Other good bullets for .30-30 Contender include the Remington 125 gr. PSP and the Hornady 130 gr. SPSS. Both in stock at Midway and others.

Unfortunately the 125 gr BT seems to be hard to find, even directly from nosler. I found some 130 gr Hornady Single shot pistol bullets and will start working something up with those.

I just received 3 boxes of .30 Cal 125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips from Midway a few weeks back. At the time I ordered they were the only ones that had them in stock.

As per the Scope, a couple that I have become fond of are the 2x7x32mm Burris LER Handgun Scope, and or the 2.5x8x28mm Weaver Handgun Scope. I consider the Burris the 1st choice as it is quite user friendly and has the largest field of view of any variable handgun scope that I know of. On the other hand the Weaver is also an excellent handgun scope that is also quite user friendly (although not quite as user friendly as the Burris in my opinion).

In the 1.5x4x range I currently on know of a couple, one being the Swift and the other the Weaver.

Good luck with the .30-30.

SD Handgunner

Long ago I settled on using the 125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips loaded with Accurate Arms #2230 for the Super 14 Contender in .30-30 Winchester. In the many different barrels I have shot this load in over the years the velocity runs between 2350 FPS to 2412 FPS, and the accuracy has always been around 1" 5 shot 100 yard groups.

Just so happens I use the same bullet in my Super 14 .30-30 Ackley Improved Contender Handgun, but at higher velocity. I am pushing the 125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip out of the .30-30 Ackley Improved's 14" Barrel at 2683 FPS with IMR-4198 Powder.

Last Deer Season my 18 year old daughter (Nicole), my cousin in law (Bob) and I each too Whitetails with this load out of the .30-30 Ackley Improved Handgun. Nicole's Doe was standing broadside at 126 yards, and a single 125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip on the point of the shoulder was all that was needed. Bob's Buck (the largest Whitetail Buck he has ever taken) was running all out at about 40 yards, and also was a one shot kill, but only after a tracking job. The one I took was standing quartering towards me at 286 yards, and again one shot put him on the ground, but as I approached he tried to get up on his front legs and a .45 ACP to the back of the head ended his career.

Granted 3 kills with this Bullet / Load does not tell much of a story. However in each case the bullet completely penetrated the body, and we did not recover a single bullet.

I totally agree with Bobby in that at the velocities possible out of this cartridge in Handgun Barrels a premium bullet (with the exception of a Barnes X- Bullet maybe) would be more of a detrement than an asset. It has been my experience that it is hard enough to get Rifle Bullets to expand reliablly at the velocities possible out of handguns.

In over 22 years of shooting Whitetails with Rifle type Cartridges fired in Single Shot Handguns I have never had to track a Whitetail due to the bullets lack of penetration, but I have tracked a few due to the bullets lack of expansion.

SD Handgunner

Ps I started typing this a couple hours ago and we had a power outage and I had to start all over now.