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Ideas for Lever Action Wildcats

12K views 57 replies 27 participants last post by  450 Fuller 
#1 ·
Lately I've been kicking around some ideas for a pair of wildcats for Marlin Lever Action rifles quite a bit. The idea is to use the .338 Marlin Express as a the basis for a larger cartridge that just surpasses the .348 Winchester and a smaller cartridge that's more focused on the kind of deer hunting that I think is done throughout most of the country.

I'm going to start with the smaller cartridge, which for lack of a better name I've dubbed the .250 Marlin Express. The basic idea is to make a cartridge that fits a handy Marlin lever action that is capable of killing deer out to 4 or 500 yards. I'm basing a lot of my ideas for what loads would look like on both the .250 Savage and the .338 Marlin Express. Loaded with a 200 grain bullet, the .338 Marlin Express uses 47.5 grains of Leverevolution powder to get a velocity around 2500 fps. This results in a pressure of around 46,000 PSI. The .250 Savage uses a 35 grain dose of CFE 223 to push a 100 grain bullet to about 2900 FPS at 44,400 CUP. So that comes out to a 12.5 grain difference using similarly rated powders. In fact the two powders are so similar that they are listed as #105 and #106 on Hodgdon's list of powders by burn rate.

My idea for this cartridge is to use a similar shaped bullet to the one used by the .308 or .338 Marlin Express cartridges that weighs 110 grains, and push it with a 40ish grain charge of either of the powders listed above. Without quickload, my guess is that this would allow for a muzzle velocity that's similar to that of the 100 grain load for the .250 Savage, but with a much higher BC and more weight than is available for the .250 Savage.

Based on this, I've come up with a theoretical ballistics chart (200 yard zero), using the BC for the Nosler 110 grain Accubond (.418) which is as follows:
Range Velocity Energy Trajectory Come Up (MOA) Come Up (MILS) Wind Drift Wind Drift (MOA) Wind Drift (MILS)
0 2900 2054.0 -2.5 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
100 2679 1753.0 1.2 -1.1 -0.3 0 0 0
200 2468 1488.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0 0 0
300 2267 1256.0 -6.9 2.2 0.6 0 0 0
400 2076 1052.0 -20.6 4.9 1.4 0 0 0
500 1894 876.0 -42.4 8.1 2.4 0 0 0

I think this is a little optimistic given a 48,000 PSI limit personally, but I'd be really interested in hearing what other posters think about this idea for a gummy tipped small bore round.

~
My other idea revolving around the .338 Marlin Express case is to neck it up to .375 for a true Alaskan cartridge. Again, the working title is something simple like .375 Marlin Express.

So based on the aforementioned .338 ME loads, my idea for the .375 is to have 3 loads available that would cover a wide amount of game. For a general purpose load, I think a 250 grain FTX would fit the bill well for one major reason; it has an extremely similar section density (.254) to that of the 200 grain loading used in the .338 ME (which has an SD of .250). To me this makes sense as a conjectural baseline because the two bullets are likely to be of similar lengths, or the .375 could be even shorter than the .338 bullet. Not being a ballistic engineer, this of course is merely conjecture but seems pretty sound based on my research of .338 and .375 bullets with similar SDs.

Anyways, by using a 250 grain bullet with a wider base my hope is to grab onto what I can only describe as the .35 Whelen effect, when similar weighted bullets are fired in cases of similar capacities, usually the wider diameter bullet sees an increase in velocity. Using this as an example, using H4895 an 180 grain bullet out of a Whelen gains about 7% more velocity than a .30-06 with the same bullet weight. Using a similar ratio, we can surmise that the .375 Marlin Express could push that 250 grain FTX bullet to about 2400 FPS with the powders available to handloaders. This gives it a solid 16% increase in energy to 250 grain .338 ME factory loads once available through Remington, and puts it at the top level of energy available to the venerable old .348 Winchester.

Of my other two loads I've thought up for this cartridge, the other one that I think deserves mention is one that uses a 270 grain Woodleigh Weldcore round nose bullet. With a very short bullet length of 1.08" I feel like this bullet could be seated in a very advantageous way even in the short fat .338 ME casing, with a muzzle velocity likely between 2250 and 2350 FPS. Again, this puts it just above common loads for the .348, while the presence of a bullet with the dangerous game pedigree of the Woodleigh Weldcore makes me certain this would be great bear medicine.

