My 20 year old .35 Remington barrel isn't quite as accurate as Greybeard's, but it will easily group 1.5-2 moa for four, 5-shot groups with it's best loads. I've always used a 4x Leupold and Pachmayr grips. The Contender was always about 150-200 fps behind my M336 with the same loads, which is similar to Speer and Hornady findings. Factory loaded 200 CoreLokts gave 1704 fps, very mild pressure and 3-inch groups.
While the 200 Corelokts are great hunting bullets and are a handloading favorite, I also like the Speer 180 for deer. With judicious loading 2000-2100 fps can be safely attained, and the performance of this bullet is excellent. Like most Speer HotCore bullets it produces a rather small mushroom and penetrates deeply for its weight.
The 150 CoreLokt (if you can find any) is also a good deer bullet in spite of some claims to the contrary. I can get almost 2340 fps with it, partly due to its very short bearing surface. It shoots well in my barrel, but others report spotty accuracy. On small deer it performs very well.
I shot one moose with a Speer 250 SP and it worked okay, but it would not have expanded had I not hit bone on the way in. I think that a Speer 220FN would be the bullet to use for moose.
My experience with handgun bullets in the T/C is not very extensive - they are less expensive than rifle bullets but their use is questionable IMO other than for plinking loads. Their thin jackets and soft lead cores guarantee overexpansion on game at .35 Remington velocities.
Bottom line - IMO you made a great choice!
