Several years ago I picked up an older Super 14 1 in 14" Twist .30 Herrett Contender Barrel at a good price. I promptly sent it off to SSK Industries and had it rechambered to .30-30 Ackley Improved. SSK did a super job with the rechambering.
For fireforming brass I had a hundred rounds of so of a commercial reload that a gun dealer buddy of mine loaded and sold to his customers that didn't handload that had bought .30-30 Winchester Contender Barrels from him. Truth be known I was involved in my gun dealer buddy coming up with this load as I did all the accuracy testing and chronographing for him while he was developing the load.
At any rate the load used 125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips loaded with Accurate Arms # 2230. In the 14" .30-30 Winchester Contenders I had chronographed this load in it typically produced 2400 FPS with 1" 5 shot 100 yard groups from the bench. In my particular .30-30 AI Contender Barrel (used as a fireform load) 5 shot 100 yard groups from the bench were typically 3/4" to 1" at an average velocity of 2450 FPS.
Once I had all my brass fireformed which I did a lot of target shooting but also shot quite a few varmints while fireforming brass it was time to start working up a load. Again I used the 125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip. A guy I had met via the net (shortgun) had sent me some of his data and told me that 4198 seemed to be a great place to start with 125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips in the .30-30 AI. I worked with IMR-4198, H-4198, H-322, W-748 & AA #2230.
Both of the 4198's produced the best accuracy and also the best velocity. Initially I had worked up to almost 2700 FPS with the 125's, but ended up backing the load off to 2601 FPS.
About that time ole buddy Kyode picked up a T/C Factory Super 14 .30-30 AI Contender Barrel. Shortgun, Kyode and I kept in contact with each other and actually all 3 of us shot some of the same exact loads in each of our barrels. It was kind of amazing that these different barrels loaded with different lot numbers of components on different equipment actually produced near identical results.
I had the good fortune to take a few Whitetails with the .30-30 AI. The first was at a distance that a lot of handgunners would consider to far, but the 125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip / .30-30 AI combination did the deed with a single shot and the buck dropped in his tracks.
However the Whitetail taken with the .30-30 AI that I will never forget (and am the most proud of) was actually taken by my youngest daughter when she was a senior in high school. Once she shook the gitters she managed to place a 125gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip from the 14" .30-30 AI right behind the shoulder of a really nice Whitetail Doe at 200 yards. Again bullet performance was superb and the Doe dropped in her tracks.
I am not really sure how case life will be with the .30-30 AI as I never used NEW Brass in loading for the cartridge. I scrounged fired .30-30 Winchester brass everywhere I could and some of it had been loaded several times before I fireformed it into .30-30 AI Brass. However a buddy of mine has a .30-30 AI T'C Custom Shop Contender Rifle Barrel and he is still shooting some of that same brass I started out with many years ago.
In my opinion the .30-30 AI really makes a lot of sence in the Contender. It is easy to load for and in a pinch .30-30 Winchester factory ammo can be used if need be.
Larry