Thanks for reading this guys. I'm interested in what people with a little bit more experience with wildcatting think of these ideas, in particular the theoretical ballistic figures I've listed.
 
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#2 ·
I'm sure the 338 ME case has been necked up and down, exactly as you have stated. I'm also sure both calibers you chose would be excellent wildcats.

The problem is the parent brass you chose is already difficult to find and WILL dry up, completely, at some point. The 338 ME is loosely based no the 376 Steyr and cannot be easily made from any other brass.

You would be just as well off to get a series of forming dies and neck down a 45/70 to both .375" and .257". You could also go with the very fine 375 and 257 JDJ cases (based on the 444 Marlin and 225 Winchester, respectively). While brass for the JDJ cases isn't always easy to find, it's likely there will always be seasonal runs of both parent brass, due to the number of factory rifles originally sold and the number of wildcats already using them. I honestly don't think the 338 ME will ever achieve either of those milestones.

See also 25-35 Tomcat (AI) and 375 Express - non-proprietary options for the above. It's ALL been done.

With all of that said, if your pockets are deep, go for it.
 
#3 ·
I think Broom_Jm makes some good points.
I note that your velocity/drop table is with a pointed Nosler Accubond bullet. You won't be able to use more than 1 cartridge at a time in a tube magazine like the Marlin. Seems to me that any attempt to make a 3-400 yard rifle out of a 336 or 94 is going to be futile because of the need to use flat point bullets in a tube magazine, unless you restrict yourself to Hornady FTX bullets.
 
#5 ·
Yeah the idea was to go with an ftx bullet. You're absolutely right though, with the accubond I would have been restricted to 2 shots.

I'm sure the 338 ME case has been necked up and down, exactly as you have stated. I'm also sure both calibers you chose would be excellent wildcats.

The problem is the parent brass you chose is already difficult to find and WILL dry up, completely, at some point. The 338 ME is loosely based no the 376 Steyr and cannot be easily made from any other brass.

You would be just as well off to get a series of forming dies and neck down a 45/70 to both .375" and .257". You could also go with the very fine 375 and 257 JDJ cases (based on the 444 Marlin and 225 Winchester, respectively). While brass for the JDJ cases isn't always easy to find, it's likely there will always be seasonal runs of both parent brass, due to the number of factory rifles originally sold and the number of wildcats already using them. I honestly don't think the 338 ME will ever achieve either of those milestones.

See also 25-35 Tomcat (AI) and 375 Express - non-proprietary options for the above. It's ALL been done.
My issue with the 25-35 AI is that I don't think it can be as accurate as a 338 ME based cartridge would be. The 308 and 338 ME cartridges use the same shoulder shape and body taper as the 6.5 CM or at least extremely similar to it (they were all designed by Hornady around the same time). There'es a pretty proven advantage to short fat powder columns that I think could be taken advantage of in a lever gun,

The .45-70 point is extremely valid though. In fact the .38-56 AI is what had come up with the basis for the .375 express on. My thought though was that with the smaller rim diameter of the .338 ME you might be able to use a 336 as your starting point instead of the 1895 and save some modification time to the mag tube and barrel bands.
 
#4 ·
There is a reason bolt action rifles are preferred for long range shooting. :)

You can make a sports car out of a dump truck if you have the money to do so, but you wont have a sports car at the end of the money, only something 'different'. "Different" is easy to do. ;)

If you want a 25 caliber lever action find and old Savage 99 in 250-3000.
 
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#6 ·
There is NO accuracy advantage in case shape, only disadvantages from a headspacing and feeding point of view.
Capacity equals performance. Headspace, feeding and extraction are the only other parameters to consider....and maybe extra work sorting out the VERY BEST 30-30 brass, which Steve Herrett did for years.
 
#7 ·
I find this a bit odd, since everyone since P.O. Ackley has said that short fat powder columns produce more efficient burn rates and takes out the variables that can lead to innacuracy. I understand that any rifle cartridge, using well designed loads and good components can achieve more than decent levels of accuracy, but I've always thought it was pretty securely noted that short fat cases produce less variable results.
 
#8 · (Edited)
They say it, but can they prove it? Two different things.

The bench rest crowd is pretty adamant about what works (for good reason). But the difference between first, and way down in the also-rans, might be a few thousandths in the aggregate. Important for them? Yes. Deer hunters? Not so much.

