T/C Handgun Hunters, I have a few questions

[Redleg11b]

I currently load .223, 357/38, and have dies for 300 BLK (but no firearm chambered for it).

I am interested in getting back into the T/C single shot handgun game for hunting. I had one years ago with a 14" .223, 10" .357 Mag, and a 10" 22LR barrel set. This time around I am thinking about getting a rimfire of some sort, another .357 (maybe a Maxi) and/or something else. I am wanting to stay with 10"-12" barrels for better portability and a less muzzle heavy handgun.

I am undecided between a 10" 22LR or 12" 17HMR for my rimfire barrel. Which would you recommend for squirrel to groundhog sized animals in the handgun platform? This barrel would most likely be kept with open sights and shots limited to the lesser of 30 yards or where I felt comfortable.

I have thought about getting a 44Rem Mag barrel instead of the .357. The stouter recoil aside, the only negative I see is that I would have to get set up to reload for a different cartridge. Would the 44RM give me a large enough difference in terminal ballistics to make it a better choice for deer inside 75-100 yards? Would going with the 300BLK (since I already have dies and brass that can be converted) be a significant advantage to either of them? I prefer this barrel to be 12", if I can find one at a good price, and will wear a low power pistol scope.

I am sure we can all agree that the muzzle blast from a .223 in a 12" barrel is obnoxious at best. I remember it being horrendous in the 14". As such, I have thought about getting a 10" 22 Hornet barrel. I would like a twist fast enough to stabilize some of the 45-55gr varmint style HP bullets designed for the .223 to get better energy and a BC advantage over the RN style typically found in the Hornet. Do you feel this could even be a replacement for the rimfire barrel?

I appreciate all thoughtful responses, even if they do not directly answer my questions. Other chamberings I have contemplated include the 32-20, 327 Fed Mag, 30 Reece (and a few similar designs), 256 Win Mag, and 218Bee. Would you choose any of these over what I have mentioned above? Why?

 

[patience0830]

I suppressed my .223 and my .20 VarTarg. Much more pleasant. .22 for skwerls inside 30 yds with open sights. HMR on the inevitable body shots will be miserable to clean.

No personal data on the 300 B/O. 14" .35 Rem has been my deer pistol for many moons. Used a .243 on an Encore frame for a while. That and the .308 made good flame throwers.

 

[snapping turtle]

The gen one contenders have better trigger than the gen two. Have to Recock them is the main drawback. Since I have never had a gen two it does not bother me much.

Rimmed rounds are normally more accurate than auto rimmed rounds but we are not talking much. I can go into the difference of how the eject and how they chamber when closing but once again outside of silly wet shooters not much difference.

22 hornet can be mild to wild in a contender pistol. Brass is brittle in 22 hornet. 22 mag is often overlooked.

The pistol cailber rounds do well if you take the 357 to 357 max. Some factory barrel have a weird version of a forcing cone in the barrel and the jump to the lands a grooves is still in the barrel somehow. Custom barrels don’t have this jump. Teaming out to max or the 44 mag version takes care of that well.

Personal favorites are 22 match barrels in any length. 7-30 waters is a great pistol or rifle round for deer. Bought mine years ago as a deer pistol. Now I use it more as a rifle. Prefect SBR frame. Great platform for silencers as the action length is small so overall length stays minimal when adding a can. The sweet 16 inch barrels are pistol and rifle.

 

[Redleg11b]

Patience, I am trying to stay away from flame throwers and stick to lower case capacity cartridges. The 44 Rem Mag and .223 based cartridges are about as large a case I want to use. I still think the 44 and BO could produce a significant flash though. I guess a big part of that would be powder selection as well. Unless I am going with a longer barrel, I just see bigger capacity as case of diminishing returns.

JMarriott, I am somewhat familiar with the Gen1, Easy Open, and G2 variations (sliding cf/rf vs rotating lever, hinge pin location, locking shelf and lug changes, etc.). Do you think the rimmed cartridges are preferred due to normally lower operating pressures, or being easier to get consistent headspace? Maybe it is a combination of the two? Aside from the BO, everything I have been considering has been rimmed based on the information that they are generally preferred in the break open genre of firearms (T/C, H&R, etc.). When you mentioned going to the 44Mag version, were you talking 357B&D or just straight 44 Rem Mag? I was not aware of the different reamers being used for the T/C barrels, thank you for that information. I will keep it in mind. I have also read much on Hornet reloading and things that can be done to minimize brass loss. There is a 50gr load for the WMR that will get me where I want to be with bullet mass, but if it is not accurate in the barrel I get there is no way to tweak it. Maybe go with a 12" Hornet barrel instead of rimfire and use a red dot or 2X scope? I should be able to accurately use it out to 50 yards at least once I find an adequate load. The Hornet brass is one of the main reasons I had considered the 218. It does have more power, but is still small enough to be downloaded more readily than the .223.

