T/C Contender Pistol 7x30 Waters

[liferider]

Just picked up a Thompson Contender 14 in 7x30 waters. Gun has 2.5 x 7 scope. Does anyone have any recomendations on 100 yard and 200 yard shot ammo on white tail deer.

 

[liferider]

need help friends

 

[hardluk1]

What do you mean, 100 and 200 yard shot on deer. You have to see if you have the skill and then fire for group so you know what your load does . 200 yards can be more than a streach for a handgun hunter. You will just have to find if you can shoot a decent group at 200 yards in a field setting. get a trigger finger adjustable by-pod to help.

Are you useing the federal vitashock ammo. That is a btsp bullet that fly's better than the old round point ammo.

 

[hoghunting]

Does anyone have any recomendations on 100 yard and 200 yard shot ammo on white tail deer.

Not quite sure what you mean either, ammo recommendations or your ability to hit at those distances. I handload for my 14" Contender 7-30W pistol and my longest shot has been at hogs at 214 yds. Those loads work very well. If you are using factory ammo, Federal may be your only choice.

 

[liferider]

This is my second contender, my last was a 30-30 barrel and I was accurate shooting deer at 100-125yards. Limitation on accuracy was the 30-30 ammo. It is not known as a long range round. The 7 x 30 waters has the neck down bullet from .30coliber down to 7mm, and the ballistic charts have it shooting a lot flatter tragectory. That is what I was curious about. Does anyone have a great load that seems to shoot more accurate than factory ammo and still have the ability to knock down. I am more than able to make the shot, I have a great history shooting 1000 yard shots with both .300 win mag, & Sharps 1870 with creadmore sights on the rear with a spirit level globe front peep sight. Plus this is not my first hunting hand gun.

 

[hardluk1]

A long time hunting buddy had 7-30 waters back 25 years ago. He used a ,I think, speer ssp 120gr bullet made just for the single shot pistols back then. His hand load moved along at just over 2300fps out of a 15" TC barrel. There is still plenty of data out there and with only one factory load with a BT spitzer 120gr bullet Guess you might as well try a box or two shoot them and chrony them and then you will have brass to load with and a basic to work from. If I remember close to right we both set our single shots the same 2" high at 100 yards. Mine was a lone eagle in 308. His i think about 3 1/ to 4 low of bullies eye.

No matter what I did with his or my handguns or what you can do at 1000 yards you will still have learn on your own. If you handloaded and 125gr nosler ballsitc tips for your 30-30 pistol you will be very close to what it would have done at 200 yards.

You may be way better off finding a TC handgun site ,maybe graybeards foum.

 

[41 Mag]

I purchased mine exclusively for an out of state handgun only hunt. After talking quite a bit with the landowner, I made up my mind to go prepared for the biggest buck and longest possible shot.

This said I did a TON of research on bullets, powders, and loading techniques for this particular round since I had never loaded for one nor had to form cases the way I had to for this firearm. What I found was that after all the internet advice, the Nosler manual had about the best instructions for forming cases of any info I had gotten. If your forming them from 30-30 rounds this would be my best advice, to find their manual from about 10yrs back and read through this particular process. Summarized, you set a false shoulder on the case, moving it back a little at a time until you can just close the action with a tad of felt resistance. Load with a medium weight bullet to a mid range load with medium burn rate powder. This will allow the case to form with the first load, and not produce any extreme pressure, which can easily occur if the bullets are seated into the lands.

All that said, I tried close to a dozen different loads, but found that RL-15 was the overall best performer. I also went heavy on my bullet with the 139 and 140gr selections. As such I spoke with several manufacturers about what their bottom end velocities for at least double or so caliber expansion. This gave me an area to work with on my ballistics programs setting up loads based upon different velocities and different bullets to get within the end range I was looking for. Once I had this I had a somewhat muzzle velocity to work towards. Not knowing if I would even be able to get there I worked up slowly to my max load which was above this, then backed it down to just the bare minimum I could squeek by with. I then worked through the loads until I hit on my final load with the RL-15, in Win case, lit by Win-WLR primers, and using the 140gr Nosler BT. This load from the bench will easily shoot 1.5" or less at 200yds with a bit of practice.

I made my hunt and the one buck I could have shot walked up to within about 15' of me. While he was a grand buck I passed on him, and was glad I did as one of the other hunters in the drive who got him I found out later was in pretty bad health.

I have used it to take one of the largest hogs I have shot to date and also to take a whitetail doe at a lasered 283 yards. At the shot she leaped straight up and was a crumpled heap before she hit the ground. The 140gr BT entered about 3" back of her onside shoulder, and exited out the offside one. Internal damage was far and beyond what I expected, but the meat on the shoulder was hardly messed up at all other than a usual 1" or so exit hole.

Today there are a LOT of other bullets which may work out even better like the Accubond, the SST or the Interbond. The overall thing to remember is what your impact velocities will be rather than what you can get the muzzle velocity up to. Your only going to be able to safely hit the mid 2200fps range with loads using the heavier bullets, but they will carry further, and retain more energy when they get there. I am hesitant about sharing my load data as there are so many different variables, and these actions aren't the best when you exceed the limits. However from the info above it will be easy to find the load data in most books as it is in several. Then just a simple work up to your accuracy load.

Good luck and I hope yours shoots as well as mine does.

 

[hoghunting]

I also used 30/30 brass and ran it through the 7-30 sizer, then fireformed. My fireforming load was using a mid range loading of W748 and Hornady 120 gr SP, which turned out to be very accurate. When working on a hunting load, 748 just didn't work. After trying 6 different powders, my fastest and also the most accurate loads were with Hornady SP and Nosler BT in 120 gr with RL-15 with CCI primers.

Each barrel is different so your best loads may be with other components.

 

[MCgunner]

This is my second contender, my last was a 30-30 barrel and I was accurate shooting deer at 100-125yards. Limitation on accuracy was the 30-30 ammo. It is not known as a long range round.

I handload my .30-30 barrel with a 150 Nosler BT and it's killer all the way to 200 yards. It's dead on at 200, 3" high at 100. It's packing just under 1000 ft lbs at 200 yards. It is a boat tail spitzer and opens up at relatively low velocities, really puts deer and hogs down quick.

My suggestion is to work up a handload with a Nosler BT or Barnes bullet, either of which will work at 7x30 velocities. If I decide to do something with my 7mm TCU barrel for hunting, I'll be doing it with probably a 120 Nosler BT. I ain't worrying about that, though, as my .30-30 does it all for me.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/27...-7mm-284-diameter-120-grain-spitzer-box-of-50