[James Gates]

Very soon we will be posting a new .416 Wildcat, built arond Marshall's .416 hard cast bullets, that is designed for the Marlin. At the present time finishing touchs are being done, like chamber throat and leade. As soon as everything is ready, YOU will be the first to know!
Best Regards from The Hammock.....James

 

[James Gates]

MT...I talked to Marshall today and we discussed this cartridge in depth...It's time we, the forum, had our own .416 built around Marshalls bullets. That's what this is all
about. It's designed @ 2.465" OAL...That's just under what is the limit on the Marlin. It has a 50/52 gr powder capacity with an Expansion Ratio in a 20/22" barrel of 12...and that's extra good. Planned velocity with 335 gr BT @ 2050'/". Working pressure is within the Marlin's limits. It will not be on the.450 Marlin case!!!!
The neck is designed so that the 375 gr bullet's base is at the bottom of the neck. Of course, it will also br good with jacketed bullets. There is only two toolpost grinder setups to convert the reamers for the new cartridge from the .457 x 2" American.
You know, MT...There's a lot of difference in building wildcat rifles and designing a resonable wildcat. I did this one for all my friends on the forum that likes .416's. Marshall is setting the chamber throats and leades for his bullets. He is setting the twist @ 1 turn in 18 inches, I think. It will work in lever guns, bolt guns ( medium and long actions), single shots, and even be good down to about 16" with ER of 10 for [email protected] close to 2000 fps with the 335 gr....that's heavy duty!
I think I might put one on a Ruger No 3 with a rather heavy 22" barrel. It would still be light and short.
Well...I've worked on this thing for three days and nights...checking and rechecking all calculations and spec drawings. We are down to the home stretch and want to go public before someone gets ahead of us!
Best Regards from The Hammock.....James  

 

[James Gates]

RugerNo3....I'm like you, I have always liked the No3! It looked like a traditional American single shot. I would love to have one made up like the No 1 Light Sporter with a 20' barrel!!!! Marshall and I have been kicking this .416 x 2" Beartooth around over the past week. The problem was getting the neck long enough for his 375 gr bullet and still have enough powder capacity. I can hold the powder capacity to 49/50 grs of IMR. That will give the 335 gr @ 2000/2200 fps (depending on powder) It will fit the Marlins and short bolt guns like the Rem Mod 7. It should be an outstanding "Walk Around" gun. I'm sending Marshall the finished draeing tonight.
Best Regards from The Hammock....James

 

[James Gates]

Jeff...The Spanish Mauser runs about 44,000/45,000 psi limits. The .416x 2" Beartooth max's out at 42,000/43,000 psi....so the pressure is OK, However, the bolt face and action feed rails would have to be altered. Unless you can do the work yourself, I would hesitate to recommand it.By the time you spend for a new barrel,trigger,etc.you might be in too deep. The Rugers that are set up for .45-70 would be ideal. It wil also be a great single shot cartridge. Any bolt gun set up for .350 Remington Mag on the short action would be excellent. The belted rim of the .416x2" Beartooth is the same as the 7mm Rem.Mag.,.458 Win Mag, etc. I'm sure Marshall will have excellent thoughts on rifles for this new cartridge! We will be posting the spec. drawings and my workup on the development of the cartridge very soon. Watch for it.
Best Regards from The Hammock...James

 

[James Gates]

Brian...The .416x2" uses the basic .458 Win.Mag. case cut back to 2". It is like the .458x2" Barnes necked down to .416". The powder capacity is 50 grs of IMR type and 60 grs of Ball. Marshall now has the finished spec drawings and write up. We haven't got to the point of ordering reamers yet or even contacting gunsmiths. I plan on a family of 2" Beartooth cartridges... a .375x2" Beartooth is on the drawing boaerd now, to be followed with a .430x2" Beartooth.
The .430x2" Beartooth will duplicate the .444 Marlin, but will work for the bolt gun crowd. Maybe even a .358 Beartooth that will solve the problems with the .350 Rem. Mag's too shot neck for cast bullets. Although these wildcats are aimed at modern cast bullet designs, they will adapt to jacketed bullets very well.
Best Regards...James  

(Edited by James Gates at 4:28 am on Jan. 30, 2001)

 

[James Gates]

El Lobo...We are developing a family of Beartooth cartridges and sooner or later catch up. We started out with the .458 Winchester Mag as a parent case, however due to its very thick brass toward the base, I've changed over and designing around .350 Remington Mag. brass. This gives us more of the important powder capacity. The next thing I've got to do is revise the .416 Beartooth that was set up for an OAL of 2.47". I will retain the neck length, but will move the shoulder foward to make the new OAL @ 2.57"....This will give us more needed powder capacity. The .375 Beartooth is already set up for that shoulder. The forthcoming .358 Beartooth will has the same basic shape of the .350 Remington, but with a pushed back shoulder to cover the lube grooves of the Beartooth bullets. The 2.57" OAL is most important as to feed length in the Marlin. I am sorry I am behind, but I want this family of cartridges to be right! Thank you for hanging in there! Best Regards, James


(Edited by James Gates at 2:44 pm on Mar. 11, 2001)

 

[James Gates]

To say I was surprised when this surfaced would be an understatment! At the time of the original post, we did a great deal of work calculating case capacity to get powder capacity. the length of the neck for Marshall's bullet, oveall length for the action........otherwords a total layout! Then, like so many other subjects on the forums, the interest drifted to some other project. The same results we saw with the .44 Mag Max (Mad Max). In that case three rifles were built.......one 336 conversion, and two NEF's. The cost of the reamers was never regained.
So....some serious thought should be done before any of these wildcat projects should be considered!
Regards, James

 

[James Gates]

The reason for the long neck is simple. It is was designed for Marshall's hard cast bullet......so when crimped into the bullet's crimp groove, there was no cast bullet extending into the powder at the shoulder angle.
The cartridge design was based on reader's requests for a design around Marshall's bullet and the Marlin action (feeding and pressure).
James