I appreciate the thoughtful replies so far.

The only suppressor I have right now is one for my rimfires. I do desire a can for use on anything from .308 down, though I have been looking at a MysticX to be able to use it on the .357 as well. The price is a little tough to reach for me right now though. Because I handload, I should be able to keep everything else I have within the safety parameters of that particular suppressor with it's new baffle design. The nice thing is that I am not looking for ultimate suppression, just help with taming the initial blast. I intend to keep shooting supersonic ammo for the most part, but do enjoy shooting subsonic suppressed as much as anybody. It is a great way to open the door for a new shooter to two different avenues to spend money , and keep what little hearing acuity I have intact.

 

[jy951]

I would go with the 44mag over the 357. It has substantially more energy at longer ranges. I use a 10" out of an encore.

 

[snapping turtle]

Most of what I learned on TC contenders was from two sources. Fred at Bullberry barrels and mike at Belim TC’s .
Somehow mike lost most of his vast library of TC stuff off the web sight. I think he is getting it back.

The way fred described the auto rim’ s (223) verses the true rimmed (30-30 444) had to do with the way the extractor is different on the auto rims. It tends to place pressure on one side of the case during lockup slightly making the round not prefertly centered in the chamber. He did a quick fix on a 35 rem barrel in Tulsa one weekend. It did cause the round to not eject nearly as far and I carried a small bullberry branded screwdriver looking piece to help grab the round. Fingers barely did it. Just doing that decreased group size and inch at 100 yards. He also was big on barrel harmonics and forearms and came out with a few small tricks to make a bullberry forearm. Being a cheap guy I just ordered longer forearm screws and used rubber washers under the barrels which sounds strange but took any pressure off the barrel to forearm fit. The true rimmed rounds are easier to eject and when the lockup accurs there is not real pressure on the cartridge. I do think bill has retired. I think his kids still run the business.

In some firearms rounds that rest on the rim are better than rounds that rest on the shoulder. I have a couple 35 rem marlin rifles that I purchased cheap because the chamber is oversized and the round rests on the shoulder. Light primer strikes are common on them in with some factory ammo. Just takes a little fireforming and handloading and no light primer strikes.

Mike is the one who had all the info on sammi throats misaligned chambers factory TC barrels use of the weird forcing cone issues. He was the one who said get rid of the 35 rem and try this 7-30 waters barrel. Send in your 35 and I have a 7-30 will make you a true on. That barrel shoots lights out. I do think I will take it out thanksgiving day if I am still hunting then because I still miss hunting with a pistol. Met mike again and he asked about the barrel. I went out to the car (Ohio gun show) and brought in the pistol/rifle at that time. Well about three hours later with much talking the whole time a new a new hammer spring a tweek of the hinge fit and the trigger overtravel was now prefect. All done while he sold other items. I walked away lighter in the pocket on a second belim barrel in 30-30 and some items like hammer springs ect. I also gave him a 45-70 barrel that someone had shot a ton of black powder loads in. At 35-50 yards groups the size of a baseball. I was going to sell it off. About 45 days later he called. He had a new barrel ready for me. Seems that 45-70 chamber was not in line with the rest of the barrel. So he cut that one back did his magic sold it off and built me a new 16 inch 45-70 barrel. It shoots lights out. The old one was a bad factory barrel.

At one time there was fox ridge a semi custom shop (rumor was they made factory barrels also). I have two of their 22 match long rifle barrels. One shoots great. One shoots ok. mGM makes good custom barrels also. If you get a nice deal on a barrel and it does not shoot well it needs a trip to mike. He also does frame work muzzle crown repair Ect.

the 44 mag max (like the 357 max) I was speaking of is called the 44 mad max. You can ream out the 44 mag barrel to get rid of the weird factory forcing cone or just buy a non factory barrel.

I do like the single shot . The old one shot one kill thing always struck with me.

 

[snapping turtle]

Double post

 

[Hawkeye7br]

30 Carbine easier to find and buy dies than a 30 Reece. 17 HMR over 22LR if shooting groundhogs. I've had 357 Max in 10 & 14" barrels, now hunt with it in 21" Carbine barrel and love it.

 

[bstewrat3]

I am a big fan of rimmed cartridges in my T/C's. My 35 Remington and 300 BLK are both built to accommodate rimmed brass, but can still use the standard cases if desired. I like the rims because neither case has much of a shoulder and I have run into some factory loads that were pushed into the chamber when struck by the firing pin and did not fire. I load my 35 Remington on a shortened 30-40 Krag case and the 300 BLK on a 360 Dan Wesson case. I would go with a 10-12" 300 BLK for hunting.