Looking to turn my Contender into a carbine, for a nephew to use for deer in N.C.,pros and cons on this round please

Dave,

Not to criticize but I believe it would be a better value to get a used factory barrel in 7-30 Waters or 7mm TCU. If you get the TCU you could later rechamber or trade on the Waters. The Waters can be loaded back to TCU performance but it will do all that he'll probably need (though if he's like the rest of us it WON'T be all he wants! ). I think that the Waters (which gets about 200-300 fps more than the TCU in my 21" barrels) is very nearly as flat shooting as the 6.5x55 and a FINE deer cartridge. My TCU is practically the equal of the .30-30.

Of course if you get him a custom barrel... Well, his parents, wife-to-be, etc. will rue the day you turned him on to this obsession!

If you already have the barrel, then yes, it will do fine with careful shot placement, the proper bullet and reasonable ranges. I'd suggest either the 80 grain Sierra Single Shot Pistol bullet or the 80 grain Speer Hot Core for your applications.

But if you are looking to purchase a barrel for this purpose, then I'd go with either the 6.5mm or 7mm TCU, either of which can be opened up to more potent cartridges later on as his recoil tolerance changes. Or, as Hobie noted, you can certainly load the 7-30 Waters a little lighter than normal and still have a potent deer-dropper.

I used the 7 TCU carbine barrel this year & it worked out pretty well. With less than the best hits I still was able to harvest a nice sized doe. I just hope to do a better placed shot next time! By the way it was with the 120 Bal tip.