300 Winchester Magum Wildcat

My wildcat...

This is on what I am working. Finally got the 375Ruger basic brass. Took almost three months. Now to order the reamers and headspace gauges (already designed), the barrel (stainless and cut-rifled) and the forming dies (not yet designed). I'm thinking $3,000 before the first bullet flies. So happy to be single with no dependents and no debts. The shell to the right is your common 30-06 Springsteen for comparison. Mine uses a .400 neck length, a 28-degree shoulder and will hold about 80 grains of H4831SC or RL-22 to the top of the body.

Case volume

carpooler said:

Hello NVShooter,
What is the volume of your wildcat 30-375 Ruger case? I like the .400" long neck, but it must down grade the original Ruger case's volume.

Click to expand...

Been a whole lotta redesign on the wildcat in the last two months or so. The entire thrust of this painfully expensive exercise is to generate a round that will FEED reliably in my long-action magnum rifle. I thought and thought. I scratched my chin three whole times. I was emotionally and spiritually exhausted. In the end, I changed the neck length, neck diameter and shoulder angle to that of the venerable 30-06 Springsteen. I figgered the 30-06 is the best-feeding long-action shell ever. How many millions were fired in WWII? Got a winner, there. So the shoulder height is now 1.834 inches from the head and the body diameter at that point is .510 inches. I cut a case to 1.834 inches (1.838 was as close as I could get with a hacksaw and file) and found it measured 68.2 grains of RL-22. The bottleneck will hold another 4.5 to 5.0 grains, so we are at 300WinMag capacities (I think) in the 30-06 envelope.

Ben Syring at Hornady is designing the three forming dies and two-die reloading set. He says I will not need to fireform. The resizing die is the last step in forming the cartridges. I asked if he could do this because I do not want to blast pistol powder down the bore of my new barrel. The dies went to order in late May 2011. Delivery is predicted for late September. Cost for all is $401.

Steve Satern is making the barrel. It will be 416R stainless, five lands and grooves, .298 minor bore and .308 major bore, left-handed riflings, nine flutes, 5.50-inch breech cylinder length x 1.25 inches in diameter, 29 inches long (excluding the contoured-in Shrewd muzzle brake) tapering to about .960 at the muzzle and 1:10 rate. I'm guessing six bills. $400 already sent as a deposit. I expect the barrel in July. Krieger said what I wanted was impossible. Satern said "No problem."

The reamer, GO and NOGO gauges are being made by Dave Manson. I am also having a pilot for barrels with a .300 minor bore shipped with the reamer in the slender event that anybody else might ever want to chamber any 30-06 bolt action in my wildcat. Cost for the reamer, two pilots and shippin' is $310. I expect delivery of these in July.

Machining will be done by the uncle of a friend's girlfriend. This gentleman has been at a lathe for fifty years. He has done aircraft and jet engine machining. He can do "two-tenths" work in his sleep. Says I can be there, watch, kibitz and assist. Says we can do it in his home shop in a few hours. My only question is how much to pay him. I'm thinking $25 an hour, or $100 cash if less than three hours.

I have named my cartridge the 300 Nevada Desert Magnum because I live in Nevada, I live five miles from the desert and it's a magnum. I can't wait to fire, resize and reload that first shell. I shall then just gaze upon a dream come to fruition...

7mm wildcat...

Here's a 7mm thing I'm just tumbling over in my mind at this time. Parent case is the 300RUM cut off at the shoulder (gives a cylinder of 2.40 inches), but the 375Ruger basic could also be used. Length is the same as the 7x57 Mauser. The neck is long so the 168-grain and 180-grain Berger VLD bullets can be used. The bearing surface on these bullets is .462 for the 168-grainer and .541 for the 180-grainer. Overall length of a loaded cartridge using the Berger bullets will be right at three inches, give or take an RCH or two. Neck walls are presently designed to be .015 inches. If I ever do build this one, I'll use a Bighorn action, a Satern barrel and some sort of thumbhole stock that allows for the drop-in fitting of a Model 700 action. I like the Bighorn because it is available in a left-bolt with right-port configuration. I'm left-handed, so it works for me. Price is about a thousand bucks.