One of the major advantages of Thompson/Center's remarkable Contender pistol is the ease with which different calibers may be selected. Merely by changing barrels, with sights attached, a shooter has a pistol of an entirely different caliber. The factory alone produces barrels in two dozen or so different chamberings, from the universally useful .22 LR all the way through the mighty .45-70. There's even a .410-bore shotgun barrel. Fox Ridge Outfitters, T/C's official customhouse, lists many more, including many formerly listed by T/C but since discontinued in favor of more popular sellers.

Most Contender shooters also know that several independent suppliers also manufacture barrels for their versatile pistol. Many of these custom shops offer all the standard chamberings plus more. In addition, they may offer unique wildcat chamberings that offer still more versatility. Truly, the choice of chamberings and suppliers can be bewildering.

And that bewilderment is the reason for this article. As an avowed Contender enthusiast, I devour every word written on my favorite pistol. Many times I've read something like, "Factory barrels are fine, but for real accuracy, I'll select my ABC Supply barrel every time." This introduces a dilemma for the average Contender owner in the market for a new barrel. Do the factory offerings meet his performance needs or must he spend more (sometimes lots more) for a custom barrel? In other words, how do factory barrels stand up against customhouse products?

To answer this question, I decided to run an extensive test series. To make this muzzle-to-muzzle shoot off as comprehensive as possible, I obtained a factory and a custom barrel in each of four calibers: .22 LR, .223 Rem,
7-30 Waters and .375 Win. These four calibers represent a complete shooting battery, suitable for everything from mice to moose. Other calibers might suit the same purposes, of course. I selected these four calibers because they are known to be accurate and effective in the Contender, all are currently offered by both T/C and custom suppliers, and all are modern, high intensity cartridges.

I eliminated wildcat cartridges from my test for several reasons. First, while the customhouses offer dozens of hot wildcats, T/C doesn't. Those that T/C does list are better suited to silhouette and other specialized uses than hunting, in my opinion. Second, some wildcats can only be fired in one specific barrel, due to varying chamber dimensions. This would make it impossible to shoot identically reloaded ammo in both test barrels. Finally, some Contender shooters do not reload, and thus depend solely on factory ammunition. I wanted my test to be informative for those shooters, too.

My source of custom barrels for this test was Bullberry Barrel Works of Hurricane, Utah. To say that Bullberry offers a complete line of Contender chamberings is a giant understatement. Their current catalog shows a staggering 95 chamberings, including a true .410 smoothbore and even two muzzleloading barrels for the Contender. Wildcats? Bullberry lists 15 different offerings in .17 caliber alone! Furthermore, Bullberry guarantees in writing that its barrels are capable of sub-MOA accuracy. Bullberry can make this guarantee because all its barrels are constructed from either Wilson Arms or Douglas premium blanks. The Wilson tubes are air-gauged to insure the most uniform bore dimensions. In fact, every Bullberry blank I've ever examined has had a mirror-smooth bore polished to apparent perfection. For details of listed barrels and a wide variety of custom services, see the address listing at the end of this article.

To prepare for the test series itself, I requested and received factory ammunition and reloading components from a variety of sources (see listing). Without the generous support of all these manufacturers, this very extensive shooting test could not have been attempted.

To obtain a reasonable and objective comparison between two barrels of the same caliber, I attempted to standardize as many aspects of the tests as possible. All eight barrels were of the 14-inch bull configuration. For the centerfire calibers, a matched pair of Burris 2.5-7X scopes in Burris mounts was used so that both barrels could be alternated. Every scored shot in the series was fired from bench rest and over an Oehler Model 35P chronograph for average velocity and standard deviation. All except the .22 LR were fired in five-shot groups at 100 yards. Only called flyers that were clearly the fault of this shooter were discounted in group measurements. (The tests were conducted on a public range, and muzzle blast from adjacent benches occasionally caused me to pull a shot.) Barrels were cleaned after every ten shots; two non-scored fouling shots fired, then the barrel was allowed to cool. By alternating, each barrel could be tested in nearly identical weather conditions.

