444 Rimless

[bluetopper]

This past week on gunbroker I noticed a bolt action rifle sold in what they listed as 444 Rimless caliber. Which come to find out what it was is a 30/06 cartridge with the shoulder and neck blown out straight walled then trimmed to 2.225'', 444 Marlin length. Then I presume ran through a 444 Marlin sizing die. I thought that was very interesting. Do any of you have any experience with or seen a rifle such as this?
Sarco currently has 93 Mauser actions for $100, they aren't as stout as the 98 Mausers but they would be fine for the pressures this caliber would incur. I wonder where a guy could get a barrel chambered for something like this? It would have to headspace on the case mouth. Seems like a neat build to me.

 

[earlthegoat2]

No I have no experience with that one but I did do some early dabbling with a rimless 44 caliber cartridge with a 1.8” case length. I used a 30-06 case to start and trimmed it to 1.790” Ran it through a 444 Marlin sizzling die and trimmed again.

At that point you needed to case ream to properly seat a bullet without bulging the case.

My intention was to make a cartridge that was legal in straight wall states with case length restrictions that could be shot out of any rifle action. At the time I was thinking a Marlin lever action since a 35 Rem Marlin could simply be rebored and rechambered in this cartridge with no other modifications. I got the idea from reading about Mic McPherson’s lever action conversions and a few articles on Ranger Point Precision and Grizzly Custom’s 450 Bushmaser lever gun conversions.

Alternatively, you could also blow out a 35 Rem case and only trim once. This would probably be a more reliable option since the.460” rim diameter of 35 Rem is smaller than the .473” 30-06 based cartridges. Oftentimes, a 30-06 .473” rim will fit into the recess on the 35 Rem bolt of a Marlin 336.

I abandoned the idea and just bought a 450 BM bolt gun when Ruger released a run of American Ranches in left hand.