An interesting experiment would be to take a barrel, and chamber it to something with a long skinny case in that bore size. Shoot for groups off of a machine rest or the like, then start rechambering it in cartridges that are progressively shorter and fatter, but the same case capacity. Shoot for groups again, repeat till you run out of money ;)

If you don't use the same barrel, then it isn't a direct comparison. I realize that you can get enough data points from different rifles to start to sort it out, but it takes a LOT of data to really get confidence in the answers. A sample size of two rifles? Forget it. Flip a coin.....
 
#9 ·
Granted---A column of 40 grains of powder in a straight walled case is NOT as effecient as a .243.
You said "Accuracy". Case shape is about number 88 on the 100 most important things needed for accuracy.
If three cartridges are the same bore diameter, same capacity and fit the same action, there will be no difference in 'inherent accuracy' between them. They might be case life problems, extraction problems (too straight) or feeding problems but 'inherent accuracy' is not dependent on case shape otherwise.
 
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#10 ·
Oh by the way, my dad chambered a Marlin 336 in .250 Savage. Why? Because he wanted to ;)

Staying away from max load, it works great, and has accounted for several deer. Does it have any great advantage over a Savage 99? Not really, except you can put a 1-10" barrel on it, whereas the 99s seem to be in the neighborhood of 15" or so inch twist. They were allegedly 14" twists, but mine was slower than that, as other writers have mentioned in the gun press (Barsness, I think).

Anyway.... it can be done, if you want to go that route. Up to you. Max case capacity, as mentioned, would be with a .45-70 or maybe a .450 Marlin parent case.
 
#12 · (Edited)
An interesting experiment would be to take a barrel, and chamber it to something with a long skinny case in that bore size. Shoot for groups off of a machine rest or the like, then start rechambering it in cartridges that are progressively shorter and fatter, but the same case capacity. Shoot for groups again, repeat till you run out of money.
That was done 50 years ago!! Warren Page was the shooter in some of the experiments. There is a definite relationship between the shape and size of the primer flash and the length and diameter of the powder column, but the shape of the case has effect on brass but not accuracy.

Some cases have a reputation for being very easy to load for, like the .270 and anything built on a 7x57 case and some are known to be very particular over what powders they'll burn correctly. The .284 Winchester comes to mind.

Think of 'accuracy potential' as a big pile of bricks of different sizes. The big ones on the bottom (Straight, Solid and Square) gives an MOA with most barrels. As the bricks are stacked higher, it gets more complicated and to put little bitty bricks (caliber shape) on the bottom and then build up is counter-intuitive to one that builds rifles.
 
#14 ·
I think it has been overdo for a small bore lever action cartridge. The bigger bores are fun, I like my 338MX and 356 win for deer hunting. But my son has been shooting whitetails just fine with his 260 Rem. Ballistic tipped bullets make big nasty holes in game. So a 25 caliber levergun with newer style bullets sounds great to me.

Pressure is what you need to get velocity. A 338MX case has way more capacity than needed to acheive your results. To have 250 savage results in a tube mag levergun would be great. A 100 grain ballistic tip will kill deer and a 1 in 10 inch twist works great. Start going much heavier you will need a tighter twist to get good accuracy. I know the 250 savage and the 25-35 AI have the same case capacity. But the 25-35 AI doesn't feed in a lever action very well with it's straight wall and sharp shoulder. We do know that the Wincheste 307 and 356 case shape does feed in Marlin actions. So I would suggest looking at a 307 case necked down to 25 caliber. Do you calculations using the 25 Souper and see what results you get at the pressures you are trying to achieve. If the case is too long to accept the length bullets you want then push back the shoulder, maybe the same length as the 250 savage, but keep the same body taper and shoulder angle as the 307 and you will know it will feed. Plus brass is not hard to find.

I think a 375 caliber on 338mX would also be fun. I have thought of this before, but my experience with the 338MX and 356 Win. is that it hammers whitetail and I don't need a bigger hammer. But it still would be cool to have one. So start with the 25 caliber wildcat and I would like to hear the results.
 
#15 ·
A true 1-10" barrel will easily stabilize 117gr. - 120gr. bullets. I've known people with .25 cal cartridges that couldn't shoot bullets that heavy, but none of them actually measured the twist rate in their guns. There's no telling what it could have been.