For all calibers, factory ammunition from a single lot was fired for group and velocity and also to obtain standard pressure ring measurements for handload comparison. Both barrels in each centerfire caliber were fired using identical handloads. All reloads used CCI Bench Rest primers. Primers, powder and bullets for each handload were taken from the same container, with half allotted to each barrel in a given caliber. Commercial brass was used for the 7-30 Waters and the .375 Winchester tests. For the .223 firings, I used military brass of recent manufacture, all from the same original case lot, and once-fired. Hornady New Dimension dies were used for all reloading, and all brass was full-length resized. In all handloads, bullets were seated to match factory overall cartridge length.

No effort was made to work up loads for each individual barrel. Instead, I selected handload recipes from various published sources based on author's comments about accuracy or suitability for use in the Contender. A few loads proved too hot. When this occurred, all remaining loads with that powder charge were pulled and reloaded with a lower powder charge and all tests using that powder/bullet combination were repeated. None of the excessive loads are listed in the accompanying tables. All loads shown should be reduced by 10% before being fired in any other firearm, as per standard handloading safety guidelines.

With those explanations and caveats out of the way, let's look at the results.

The .22 LR is probably the world's most useful and most used caliber. Simply put, everybody needs one - or several. In the Contender, the .22 LR is ideal for youth training, plinking, small game hunting, silhouette and more. Numerous states use Contenders outfitted with carbine stocks and .22 LR barrels for their Hunter Education programs.

For the .22 LR, I selected a Bushnell 2.5X rail-mount scope for my tests. I've long felt that a 2.5X scope gives about optimum magnification versus field of view for any .22 firearm. Higher-powered scopes usually exhibit parallax shift at .22 ranges unless specially adjusted, and their field of view is too small at these ranges as well. Because of its inherent accuracy, 10-shot groups were fired at 50 yards for the .22 LR tests.

I obtained several makes of standard velocity and high velocity loads plus one hypervelocity loading. Both solid point and hollow point loads were included. I also obtained a brick of discount house "sale" ammo. Nearly a thousand rounds of .22 LR were fired for record.

There was one important difference between the T/C and Bullberry .22 LR barrels. The Bullberry barrel was reamed to match tolerances, and was marked as such. Match chambers are tighter in all dimensions than standard production chambers, and provide more uniform chambering of rounds. That difference showed in the test results (see Table I). T/C also lists a match grade .22 LR barrel, but none was available in time for my tests.

The T/C barrel averaged 1181 fps and 2.44-inch groups with all ammo tested, but that group size gives an unfair impression. This barrel absolutely would not shoot CCI Stingers, spraying these hyper-velocity rounds into "groups" of more than 9 inches. Discounting Stinger groups, the T/C averaged a more respectable 1.50-inch. It shot its best with CCI Green Tag ammo, averaging a neat 0.75-inch with this target fodder.

The Bullberry barrel averaged 1239 fps and 1.14 inch with all ammo. The Bullberry would keep Stingers into 1.77-inch groups, its worst performance, also. If we again eliminate this ammo, average groups were 1.05 inch. Best groups came with Winchester HV/HP ammo, averaging a tight 0.78-inch. The Bullberry also shot the single best group: 0.72 inch, again with the WW HV/HP ammo.

In .22 LR then, the Bullberry barrel bettered the T/C tube by 0.45 inch in grouping and in velocity of only 58 fps. Not a great margin by any accounting, and especially not when comparing a match-grade versus a standard barrel. With their favorite fodder, the two barrels were only 0.03 inch apart in accuracy, a virtual tie.

For varminting, fur collection and what you might call advanced plinking, few standard Contender calibers can beat the .223 Remington. Hotter rounds like the .22-250 can't be safely used in a Contender, and smaller rounds don't have as much oomph as the .223 musters. Add the easy availability of brass and numerous factory ammunition options, and it's a clear winner.

Physically, as with the .22 LR, the Bullberry .223 had a tighter chamber and shorter throat than the factory barrel. Chamber size was determined through pressure measurements, using procedures described in Ken Waters classic "Pet Loads, Vol I". To determine throat length, I simply inserted a flat-based bullet upside down into a sized but unprimed and empty case, and then chambered the round. By carefully extracting the round and measuring overall length, I determined that the Bullberry's throat was approximately 0.08 inch shorter than the T/C's.

