The .309 JDJ is one of Layne's all-time favorite Contender cartridges. He took this Alaskan caribou at 150 yards with the cartridge loaded with Nosler's 165-grain Ballistic Tip.

.223 Remington
When it comes to picking off varmints at long range with a Contender, my favorite cartridges are the .17 Remington, the .204 Ruger, and the .223 Remington. The .17 and the .204 shoot a bit flatter, but barrels chambered for them have to be cleaned more often during hot-barrel critter shoots. That's the reason the .223 Remington is the one I choose most often.

While 40- and 45-grain bullets exit the muzzle at higher velocities, I find that any good 50-grain bullet at 3,000 fps bucks wind a bit better and is more effective on coyotes. It shoots flat enough, too. When a high-ballistic-coefficient bullet of that weight--such as the Sierra BlitzKing, Nosler Ballistic Tip, or Hornady V-Max--is zeroed 2 inches high at 100 yards, it is good for a dead-on hold on prairie dogs out to about 250 yards, and with the intersection of the crosshairs plastered on the head of a groundhog standing 300 yards away, the bullet will land somewhere in its boiler room.

As a Contender cartridge, the .223 Rem. has a couple of other things going for it. It is capable of shooting inside 1/2 MOA in a good barrel, and its recoil is so light you can bump off varmints with it all day long, day after day, and never get enough.

6.5 JDJ
The 6.5 JDJ is one of those rare cartridges that delivers a level of performance that seems all out of proportion to its size, appearance, and recoil. This mild-mannered little number has been used to take Rocky Mountain elk and even African antelope as large as sable and greater kudu, but it is seen at its best when used on deer-size game.

It delivers a deadly blow on game, yet its mild recoil makes it the kind of cartridge you cannot shoot enough. Developed by Jones, who I like to describe as the P.O. Ackley of wildcats for handguns, it is the .225 Winchester case necked up and fireformed to the improved configuration with minimum body taper and a 40-degree shoulder angle.

Why the .225 Win. case? According to Jones, its great strength and toughness enables it to survive many full-power firings. And he is correct about that; the 40 cases I started using about 15 years ago are still going. Jones has also said that the powder capacity of the improved .225 Win. case is optimum for 6.5mm caliber in a 14-inch barrel, and its rim makes it a better choice for the Contender than a rimless case.

There is no law against using bullets of other weights in the 6.5 JDJ, but the traditional weight when it is used on deer is 120 grains. There was a time when the Speer 120-grain spitzer was the single most popular bullet among hunters, and it is still a good one, but the Nosler Ballistic Tip of the same weight has now stolen much of its thunder.

Other excellent choices for this cartridge include Nosler's 125-grain Partition, Swift's 120-grain A-Frame and 130-grain Scirocco, and Hornady's 129-grain SST. When exiting a 14-inch barrel at 2,400 to 2,500 fps and zeroed 3 inches high at 100 yards, any of those bullets is about dead-on point of aim at 200 yards and half the body depth of a deer low at 300 yards, where it is packing close to 1,000 ft-lbs of punch.