Original Contender question Gary?
I've got an original Contender Gary, in .357 Magnum with the screw-in choke. On its 1st outing, just to make sure it'd go bang, I casually fired (5) rounds of very hot factory Remington 125gr HP at 25 yards in a dim & somewhat 'smoky' indoor range. Got the surprise of my life! Group barely edged out from under a quarter!! I've never done anything but play with it (plinking & busting backyard marauding wildlife). What is the max cartridge you'd recommend for someone who knows how to follow loads and does so, happily & willingly. Have no intention of stressing it, nor do I want to in any way. I'm a revolver guy, have 500 S&W, 500 Linebaugh and so on so the heavy-loads outlet is fully covered already. Thank you.
if the barrel has the internal choke tubes then it is a bull
barrel and will handle a bit more than the thin octagonal barrels that had the screw on choke tubes. I can't think of many cartridges you can run that barrel out to. The 357 Max could be done as could our 356 GNR. In the past, 30 years ago, not knowing any better we ran several of the bull barrels out to 358 Winchester. A good friend, Tom Thomason, took a big buffalo bull with one of them.On the video you can see him shoot a round then change hands and run his shooting hand on his jeans to get some feeling back in it.
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I wouldn't recommend it today but it worked OK back then. It was probably inefficient as hell but killed the big Bison bull in a couple of shots. These days i would go with either the 357 Maximum or our 356 GNR.