Playing with my 7TCU Contender

[Wolfdog91]

Realized I never posted these here lol !
Love it so far ! Can't wait to get a actual pistol scope for it and see what I does at some distance.... also....I may also be looking at a 30 herret barrel right now too lol !

[garandsrus]

That’s quite a fireball! Why is the extreme spread so high? Different load data?

7 TCU is a great cartridge. So is 30 Herrett. My favorite Contender barrel though is a 14” 7-30 Waters.

[racepres]

Realized I never posted these here lol !
Love it so far ! Can't wait to get a actual pistol scope for it and see what I does at some distance.... also....I may also be looking at a 30 herret barrel right now too lol !

Only thing "different" about 30Herrett is the Rim...and 308/9 projectiles are much easier to come accross... Ballistically...About Identical
Using 335 huh??? 7mm fireball
Not dissing Herretts... I absolutely Love the 357 Herrett!!!

[dale2242]

I had 2 7TCUs when my wife and I shot IHMSA.
I sold one and kept one.
We shot jacketed bullets in the 145-150 gr range.
The powders of choice were IMR4895 and H322.
I bought a Saeco mold in the 145 gr. range but never got around to casting and working up a load .
I did try it in my granddaughters 7MM-08.
It is a very accurate bullet.

[Delkal]

I don't have a 30 Herret barrel but this is another round optimized for a 10 inch barrel. While the barrels are cheap the idea of shortening and reforming a 30-30 never appealed to me when I have 14 inch barrels that can easily beat it. With a longer barrel you might want to consider a 7/30 Waters which is a 30-30 necked down to 7mm and fireformed. Or a 30-30AI which is a 30-30 blown out to a straight wall and a 40 degree?neck. This can pick up at least 100 fps with this over the 30-30 in a Contender.

If you are looking for more pleasant cartridges to shoot don't overlook a .357 in a 10 inch. Easy to load for and a Contender can take the hot loads if you want to push it a bit.

And you will have to get a 22 Hornet barrel that actually works since your H&R didn't work out.

[M-Tecs]

Realized I never posted these here lol !
I may also be looking at a 30 herret barrel right now too lol !

The 30 and 357 Herrett are very good cartridges and I have no issues with either of them except the current cost of dies. The 30 Herrett has been around for 52 years. Both the 30 and 357 Herrett are long past their peak popularity so things like die costs have increase greatly due to low volume. If the barrel comes with dies that's not an issue. I purchased my 357 Herrett in late 1975 or early 1976 and learned a huge amount since it was my first wildcat.

In the 14" barrels the 30/30 is a nice setup. In 10" barrels the 30/30 is a dog with a very load bark.

[stubshaft]

I've won more than a few IHMSA matches with the 7TCU and the RCBS 145 cast bullet. I also campaigned the 30 Herrett for a few years in the standing discipline.

[ttd444]

i own 10" barrels in 22 Hornet, 30 and 357 Herrett. also my dad (RIP) gifted me a 14" muzzle brake in 7x30 Waters.

by the way, ebay might have reloading dies. i bought the 30 and 357 Herrett dies there, $30-$40 each.

[BobT]

The Contender platform is my favorite gun. I have pistols and carbines in several different cartridges from .22lr to .45/70 including both Herretts a .30/30AI and several others. They can become addictive very quickly if you’re not careful.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[racepres]

If you are looking for more pleasant cartridges to shoot don't overlook a .357 in a 10 inch. Easy to load for and a Contender can take the hot loads if you want to push it a bit.
.

Oh My Yes... At one Time, folks "in the Know", claimed that the 357 Magnum was the most Useless cartridge in the Contender line!!
Glad I ignored that "noise"... I would Grab my 357 Barrel First.. for Most Uses!! But...No Reason to Have only a Couple!!!!

[Shanghai Jack]

I'll tell a tale on myself. Was shooting supine position with my TC in 7x30 14 inch. Switched over to my 10 inch 7 TCU and (wait for it) blew a hole through both sides of my jeans, my cowboy boots, and melted my sock to my leg. Lucky I didn't blow my calf muscle off. That ended shooting for the day and supine position for many years.

[Jeff Michel]

I sure miss Fox Ridge Outfitters.......

[koger]

I am with Delkal, get a 30/30 barrel and don't look back. I have a 12" 30/30 barrel and a 7/30 Waters barrel, both with the factory brake and scoped and they both shoot fantastic. Fireforming the 7/30 waters load shot a ragged hole at 50 yds. I also have a .222 barrel and a .22 lr. I have long thought about getting a 6.5 TCU barrel as I am a 6.5 fan. Keep up the great videos and keep us posted on your shooting, those dang TC's are so accurate and addicting it ain't funny.

[TurnipEaterDown]

I've won more than a few IHMSA matches with the 7TCU and the RCBS 145 cast bullet. I also campaigned the 30 Herrett for a few years in the standing discipline.

