anyone have some info on the 224 vais? Was looking for wildcats based on the 55swede and found out about it. Looks like it’s a 22 cal Swede with a 35 degree shoulder? I assume dies would need to be custom ordered?
Are there any other more common 22 or 6mm wildcats based on the 6.5x55?
Lightfoote -
Howdy !
I DK what action you have in-mind for use w/ the postulated wildcat ?
IMHO - the 6.5 X 55’s rim size has probably served to suppress wide-scale adoption as the parent case for wildcats. I say that because some shooters likely did not want to have an existing action’s bolt face opened up, or have the same thing done to a new-buy .308 bolt face action? Alternately, purchase of a dedicated 6.5 X 55 would have been influenced by availability of that bolt face size in the desired custom action ? Hmmm…
IF you’re not averse to a full-tilt all new .224” cal wildcat project, why not do it on 9.3 X 62 brass ? Lapua makes some, and demand for that brass should not be inordinately high.
9.3 X 62 shoulder diam is .451” nominal right from the git go.
The 9.3 X 62 has a slightly rebated .470” rim, and a .476” base diameter. So, for just .004” less base diameter than the 6.5 X 55, you can use Laupa brass on a .308 bolt face.
I did some provisional wildcat case forming of the 9.3 X 62 case, using existing dies to form a foreshortened case to a length shorter than the 1.920” case oal of my .22-35 Remington wildcat. I wanted to see how much capacity increase I might get w/ the shortened 9.3mm case beyond what my .22-35 provided. I formed w/ a shoulder angle just a little sharper than the 26* shoulder on the .22-35. ( I also used .250” neck lg ).
While not fully fire formed, H2O capacity of the new 9.3 X 62-based wildcat was a scant .5gr more on a case slightly shorter than 1.920”, or some 50gr H2O ( Norma brass ). The shorter case length was a function of my shortening the 9.3 X 62 case ( keeping the stock taper rate )…. until the new shoulder was located where the case OD was .454”. I wanted to see what was possible w/o having to “ blowout “ the case’ shoulder, and using a moderate shoulder angle; along w/ .224” final calibre.
Sample case forming and/or to help control projects costs:
For the wildcats were are talking about, some currently available, existing dies might be useful. You mentioned a shoulder angle of 35*. I myself have not had great success mechanically forming shoulder angles much past 27*. Use of a longer case oal on the wildcat than that of a case a current die was designed for, could allow use of the longer wildcat case in the “ shorter “ die w/o the case’ side walls making undesired contact w/ the inner die walls.
Even if you had to shorten an existing die some, the greater challenge is finding dies that have moderate enough shoulder angles that would allow incrementally sharpening formed shoulder angles to the example 35* you mentioned. For the final dies, you could probably use those made for .22 GT ? IF you can mechanically form a 30* shoulder angle on an
( example ) .454” shoulder diameter, there’s no shortage of existing .224” cal accuracy cartridge dies you might be able to co-opt into use.
Other info:
I currently shoot a 6mm wildcat of my own design, whose chamber is cut by running a 6mm Remington reamer in “ short “, for a nominal .466” base diameter. For my “ DEEP 6 “ wildcat, I use a stock ( LEE ) 6.5 X 55 die with its internals removed, to form cases on
7 X 64 Brenneke parent brass. Formed cases emerge from the form die in near-net shape, and w/ a .220” neck ID + thick neck side walls. After cases are cut to desired oal, they are given an inside neck ream and outside neck turn, to arrive @ final 6mm calibre and neck wall thickness desired. Reloading/ re-loading cases, I use stock 6mm Remington dies
( shoulder bump/ bushing neck size, and bullet seat ). DEEP 6 case capacity is 51.2gr
H2O ( Norma brass ), and the wildcat has the same long neck lg as the 6mm Remington.
Please note:
* The same brass, processes & dies I use for case forming and loading “ DEEP 6 “, can also be utilized to form and reload a .224” cal iteration of the wildcat. In this instance, after formed case cutoff and trim desired oal, the cases would be given an inside neck ream & outside neck turn to .224” cal ( and not 6mm ) final calibre. I will also point out that my wildcat DEEP 6 cases have a shoulder diameter a few thousandths less than the inner shoulder diam of the 6.5 X 55FL die, but shoulders do not slump or bulge out from the forming process.
With regards,
357Mag
