Going to try the Contender this year

[longwinters]

The 1st and last deer I took with a Contender (7x30 Waters) was a small 10 pt about 8 years ago. Hunted out of a ground blind and the set up was solid as a rock. The 60-70yd shot was easy at the stationary buck. 8)

I traded that pistol because I thought if a buck was moving I would not be able to get an accurate shot. Well, a couple of years ago I had that itch again and bought another Contender in 7x30. Put new furniture on it and took it out once that season but could not get set up right hunting out of a pop up and using a bipod. Also, the scope that came on it had a fine duplex. I never paid attention to it while working up loads but when it started getting late (in the big woods) I would not have been able to see it well if I did get a shot. So it sat on the shelf.....

Yep, got the itch again. So I am brain storming on how to make a solid rest to shoot from out of a pop up blind. Ordered a Stoney Point Tripod and am thinking of how to attach a small shelf on it to be able to rest the pistol on. It should be very portable and hopefully rock solid. The contender will shoot under 2" at 200 yds off the bench so :twisted:

I will let you know how it works. If it doesn't there is always the 7m08.

Long

 

[JD338]

Long,

I have the same itch!
I shot my Contender Saturday, both the 6.5 JDJ and the 7-30 Waters. Both are loaded with 120 gr BT's on top of 35.0 grs RL 15.
Decisions, decisions.......

JD338

 

[longwinters]

JD, Any ideas on how you would rest it when shooting? Out of a ground blind or permanent blind it is a piece of cake. Really even if a deer is walking you could look for an opening and set up waiting for the deer to walk thru.

This year I will be hunting Menominee county which is mostly farm field or swamp. I will be using the same scope but with being in the open I should have enough light that the fine duplex should not handicap me too much. I could also take a rifle and use which ever is feasible.

Long

 

[JD338]

Long,

I use Stony Point Pole Cat shooting sticks.

JD338

 

[Divernhunter]

I have an Encore. What I did was to get a syn rifle forearm and had the custom shop drill my barrels with one extra hole so that the rifle and pistol stock would fit. Then I got the pistol grip sling swivel kit and mounted it about 1" from the mounting hole on the rifle forearm. I now use the tall Harris bipod with it from a kneeling/sitting position. The rifle stock looks better in the 15" barrels also to me. The cost was $10 for the extra hole. The guy at the T/C custom shop told me this is how he did his and it worked well. I agree.

 

[1Shot]

I also do some deer hunting with a Contender. I have two barrels that I have killed deer with in the past. One is a wildcat the 225 Winchester necked down to 6mm. Basically a 6mm PPC with a rim on it. My deer load is 30 grs Varget and a Sierra 80 gr SSP bullet. It does 2700 fps from the 14" barrel.
The other barrel is a 10" 357 mag. 13.5 grs H110 and a 180 Hornady XTP will thump a deer out to 107 yards which is as far as I have shot a deer with it.

I have used a lot of pistol scopes over the years Leupold,Burris,Tasco and T/C but one of the best I have ever used is the Weaver classic pistol 2.5 - 8 X 28mm with the Dual-X reticle. It is a very clear scope, they have really held their zero. You can see the reticle well in lower light, not as well as a rifle scope but no pistol scope gathers as much light as a bigger bell rifle scope. I like the ability to have the scope on 2.5 power and have a wide field of view for close shots and when I need to I can crank it up to 8 power for longer range. The really great thing about the Weaver is it only cost around $200.00

For a nice portable shooting rest I took a camera tripod that I got from Wal-mart and used some string to tie a Caldwell medium varmint front shooting rest bag on top of it. You can adjust the legs independently so if the ground is not level you can level up your rest. If you need to raise your rest a little higher for some reason quickly all you have to do is crank the elevation handle a little. Works great.
I have toyed with attaching a piece of plywood about 6" wide and a foot or so long to the tripod so I could put a rest for the forearm and rest the grip also for even more steady shots.

 

[JD338]

For a nice portable shooting rest I took a camera tripod that I got from Wal-mart and used some string to tie a Caldwell medium varmint front shooting rest bag on top of it. You can adjust the legs independently so if the ground is not level you can level up your rest. If you need to raise your rest a little higher for some reason quickly all you have to do is crank the elevation handle a little. Works great.
I have toyed with attaching a piece of plywood about 6" wide and a foot or so long to the tripod so I could put a rest for the forearm and rest the grip also for even more steady shots.

