[James Gates]

Dear Friends...I need some help on these Beartooth Wildcats.
I need 2 or 3 people to take a .458 Winchester brass and cut it off with a tube cutter at 1.40" from the base. Leave the bevel made by the tube cutter. Weigh the cut off case....
then fill it with water and weigh again. subtract the empty case weight from the water filled case. Let me know what grains of water you get. This is very important.
Thank You and Best Regards....James

 

[Big Bore]

I used Remington .458 Win brass and came up with exactly 48.0 gr. of water filled to the brim without any bulge over the rim.  I noticed the brass is very thick, and when using this brass to form .458 x 2" American brass RCBS advises to inside ream the cases.  With the even shorter length of 1.400 inches the brass is even thicker, so I am sure neck reaming will be necessary for forming to .375 or .416 caliber, which obviously is going to increase internal volume.  The empty primed/fired case weighed 190.2 grains and the measure was set to zero on this case and the water added.

 

[Big Bore]

Oops, almost forgot, I did not use a tubing cutter-don't have one handy-but sawed and then trimmed to 1.400 inches.  Obvioulsy my case will hold more water than one cut with a tubing cutter with the bevel left on.

 

[James Gates]

Big Bore...Thank you very much for the help..I'm really concerned about this thick brass. Not from the stand point of reaming, but case capacity. Maybe I can find someone on the forum that can cut .350 Remington Mag or 7mm Remington Mag @ the same point and give me a readout.
Thank you again and best regards....James

 

[Big Bore]

I suspected there may not be much difference with the longer cases, so I cut down a 8mm Rem Mag and a 300 Wby Mag-Rem manufacture-and came up with essentially the same water weights.  48.0 gr. for the .458 Win case, 48.2 for the 300 Wby case, and 48.3 for the 8mm Rem Mag case.  Again, all cases were saw cut and trimmed back to exactly 1.400 inches and filled with the water not exceeding the level of the case mouth.  Not much room for powder is there?