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A fun thread, what wildcat do YOU wish was mainstream

Don't know about "mainstream" but as an experienced amateur Mosin tinkerer, I've been kicking around the idea of re barreling one with a 6mm tube and using .307 Win brass to form down to some .243 chambering.


Why not just neck down and improve the x54R case? After all, there is Lapua brass available and I'm sure it's much easier to source than 307 Winchester. I like the premise though, to modernize the Mosin...
 
About 30 (+/-) years ago, while a staff writer for Precision Shooting Magazine; I did a couple wildcats. Once the article would come out, I would hear people saying their Grandfather had done almost the identical cartridge fifty years ago.

The only one I did that nobody else had ever done, or at least claimed to have; was my 257 Banshee.

A friend on the PD here's son went to Germany in the Army. He brought back a Wby chambered in the 6,5 X 68mm Shuler and ammunition. The 6,5 is about the same size as a 300 WM, a hair longer, and a little bigger in diameter. I got an idea to build a super 25 caliber rifle, with no belt. Keith Francis and I did some skunkworks drawings back and forth, and came up with a minimum taper, 32-degree shoulder design. Think 100gr VLD bullet design by Jerry Simonson (sp?), and built by Jef Fowler in Gastonia, SC.

Think that bullet at 3900fps and 3/8ths 5-shot groups at 100 yds. I killed several Rockchucks at 1000 yards that summer. I had taken a 11.75" long sleeve and fitted a 700 Long action in it. 30" x1.25" cylinder Lilja barrel, 8" twist. It was in an early six design Unlimited stock I'd gotten from Manley Oakley in Seattle.

Dick Thomas in Winchester, VA, was the East Coast repair station for Leupold at that time. He also did scope boosts. He took a 6.5-20X Leupold and boosted it to 18-42X and added the "Christmas Tree" lines and dots to it. The rifle weighed 17 pounds, and was a real hammer for long range live varmint shooting.

Big gun, lot'sa fun...
 
Lee in a Texas -

Howdy !

I did some math and sample .224” cal wildcat case forming.
Want to see how close to 52gr case capacity I can get, using 9.3x62 as parent brass ; and keeping case oal to < 1.920” .

52gr is a pretty healthy H2O capacity for a .224” cal cartridge , w/o being as “ over bore “ as larger capacity wildcats; like .22-6mm Remington.
An example .223WSSM case, while only 1.670” long; requires base and shoulder diameters of more than .540” to realize a case capacity of 52gr H2O. So, what capacity is possible.... forming from 9.3 x 62 basic, and
exploiting shoulder diameter to get maximum capacity w/ a case 1.910” lg?

Sample wildcat cases I trial formed showed that with an unfired base diam of .474”, shoulder diam of .464”; 26* shoulder angle, and one calibre neck lg; it would take a case 1.950” to hold 45.5gr of trial IMR 4955 powder.

A .223WSSM used as a standard for comparison, can hold and safely shoot larger wt charges of slightly faster burn rate H4831 and HV100
powders. Conclusion: No...... you can’t get 52gr H2O capacity in a case 1.910”lg..... and w/ .010” case taper; when forming from 9.3 x 62.

I appreciate that 6.5 X 55 has a more-generous base diam than does 9.3x62, but I intended to go w/ a .473” base diam; and the Swedish case is larger in diam.


With regards,
357Mag
Years back I had a rifle built in 224Vais, it was a 6.5 Swede case necked down to 22 caliber. The shoulder angle was changed and most of the body taper was removed and it burned way to much powder for the 22 caliber bore size. I found a chart that had expected bore longevity for X number of grains of powder per caliber, and this one had an estimated barrel life of between 500 and 750 rounds. I found a buyer that put enough pictures of dead Presidents in my hand, and it became his. My next and probably my last wildcat will be a 22-250AI, I'm waiting for my pocket to heal after replacing a septic tank, to finish this project. (the septic tank completely ruined a $5000.00 bill)
 
I've always liked the idea of a .25-.308. It'd equal the performance of hand loaded .257 Roberts but would not have the Roberts' limitation in factory rounds of having to be downloaded due to the existence of 100+-year old actions. Might even approach the velocity of a .25-06 with less powder and recoil. With premium bullets it'd be one heckuva deer cartridge.