I have a .250 Savage on a mauser action with a 1-10" twist, a .257 Roberts on a 10 3/8" twist, and a .257 Weatherby with a 1-10.1" twist. All will stabilize bullets in that range, and yield deer-killing accuracy as far out as I have any desire to shoot one.

Agreed, easiest way to get a neat .25 cal wildcat on a Marlin lever gun would be to neck down the .307 Win to .25 cal, and put a barrel that is at least as fast as 1-10" on it. That would be an updated version of the .250 Savage and ought to kill deer like poison ;)

In my opinion/experience .....
 
#16 ·
Agreed, easiest way to get a neat .25 cal wildcat on a Marlin lever gun would be to neck down the .307 Win to .25 cal, and put a barrel that is at least as fast as 1-10" on it. That would be an updated version of the .250 Savage and ought to kill deer like poison ;)

In my opinion/experience .....
Do you think the .307 or the .308 ME would be better? The .308 has a shorter case length (1.91) and should accomodate a higher BC bullet like an FTX better than the .307 case (2.015") within the 2.55" OAL required on a 94 or 336.
 
#18 ·
Kevin, from what I am reading you are not looking for a tack driver but a round that will kill a deer at 400- 500 yards. Leverguns are funny things, some I have shoot Ok , plenty good for deer. Then I do have a few that shoot MOA and have no problem hitting steel at 400 yards. So I don't see a problem building a small bore levergun cartridge to do what you are asking. Building and testing is the fun part. If that is your passion go for it. Read McPhearson's book on Accurizing the Factory Rifle and he has tips for leverguns.

I think necking down the 308 MX would get you what you are looking for. When Marlin came out with the 308MX I was hopeing the next thing they did was to neck it down to 25 cal.
 
#20 ·
.25" cal wildcat

Kevin H. -

Howdy !

A .35Rem necked-down to .25" caliber would have case capacity > a .250 Savage,
and < a .250Savage AI.

The new Hornady .25" cal 110gr ELD-X deserves a look... especially if looking to maximize energy retention.

A comparatively long(er ) barrel would help boost achievable Mv.

It might make sense to go w/ a slower powder than what might typically be used, and keep load density towards the higher side. A less temp sensitive such as H4350, IMR4451 or even perhaps
IMR4955 would be great to have, should Mv look good to you.

I happen to have a case forming die set that takes .35 Rem down to ( amongst other things )
a .25" caliber version...... along w/ an easy-to-form 26* shoulder angle.


With regards,
.357Mag
 
#22 ·
I don’t want to sound negative as I like the idea. You may find your cartridge will not extract at higher pressure leveles due to the rifle not having adequate primary extraction.
Seatleroadwr (Eric) found this out as he reamed hi Marlin to .30-30AI (which worked well) and the rebarreled to .307 Winchester. Up to 75% or so of maximum loads the Marlin 336 would extract cartridges well. Above this load level he began to have some initial extraction problems. The rifle would not break the case loose from the chamber wall.
With the help of Gunsmith Nonneman they developed a shortened .307 with a slightly straighter case. This eleiminated the extraction problem and gave good performance to the .30 Lever Maximum wildcat.
This thread.
https://www.shootersforum.com/leverguns-their-cartridges-general/69457-30-lever-maximum.html

Years ago Marlin made up a Model 336 in .250 Savage. The rifle handled the pressure just fine but had extraction trouble with factory ammunition.The tapered case sticking to the chamber walls and perhaps a bit of set back.

This thread
https://www.shootersforum.com/marlin-336-lever-guns/47139-marlin-336-250-savage.html

As you begin to neck the case down you will steepen the shoulder from 25 degrees to about 37 degrees. You could get around this but it is an advantage. Without blowing out the shoulder you have approximately 58.8 grains of water in the full case.
With a bullet seated .257 you have 55,4 grains of water – approximately.
This leave you room for a rough
51.6 grains of Hodgdon 414
or
50.33 grains of IMR 4320 (which is where I would start).