That is a great idea! I was actually thinking about using a tripod, just wasn't sure how it would work. Thanks for your input on implementing a tripod.

JD338

 

[JD338]

Long, What is your load for the 7x30 Waters?

I am shooting a 120 gr BT with 35.0 grs RL 15, Fed case and GM210M primers.

JD338

 

[longwinters]

JD,

Shooting my 7-30 with 120 BT's I am shooting 35 to 36 gns of Reloader 15. With 140 Partitions, same powder, 34 to 34.5 gns. Win cases and Fed 210 primers. Guess we got the 7-30 figured out eh? :lol:

I think I have my portable hunting bench figured out. I will see if I get the tripod before this weekend.

Long

 

[JD338]

Long, same load. :grin:

I actually had excellent accuracy (.225" @ 100 yds) using 34.5 grs Varget with the 120 gr BT but the muzzle flash was tremendous. I might give it another try. I will clock the loads with my Oehler 35 and advise you with my results.

JD338

 

[longwinters]

JD,

I've never had real good luck with Varget. I know lots of guys do....but I could always find something that worked better for me. I don't know how many rifles, loads and calibers I have tried it in, and I always have some on the shelf, but I will stick with my "go to" powders.

And with the groups you are shooting, I think you will have a hard time giving up on Reloader 15.

Long

 

[JD338]

Long,

I switched due to the muzzle flash. You could see it on a sunny day shooting in the shade. It is huge.

JD338

 

[longwinters]

Got the Stoney Point tripod today and put my pistol set up on it. Sorry to say it was way too wiggly. The legs were so so (will be great when I use a rifle) and the top vee part was not stiff enough to attach my set up to. It would be ok for a 50 yd shot, but would be iffy otherwise.

So I grabbed an extra camera tripod that we had like previously suggested, by Oneshot. I took 2-10" pieces of 2" x 2", drilled a hole thru about an inch from each end. Put 1/4"x6" carriage bolts thru them. Kind of like an old wooden vice. put one piece of 2x2 on each side of the tripod plate and tightened them up. I did have to take a couple of pieces off of the tripod plate but they were only held on by screws. This widened the platform and provided a place to put a small shooting bag towards the front and a place in the back to rest my trigger hand. I plan to shoot the set up tomorrow at least to 100 yds. It is not as rock solid as off of the bench but it is quite steady. 8)

I am really looking forward to tomorrow.

Long

 

[HeathSexton]

I just got my first Contender, a Super 14 30/30. It shoots much better than I can. I also picked up an 8" .44 Mag that is real handful.

 

[JD338]

Long,

I shot my 7-30 Waters and here are the results-

120 gr BT
35.0 grs RL 15

Avg MV 2312
ES 26
SD 13

120 gr BT
34.5 grs Varget

Avg MV 2253
ES 7
SD 3

Both loads shot under .5".

JD338

 

[longwinters]

I just got home from checking my trail cam (does, fawns and raccoons). And shooting my 7-30.

Off of the bench, of course it is rock steady. But then I tried the camera tripod. Groups were kakaroach. Probably 4" @ 100yds. Not nearly as steady actually shooting as it was just resting the pisol on it in the house. I could kill a deer, but it is not nearly as steady as I thought it would be. I have another idea, but am not sure if it is worth it. Rifle shooting is a whole lot easier. No doubt a person could shoot off of a back pack etc and have a very steady platform. But in Michigan there are so many hunters that you find a spot and sit there. Being mobile just pushes deer to other hunters or puts you in front of somebody (and that does not make other hunters happy).

Maybe a portable shooting bench in side of a pop up?

Long

 

[JD338]

Long,

What about the Stony Point Quad rest? Maybe you could fasten a 1/4" board to it to "create" a bench? What do ya think?
http://www.stoneypoint.com/products/tp_ ... drapd.html

JD338

 

[longwinters]

That is basically what I used some years back except I used poplar posts, outside of my ground blind. They were very stable and I could put a sandbag on them which fully supported the forend of the pistol.

You would probably have to have it outside of the pop up as to have it inside would force you to be as far back in the blind as possible.....thus restricting your vision thru the window. Guess I am always behind the curve (not making money on ideas that someone else advertises 1st) as I was thinking of this since I have 2 Polecats now. I was thinking of taking 2 dowels and straping one on each side of the polecats. That would make them easy to fasten and would give a little wider space to put a shooting bag on, or a 1x4 screwed to the dowels and then a shooting bag.

Long