[loader]

I enjoy reading about firearm wish lists, and am surprised the more manufacturers don't have a place for them on their web sites. Anyway, what rifle or rifle innovation would you like to see offered in today's market?

I have a long list, but one in particular seems like a no-brainer:

How about a 3 pound 22 Mag semi-auto with a 16 or 17 inch barrel?

I have the Taurus model 72 pump with 17 inch bbl at about 4 pounds, and there is no velocity loss in the short bbl. In a semi-auto scope mounting would be possible, and it would be easy to shave another pound off with composites and an alloy receiver. Recoil would be only 1.3 ft-lbs in a 3 pound rifle, and for general varminting and ranch use it would be very useful.

 

[Rmouleart]

Wow 3 Pd's I would forget it was in my hands LOL...Nice, its funny you brought this up. I was pondering about picking up the Ruger 10/22 22Mag, then replace everything other than the receiver with VQ parts, titanium,quick release/extractor claw/firing pin/trigger/sear/disconnector/hammer etc... pick up a white mountain fluted 16 inch barrel sst with 1/16 twist, and to top it off, get a Hogue rubber overmoulded stock, I just like the feel of the Hogue's, sweet a little heaver though Aim small hit small. RAMbo.

P.S. I have the Ruger 10/22 LR sst with all VQ parts and the Hogue stock, great shooter also.

 

[Lindsey Mathiso]

How about a 450 Marlin (or 45-70 or 444) in a magazine or clip feed model. I hear Browning will produce a BLR in that caliber next year. Using pointed bullets would open up many possibilities I don't have now with my tube fed leverguns.

 

[Rmouleart]

Sorry nothing can replace my Marlin 450 guidegun, just like that lever Aim small hit small. RAMbo.

 

[loader]

Lindsey -

You reminded me that I want to see a tube magazine designed to handle spitzer bullets. I know there was once a pump remington with a mag tube that spiraled...this kept the tips of the bullets from lining up with the primers.

 

[Paul Nichols]

To each their own I guess. Never liked little lite rifles. Always found them tough to hold on target. There was a Rem years ago with a spiral that supposedly allowed spitzer bullets down the tube. Definately an ugly rifle. Nobody ought to have to own an ugly rifle. (Opinions only). As to druthers, would love to see a lever action rimmed 35 along the line of at least a 35/30-30 just for me to shoot cast through. 35's in rifles have just never gotten a proper shake in my opinion. Would not mind for that matter seeing one in a 340 Sav, to play with the pointed bullets. Just think of the fun and low cost of playing with the great assortment of 35 cal pistol bullets both cast and jacketed.
A good thread-glad you posted!

Paul

 

[Big Redhead]

I wish I could afford to keep all the guns I've owned. And I wish I had more time to enjoy them and the other good things in life. Weekends are not enough, and the boss tries makes it sound like I'm a bad man when taking vacation time.

As far as guns, I wish I had (could afford) a quality highwall in 35 Whelen. Case-colored receiver, blued barrel, moderate figure in buttstock, #2 barrel 24 inches long, total weight about 8 lbs, not fancy but no excuses for quality and wood/metal fit.

Live well, take your vacation and smell the roses.

 

[Zeppelin!]

How about a semi auto .454 Casull carbine?

 

[nfmMike]

So I am stuck on this .45 thing - I know there are .44 mag rifles, probably bolt, and I know there are bolt .45/70s: I would like to see a light .45 Colt bolt action with a 22" barrel. One strong enough to take constant hot loading.

So why not just get a magnum? I just like the Colt.

 

[Zeppelin!]

There are semi auto .44 mag rifles and there is a bolt action .454 casull as well.

 

[loader]

I would like to see 25-06 rifles offered with a 1 in 9 inch twist rate to stabilize bullets up to 140 grains, and specially marked ammo to match. This would put it in the 6.5-06 class without giving up the lighter .257 varmint bullets and allow the use of slower powders to approach 100% load density with the heavy bullets.

Chamber throats should be short, and designed for the varmint length bullets, and the 140s seated deeply so all rounds have bullets quite close to the lands. The capacity lost from deep seating is inconsequential, as the 25-06 has too much case capacity anyway. Having the base of the bullet extend even a full centemeter (0.40 inches) deeper into the case would displace only 5 grains of water, but its only air, so it matters not. Bullet ogives should be designed with this in mind, and a Hornady-type cone spire would work fine.

This new 140 grain bullet would clock 2900 fps and have a sectional density of .303 (yes, the math is correct). BCs over .500 would be easily achieved.

Handloaders working with slow, dense ball powders like Hodgdon's Magpro will get 3000 fps if they don't mind a 26 inch bbl.

This might raise some hackels, but I can't see much advantage in a 270 Win over the 25-06 in this configuration for big game. I was concerned about overstabilizing the shorter varmint bullets, but 3 different premium bullet manufacturers said that as a practical matter, overstabilization really only accentuates any eccentricity the bullet might have and modern manufacturuing techniques have easily solved this problem for the 8 and 9 inch twist rates...just makes the varmint bullets explode better.

 

[Eric Gibson]

Had a shot on Sunday with an Alex Henry 1877 falling block that had been rebuilt and chambered for 45/120 Sharps.
I wish I had one or two, perhaps six !!!!

 

[nfmMike]

Too bad the 8mm Reminington Magnum never got picked up, it might be interesting to see what could be made from that cartridge. .270 or .340? Hmm...

