After messing with the 7-30 Waters the last few weeks those 30-30s look weird. Lol. It has always been my favorite round though
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The only thing I have found out about contenders is, if you put two barrels in your gun safe, and close the door, they multiple!!!
My Contender adventure started in 1988 , my graduation present was a frame with super 14 223 wearing a 4x Burris . 32 years later still at it , mostly IHMSA and NRA Hunters Pistol . I would say my 22 Hornet and 357 Mag get the most use with the 100 M course silhouettes . I've shot my Dad's 30-30 barrel some , but I think I'm still partial to my 7-30Waters. It shoots cast great either light plinking or NOE 150 Hunters powered by IMR 30-31 or H4895 . 120 Sierra's are sub MOA in it as well . Another one that has a special place is the 10 3/4" 30 Herrett Custom Shop Barrel ( come from RJ's in PA ) . The Herrett does near MOA with 150 Lee's and with center or above hits takes down 200 M rams no problem. My hunting load in that is 150 Sierra Pro Hunter over IMR 4198 . I long balled a wide 7 pt in a corn field 19' season , at close to 200 yds . It's deadly accurate with the Sierra's and good all day long for clay pigeon chunks on the 150 berm.
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So I stopped by the Fort Worth gunshow on Saturday and found a Gentlemen who had a pretty good deal on a stainless 375 JDJ Barrel, Redding Dies and a bunch of cases. Thinking I didn't need anything that big I passed on it. Well my mind wandered and raced the entire day. Needless to say this morning I made it to the gunshow picked up everything and was home before the misses was out of bed. Excited to say the least.
I am so jealous that you have gun shows, Bloodhound. It has been about 13 months since our last show.
You will love that 375. You should load a SSK load in it to really see what she will do.
Here is a video when I was testing cast bullet loads.
https://youtu.be/wfMe1cPtjB4
Here is the 375-JDJ on a newer G2 frame. I shot this for 20+ years on an original "G1" frame with no problems.
Attachment 278717
...and original SSK Load Data from JD himself back when we used typewriters and paper order forms. Be sure to sneak up on that 52.0gr of A2520 load however. Watch your pressure.
Do NOT let newbies shoot these full power loads. This is the gun that broke my wife's nose. She bent her elbows when shooting it and I didn't see it in time.
Attachment 278718
I will be honest I went 3-4 months ago and was very disappointed. I went specifically looking for a Glock G45. I found three of them and they were all upwards of $800. I swore I wouldn't go back until prices started to go back down or at least level out. Since then I found a new interest in Contenders so I went with the mind set of "Don't look at ammo or guns and I will be fine" It paid off. I left both days happy. I did notice that prices were starting to come back down a little bit (except ammo and primers).
Back to my first post on this thread. There was one Gentleman that had the items I purchased and one more that had two Contenders and two extra barrels. That was all I saw on Contenders.
Tar Heel. Remember, I am new to Contenders. What is a SSK Load? The barrel I found was a factory 14" stainless TC barrel with a brake. I believe TC called it a "Hunter" barrel. I almost backed out again JUST because NONE of my books have loads for the cartridge. I did find some loads on Hodgdon.com and the Hornady website. Thanks for the Video. I am really looking forward to taking this out hopefully next weekend.
I haven't gotten into casting yet but I would like to which is why I joined this site. So I am and will use jacketed rounds for now.
The 375-JDJ is the brainchild of J.D. Jones, founder of SSK Industries and Handgun Hunters International (HHI). The JDJ calibers are wildcat cartridges based originally on the 444 Marlin case and subsequently on a variety of parent cases. Decades ago, you had to order the barrels directly from SSK Industries. When you bought your barrel from SSK, they would include a few pages of SSK load data derived by J.D. Jones himself. These loads are NOT for the timid since JD is a huge fan of handgun hunting. His large bore calibers were known to have the ability to take any game animal on the planet - and the large bore SSK Hand Cannons can, in fact ,perform this. The 375-JDJ is probably the most famous. The 411-JDJ is one of my favorites but I will warn you, with 340gr bullets at 1900fps will break your frigging wrist.
J.D. Jones was inducted into the Handgun Hunters Hall of Fame and has been awarded many other significant awards and recognition over his lifetime. He is a real character and in the late 80's and early 90's I enjoyed many a hunting adventure with him and the HHI crew.
Not too many people have original load data from SSK anymore. Save that file. Here is a link about JD on Wiki.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Jones
I didn't know that he was the founder of SSK. Is there a place where you can find the actual SSK loads? I have been doing a lot of reading on this topic and your insight has cleared up a couple questions. The gentlemen that i bought the barrel from told me "Make sure you hang on, it's a handful" He also told me that most wouldn't shoot it once they heard and felt the percussion. Made me laugh. Not sure I want to start on full house loads.
Customers who bought barrels from SSK were provided with a load sheet like the one in the previous post. There was no load data from the major powder manufacturers since the loads were Wildcat Loads. Later on after they became more common in the field, Accurate published data for the 375-JDJ. Other than that, I have never seen a compiled list since SSK sent you the pertinent load data for the caliber you purchased. If the original customers retained that data, they have it. With the aging of the original customers from 1980-2005 or so, I doubt this data resides on all but a few computers if they had scanned it in.
We had a HHI rag sheet which used to list a lot of data compiled by club members on the SSK calibers. Unfortunately they will be hard to find.
Any data you find in a industry load manual is probably safe to use. I would be very careful about using data from unknown sources since there is a pressure cap on contender frames which can be exceeded if one is not careful. I had a "pressure excursion" when developing load data with the 411-JDJ. When they say you "have a wildcat by the tail" they are not spoofing with any of the "JDJ" calibers - especially those based on the 444 Marlin case.
That's why I was confused. I missed the link you attached with the load data. Thank you for that. The data is fairly close to the hodgdon data. Starting loads start quite a bit lower though.
Sorry to hear about your Wife's nose. How long after was she shooting again? I don't think mine will touch the Contenders.
She was back out shooting in no time. Over the years she even whipped my butt in some matches. She sported a pretty nice scar down the line of her nose and if asked, she took great delight in telling the person how she got the scar. When she had a brown spot removed, they obliterated the scar when she had that surgical scar cosmetically repaired. Her perfect nose is no longer a conversation starter. :-)
She does still have the cartridge case to remind her about not bending her elbows while shooting from a bench rest with these hand cannon cartridges.
Someone may need this
Attachment 278813
Attachment 278856my .375 JDJ is a TC G2 rifle and i shoot a 220 gr hornady at 2300+fps with no signs of high pressure. i shot a large doe last year at about 90 yards with a quartering away shot and she dropped now and the bullet was a complete pass thru. i am going to try getting the serria 225 gr spbt bullet to 2500 fps with no high pressure if i can.
[QUOTE=dannyd;5132691]Someone may need this
Thanks DannyD!
Sweet rig eastbank!