7-30 Waters?

WhiteoakJoe

Yearling... With promise
I just completed a build on a Contender Carbine for my 10 year old Daughter to start hunting with. I picked a Match Grade Machine barrel and had it chambered for the old 7-30 Waters, I have just started to load some ammo and will begin testing in the next few weeks. Wondering if anyone here had any experience with this round in a 20" barrel? I'm starting with 120g Nosler BT's and hope to get close to 2700fps . She will not get a chance to shoot more than about 150 yards max on our land. Most shots she starts out with will be closer to bow range. Just hoping I made a good choice for her first Deer Rifle.
 
I had a 7x30 Waters barrel for my TC Contender Pistol. I think it had a 14" barrel and had a muzzle brake. I sold that pistol and the barrels as I nearly lost my hearing from shooting it without ear protection (with the 223 barrel and brake). I never did shoot the 7x30 Waters very much.....but it did OK off the bench IIRC. I think it's a good round the way your using it. I stay away from muzzle brakes.
 
I agree, It took me one shot without hearing protection on a friends 18" 30-06 with a break several years ago to swear off muzzle breaks forever... I will live with recoil and keep my hearing LOL
I spent the extra $ on her barrel to have it threaded, just in case she needs a suppresser down the road, hopefully the next generation will have better hearing than us old farts, with the Suppressers becoming more common.
 
That should work fine. The 120 BT's have a great reputation for punching above their weight. I'm loading down my daughter's 7mm-08 with 130 Speers this year.
 
When I was a kid we used to hunt with an old man that had an octagon barreled lever gun chambered in 219 zipper that he hunted with. One hell of a cribbage player that old man.
 
That should work fine. The 120 BT's have a great reputation for punching above their weight. I'm loading down my daughter's 7mm-08 with 130 Speers this year.
I have a box of the 130gr Speer Hot Cores that I may load up also, but I don't have any experience with them in 7mm. I choose the Nosler for my trial run because of experience with the BT's in other calibers and like you said they seem to work well above their weight class on Whitetails. I went with the Contender Carbine for her because I wanted her to start with a single shot gun, and get it in her head that you get one chance at a Whitetail, make it count the first time. I didn't want her using an auto loading gun to start, as she could forget about a safety after a shot and get in trouble. And the bolt action .243 that she may move to is a bit heavy and long for her now. The other big advantage was setting up a little Rossi single shot .22lr with the same scope to use as a trainer for the bigger gun. I may put a .223 barrel together for her Contender later to take Groundhogs and Coyote's? Its great summer practice to snipe Groundhogs from the same blinds and foodplots to build her confidence.
 
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My daughter is 16 now. I started her with a ruger 77 / .357 mag, which worked very well. 2 years ago she went to a 7mm-08 because I have so many components for it. My son and I both shoot one also.
 
I'm a bit of a Gun Nut and a 7-08 is my next build, I have a Short 700 rem action stashed away for one in the safe, just have not found the right barrel yet. I want a 20" with a fluted straight taper in an ADL blind magazine, that will probably turn into her gun someday. May try a RemAge Barrel system? I want to go short because we hunt from elevated box blinds and its a bit cramped.
I grew up reading the classic outdoor magazines my Grandfather never threw away just kept in a laundry hamper in a closet. LOL. Jack O'Connor's Outdoor Life made me have to have a Winchester 70 Featherweight in .270 so its still my primary deer rifle right now. Elmer Keith made me want to shoot Deer with a 45-70 also... But I have now shot deer 10 different calibers. Most of my Rifle Experience was gained in KY (Crittenden CO). back when Indiana did not let us shoot rifles. Then the handgun calibers in Rifles was all Indiana allowed, making the humble Ruger "Deerslayer" 44 auto my farm deer gun for quite a few years. But I was thankful to get away from Black Powder as my best option. So my stands got set up for the .44mag and Muzzleloaders. That led me to put blinds in tight for the limited range, but it made bowhunting and rifle hunting setups the same stands in several locations. A few years ago Indiana opened up Rifle Season to "Real" rifles on private land, and I'm using my "Deer" rifles and playing with them all, just because the law allows me to do what I always wanted to and I'm making up for lost years and want to try every Classic Deer Gun I read about as a kid.
I have a lot of work to do to set "Rifle Blinds" up for the new distance I want to shoot from. But Elevated Homemade Box Blinds don't move easy, and after just over 30 years of use, some of those blinds are at the point of needing rebuilt anyway. So the $ may need to be spent on the box blinds before the 7-08 is built. Maybe this summer I will post the adventure of Building my new Rifle Box Blinds. If I don't just cave-in and admit I'm not in shape to build and erect them anymore and buy some Rednecks... But now I have a tractor with a front end loader so I should be able to build them.
Photo Below of my first year Rifle Hunting in Indiana after they "let me" use my .270 such a memorable hunt one of my best hunting memories!
 