 

[kciH]

nfmMike,
There are already one commercial, and one fairly common round based on the 8mm RemMag. The 7mm STW is the same case, as is the .358 STA. The performance, according to the references that I have, of the 8Mag is about on par with the 300 Wthby. It's a moot poing in my book. Oops, I almost forgot the .416 Remington Magnum, which I'm pretty sure is based on that case also.

 

[loader]

Of course, the parent case for the 8mm Mag is the 375 H&H blown out. Back when 416. Rem brass got scarce, I regularly ran 375 H&H brass through the 416 die and shot fireforming loads...works great.

The shoulders on all 3 of the derivatives you mention are right around .487.

I would add to my wish list that one of the major ammo manufacturers introduce a 338 based on a 2.5 inch RUM case, so it would work in '06 length actions. The 338 Dakota is quite close to this, but rim size is too big for 375 based bolt faces. I chose the 338 caliber because it is mid-range and can be easily necked up and down...I really want to duplicate the 416 Rem in an '06 length action.

I will never know how we got hung up on the belted cases for anything but straight sided designs.

 

[Rmouleart]

Hey Loader what happend to the Marlin 450 on your wish list
Then you can load up those 550gr Hardcast bullets LOL...
There is one on the marlin forum for $430.00 this includes shipping 98% new. Aim small hit small. RAMbo.

 

[loader]

Rick -

That's not fair...you know all of my weaknesses!

I'm sort of wishing for things that arn't in production yet. I still want to reduce the case mouth of the 450 to accept .452 bullets and pop on a Colt or Casull barrel. That lets me shoot my beloved sabots pushing 35 and 40 caliber bullets. For the heavies, there are plenty of great cast 45s out there.

For now that wonderful Puma in 454 Casull you sold me is filling in the gap!

 

[alyeska338]

Loader,
I think the belt came from new cartridges being necked up and down off of cartridges that were introduced with minimal or no shoulders. Like the discussion about the 8mm Mag, it is a derivative of the 375 H&H which, at one time, thought to really need a belt. The Winchester Mag cases are derivatives of the 458, which has no shoulder. Instead of coming up with an entirely new brass line, these were just necked down.

I do understand why some folks don't like belts, but if you were the manufacturer, would you gamble on an entirely new setup or just modify an existing one? It's much cheaper and there is no guarantee of success. The 275 H&H is a cartridge that should have caught on, but never did. It has never been popular here, and is very rarily seen in Europe. Yet it has the same factory ballistics as the 7mm Rem Mag, and was introduced in 1912! Part of the failure was the bullets were designed for the 7mm Mauser and couldn't handle the speeds of the H&H in the early twentieth century when striking large animals at close range. Should H&H have gambled on coming up with an entirely new line of brass for it? Would it have made any difference to Winchester if they had used a beltless case for the 264 Winchester Mag?

The advantages of a beltless are known, but belted cases aren't all bad. For hunting purposes and the casual shooter, there really isn't a difference to worry about. The beltless large volume cases are the "in" thing now, and they do have their advantages, but from a manufacturer's standpoint, I can't criticize them for taking a minimal risk and introducing the 338, 7mm, 300 series of belted mags. Like wildcatters who didn't want to suffer the expense of buying 404 Jeffery cases and wildcatting, the manufacturers already have the belted case at their disposal, with minimal risk, complete safety, and like performance.

 

[nfmMike]

kcih - what is STA? And what is the euivalent inch to 7mm? I know 8 is .32, I didn't know that there were any carts based on the 8mm Rem Mag, and have been wondering what 270 and 340 would be like, even wondered about 338, but didn't want to wiegh down the tragectory.

My main reason for interest is that I like the least obvious favorites - .45 Colt for one. a buddy of mine has an 8mm Rem Mag, and does not shoot it much. Handed it to me (we servered together and shot together alot) and smiled. I shot it once, that was enough, I thought I did permanent damage to myself. But, I do like the idea of a small projectile in a howizer case. Like Ma Bell, I like reaching out and touching someone/thing.

 

[MikeG]

Mike - STA is Shooting Times Alaskan. STW = Shooting Times Westerner. This and the STE (Shooting Times Easterner) are all catridges published by Layne Simpson, a writer for (you guessed it) Shooting Times magazine.

The STA and STW are 8mm Rem Mag cases, the STA is .35 cal and the STW is 7mm. "7mm" cartridges normally have a bulled diameter of 0.284", give or take a thousandth. The metric conversion of 2.54 cm / inch yields an actual value for 7mm of 0.27559055118110236220472440944882" inches (sorry that's just what my calculator spit out, LOL, 0.276" is probably close enough). I guess 0.276" is probably pretty close the bore diameter (not groove diameter). Makes you wonder how catridges got named when the '.270' is actually a 7mm and the various '7mm' catridges are really 7.21mm.

The STE by the way, is 7mm and I forget what the parent case is, I think it might be one of the semi-rimmed Win Big Bore cases, like the .307 Win. It is intended for lever guns so a much smaller case than the big Alaskan & Westerner wildcats.

The 8mm Rem Mag is basically right between the .300 Weatherby and the .340 Weatherby. So that's why it kicks so hard, and probably why it never became all that popular. A .300 or .340 on that case becomes the Weatherby cartridge without the rounded shoulders or freebore.