I tested three different .223 factory loadings, the Federal Premium 40gr hollow point (P223V), the Winchester 53gr hollow point (X223RH), and the Hornady Custom 55gr softpoint (#8025). Pressure ring measurements after firing averaged 0.3763 inches for all three in the T/C barrel. In the Bullberry barrel, the Winchester averaged 0.3744 inch, the Hornady averaged 0.3747 inch and the Federal went 0.3750 inch. I used 0.3747 as my "standard" in this barrel. The Bullberry's chamber was obviously cut to tighter specs than the T/C, by about 0.0016 inch. In fact, all handloads chambered with a slight bit of resistance in the Bullberry, even though all were full-length sized. The Bullberry barrel also required a bit more "snap" when closing than the T/C.

The .223 is so reloader-friendly that there are literally hundreds of "pet loads" in reloading manuals and in magazine articles. I had a hard time narrowing the field, even after settling on just one bullet weight. In the .223, I believe that 50-grain bullets give the best compromise of velocity and downrange ballistics from the Contender's 14-inch barrel. I selected the most explosive bullets of that weight from four manufacturers: Hornady SX, Speer TNT, Sierra Blitz and Nosler Ballistic Tips. All are specifically recommended for Contender-level velocities. For powders, I selected A2230 and A2015BR from Accurate Arms, H322 and H335 from Hodgdon and W748 from Winchester, giving a total of 20 different powder/bullet combinations. Even narrowed to a single charge weight for each powder, this resulted in over a thousand rounds fired for record in this caliber.

With factory loads, the Bullberry averaged 3029 fps, 108 fps more than the T/C. With some handloads, the Bullberry launched 50-grain bullets to within a few feet per second of factory 40-grain loads in the T/C. In the accuracy department, the Bullberry clearly did better with the factory ammo, with an overall group average of 1.15 inch versus 2.22 inch in the T/C barrel.

With reloads, the Bullberry barrel gave an average of 210 fps higher velocities than the factory barrel overall. I view that as a significant advantage, one I attribute to the Bullberry's tighter chamber. Accuracy averages were not so well defined, but the Bullberry beat the factory barrel in 16 of the 22 loads with one tie (Table II). Overall group size with the Bullberry averaged 1.30 inch while the T/C brought in a respectable 1.42 inch, a difference of only 0.12 inch. I view this as a dead tie. Curiously, the Bullberry shot both the smallest and the largest group, with a 0.54-inch bragger and a 5.11-inch shamer. The Bullberry lived up to its sub-MOA guarantee with four loads, while the T/C barrel broke an inch with one recipe. I have no doubt that both barrels are capable of even better performance with load development.

Although developed by venerable gun guru Ken Waters as a better round for lever guns like the Model 94 Winchester and Marlin 336, the 7-30 Waters has become one of the premier Contender chamberings. Prized by both hunters and silhouette shooters, it offers higher velocities, greater energies and lessened recoil with bullets of greater ballistic properties than its .30-30 parent.

I, for one, simply cannot understand why the shooting world hasn't taken this beautifully balanced cartridge to its heart, but Western hunters at least seem unaware of its existence. Long-range Contender shooters, however, are another story. Fred Smith of Bullberry tells me it's one of their hottest sellers here in the West. And when you consider its record, that's not hard to understand. According to Smith, a shooter named Robert Campbell bested the Colorado Long Range Competition three times with a Bullberry 7-30 Waters barrel, most recently with a 3-shot group of 31/32 inch - fired from 500 meters!

I view the 7-30 as a superb deer and antelope round for the Contender, especially with spitzer bullets. It is also eminently useful for black bear, wild boar, caribou and possibly even smallish elk. With lighter bullets, it is excellent as a long-range varminting round that takes up where the .223 leaves off. Although available in only a single loading by Federal (P730A), the factory ammo carries the excellent 120gr Nosler flat tip boattail. Handloads for my 7-30 Waters tests reflect the diversity of great bullets available in 7mm diameter. Bullets included 115-grain hollowpoints and 130-grain spitzers from Speer, 120-grain spitzer from Hornady plus 120- and 140-grain ballistic tips from Nosler. The Hornady 120-grain spitzer is specifically designed for use in a single-shot pistol. For powders, I used Hercules RL-7 and RL-12, Scot 4065, H335, and A2520. Some are single-base extruded powders, and some are double-base ball powders. In reality, powders ranging from medium-fast to medium-slow all have applications in this omnivorous case.