You are not too far off from the .25WSSM at 56.2 grains of water – 52.8 grains of water with the bullet seated .257” deep. This would help with estimating intial loads and in selecting propellant.
You would be a bit better off straightening the case to ease backthrust and assist in extraction. You don’t need the powder capacity.
The drawing I attached shows a long flat point bullet which is not available but a custom bullet maker could come up with it.
Drawing


A color drawing for fun
 

Attachments

#35 · (Edited)
I don’t want to sound negative as I like the idea. You may find your cartridge will not extract at higher pressure leveles due to the rifle not having adequate primary extraction.
Seatleroadwr (Eric) found this out as he reamed hi Marlin to .30-30AI (which worked well) and the rebarreled to .307 Winchester. Up to 75% or so of maximum loads the Marlin 336 would extract cartridges well. Above this load level he began to have some initial extraction problems. The rifle would not break the case loose from the chamber wall.
With the help of Gunsmith Nonneman they developed a shortened .307 with a slightly straighter case. This eleiminated the extraction problem and gave good performance to the .30 Lever Maximum wildcat.
This thread.
https://www.shootersforum.com/leverguns-their-cartridges-general/69457-30-lever-maximum.html

Years ago Marlin made up a Model 336 in .250 Savage. The rifle handled the pressure just fine but had extraction trouble with factory ammunition.The tapered case sticking to the chamber walls and perhaps a bit of set back.

This thread
https://www.shootersforum.com/marlin-336-lever-guns/47139-marlin-336-250-savage.html

As you begin to neck the case down you will steepen the shoulder from 25 degrees to about 37 degrees. You could get around this but it is an advantage. Without blowing out the shoulder you have approximately 58.8 grains of water in the full case.
With a bullet seated .257 you have 55,4 grains of water – approximately.
This leave you room for a rough
51.6 grains of Hodgdon 414
or
50.33 grains of IMR 4320 (which is where I would start).

You are not too far off from the .25WSSM at 56.2 grains of water – 52.8 grains of water with the bullet seated .257” deep. This would help with estimating intial loads and in selecting propellant.
You would be a bit better off straightening the case to ease backthrust and assist in extraction. You don’t need the powder capacity.
The drawing I attached shows a long flat point bullet which is not available but a custom bullet maker could come up with it.
Thank you for this info. You put a lot of effort into something that was as much a passing fancy as it was a real plan and it's given me a lot of interesting info to work with. Interestingly, this gives you the same powder capacity that Nosler lists with the 110 accubond for a 257 roberts. Pretty interesting stuff and I think would be worth working on.
Yes, a wildcat lever action, great idea for fun, but probably expensive like building a new flathead Ford rat rod. I had the idea, then switched the cartridge to a bolt action platform, as cheaper and more practical. Shown below are the development prototypes for the .35 -348 Winchester Ackley improved:

LEFT is a Winchester factory .348 Winchester 200 grain Silvertip load; MIDDLE is a .348 Winchester case necked up to .358" with a 180 Grain Remington Core-Lokt over a fire forming load; RIGHT is the fire formed final version with a 250 grain bullet.
In truth, i lost interest in the whole thing as impractical, offering nothing that many other cartridges will do without the fuss. It took decades, but I finally learned to discipline myself to reject ideas that looked interesting, but sketchy when it came to putting the money on the line. So now this rifle resides in my safe like King Tut, waiting for some archaeologist to discover it and try to solve the mystery of what it represents.
I've always been curious why I always see these 358-348 guns in bolt action? Wouldn't you think a 71 model lever would have a big advantage since you wouldn't be trying to fit that .610 rim into a standard bolt action?
 
#23 ·
Before I saw you were looking for a 25 cal, I was going to suggest the 450 Alaskan, based on the 348 Win. :D

When I was 17, a "friend" of mine let me shoot his 450 Alaskan. It was summer time, I was wearing a T-shirt, and the Winchester lever action was wearing a crescent metal buttplate.:eek: I think it took at least a week for my shoulder to loosen up.
 
#24 ·
Hate to be a downer............

Browning Lever Guns are available in calibers from 222 Remington to 450 Marlin, and possess the ability to use Spire Pointed bullets.
I am all about innovation and like off the wall cartridges if I can get a reasonable trade-off for set up cost versus real world performance.

Please let us know what you eventually end up doing, and what your results are. Genuinely curious.
 
#25 · (Edited)
You've already been told this a few times, however, repetition is a good thing some times. The head space, etc, of a lever gun is usually the accuracy factor and, the case usually plays only a small part. In the case of Henry, they use a relatively short head space and the rifles are very accuracy, for a lever gun. Bolt guns are made to be accurate.

That being said either of those makes a good wildcat and will be ample for deer, white tail, or mule. In the field if placement and the right bullet are used, no doubt the animal will go down humanely and quickly, not having to trail it at all.

