SSK reboots the Contender

[Wheeler]

Using Unique would account for the obnoxious blast. Although the blast from my 7.5" .357 Max is not annoying, I own that revolver primarily because I love Ruger single actions and any true Ruger fan will have a 7.5" Super Blackhawk .357 Maximum The cartridge really does best in 10" and longer barrels. .357 Herrett is similar, but I have found that it really does best in 14" and longer barrels. My 10" TC .357 Herrett barrel shot well, but I found the loads I tried left behind quite a bit of unburned powder.

I’ve been doing some serious consideration about delving into .357 Herrett. What powders have you used? Do you have any bullet recommendations?

[oregon45]

I’ve been doing some serious consideration about delving into .357 Herrett. What powders have you used? Do you have any bullet recommendations?

I used H4227 with Hornady 180gr .358 spitzer bullets. Because I was using it for silhouette competition, and I could get similar performance on the steel targets with the .357 Maximum, I chose the Max over the Herrett. The Max wins out for convenience and ease of reloading, but the Herrett is a good cartridge if you need the performance it offers and don't mind forming brass.

[Wheeler]

I used H4227 with Hornady 180gr .358 spitzer bullets. Because I was using it for silhouette competition, and I could get similar performance on the steel targets with the .357 Maximum, I chose the Max over the Herrett. The Max wins out for convenience and ease of reloading, but the Herrett is a good cartridge if you need the performance it offers and don't mind forming brass.

Thanks. That’s good info. I’m still pondering what direction to take while I’m plotting to get a BLR in .358 Winchester.

[Hambo]

I suppose it is, but I don't think "useful" figures into my father in law's pistol version. IIRC it's something like an 8" barrel or so, and exists primarily for the purpose of being obnoxious.

Way back in the day, when some states restricted handgun hunting/cartridges, a 10" Contender in Max with Hornady's spire point pistol bullet was the cheat code.

[awp_101]

So did anyone here actually order one yet? It looks like the early adopters are still waiting for delivery a year later...

[OlongJohnson]

I've had intermittent correspondence with Marty @ Haus of Arms. There was a mention in there somewhere of "S&W interference."

I'm told that I'm on a list for when any not already spoken for become available.

I understand the seriousness of IP issues, but part of me still wants to say S&W can screw up anything...

[Wheeler]

I've had intermittent correspondence with Marty @ Haus of Arms. There was a mention in there somewhere of "S&W interference."

I'm told that I'm on a list for when any not already spoken for become available.

I understand the seriousness of IP issues, but part of me still wants to say S&W can screw up anything...

John Sharps said in one of his videos that S&W sold the rights to the G1 Contenders to Lehigh Defense. How can they interfere at this point?

[OlongJohnson]

I've gone down the Contender carbine rabbit hole lately.

If you have a Hornady loading manual, read what it says about .30-30 with a 10 inch barrel. Probably not worth the time.

On the other hand, I think a 20-ish-inch carbine on a Contender frame and the .30-30 cartridge are incredibly complementary, like to the point where both may be optimized in that combination. A 4.5-lb Fudd gun that carries like an SBR and is chambered in one of the all-time great slayers of ungulates is hard to argue with. The lower pressure levels of the .30-30 are favored in the Contender over any of the newer mid-capacity cartridges, but the large-ish capacity still has the ability to impart significant KE to a bullet, as long as you give it enough time (barrel length) to push. Hodgdon's LeverEvolution powder was basically engineered to exploit this characteristic, and data shows significantly greater velocities than other powders in the 140gr and higher weights. Conveniently, H4895 is particularly well-suited to the cartridge at 130 grains and lower. It maintains consistent performance in low-percentage-fill loads, so it is likely to work better than most in the "oversize" case of the .30-30, and book data shows it producing some of the top MVs with 130 grains and below for the .30-30. Eliminating the restrictions of a tube mag permits loading spire-point bullets, which opens up a whole new world of external ballistic performance, not to mention the bullets developed in recent years for .300 BO will work beautifully as reduced loads.

And then there's the KISS aspect: Expanding hunting ammo in .30-30 is usually the cheapest, often even cheaper than the same product line in .223. Factory ammo is made for a 20-inch barrel, so you're running right on the design spec. You can just grab the cheap box at Walmart, check zero, and probably be good to go for taking out Bambi.

I'm close to spending money.

I ended up buying a CVA Scout rifle in .300 BLK for significantly less than just the custom barrel described would cost, so that basically checks the box of the concept above, but

My little terrier brain won't let go of some things...

...so I recently did a little more research on 7-30 Waters, and realized that everything I wrote above (except about factory ammo) is even more true of the 7-30. Still low pressure, so no issues stretching G1 frames, better ballistic coefficients for a given bullet weight, lighter varmint bullets with still decent BCs, Barnes LRX bullets that are engineered to have the same expansion velocity range as the TAC-TX matching the velocity range of the cartridge perfectly, etc. The 7-30 has a little more of a shoulder and some of the taper blown out, so you might get longer brass life. It is a SAAMI cartridge and there has on occasion been factory brass available. There's lots of good load data, and it appears to be in the H4895/Varget sweet spot for mid-weight bullets.

For a hand loader, a 7/30 carbine would probably be the lightest, most compact, shoulder-fired deer stalker you could come up with.

[OlongJohnson]

@Hambo

https://www.hausofarms.com/Newsletters_bc_2.html

Scroll down on the page for the announcement and screen grab from Book o' Feces:

SSK FIREARMS/LEHIGH DEFENSE ANNOUNCEMENT

This was posted on the SSK Firearms Facebook Page and we also shared it on our page. For those not on social media, we wanted to share it here as well:

We are pleased to announce that we sold Lehigh Defense to Bill Wilson the founder of Wilson Combat. Now that Lehigh's future is secure we can focus our efforts on taking SSK to the next level. We know that we have a lot of work ahead us, but we are up for the challenge.

Looks like Bill is in the monolithic business and SSK is back to focusing on Contenders. Scroll down a little more and they discuss the status of the SSK-50 project.

[Hambo]

@Hambo

https://www.hausofarms.com/Newsletters_bc_2.html

Scroll down on the page for the announcement and screen grab from Book o' Feces:



Looks like Bill is in the monolithic business and SSK is back to focusing on Contenders. Scroll down a little more and they discuss the status of the SSK-50 project.

Thanks for posting that. I'm in for at least one frame.