10" barrel questions

[GWCustom]

 I just picked up two new to me 10" contender barrels. The first one is a 30 Herret bull barrel. My question is I seem to recall that there are older and newer 30 Herret barrels with different rifling and different twists. The barrel that I have has 6 grove rifling is this an older or newer barrel? And what twist does it have?
 The second barrel I picked up is a 10" round barrel in .218 Bee. I call this a round barrel because it has a lot more taper than my other 10" bull barrels. The front sight also seems to be soldered to the barrel rather than having screws. I checked and it has a two piece bolt but the lug does not have the step in the bottom like my other barrels. When I got it it also had a screw in the forend lug that has a ball shaped head. So I guess my questions for this one are:
Is this a very early barrel? I thought all the early barrels were Octagon.
What is the ball shaped screw in the forend lug for?
Where do I find a forend to fit this barrel?  As my standard 10" bull barrel forend has a bit of a gap between the channel and this barrel. Or am I better off to get another 10" bull forend and just bed it to this barrel?
And last but not least is any body else shooting the .218 Bee in a contender and can you give me some good loads?
Thanks for any help.
 Van

[RonF]

I can't help you with the Herret question, but I can give you a little information about your Bee.  For a time in the early 1970s TC made some of these somewhat tapered round barrels.  Most of them were "scope only" models and had no sights.  The only ones I've ever personally seen were ribbed hotshot barrels with internal chokes, and they were not very much tapered, but some.  I'm surprised to hear that they made some with soldered on front sights, but I guess yours is proof.  The round headed screw was used with the early forearms, which had a spring loaded ball or plunger that snapped on to (over) the round head.  Unless you can find one of those at a gun show or something, you'll either have to use the standard bull forearm or get yourself an octagon forearm and fit it to your barrel by removing wood.  A dowell with sandpaper wrapped around it should do this job fairly easily.  Then seal the inside with some stock finish.

Hope this helps.

RonF

[7-30 Waters]

In regards to your 10" 30 Herrett the rate of twist for those earlier barrels was 1:14 and the barrels had 6 grooves and lands.  The 14" 30 Herrett barrels are desired by shooters who wish to rechamber to 30-30 AI.  New T/C barrels have 8 grooves and lands, but I'm not sure what rate twist the T/C Custom shop is using these days.

[GWCustom]

Ron,
 Thanks for the information. The Bee barrel definitely has more taper. The muzzle diameter of it is .655" where the other 10" barrels I have are around .715". This may not sound like much but it is very noticeable when on the gun. I wish I could find a 22LR barrel like this! It would be great with a small scope on for small game hunting! I must admit that I have never paid much attention to the ribbed hot-shot barrels. So i didn't realize that there were differences in those also. I had heard of the snap on forends but have only ever seen them listed for octagon barrels and had never seen the screw to work with them. Yes I figure I'll just pick up another 10" bull barrel forend and glass bed it to this Bee barrel.
7-30 Waters,
 Thanks. I was hoping it was one of the older ones with the 14" twist, but couldn't remember which number of grooves were the old ones. I think the 14" twist will shoot the 110-130gr bullets better than the later slower twist.
Thanks again,
Van