If you are looking to make a bear load out of it however, minimal necking is good to avoid any possible feed jams and, you might want to consider a wildcat made from a popular cartridge, just in case you have to move quickly and lose your ammo, as a friend of mine did. He was shooting a 375 Scovill which, can be made from either a 30-06 or a 9.2x63 case and, the die is available at rcbs and was easily loaded. It was also in a marlin lever gun although, custom rifle. I have one in a bolt however, i liked his lever better for hunting...out to 300 yards it would shoot very well. Newer doesn't always mean better and for way out hunting and dangerous game, having a cartridge readily found, 45-70, 458 Win, etc...is increasingly important.
 
#26 ·
This is another round attempts to improve on the 30-30. Why? This seems to be a desire of lots of knowledgeable gun people. We have been at it for years. John Browning got it right the first time.
 
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#27 ·
Lately I've been kicking around some ideas for a pair of wildcats for Marlin Lever Action rifles quite a bit. The idea is to use the .338 Marlin Express as a the basis for a larger cartridge that just surpasses the .348 Winchester and a smaller cartridge that's more focused on the kind of deer hunting that I think is done throughout most of the country.

I'm going to start with the smaller cartridge, which for lack of a better name I've dubbed the .250 Marlin Express. The basic idea is to make a cartridge that fits a handy Marlin lever action that is capable of killing deer out to 4 or 500 yards. I'm basing a lot of my ideas for what loads would look like on both the .250 Savage and the .338 Marlin Express. Loaded with a 200 grain bullet, the .338 Marlin Express uses 47.5 grains of Leverevolution powder to get a velocity around 2500 fps. This results in a pressure of around 46,000 PSI. The .250 Savage uses a 35 grain dose of CFE 223 to push a 100 grain bullet to about 2900 FPS at 44,400 CUP. So that comes out to a 12.5 grain difference using similarly rated powders. In fact the two powders are so similar that they are listed as #105 and #106 on Hodgdon's list of powders by burn rate.

My idea for this cartridge is to use a similar shaped bullet to the one used by the .308 or .338 Marlin Express cartridges that weighs 110 grains, and push it with a 40ish grain charge of either of the powders listed above. Without quickload, my guess is that this would allow for a muzzle velocity that's similar to that of the 100 grain load for the .250 Savage, but with a much higher BC and more weight than is available for the .250 Savage.
************************************************************************************
I see your idea is mostly to put a smaller bullet in the case, but how about if you put a larger bullet in the case? My suggestion would be to take pistol bullets in 41 caliber and make it a 338-41.
 
#31 ·
Or maybe a .357/.44 mag in a Winchester or Rossi 92. If I had a Rossi in .357 I think it might get reamed...just can't bring myself to do that to my 1894 Marlin .357.
 
#29 ·
I have a friend and master gunsmith that came up with a dandy the. 357fugget it's a .454casull necked down to a .357 it shoots 158gn bullets at around 3,000fps Barnes bullets are the best for this cartridge because they will hold together there may be other bullets that won't vaporize. You can get dies from rcbs. Makes a heck of a little levergun but not 400 yards.
 
#32 ·
Yes, a wildcat lever action, great idea for fun, but probably expensive like building a new flathead Ford rat rod. I had the idea, then switched the cartridge to a bolt action platform, as cheaper and more practical. Shown below are the development prototypes for the .35 -348 Winchester Ackley improved:



LEFT is a Winchester factory .348 Winchester 200 grain Silvertip load; MIDDLE is a .348 Winchester case necked up to .358" with a 180 Grain Remington Core-Lokt over a fire forming load; RIGHT is the fire formed final version with a 250 grain bullet.

This version being necked up to .358 caliber allows a wider selection of bullets than the .348 Winchester, as would necking it down to smaller calibers, but it is still going to be limited to actions capable of handling the .45-70. In this case a Winchester or Browning Model 71, or 1886. While I have both, I went with building it on the Siamese Mauser action I had on hand.

Completed rifle:



In truth, i lost interest in the whole thing as impractical, offering nothing that many other cartridges will do without the fuss. It took decades, but I finally learned to discipline myself to reject ideas that looked interesting, but sketchy when it came to putting the money on the line. So now this rifle resides in my safe like King Tut, waiting for some archaeologist to discover it and try to solve the mystery of what it represents.
 
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