From my very first shots with Federal Premium ammo, I learned that the stories I'd heard about the 7-30 were true: this is a cartridge that begs to be shot again and again. After getting both barrels on paper, I began shooting 100-yard groups. Factory ammo clocked a dead tie in speed (See Table III). Groups averaged an astounding 0.88-inch in the T/C barrel, and just 1.05 in the custom tube. Given the somewhat gusty conditions under which these groups were fired, sub-MOA groups are definitely possible with either tube. It would be very hard to beat this outstanding factory ammo.

With reloads, based on its performance with the loads tried, and on the fact that several of those loads could be further worked up, I'd give the advantage to the T/C barrel in 7-30 Waters. The Bullberry shot an average of 27 fps faster with most loads. However, some loads were a bit hot in this tightly-chambered barrel, but OK in the factory tube. Some of those loads should be reduced, eliminating the Bullberry's velocity edge. Accuracy-wise, the T/C delivered a 1.44-inch aggregate, while the Bullberry turned in a 1.62 - another tie. The most accurate load paired the ballistically superior Nosler 140-grain Ballistic Tip with Scot Brigadier 4065 powder in the T/C barrel.

When the scope came back, I completed shooting the factory stuff. Results were very close (See Table IV). With the 200-grain load, the T/C barrel averaged 1934 fps with 2.74-inch groups. Case expansion was 0.4180. The Bullberry got 1975 fps with 1.91-inch groups and expansion of 0.4153. Once again, the Bullberry's chamber seems to be tighter, to the tune of about 0.003-inch. That gave the Bullberry a 41 fps and 0.83-inch group size advantage with the 200-grain factory load. Not a lot, considering the potential quarry and range, but significant to some shooters.

The 250-grain factory load shot as follows: In the T/C, 1637 fps, 2.24-inch groups and expansion to 0.4184 inch. In the Bullberry, 1702 fps, 2.00-inch groups and expansion to 0.4154 inch. Standard deviation was a remarkable 7. The Bullberry reaped a 65 fps and 0.24-inch group advantage. Keep in mind that a 65 fps extreme spread is less than you'd find between two different lots of the same ammunition, and also that 0.24 inch is less than two-thirds the diameter of the bullets in question.

Conclusions with handloads were likewise clear but not great. The Bullberry barrel delivered an average of 59 fps more velocity and 0.80-inch tighter groups counting all loads. As with the factory loads, 59 fps is less than the extreme spread I recorded in many 10-shot strings. Likewise, most groups had more than 0.80 inches of difference between largest and smallest group shot. With that in mind, I'd have to call the .375 tests a dead tie.

Developed in 1978 to increase the effectiveness of America's favorite lever guns, the .375 is another cartridge based on the .30-30 case size. Because it is chambered only in firearms of today's metallurgy, the .375 is loaded to a much higher working pressure than the similar but weaker .38-55, for which century-old rifles are still to be found. Al though some of its exterior dimensions match those of the .30-30 and .38-55, the .375 does in fact use a much stronger c ase, with a thicker web and walls. My samples of .375 empties weighed an average of 12 grains more than .30-30 cases. Reloaders should therefore NOT use .30-30 brass to form .375 cases, except possibly for low-pressure practice loads.

Like the 7-30 Waters, the .375 hasn't yet ignited the fires of passion among the West's deer hunters, but I unde rstand it is a fairly popular number among Model 94 devotees in the Eastern whitetail woods. For a Rocky Mountain Conte nder shooter, however, it is an excellent round for game up to and including elk and moose. It's not a long range, reac h out and stomp 'em caliber, but then the Contender isn't suited for that kind of hunting, either. Rather, the .375 Win chester is for the Contender toter who stillhunts or waits on stand and has the moral fortitude to pass up less than ide al shots. But if you have the skill and patience to get within sniffing range, then slip one of these pinky-sized slugs through its lungs, even a bruiser of a mountain moose is going to have its air let out in short order.

