This will be a long post, sit back and enjoy.
I decided to form a new wildcat strictly for PRS based on the 131gr Blackjack ACE. As a handloader who tries to be as accurate as possible I continually ran into three very specific problems:
1.) Big BC bullets that are extremely long seat far into the powder column on most cartridges. I believe this reduces efficiency and makes it a little harder to create perfect loads.
2.) They are seated so far into the powder column because they are restricted by the magazine OAL allowance.
3.) The lands are unreachable because of the magazine OAL, and steep ogive bullets don't touch as soon as "normal" ogives. Jumps with my 6BRA were .125 with a new barrel!
I wasn't willing to settle for any of these. I called D. Kiff at PT&G and we came up with this over 3 or 4 conversations.
1.) .308 parent case with no alteration of the taper.
2.) Have the "touch point" of the ogive at 2.860", most AICS magazines are 2.880" - this leaves room to touch the lands INSIDE of the magazine OAL.
3.) Start forming the cartridge by placing the base of the bearing surface at the neck\shoulder junction and leave only the boattail in the powder column.
4.) Ackley (40 degree) the shoulder out to the case wall.
5.) Ensure that there is at least 1.35 bullet diameters for the neck.
And that is pretty much it. I elected to use small primer .308 brass. Knowing that there is no easy way to form the brass (that is where you, the patient reader, are encouraged to chime in!) I bought 300 wildcat tubes from Peterson Brass. Here is a basic glimpse of the idea: Quarter Norton-Layout1.pdf and the reamer print Kiff developed 25 Norton.pdf
Now the fun begins. I have to form the brass with the shoulder pushed back almost .200 and steepened. My thought process is to:
1.) Cut down .308, 7mm\08, .260 and .243 dies in the lathe by removing material from the base of the die, until the neck\shoulder junction has a .004 crush fit. The lathe is right next to the press BTW.
1a.(edit) Expand neck back to .257 using a Sinclair mandrel expander die.
2.) Much brass trimming will need to happen to reduce the length.
3.) If I do this I will end up with 20 degree shoulders, so the final step will be to fire form the 40 degree shoulder.
4.) Once I create the fired cases ship them to Whidden for hydroforming, sizing, and seating dies.
4a.) Send fired cases to RCC and have them machine brass.
All of this is hideously expensive. I am fine with that. I didn't do this to save money. I just wanted a rifle that works for me with zero compromises.
If you have experience forming oddball brass - especially moving the shoulders back, I would love to hear it! I get a lot of blank stares when I try to explain it to some very smart people.
And here it is:
I decided to form a new wildcat strictly for PRS based on the 131gr Blackjack ACE. As a handloader who tries to be as accurate as possible I continually ran into three very specific problems:
1.) Big BC bullets that are extremely long seat far into the powder column on most cartridges. I believe this reduces efficiency and makes it a little harder to create perfect loads.
2.) They are seated so far into the powder column because they are restricted by the magazine OAL allowance.
3.) The lands are unreachable because of the magazine OAL, and steep ogive bullets don't touch as soon as "normal" ogives. Jumps with my 6BRA were .125 with a new barrel!
I wasn't willing to settle for any of these. I called D. Kiff at PT&G and we came up with this over 3 or 4 conversations.
1.) .308 parent case with no alteration of the taper.
2.) Have the "touch point" of the ogive at 2.860", most AICS magazines are 2.880" - this leaves room to touch the lands INSIDE of the magazine OAL.
3.) Start forming the cartridge by placing the base of the bearing surface at the neck\shoulder junction and leave only the boattail in the powder column.
4.) Ackley (40 degree) the shoulder out to the case wall.
5.) Ensure that there is at least 1.35 bullet diameters for the neck.
And that is pretty much it. I elected to use small primer .308 brass. Knowing that there is no easy way to form the brass (that is where you, the patient reader, are encouraged to chime in!) I bought 300 wildcat tubes from Peterson Brass. Here is a basic glimpse of the idea: Quarter Norton-Layout1.pdf and the reamer print Kiff developed 25 Norton.pdf
Now the fun begins. I have to form the brass with the shoulder pushed back almost .200 and steepened. My thought process is to:
1.) Cut down .308, 7mm\08, .260 and .243 dies in the lathe by removing material from the base of the die, until the neck\shoulder junction has a .004 crush fit. The lathe is right next to the press BTW.
1a.(edit) Expand neck back to .257 using a Sinclair mandrel expander die.
2.) Much brass trimming will need to happen to reduce the length.
3.) If I do this I will end up with 20 degree shoulders, so the final step will be to fire form the 40 degree shoulder.
4.) Once I create the fired cases ship them to Whidden for hydroforming, sizing, and seating dies.
4a.) Send fired cases to RCC and have them machine brass.
All of this is hideously expensive. I am fine with that. I didn't do this to save money. I just wanted a rifle that works for me with zero compromises.
If you have experience forming oddball brass - especially moving the shoulders back, I would love to hear it! I get a lot of blank stares when I try to explain it to some very smart people.
And here it is:
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