The 7-30 Waters is a perfect Contender cartridge, capable of excellent accuracy and powder, all the while low on pressure.
Cases can be effortlessly made from inexpensive 30-30 Winchester brass, and there are tons of 284 caliber bullets available.
yooper77
Very well said. I could not have said it better.
Several years ago I used a 10" Bull Barrel Contender in 7-30 Waters to take 4 Whitetails in a single season. All were one shot kills using 120gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip Bullets. One of which was a decent 4x4 Buck that turned out to be a whole lot farther away than I thought at the time of the shot.
This year I am going to be hunting Whitetails with a 14" 7-30 Waters for the first time ever. I am again loading 120gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips loaded with H-4895 in reformed Remington Brass with CCI BR2 Primers. This load will consistantly put 3 rounds into 1" or less at 100 yards from the bench at an average muzzle velocity of 2436 FPS.
About a month ago we had our Shooters Club's Annual Sight in Day, Fun Shoot. We had targets set up out to 200 yards and steel silhouettes out to 300 yards. We had a Ram Silhouette at 300 yards (all the distance we could get at this range). I had several shooters that have never ever shot a Contender Handgun before consistantly hit the Ram Silhouette at 300 yards either from the bench or from crossed shooting sticks. In fact I don't remember exactly but I believe about 50 rounds were shot at the 300 Yard Ram Silhouette that day and it was missed twice.
I too think the 7039 Waters provides to a good balance of Ballistic Performance vs Pressure / Case Head Thrust for the Contender Platform. It is also a very easy cartridge to load for, and in the Barrels I have had has produced good accuracy.
Larry