Range Report: 7-30 Waters Edition
So I finally shot Uncle-in-law Bud’s T/C Contender in 7-30 Waters this past weekend. 
Why did it take so long? The difficulty was in finding some loaded factory cartridges for me to shoot. There used to be a couple of factory loads; now it seems there’s just one — Federal’s Premium load with a BTSP (boat-tail soft-point) bullet. I finally ordered some from Sportsmans’ Guide. When they arrived I looked a bit askance at the flattened lead tip. Great for hunting, but would it deliver in the accuracy department?
As Merle rightly pointed out in the comments to this post, I erroneously referred to the 7-30 Waters as a wildcat cartridge back when I first talked about the gun. The cartridge was developed by Ken Waters (hence the name), but it’s been factory fodder for a long time. However, the most accurate results seem to be from folks who’ve tinkered around and developed their own pet loads, most especially in the T/C Contender — although a couple of years back I ran into a fellow at the Castro Valley range who was shooting an AR with a 7-30 Waters upper! He said it was “wicked accurate.”
I, however, don’t reload.
So it was with some trepidation that I set everything up for my first trigger squeezes. Would the gun like the factory ammo? If not, I was screwed….
First impression: the Contender is much lighter and smaller than the Encores I’m used to. In a word, it’s handy.
It also came with what I think is a Mag-Na-Port muzzle brake. 
Whether the brake is really necessary for this cartridge or not I don’t know, but with it this is sure one fun gun to shoot! With the small size, it fit my hand nicely, and there’s very little recoil.
I ran into a problem right off the bat. I discovered Uncle Bud must be farsighted as hell, because he had the eye relief on this scope (an old Burris 1.5-4x) set so that I could barely get a sight picture even with my arms at full extension. (To be fair, I’m a small guy and Bud’s a big strapping fellow.) Did I have my screwdrivers with me? I did not. So I gamely tried to get the hang of this new toy as best I could. I felt silly bobbing and ducking my head around trying to see the target long enough to squeeze off a shot before the image changed. It became clear that the sights were set about four inches high and four or five inches to the right. After about five flyers, I was able to settle down enough to put three shots into (barely) an inch. Then the range closed, so that was that for this round.
A one-inch 3-shot group may not seem like much, but considering the terrible scope picture I was dealing with, I was quite pleased. If I get some comfortable eye relief in this scope and a proper rest, I think I can do even better. If I put a Burris 3-12x on there, I think I could do better still at longer ranges. And this is with factory ammo!
Next up: swapping out the scope mount for a Burris Signature mount and rings. The existing scope mount just won’t accept any less eye relief with this particular scope.
I didn’t know what to expect out of this gun, but I’m sure happy now. This is one great gun and cartridge combination!
