best caliber in 10'' contender

[Nathan Bowen]

I am new to hand gun hunting and would like to now what caliber is best out of a 10" barrel? I have narrowed it down to the fallowing calibers 7tcu, 7-30 waters, 300 whisper, and the 30 herrett. I have spoken to JD Jones and he claims the 300 whisper to have higher velocities than the 30 herrett. My research since shows differently! I have also been directed towards the 7mm calibers listed above. I will mainly hunt white tails and mule deer in sw Texas. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[palgeno]

Of the calibers you listed, I only have one, the 300 Whisper----I love shooting it because of the lack of recoil and it's effectiveness beyond what one would expect. Whitetails are no problem if you keep in short to medium range-----mule deer?----well maybe if close in and using heavy bullets-----but then you need a slow twist barrel such as SSK---not T/C factory. Why not go a little bigger or heavier if you are including those big mulies? But then you probabaly need a longer barrel. A .338 JDJ in 14 inch would be a better bet on mulies and ok for whitetails and probably elk, too!!!  :roll: pg

[Whodaheck99]

I shot a doe this year with a 30 Herrett. It weight around 130 pounds. She was around 80 yards away, when I shot her. She was quarter in to me. I put it throw her left front shoulder, and it come out her last rib on the other side. It almost flip her over. She had around a 2 in. exit hole. It is a keeper for me. I was using 125 NBT, and Reloader-7. But in a 10" barrels, good for hunting also are the, 44 Mag. or the 445 Super Mag. I think the 7 TCU, is a good shooter, but you have to use heavier bullets. To get what the 30 Herrett does.

[jhalcott]

I have the 7tc/u in a 10", had a 30-30 but didn't like it. I would opt for either the 7tc/u & 120 grain bullets or the whisper using cor bon ammo.
  those mulies aren't that much bigger than eastern white tails.My 7tc/u &120 gr. load has taken a few whitetails in Md and Maine.Keep the range under 150 yards.

[Gregory]

In a 10" barrel I'd pick from a 357 Max, 41 Mag, or 44 Mag.  I shot one small buck with a 300 Whisper out of a 10" barrel using 125 gr Remington bullets. These bullets expanded well on gallon milk jugs filled with water.   Lung shot at 30 yds, very little blood trail and deer went 100 yds before piling up. All the bleeding was internal.  It worked, but I like the performance of the 357 Max and 44 Mag better.   I sold my 300 Whisper.

[Lone Star]

I agree that a 10" is a handicap for your open country hunting, but if you are set on 10" then the 7-30 is probably the superior cartridge, IMO.  I own and shoot the .300 Whisper and the .30 Herrett, and the Herrett outperforms the .300 very slightly in my 10" barrels - it would be by more in a longer barrel.  The Herrett is a hassle to make cases for, most of mine are over 20 years old.  

The 7-30 gives about 100-200 fps more velocity than the others with similar weight bullets, meaning flatter trajectory and higher delivered energy at long range.  That said, the .300 is not a bad cartridge and would be a good second choice if you don't minid simple case forming.   The 7 TCU is very weak by comparison.  A .41 o=r .44 Magnum may work well too, although the recoil will be higher and the trajectory more arched.  Regardless of the cartridge, use appropriate bullets which will expand a the reduced velocities of a 10" barrel.  I've had excellent game results (deer under 100 yards) with the 125 Nosler BTip in both the .30 and the .300.  

Note that plastic jugs full of water do a very poor job of replicating lungs full of air.  The bullets will often expand when hitting the backing plate if they did not do so in the water.  The Remington bullets were designed for high velocity rifles and like most conventional rifle bullets they expand poorly at velocities under 2000 fps.  Bullet performance was always a problem with the .30 Herrett until the BTips came along.  I had a heck of a time finding bullets which expanded 30 years ago, finally settling on the Speer 130s - which were pretty iffy past 75 yards.   The Noslers have a long history of good performance in 10" handguns as long as the range is not too far.