Care to share any loading data for 7TCU and the RCBS 145 cast bullet? Mine is frustrating me.

I get some 5/8" 100 yd 5 shot groups, and then: plop, same load does 1 3/4 - 2" (repeatedly).

I am willing to accept "me", and sometimes I get excited by a statistical fluke, but same day I can pull a just "decent" rifle out, and shoot 3/4" - 1 1/4" 100 yd 5 shot groups repeatedly, or my SBH ("Mr. wiggly", > 20K through the gun) and it shoots like always - 2" - 2 1/2" at 50 yd full cyl w/ a decent load, so I don't really think it's me all the time.

[high standard 40]

Care to share any loading data for 7TCU and the RCBS 145 cast bullet? Mine is frustrating me.

I get some 5/8" 100 yd 5 shot groups, and then: plop, same load does 1 3/4 - 2" (repeatedly).

I am willing to accept "me", and sometimes I get excited by a statistical fluke, but same day I can pull a just "decent" rifle out, and shoot 3/4" - 1 1/4" 100 yd 5 shot groups repeatedly, or my SBH ("Mr. wiggly", > 20K through the gun) and it shoots like always - 2" - 2 1/2" at 50 yd full cyl w/ a decent load, so I don't really think it's me all the time.

i too can claim to have had notable success in IHMSA with the 7TCU and the RCBS 145 Sil bullet. It took me a while to get there and it took a lot of trial and error experimenting to do so. That being said, it is my belief that fitting the bullet to your chamber is the first and most important step. Fit is far more important than powder charge and primer choice. It is possible to "win the lottery" and have a bullet drop from your mold and be a perfect fit to your chamber. It does happen on occasions, but you can't count on it. I have three 7mm silhouette guns, each with different chamber measurements, and each responded to the very same technique. I started down this path with a custom XP100 in 7TCU that had a somewhat large chamber throat. I tried the RCBS bullet sized .002" over groove, seated to OAL as specified in loading manuals, and many different powders.......and different alloys. Accuracy eluded me. Some groups were horrible. So I'll skip all the fruitless things I tried and will describe what worked.
I use Hardball alloy and size the bullet drive bands as large as I can that will still chamber. I size the nose of the bullet to .277" so that I can seat the bullet into the rifling. That bullet is seated much farther out than suggested OAL. I found this to be the most important step to accuracy, at least for me. The reason for this is that it assures as much as possible that that bullet will enter the bore straight and true. Without this step, and with my loose chamber throat, some bullets were tipping slightly before entering the bore and that was ruining any chance at accuracy. So summing it up, use an alloy suitable for the pressures you are loading to, fit the bullet to the chamber, and assure that the bullet aligns with the bore when you chamber the cartridge.
I then applied these same steps to a 10" Contender 7TCU and had success with my very first loads. Then I applied these steps to an XP100 7BR and hit a winner with that same loading technique. Powders I use are H4895, and AA2015 but anything close to those two in burn rate should also work.

[Beerd]

I'll tell a tale on myself. Was shooting supine position with my TC in 7x30 14 inch. Switched over to my 10 inch 7 TCU and (wait for it) blew a hole through both sides of my jeans, my cowboy boots, and melted my sock to my leg. Lucky I didn't blow my calf muscle off. That ended shooting for the day and supine position for many years.

Jack,
I know that isn't funny but it made me laugh anyway.
Kinda like shooting my 44 mag revolver in a Creedmoor position with no blast shield.
..

[1Iron]

I see several references to the 30 Herrett. Has anyone loaded 748 in the 30 Herrett? I have a NOE mold for a 150 grain boolit that I would like to load using 748. I like it in my 7 TCU.

1Iron

[Rapier]

Basicly any powder used in the 30-30 can be used in the 30 Herrett, just the powders, not the loads. I had several 10" 30-30s and a few 30 Herrett barrels and never cared much for the Herrett by comparison to the 30-30. You can use 748, 3031, 335, or 844 in the 30 Herrett just to name a few.

On the 7TCU, I owned a 10"and a 14" TC then had a Sinclair XP built by the father.

There was a load in the Reloading Annual that Inran across and I tried and liked in competition with the TC and the XP, the 145 RCBS silhouette bullet very hard cast and sized to groove diameter over 15 grains of H-4227 with the case then filled to half the neck with sperical buffer, then compressed by seating the bullet. Shot 1/2" groups at 100 meters.
I used a 70% WW, 20% lyno and 10% magnum shot alloyed in a 100 pound pot at about 1,200 to 1,500 degrees. Poured into muffin tins, then put into an old rebuilt Pro Melt and water dropped from the mould to be real hard. Then sized and lubed using Rooster Red LBT lube. No reason you could not PC them and size. The cases were commercial 223 brass, die formed, prepped and then fire formed then sorted by their actual water capacity, bullets all weighed and sorted.

Sounds to me like your bullets may not be casting with consistency, that is the reason for my use of the 7-2-1 alloy, consistent fill out and weight.