Previously I had mentioned the 30 Reece due to availability from MGM. Going back through the 30 badger / 30 Reece thread (
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...adger-30-Reece) post 85 says that MGM has a 30 badger reamer. If you are willing to pay the price, a 30 badger from MGM sounds like a super choice for a "just less than 30-30" hunting round. It uses 38 special cases, uses easy to find dies (30 mauser) and is super easy to make. Actually in a 10" barrel, I would not be surprised if the badger comes real close to the 30-30.
Even with all of my existing barrels, I am getting tempted to try out a 10" badger.
I really like the rounds that use a close to 0.375" diameter case (38 special, 357 & 223). This is the biggest diameter case where you can load to maximum normal rifle pressures in a Contender.
With 30-30 and larger sized cases people have damaged their Contenders (stretched the frame) with loads that did not look "too hot". Although I shoot my 30 Herrett a lot, I push it a lot less than I did before I learned about the above.
For cartridges that are 0.375" or less in diameter, you can just look at fired brass and primers to tell if your loads are safe in a Contender. As such, you can experiment around all you want provided you are careful, work up in small increments and pay attention to what you are doing. Note that the higher allowed pressure of this case size allows for some decent performance even with smaller capacities. This is why the 300 BO comes real close to 30-30 performance with a much smaller capacity.