I used to load the 30-30 for my contender. It has the 16" barrel. I used the 150 gr Nosler balistic tips. Got good velocity and groups were very good. Trouble was the bullet didn' t perform well on deer. Tried loading corelock bullet in 150 gr as well. Didn' t like the performance either. I load those same bullets for my 22" barreled .308 and they do great on deer.
What I really liked for a contender barrel is the 45-70 16" w/porting. It is a hog and it is great on deer out to 150 yds.