Reloading for TC Contender - any experts here

[riflewoman]

I haven’t loaded much for my Contenders other than the straight wall pistol rounds. But I did read somewhere that rimless cartridges, like 223, CAN shrink in “headspace” and eventually separate. This was because the hammer strike would force the case forward almost off the extractor. Only dangerous. If you shot the cases in another gun, presumably a bolt action. The solution was to dedicate cases to your contender.

 

[Outrider27]

Loaded 30-30 Win for a Contender for years, and shot relatively high volume, as I was an IHMSA competitor. In the 30-30 I had no problems that required bumping the shoulder, even though my loads tended to be heavy, as they followed the path set by J.D. Jones, since 30-30 loads in manuals were based on the strength of a Winchester model 94, which is not as strong as a Contender. What I did find (1980 vintage Contender) was that Contender barrels in those days tended to have chambers that were a bit large in the neck area, at least the 30-30 barrels. To better center the bullets in the chamber I simply did a partial size with an RCBS full length sizing die, sizing only 1/2 way or slightly farther down the neck. Accuracy did improve when I started the partial sizing, especially on 200yd/meter IHMSA rams. At the pressure level of a 30-30, even with J.D. Jones' loads, which were a bit over loading manual loads, brass growth was never a prpblem. Doing it this way was never an issue - cartridges always chambered fine and the pistol always locked fine when the action was closed.

 

[wagonman]

80-81 I used a 14in contender chambered in 30 Herrett as my unlimited gun in IHMSA I was stubborn every body were shooting 7tcu by then, my frame was the then new easy open model, I neck sized my cases intel they became to stiff for a snap shut closing toss them start over with new cases. today I have it in a 21in carbine conversion 7-30 waters sweet round. every 5years or so ill put the 30 herrett barrel on run it for old time sake.

 

[JSH]

Interesting angles and thoughts.
Every barrel and frame combo is a “set”. Mix or swap and problems may or may not arise. All of my barrels go with a specific frame, period.
A lot if not all issues with rimless cases arise from improper sizing. Remove the extractor/ejector (tomato/tomato) and see how it chambers.
Folks that are stuck on bolt guns can forget most everything they know about loading and sizing for TC’s.

Bump the shoulder, don’t bump the shoulder..........
I have a few lots of brass that has seen years of use, 30-30 and 7-30W. I have some 30-20 brass that has been loaded over 20 times for BB and not what I would call “soft” loads. It is still going but with a some what soft load.
What works for one TC barrel may or may not work for the next, same caliber or not. The various factory chambers along with variables in frames, each pair has its specific issues of likes and dislikes.

 

[0.1 Aggregate]

....I did read somewhere that rimless cartridges, like 223, CAN shrink in “headspace” and eventually separate. This was because the hammer strike would force the case forward almost off the extractor....

Not sure where you read this, but it is not quite correct. If true it would happen with every firearm with a firing pin.....it doesn’t. I suspect that what you read was that it was common for folks to over-size their bottlenecked cases for their T/C chamber, pushing the shoulder back. Bob Mikek started writing about this reloading problem back in the 1970s. Fire the same case with excess headspace often enough and it will separate.

A related issue was with the .35 Remington, a bottlenecked cartridge. Some T/C chambers were bored so deep so that even factory ammo would not fire reliably. Not limited to T/C, some Marlin rifle owners complain about the same thing. My T/C .35 Remington barrel does not have this problem, but a shooting buddy’s did. The “secret” with all bottlenecked cartridges is to not run the case all the way into the FL sizing die, but instead to only size enough that the case just fits in the chamber and closing the action trips the interlock safety.



.

 

[gemihur]

My Spring rig

Vermin watch out!