Competitor Pistol

[joeb33050]

THE COMPETITOR PISTOL

I never got the Contender to shoot cast bullets to my satisfaction, so after 15 years and some 5 or more barrels I let it go.
The Competitor "cannon breech" single shot pistol has been in the Gun Digest for quite a while now; it always intrigued me although I'd never seen one; so at the end of July, 2007 I went to Competitor Corp and ordered a pistol and reloading dies in 30BR.
The pistol arrived in May, 2008, the dies in June 2008.
The instructions include these:
"NOTE: For best results chamber should be left lightly oiled."
"Full length resizing is recommended in handloading."
A case fired in the/my Competitor will not go back in the chamber unless it is oriented/fiddled with, FL sizing is mandatory.
The Competitor folks sent me 200 cast bullets, gratis, with the dies. These are similar to 31141.
I worked with the instruction manual and the gun until I was able to remove and replace the "cap" = rearmost thing you turn clockwise/counterclockwise to operate and load the gun, and the barrel. Having an advanced degree in "non-mechanical", I figure if I can do it, anybody can.

I measured OAL with several cast bullets including the gift bullets, and found that all would fit in the gun with just the gas check in the case mouth.
To get an idea of how to load the 30 BR, I filled a cartridge case - expanded 6MM BR Rem. Case-with powder, struck it off with a card, and weighed the powder. Then did the same thing with a 30/30 case. I was surprised to find that the 30/30 case averaged 40.16 grains of powder and the 30BR case averaged 37.74 grains of powder. The 30BR case holds 94% as much as the 30/30. Pretty close.
I've had great luck with AA#9 in 30/30; using 12.5 grains with bullets from under 170 to over 208 grains; so since the 30 BR is close to the 30/30, that was the charge.
I had some various small pistol and rifle primers and used these for the first, trial, outing.
The "gift" bullets and 314299's were loaded.
An old Simmons 4X handgun scope in Burris Signature Zee rings fit fine, so off to the range I went, Wednesday, 7/2/08.
After getting the gun sighted in, there were left 15 cartridges loaded with "gift" bullets and 19 cartridges loaded with 311299. I fired the two sets at two targets at 50 yards. Each target had one called flyer. Less the flyers, 14 of the "gift" bullets made a 2.05" group, and 18 of the 311299s made a 1.35" group.
(My Ruger MK II 22 RF pistol, from a very good rest and after a lot of practice, will average under 2" at 50 yards and under 4" at 100 yards for 5 ten shot groups.)
So, while it's ugly enough to make small children cry, the Competitor seems to shoot.

joe b.

[NSP64]

PICTURES....Must have picture. Sounds like my homebuilt 44mag my daughter named 'Frankengun'Attachment 7933 It averages 1" @ 50yrds

[jhalcott]

We made ZIP guns prettier than THAT franken thing!! BUT if it shoots it doesn't HAVE to be prety
Joe, I have the Lone Eagle in .308. It likes those 31141's also. With factory speed loads it gets to be a real hand full!

[joeb33050]

The trigger and associated apparatus is in the stock of the pistol. Here are some pictures.
joe b.

[buck1]

Joe, I have the competitor in .308, .270 win, and .243 win.
Although its not comparing apples to apples , I have done quite a lot of testing with my .308 and cast bullets.
My best effort was a 165 gr RCBS SIL cast from a hard mix of foundry type and ww that BHNed at about 24, lubed with lithibee lube and sized +.001 over bore, Rem LR primers and 3031 powder. My gun would allow neck sizing.
One thing I also do (lets see if I can say THIS rite)....
Is to take a loaded cart and dip the boolit only in Johnsons one step no buff wax (its a liquid).
And allow to dry. I dont even think its a real wax. With this I can run those 165 gr sils at 2400 fps into a sub 1" group at 100 yards from the Competitor.
After 100 rds I would start to get a slight lead star on the muzzle. That was the only trace of lead I could find. Eds Red would quickly clean the bbl of all traces of the load .
I dont know if this is of any use to you but I thoughjt I would mention it as it took me a year to get this load to shoot how I wanted. But what a pay off! FWIW....Buck

[Bass Ackward]

Thanks for the pictures. I wasn't exactly sure what this was and now I remember seeing one before, but that doesn't qualify me for squat.

I figure that there are a lot of people here that have no earthly idea what this is. I am at the top of that list.

The way you talk about seating your bullets out so far, this has to be one of those breach seating set-ups. Am I right?

[leftiye]

Bass, It sounds to me like the competitor folks took a page from the T/C peole when making their chambers. Many contenders, you can't reach the rifling at all.

Joe, A longer boolit, maybe? Sounds costom made for a Llewellen design. Also, with that much freebore, make your boolits as big as you can get to chamber without too much force (tight if possible, and yet not mess up the boolit/ ctg.). Hopefully, the chamber neck area will allow this. I'm sure you know this already.

[joeb33050]

Bass;
Not breech seating, even though no bullet touches the rifling.

Buck;
Can you neck size only all three calibers and have the cases go in the gun?

Leftiye;
The longest 30 caliber bullet mold I have is 311/314 299, and they're not touching. I'm trying bigger diameter.

Thanks to all;
joe b.

Thanks for the pictures. I wasn't exactly sure what this was and now I remember seeing one before, but that doesn't qualify me for squat.

I figure that there are a lot of people here that have no earthly idea what this is. I am at the top of that list.

The way you talk about seating your bullets out so far, this has to be one of those breach seating set-ups. Am I right?

[Bass Ackward]

Screw a chamber cast. The way that things tears down, you can shine a light in there from the front and kinda / sorta figure out how far up the pipe runs before it turns into a barrel. I hope for your sake it's before the taped portion on the front. Holy Moley! And people thought Roy Whetherby was insane!

I'd say that the groups that you reported in the first papagraph are danged good in this case. Stop right there, you don't want to wear your throat out any farther.