The making of a wildcat cartridge

[Blue-Dot-37.5]

Is there any material in print that gives any steps/tips or the process of making a wildcat cartridge out there? I've searched and came up with nothing.

[Rifleman]

Yes there is, and I had a brand new copy a few months ago, huge hardback book. Don't remember the name, I traded it to a guy. It covered almost every known wildcat, conversions, even had a section on setting up a shop for widlcatting. A ton of useful information for the ultra-anal. I thought- boring ..and got rid of it, too bad I didn't think of you first Scott.

[Blue-Dot-37.5]

Dang. Hey, do you remember the title and author?

[Rifleman]

Nope I don't, I am lucky to remember I even had that book. Tell ya what Snott, I will try to get hold of the guy I swapped it to and ask him if he still has it and if he will get me the info.

[Rifleman]

Scott I have not had a chance to call the guy about the book yet, but tell me again about the Indiana Loophole wildcat you are working on please.

[Blue-Dot-37.5]

I gotta wait 'till the law passes before I spend any $$. But I can plan for it's passage! ;D

But, I have a couple of choices:
1) .25 WSSM shortened .060" and necked up to .357 This would be the cheapest to accomplish. Super Short action rifle which would ease feeding problems with a short stubby cartridge. I was looking at the Browning A-Bolt or a Remington super short action as a base to start from. Dies would be cheaper too, and a chamber reamer would be easier to make than option 2 below.

2) Find an action that would be large enough (diameter wise) to accept a .416 Rigby or .505 Gibbs cartridge. Shorten the cartridge and form a neck so the brass would be 1.610" long, and fire a .357/.358 bullet. If that bullet dia. was a problem, it could be bumped up to .375.

The downside to that is: a) brass is expensive! b) long action feeding a WSSM type cartridge = possible feed problems.

The upside is that this would allow more powder and correspondingly more velocity, which would allow a rifle to be built that would shoot 300 yds easily, and still conform to many people's ethics for a rifle to shoot flat and quick to minimize any wind drift and animal movement between the primer detonation and the time that the projectile arrives at it's destination. The 2nd option would allow the use of Barnes bullets and still keep impact velocity at 300+ Yds above their recommended fps minimum for reliable expansion of their TSX line of bullets.

I purchased a program called Load From A Disk which allows me to input the barrel dimensions, brass dimensions, pick what bullet that I will shoot, and it gives me the powder choices and charge weight , along with estimated velocity and pressure. It does NOT differentiate among different primers.

If the law passes, and it would be legal to use such a rifle, I would have no problem spending the $$ for the dies and reamer. I would be willing to rent the reamer out for a slight fee for anyone else that wanted to duplicate what I build.

[Rifleman]

#21 is the best option

[Roger_Dailey]

Please excuse me for stepping in on your all's conversation, but this topic interests me greatly.

When I first saw the proposed regulations, my eyes lit up! The idea of using the WSSM case as a donor seemed like the easiest path to me. You might be able to cut the chamber without a custom reamer. You might be able to install a .357 dia. pilot on a standard .243 WSSM reamer and just cut the .243 WSSM chamber in the .357 diameter barrel. I think I've read of people doing that with "necked up" wildcats.

Forming brass might be a little bit of an issue. Last night I quickly tried expanding some standard (not WSSM) brass up to 35 cal. I never made it! Of course I didn't spend a lot of time on it. I didn't anneal the cases or any other tricks. The best way to get brass may be to form it from WSM (not WSSM) brass. Maybe take a stock 243 WSSM sizing die, ream/hone the die's neck area to desired diameter and use it to shrink the WSM brass. The neck wall would be pretty thick, but off the shelf neck reamers would thin it.

What does the software say to expect with 243/308 case size and a 180-200 grain bullet?

Thanks,
Take care, have fun....
Roger D. in Southern Indiana

p.s. If you want more capacity, the 416 donor would work, but as you said the brass is expensive. Another option is to use Weatherby large magnum cases. The belt could be left on or removed.

[billc]

If you are looking for a reference book may I suggest "The Handloaders Manual of Cartridge Conversions" John J. Donnelly copyright 1987 from the Stoeger Publishing Co. While the WSSMs didn't exist when the book was published you might could find some tips and tricks.

[richard]

Roger Daily:
Did you forget you also need to cut the neck and throat?? You .243 reamer will not get even close to the .375 rifling.
I have only recently started posting on the Savage forum but do build all my own benchrest rifles for both 600, 1,000 and short range BR. Please rethink some of these odd ball wildcats. Today, there are so many factory cartridges that do the same thing as the wildcats and a lot cheaper. Yeah, I know, you want to do your own thing. Been there and done that. When you get all done and it don't shoot the way you expected, you dumped a ton on $$$ and have a rifle you can't sell.
I had wildcatted a 6x44 improved. Pushed the shoulder of a .243 back .3", blew it out to 40* and decreased body taper. A year later, Lapua came out with the new 6.5 x 47 and when necked down to 6mm, practically duplicated what I so painstakenly crafted!
It is so much easier to buy brass already formed unless you are a glutton for work.
Richard
Just my two cents.
Richard