I built a 25-284 several years ago and it’s a fine round in a Win 70 with a WSM mag box (3.050” internal length). It’s less trouble as there’s no fireform with a simple neck down of 6.5-284.
 
Dusty - I realise that - but the Federal loaded "properly" is not that far away from the 338-06 - maybe a few grains lighter bullet?
I gave up on the 338fed a few yrs ago. Not enough to push a proper 338 bullet- its like shooting a 125 from a 30-06 but shoots almost like a 30-30. Dont believe the hype you read. It does seem good in theory but a 185 gr 338 bullet is a piece of junk. This is why it quietly faded into obscurity.
 
All -

First, I apologize IF the multiple responses I previously sent had strayed from the intended focus of this post!

I know this will sound fairly radical, but....MY vote for a wildcat to be made mainstream is ( my ) “.22-35Remington “

This wildcat was my idea for an .224” cal wildcat w/ ideal case capacity
for propelling 55gr varmint bullets in an anti-groundhog role’.

I designed .22-35 in Oct 1975. At the time, in .224” cal, factory chamberings that might be encountered in new or used rifles were mostly
.222, .222 Mag, .223, .224 Weatherby, .225 Winchester, .22-250; and .220 Swift. .22-35 case capacity promised performance that would eclipse the first 6 cartridges listed. Moreover, with its 1.920” case oal and thoughtful reloading, .22-35 could rival performance of a .220 Swift ; while doing so with notably shorter cartridge oal. This characteristic is even more beneficial when use of today’s long VLDs is anticipated.

. 22-35 utilizes the same case aol, major case diameters, and shoulder location of the parent .35 Rem case. The biggest changes being the neck down to .224” calibre.... and the wildcat’s 26* shoulder angle. Major case’ diameters of the parent .35 Remington case are large enough to give a final case capacity positioned between a .22-250 and a .22-250AI.
The .22-35 design accomplishes this without having to “blow out “ case’ shoulder diameter .

The area covered by the wildcat’s 26* shoulder provides more powder space than would use of a sharp “ Ackley Improved “ shoulder angle, and the 26* angle is easily formed. Case neck length is greater than one calibre.....more than adequate to accomodate use of longer VLD bullets just mentioned.

.22-35 Remington is .308 bolt face compatible. My rifle’s Wichita WBR1375
bolt action is configured w/ an M-16 style extractor, and I never experienced a failure to feed or extract loaded .22-35 cartridges; or fired cases.

I wrote P.O. Ackley, inviting him to comment on my wildcat’s design.
Ackley replied in a letter dated 10 Apr 1975, wherein he said.....
....” Dear sir: The .35 Remington should make a good .22 calibre cartridge when necked down to take the smaller bullet. “ “ We did a little work on this case necked to 6mm for use in a 141 Remington rifle. But we couldn’t get the thing to feed properly so we gave it up “. [ Note: Remington 141 was a pump action rifle that fed cartridges from a spiral fluted magazine tube, a feature intended to keep cartridge’ bullet tips from setting off the cartridge immediately ahead in the magazine; when the gun was fired .]

I took Mr. Ackley’s positive comment as a good passing grade on my .22-35 wildcat design !

Having said all that, do I really think .22-35 would ever stand a chance of supplanting .22-250 as a factory cartridge ? Unfortunately, no.

That does not take away anything from this wildcat’s marvelous capabilities, however.


With regards,
357Mag
 
Agree with the earlier 20 practical recommendation(s) with 10 or 11 inch twist. Great AR varmint round.

Another favorite would be a 6mm-06 with 7.75 inch twist.

I'm running 20P in a Shilen barreled AR and 240 Wby with a kreiger 7.75 inch twist barrel in a custom Mark V hunting/varmint rifle so I don't need a 6mm-06 but it would definitely be a desirable and cheaper solution than a 240 Wby.
 
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