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I hear where you're coming from on the short barrels, but I haven't found my 22" Montana to be awkward in our box blinds. Heck I even take my .338-06 out once in a while.
 
Don’t forget about Retch Sweeney!
 
Ha! I had to look that up!
 
7-30 waters is the best handgun caliber out there. Got some speed without too much punch.

7-30 is about as slow as a 7mm goes. Look for a cup n cone bullet. I'd give sierra game kings a try. Not sure if you can stull buy remington cor-lokts. They have the softest guilding metal (copper). Game kings are pretty soft too. Make some loads and whack em into water jugs. Alot of 7mm bullets are 7-08 and 7mm mag, so they'll ideally expand well around 3000fps.

Had a rare 336 marlin in 7-30 waters years ago. Never shot a deer with it. A handicapped guy at my towns rod n gun club loaded me up the same stuff he used in his contender pistol. Pretty sure he used game kings. Shot it a few times hee n there, then sold off most of my marlin collection to buy a house. that gun was a 20 inch barrel.

MY experience with 270 win, is small caliber bullets need more twist the 30 cal ones. Easy on the temptation to use heavier bullets. 120 or 130 should be ok. Newer barrels have mnore variety in twist rate due to cnc machining. Older methods of making a barrel, twist options are more limited.
 
With todays choices of bullets.

If one reloads.

IMO a 30/30 could do what a 7 / 30 waters can do. And more.

Or am I missing something?
 
Your right, a 30-30 especially with leverevolution powder and its gummy tipped bullets would probably be what I would have put together for me. Probably in an AI chamber for a few more grains avaliable. But this is for my 10 year old daughter and my primary requirement was low recoil. So being a fan of Ken Waters his invention came to mind, I spoke with Bullberry Barrels, and MGM Barrels, both of those companies spoke highly of the 7-30 for kids along with a few other rounds, and specificallysaid the 7-30 recoiled less than 30-30. But the wait time was high to get one built. I found Haus of Arms had MGM barrels in 7-30 in stock i could get shipped that day. So it was fated... She was going to start with a 7-30 Waters.
 
7-30 waters is the best handgun caliber out there. Got some speed without too much punch.

7-30 is about as slow as a 7mm goes. Look for a cup n cone bullet. I'd give sierra game kings a try. Not sure if you can stull buy remington cor-lokts. They have the softest guilding metal (copper). Game kings are pretty soft too. Make some loads and whack em into water jugs. Alot of 7mm bullets are 7-08 and 7mm mag, so they'll ideally expand well around 3000fps.

Had a rare 336 marlin in 7-30 waters years ago. Never shot a deer with it. A handicapped guy at my towns rod n gun club loaded me up the same stuff he used in his contender pistol. Pretty sure he used game kings. Shot it a few times hee n there, then sold off most of my marlin collection to buy a house. that gun was a 20 inch barrel.

MY experience with 270 win, is small caliber bullets need more twist the 30 cal ones. Easy on the temptation to use heavier bullets. 120 or 130 should be ok. Newer barrels have mnore variety in twist rate due to cnc machining. Older methods of making a barrel, twist options are more limited.
I agree, with my 270 the 130 grain has always been the best option for me, I'm going to start the 7-30 with 120gr bullets, deer are not elk I don't need high SD or BC for my farm shooting them inside 150yards. But I do like Partitions in my 270 for nostalgic reasons.
 
FWIW......I shoot a 25/06 cartridge allot on deer here in MN. The rounds I use are 120 grains (Remington Core Loct).......and the deer really go down with this light bullet. The velocity is about 3000 fps.....and it really hits with authority. I have many other rifles....but I prefer the heavy barrel on the Savage rifle I have and I like the accutriger. The round and gun is quite accurate to any range I need on my land. 250 yard or so is about the longest viable range here......and the bullet still has lots of punch out there for whitetails.

Normally, I take a high shoulder shot.....aimed for the off shoulder......and that seems to anchor any deer for me.....and NOW!
 
25-06 Is one cartridge that I have never played with, but everyone who has one seems to love it.
 
Your contender rifle is not a bad idea at all. The one problem with the marlin 336 rifle is the barrel is high compared to the stock, which exaggerates recoil. Much like needing to shoot the top barrel of a O/U shotgun for trap.....
 
Funny you say that, My "brush gun" in a Marlin 1895 45-70 18" I bear hunted with it, and now is used in my bow stands in thicker cover during rifle season. Where things tend to happen fast and near the base of the tree. I like a scope that goes down to near one power for those conditions. I put a cheek riser on mine to help with that scope. It was fine with Ashley open sights, but with a scope I climbed the stock and found it uncomfortable with 350gr loads getting a run at my cheak bone.
 
25-06 is a great hunting cartridge but is so limited in bullet selection that I prefer other calibers. If I did not reload it would likely be on my short list of hunting calibers.
 
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