I had been shooting a T/C Contender for whitetail deer for a few years with a 357 mag 10" and a 6mm-225 14" barrel. This past Christmas I got a 14" Shilen SS barrel in 30-30AI from MGM. With a 125 Nosler ballistic tip pushed to an average 2670 fps with 33 grs IMR 4198 in a WW case with a Wolf LR primer it really shoots accurately. The stand that I hunt from only allows a max of 125 yard shots. You have to shoot quickly many times because the stand is on a logging road between two cut-overs and is only as wide as a pick up truck. On opening day of the east NC season last Saturday I took a doe at 98 yards. Placed the bullet in the center of her front shoulders broad side and dropped here in her tracks. Wednesday evening about 15 minutes before dark a 7 point buck came out of the cut over 55 yards away and just kept walking across the road. I grabbed hold of the contender as it was sitting on a sand bag and got on the bucks shoulder and by the time I finished my trigger squeeze and the shot broke he already had his head in the woods on the other side. The bullet struck just a little lower on the front shoulder than I like. The buck jumped in the air about 3 feet jerking his front legs up close to his body and kicking his back legs straight out and hit the ground running. He went 30 yards and piled up dead. The 125 BT blew his heart to bits and exited where the leg bone and shoulder plate meet and broke the off side leg with a exit hole the size of a golf ball.