Factory offerings for the .375 include two loadings from Winchester only. These are a 200-grain (X375W) or a 25 0-grain (X375W1), both with Winchester Power Point bullets. According to ballistics tables corrected to Contender veloc ities, the 200-grain version is a fine choice for large deer, while the 250-grain version is better for elk and moose.

Right here, a lot of readers are already flinching just from the thought of firing a 250-grain moose load from a pistol. And they're right. The .375 is definitely a double hand full, especially in factory 250-grain persuasion. Su bjectively, I'd rate the Contender in .375 as about like the average .44 Magnum revolver, but its recoil isn't as sharp. That's probably due to the greater barrel length and overall weight of the Contender. Still, one box of these slammer s is all most shooters would care to unleash from a pistol in one afternoon, especially with the calm deliberation neede d off a bench rest.

Even the 200-grain factory stuff is stout, as attested to by my first range session with the .375. On the 19th shot with one barrel, its Burris scope turned abruptly into a kaleidoscope. It didn't exactly tinkle when I shook it, b ut the image through it was really weird. I elected to suspend shooting until the factory could rebuild it because I di dn't want to subject the remaining scope to twice the pounding it would otherwise have to endure.

Reloaders have a good choice of bullets to choose from for the .375. They include a Sierra 200-grain flat nose, a Hornady 220-grain flat point, a 210-grain X-Bullet from Barnes and a Speer 235-grain semi-spitzer. The former two we re designed specifically for the .375 Winchester, while the others were originally meant as lightweight bullets for the bellowing .375 H&H Magnum. I obtained samples of all four. Powders included H4198, AA2015, Reloder-7 and H322.

So, after firing thousands of rounds through eight different barrels, what is the answer? Are Custom barrels better than factory barrels? The answer is: it depends. No, that's not a cop-out. It really does depend; and it depends mostly on the shooter.

Averaging the thousands of rounds in all calibers fired for record, the four Bullberry barrels bettered the four factory barrels by only 92.4 fps. Group sizes were even closer, with the custom tubes averaging 0.47-inch tighter spreads. Again, that includes the results of all eight barrels in all four calibers. In specific calibers, only in the .223 was the Bullberry barrel a standout winner. In the other three, results were tied or nearly so.

It also is important to note that my results are only valid for those particular eight barrels. If I or anyone else were to repeat these tests with any other barrels, the results would likely be quite different - perhaps even opposite.

Nonetheless, conclusions can be drawn. Both factory and custom Contender barrels are very, very good. For at least 95 percent of all Contender shooters, factory barrels provide all the power and accuracy required. For a few shooters, those who need every last foot/second of velocity or every last tenth of an inch group reduction, a custom barrel might be worthwhile. But like everything else in the shooting world, it's no guarantee.

Contender barrels:
Thompson Center Arms
PO Box 5002
Rochester, NH 03867

Fox Ridge Outfitters
400 N. Main St.
PO Box 1700
Rochester, NH 03867

Bullberry Arms
2430 W. Bullberry Ln #67-5
Hurricane, UT 84737

Scopes:
Burris Co.
331 E 8th St
Greeley CO 80631

Bushnell Optical Co.
300 N. Lone Hill Ave.
San Dimas, CA 91773

Ammunition and reloading components:
Accurate Arms Company, Inc.
PO Box 167
McEwen, TN 37101

Federal Cartridge Co.
900 Ehlen Dr.
Anoka, MN 55303

Hercules Inc.
Hercules Plaza
Wilmington, DE 19894

Hodgdon Powder Co. Inc.
Shawnee Mission, KS 66202

Hornady Mfg. Co.
PO Drawer 1848
Grand Island, NE 68802

Nosler Bullets
207 SW Columbia
Bend, OR 97702

Sierra Bullets Co.
1400 W. Henry St.
Sedalia, MO 65301

Speer, CCI, RCBS
Blount Sporting Equipment
PO Box 856
Lewiston, ID 83501

Winchester Div, Olin Corp.
120 Long Ridge Rd.
Stamford, CT 06904

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