[Jim S]

I think the 30 Herrett is the best of the bunch. Especially using the
125 BT. I have shot deer, hogs and javelina down near Big Wells Texas and the 30 put them down with well placed shots. The 300 whisper will do the same thing as will the 7 TCU. The shot placement is critical in most hand gun hunting situations with the rounds you mention. My chronograph shows my 30 Herrett to be 200+ FPS fater than my whisper with the 125 BT. Now the barrel I have is an old 30 Herrett with a 1:14" twist barrel and it will get a little more velocity and lower pressure because of the land and groovs and twist. MY favorite load is 24.0/H4227/125BT Rem 9 1/2 primer. Please note this is a maximun load and may be over pressure in some guns so work up to it. It will also shoot under 1" when I do my part. Most of my shooting with the 10" 30H was 50-100 yards except one very unlucky coyote at just over 200 yards and yes it did run 50 yards before it piled up from a 125 BT through the ribs.

[Pinkerton]

I've got no personal experience with the 10" contender on deer, 7mm tcu in a carbine has worked well for my wife on both mullies and whitetails at 150yrds and less with 120gr hornady ssp's

Go to www.handgunhunt.com  go to the articles tab then click on feature articles, look for the article THE PERFECT WHITETAIL CARTIDGE IN A 10" CONTENDER.  by Larry Sands (a fellow South Dakotan) great article on the 7x30 waters. If I remember right he gives a good comparison between it and the 7mm tcu (been a while since I read it) it's good stuff.

good luck

[Gregory]

Note that plastic jugs full of water do a very poor job of replicating lungs full of air.  The bullets will often expand when hitting the backing plate if they did not do so in the water.  The Remington bullets were designed for high velocity rifles and like most conventional rifle bullets they expand poorly at velocities under 2000 fps.  The Noslers have a long history of good performance in 10" handguns as long as the range is not too far.

I judged the bullet performance based on the damage done to the jug, in my side by side test out of my 300 Whisper the Remington 125 gr varmint bullet did more damage to the jug than the Nosler BT 125 gr that I also tested. These were chrono'ed at 2050 fps out of a 10" barrel.  The damage done to the lungs of the deer  by the Remington bullet was extensive, there just was no blood trail. I'm not saying the Remington bullet is superior to the Nosler, I hadn't used the Nosler on game.   I prefer the larger frontal area of the 35 and 44 cal. out of a pistol.   My two cents anyway.

[Johnly]

I am new to hand gun hunting and would like to now what caliber is best out of a 10" barrel? I have narrowed it down to the fallowing calibers 7tcu, 7-30 waters, 300 whisper, and the 30 herrett. I have spoken to JD Jones and he claims the 300 whisper to have higher velocities than the 30 herrett. My research since shows differently! I have also been directed towards the 7mm calibers listed above. I will mainly hunt white tails and mule deer in sw Texas. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

In a 10" barrel I'd go with a 7 TCU. The barrels are inexpensive, brass all but free, moderate recoil and muzzle blast, and they're darn accurate. 27 grains of H322 and the 120 Nosler BT be running about the same speed at the 125 in the 30 Herrett, faster than the Whisper, and within a couple hundred feed per second of the 7-30W(which would be my second choice).  The nice thing about the 7-30W is that there is hard to find factory ammo out there.

[wheelgun]

I have the 30 herrett and 357 herrett in a 10" tube  and I like the 357 herrett much better.Mine is more accurate than the 30 herrett and a little bigger hole in game with the 180gr hornady ssp bullets.I have shot my 6.5 tcu alot more this year in a 10" tube and it is pretty impressive round.My 7-30 is in a 13" tube not a 10" but it has always been a great shooter.

[flatlander]

My first choice and recommendation would be the 7-30. It will do a great job, even in a 10" barrel. IMO it will outperform most any other round listed here, especially at longer ranges handloaded with a spirepoint bullet. Here is an article that has be quoted a few times here in the past and it is the same article that pinkerton was citing below.

www.reloadingroom.com/page43.html

[WNY_Whitetailer]

Good article...

[sawfish]

If you want a .30 cal, you might consider the .30 Merrill, which is nothing more than a .225 Win. case necked up to .30 caliber.  Water capacity is slightly greater than the Herrett, and you do not have the labor intensive case forming process.  Performance from a 10" barrel is about like a .30-30 Rifle with much less powder.

Data is somewhat sparse, but you can begin with .30 Herrett starting loads and work up from there.  There is some data available from Hornady.  Speer's TNT series varmint bullets work very well for hunting at handgun velocities.  They expand like ballistic tips at about one-half the cost.  It is a neat little low recoil cartridge.