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Several years back I used a 10" T/C Contender to harvest 3 Whitetails and my cousin's husband used the same gun to harvest a nice Whitetail Buck in Minnesota.
The load I use consisted of 120gr. Nosler Ballsitic Tips loaded with a heavy dose of Winchester W-748 Powder in Federal 7-30 Waters Brass with Winchester Large Rifle Primers. Average muzzle velocity out of the 10" Barrel was 2258 FPS, and 5 shot 100 yard groups ranged from 1" to 1 1/4" from the bench.
All 4 Whitetails taken with this Gun-n-Load Combo were one shot kills. Two of the Whitetails dropped in their tracks and the other two traveled about 30 yards after the shot. In all instances the 120gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips completely penetrated the animals )which all were shot through the chest behind the front shoulder except one).
The 4x4 Whitetail Buck I shot with this Gun-n-Loac combo was shot in the last couple minutes of legal shooting time. Yep it was getting DARK fast. I was hunting from a ground blind and had a rest that was almost as solid as a bench. The Buck was totally unaware of my presence and was feeding and undisturbed at the shot. Well let's just say that had I known how far away that Buck was I would have never taken the shot. Yep it was a long ways. The shot hit the top 1/4 of the near side shoulder, penetrated through the upper chest destroying the lungs and exited through the top 1/4 of the off side shoulder leaving an exit hole about the size of a 50 cent piece.
After I checked the distance the next day I realized that the impact velocity of the 120gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip was about 1800 FPS, and came to the conclusion that this is one tough bullet. Had I not hit BONE I may have had a tracking job on my hands but as it was the Buck dropped in his tracks.
The 7-30 Waters makes an excellent Handgun Cartridge for the taking of Whitetail Deer. It is easy to load for and a variety of powders seem to work quite well. In my experience though I am not sure bullets heavier than 120grs. can be driven fast enough to ensure expansion on broadside chest shots at longer ranges.
Good luck with the 7-30 Waters.
Larry
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