

125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips, Accurate Arms # 2230 Powder, Federal Brass, Winchester Large Rifle Primers.

An old gun dealer buddy of mine came up with this combination. He sold a pile of Contenders over the years and some of his customers urged him to make a sell a good load specifically for Deer Hunting with their Contender Handguns.

While my old gun dealer buddy did all the loading, I did all the accuracy testing of this load. Every time he'd get in a used .30-30 Winchester Contender Barrel I'd test his ammo in it. All in all I think it was around a dozen different barrels that I tested this combination in.

Generally speaking 5 shot groups at 100 yards ran from 3/4" ti 1 1/4" from the bench. Velocity would generally run from 2375 FPS to 2450 FPS in 14" T/C Barrels depending on the individual barrel.

I never did get to shoot a Deer with a .30-30 Winchester Contender with this load, but I load this same load for a buddy of mine. I don't remember what it chronographs in his 14" .30-30 Contender (actually not sure if I ever chronographed in it that barrel) but it'll put 5 shots into a 1" group at 100 yards from the bench with great regularity. My buddy has taken a few Whitetails with this load out to 200 yards, and every one has been a one shot kill.

IMR or H - 4198 is also a good choice for the 125's. In fact I used both of these in fireforming cases for my .30-30 AI. On the subject of the .30-30 AI I took a couple Whitetails with it, as did my youngest daughter. Granted my 14" .30-30 AI produced more velocity than is possible from a .30-30 Winchester. At any rate of the Whitetails we shot with the 125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip out of the .30-30 AI bullet performance was excellent producing one shot kills.

Larry

Hey Larry, have you ever worked with a .30-30 Ackely? I've finally fireformed enough factory ammo to start reloading. I'll start with the 125 grain NBTs. Any recommendations on starting loads and powders?

Thanks,
Troy

From what I recall, I think the 30-30 AI is one of Larry's favorites. I am sure he'll stop in and add his load recommendations.

A number of powders will work well in this cartridge, but don't overlook Re-15 as it is a dandy.

As to Larry's recommendation of the 125 grain BT, he is right on the money. It's a super bullet for both the standard 30-30 and the AI version.

Yes I have worked with the .30-30 AI. The one I had was a 1 in 14" Twist .30 Herrett Super 14 Contender Barrel that SSK rechambered to .30-30 AI for me. The main problem with this barrel is that like an idiot I sold it.

I worked with H-4198, IMR-4198, H-322, AA # 2230 & W-748 with 125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips and IMR-3031 with 150gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips.

The 2 4198's produced the best combination of accuracy and velocity with the 125's in my barrel. I had pushed the 125's to nearly 2700 FPS, but backed my load down to 2601 FPS with H-4198. Accuracy was great. I think the largest 5 shot group I ever fired with that barrel was slightly over 1" at 100 yards from the bench.

My barrel never did like the 150's for some reason as the best group fired with the 150's was right at 1.5" for 5 shots at 100 yards from the bench. Velocity with the 150's was 2437 FPS.

The 125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip really does perform great on Whitetails. The farthest range shot I made was on a dandy 3x3 Whitetail Buck at a lasered 286 yards. The buck was quartering towards me way more than I thought. The bullet took the buck midway top to bottom behind the near side shoulder, clipped on lung and traveled rearward exiting through the meaty portion of the rear ham just missing the bone in the ham. There was about a 2" hole through the ham, but I hardly tossed any meat away as it was a really clean hole.

The shot with the .30-30 AI that I am most proud of was a really nice Whitetail Doe my youngest daughter shot at 200 yards. She as a senior in high school at the time. We went out after school one afternoon. It was a really cold, windy miserable day. We hadn't been seeing much for deer movement so I decided to try a different location.

We ventured down off of the hills into the Mud Lake Bottom. About a quarter mile from the edge of the hills on the west side there stands a willow thicket about the diameter of a half a city block. There is an L shaped open spot through the center of this willow thicket that starts on the middle of the east side and exits in the middle on the south side. We parked the pickup in this cut out area.

I told Nicole we'd sit in the pickup until a few minutes before sunset and then we'd sneak out and stand in the pickup box so we could see better. I kept checking my watch and Nicole was doing some homework. I had just said in 5 minutes we are going to get out and brave the weather when I noticed a doe emerge out onto the meadow to the southeast of us. I told Nicole we could sneak out the drivers door and get in position for a shot.

I carefully opened the door, and as I got out I spotted another doe out in the meadow, but this time right in front of us about 30 yards away (in the narrowest part of the meadow).

We both froze and didn't move a muscle for a few minutes until the close in doe fed off towards the first doe we saw. I finally got Nicole out, the .30-30 AI Contender up on the shooting sticks and every thing was ready.

Nicole couldn't locate the Doe in the field of view so I turned the 2x7x Burris down to 2x. That did the trick, Nicole found the doe in the field of view but whispered "she's a long ways off". As Nicole had the doe in the field of view I turned the Burris back up to 4x, and Nicole said that was better.

I Whispered instructions to Nicole and slowly cocked the hammer. The last thing I said, I shouldn't have said. I had whispered to Nicole now this is going to recoil more than the .223 Contender, but it isn't bad. Just then the Contender ROARED, but the Doe never moved.

I quickly reloaded the Contender and went through the process of Nicole finding the Doe in the scope again. This time I whispered hold midway top to bottom right behind the shoulder and squeeze off the shot. The last thing I whispered was, "See the recoil isn't bad" and the Contender ROARED again. This time I heard the bullet find it's mark and watched the Doe collapse.

I immediately was slapping Nicole on the back and hollering GREAT SHOT. When we got to the Doe she was stone dead. The bullet hit right where I told Nicole to aim striking a rib on entrance and exit, leaving a quarter size exit hole.

I have been fortunate to shoot a lot of Whitetails over the years with Handguns, but I am the proudest of that shot Nicole made on that doe. That is a hunt I will never forget.

Sorry for getting so long winded, but it is a bad habit of mine at times.

Larry

That's a cool story Larry, thanks for sharing. You certainly need not apologize.

I shot one antelope doe with my AI last year in Wyoming using factory 150 grain Federal loads. They shoot extremely well (sub-1" usually), so I'm really excited to see what I can churn out with handloads. I've got some 4198 (don't remember which brand) to try. I've also read some good reports on Varget in the AI, so I think I'll try that. I might even have some IMR 3031 hanging out.

Thanks again!

You're very welcome.

I have used a variety of different loads for fireforming .30-30 Winchester Brass into .30-30 AI's. I always tried to seat my bullets so there was firm contact with the rifling throat on my fireform loads so as to help eliminate case stretch if at all possible. My fireform loads (I used both IMR-4198 & AA # 2230 with 125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips) were very accurate and I used them for practice as well as shooting Varmints.

Larry

I just wanted to report back that I developed a very accurate load with 125 grain BTs and IMR 4198. I used it in my 13" MGM barrell quite successfully on two antelope in Wyoming. I haven't used BTs for hunting much, but was pretty impressed with their performance out of this handgun.

FANTASTIC !

It is always nice to read about a happy ending.

I too worked with 4198 with both the .30-30 & the .30-30 AI. In both cartridges with 125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips I was very pleased with the accuracy and performance.

Larry