My buddy and I went to the range again today. This time I only brought out my Contender frame and 3 handgun barrels. I brought my 45-70, my 30-30 and my new (for me) 22 Hornet barrels. All 3 are factory T/C 14" bbls. The 45-70 has the muzzle tamer on it.
The "big hit" of the day was the 45-70 barrel. I brought out some very mild 400 gr cast smokeless, some medium range same bullet, some full power same bullet, and just for giggles, some 350 gr blackpowder rounds with 65 gr of Goex. My buddy wouldn't shoot it until I did first, even though I told him it wasn't bad... Heck I even brought a heavy shooting glove for him to use with it if he wanted to. Well for my first shot I figured I'd give him the full treatment, and I shot the 350 blackpowder round. If you've never experienced it, well it's LOUD! Especially with the muzzle brake. That first shot brought about 6 people over to the bench, including a safety officer, wanting to know what the heck we were shooting.... Huge BOOM, big smoke cloud, big fireball at the muzzle.... Good times!
When my buddy finally got around to shooting it, he opted for no glove, and wanted the BP round first. He actually was surprised it didn't kick harder (I TOLD him it wasn't bad). We ended up shooting all of the BP ammo, and most of the rest of the smokeless stuff. Another shooter next to us was brave enough to ask to try it, so "Sure, here ya go", and he was also surprised it didn't kick more. We shot that barrel until the batteries died in my Holosight.
My 30-30 barrel shows a strong preference for the 150 gr Sierra Gamekings, and the Nosler 150 Ballistic tips, shooting both bullets into the same group. It didn't care for the 125 gr loads I brought, scattering them around instead of grouping them. After shooting the 45-70 first, the 30-30 was almost a non-event.
The real surprise was my "new" 22 Hornet barrel that I traded for on this forum. It shot the very first load I tried all into one hole at 50 yards. I did pull and call pulled the very first round, but the next 4 in a row all went into one hole. COOL! The scope on it is a super cheapy and at 100 yards, it looked like you were looking through the scope backwards. It's good enough for 50 yards, but not gonna make it for 100 yards.
A couple of people were asking about the Contender, and how it worked, and were really interested in it when they saw me swapping barrels on the bench. Who knows, I may have corrupted (I mean converted) a few shooters to a Contender.
Now my buddy wants one with a 45-70 barrel for "range fun".
Good times, nice way to spend a Sunday morning!
