Looking For a Contender Pistol 1:8 300/221 Barrel

[Scalce]

I am building a suppressed SBRed 300/221 AR but as I wait I would like to get a barrel for my contender and maybe keep it in a pistol configuration for now.

Maybe down the road I will SBR the Contender but I am just looking to play around with loads.

I was thinking maybe something 10.5" in a 1:8 twist but it seems that the ones Thompson made have way too slow a twist and the custom ones from SSK have true 300 Whisper chambers and I am going to be using 223 parent cases.

Any options?

[HUNTER2]

Arthur Brown makes a 1 in 8 300-221...

[Garrett]

Originally Posted by Scalce

...the custom ones from SSK have true 300 Whisper chambers and I am going to be using 223 parent cases.

I have a .300 Whisper Contender barrel from SSK. Unless they have changed something since I bought mine (5 or 6 years ago... I think) it does just fine with reformed .223 brass.

In fact, when I bought the barrel, I also bought some brass from SSK. It was all reformed 5.56 NATO brass. The CorBon ammo I bought at the time also used 5.56 brass (although they have since gone to "CorBon - .300W" marked brass.

Additionally, I have formed several hundred pieces of brass from .223 and 5.56 and never had any problems. Without neck-turning, the .223/5.56 brass tends to have a more consistent neck thickness than necked-up .221 Fireball brass.

(gratuitous picture-posting to help encourage you)
(yes - it's an SBR)

[Scalce]

Thanks Garret

I could have sworn I read somewhere that people were having issues with their SSK barrels and brass formed from 223 without neck turning but I guess that is not accurate.

Nice setup BTW

Now to find a slightly used barrel for cheap.

[remhunter]

They have two of them on www.gunbroker.com

[Scalce]

Originally Posted by remhunter

They have two of them on www.gunbroker.com

The T/C barrels have too slow a twist.

[Spook]

Very nice, what type of wood is that? Myrtle?

[Garrett]

Originally Posted by Spook

Very nice, what type of wood is that? Myrtle?

Not sure. I bought it on gunbroker from someone in KS. Actually, it looks similar to the walnut shown here. Check the seller's other auctions, as they appear to have a lot of unfinished wood for Contenders as well as other firearms. The inletting is done, but the rest of the stock is still rough and needs to be finished. I still need to find a buttplate for mine and apply some kind of finish. It's currently just the bare wood.

While I don't see any at the moment, I bought mine as a "blem" at a greatly reduced price. When they did the inletting, they cut all the way through behind the trigger on the pistol grip. About where the middle finger rests. I filled it with Acraglas, while bedding the stock to the receiver, and although it is a different color than the wood, it's not really noticeable.

[TapTheForwardAssist]

Originally Posted by HUNTER2

Arthur Brown makes a 1 in 8 300-221...

I just looked at EABCO.com, and all I could find was the Custom Encore page with all the 6.5 BR and suchlike. Did I miss the Custom Contender page, or has he chosen just to focus on Encore?

I was also considering SSK to get the proper twist rates (plus at least kinda cool to get "the original", regardless of Jones' personal warm fuzziness). Is ".300W" marked brass .221-based then? Am I going to get killed on brass prices in the long-term if I get the .221 chamber vice .223, or is it much of a muchness for quality brass?

[Garrett]

Originally Posted by TapTheForwardAssist

Is ".300W" marked brass .221-based then? Am I going to get killed on brass prices in the long-term if I get the .221 chamber vice .223, or is it much of a muchness for quality brass?

I suspect CorBon's brass was made by Starline specifically as .300 Whisper brass (hence the headstamp). When making brass you can use either .221 or .223 brass.

Or you can buy pre-formed brass from people here or on gunbroker.