Author Topic: Decisions, decisions??? (Read 441 times)

grodon of the north · « **on:** July 28, 2004, 12:54:18 PM »

Hi ever-body,

Need some help on barrel selection? Got 2 new carbine barrels in the budget (budget...yeah, right) :roll: . I'm leanin towards 7-30 Waters and 22 match, both Stainless bull bbl., 24 and 21 inches, respectively, that Ed has in stock.
Better have some qualifiers. I live and hunt mostly South Coastal Alaska and am trying to go exclusively stainless. This really narrows selection of available bbl. but local weather demands it.
Want a bbl. for Sitka Black Tail Deer which average less than 100 lbs. but a really big buck can go over 200. Already have ss .223 tapered I really like (Shoots pretty good w/ 53 gn. Barnes) but thinking I need something with a little more punch for body shots out to 200+ yd. There's bears in the equation also. Most of the the places we hunt deer have bears too and in some cases they will follow your blood trail from packing or dragging out deer.
Question 1- Is a 24" bull barrel gonna be too heavy for packing around and erase some of the nice handling and toting qualities of the Contender carbine? Early season (bucks only) opens Aug. 1st. The deer tend to be high on the ridges and you have climb after them from sea level. The plus side is the Bears are occupied, hopefully with fish and berries.
Question 2- How about the 45-70 in carbine configuration. Anyone shooting these? Are they brutal kickers or what? How about a 300 gn Barnes at about 1800fps. I wouldn't go looking for a fight w/ a brown bear but I'm sure it would inspire more confidnce than my .223.
Moose and Black Bear are local possibilites too.
Dime size groups and shooting mini-marsmallows at 50 yd. is cool but maybe I should just forget about the 22 match for now and get both the center fire calibers?
Maybe I should git rid of my remaining pistol barrels and get all 3?
Maybe I should just go Encore?
This is getting to be an awfully long winded question but these are tough (maybe even "life changing" :wink: ) decisions.
Thanks for any input, Grodon, of the North

5Redman8 · « **Reply #1 on:** July 28, 2004, 01:08:53 PM »

Not a Conteder owner but I think i will throw my 2 cents in....45-70 will be a brutal kicker, it is in the beefier Encore. Brutal kickers are okay as long as you don't want to punch paper. The 45-70 would be great for the animals and distances mentioned.

The 7-30 Waters is a good round also. Pick your shots and It will take care of the animals you mentioned also.....maybe not brown bear? If you handload, you can do good things with the 7-30.

IF it were me, I would consider talking to David White about some of his Wildcats.... 308 b*e*l*l*m and others.

375 JDJ in a carbine would be fun.

Kyle

reelhook · « **Reply #2 on:** July 28, 2004, 03:08:39 PM »

You might want to look at the 358 jdj or the 375 which is available through TC. Another to look at is the 7/08 or even the 300 wmag.

grodon of the north · « **Reply #3 on:** July 28, 2004, 07:49:33 PM »

Yeah,
The 308*****'s interesting, as are the JDJ's. Factory 375 JDJ G2 carbine barrels are available, but only in blue, like all the new G2 barrels.

Not patient enough for the custom route wait I guess. If I was the 30-30 Ackley Imp. might be good. I like the idea of being able to feed it readily available, anywhere factory ammo.