The Remington Ultramagnum case seems to have a lot of potential. So far Remington has made this in 7mm, .30, .338. and .375 calibers. The 7mm has lots of velocity but I bet barrel life is pretty short. Have there been any wildcatters who've used this case for 8mm or .358 caliber bullets? If so what kind of powders were you using and what kind of velocities were you getting? I suspect barrel life would be longer than the smaller calibers.
Question for Wildcatters
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Klint Beastwood
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There was a separate threat on barrel life that is still probably being debated or whatever. Shoulder angle and counterbore of the cartridge will play a factor on pressure and ultimately barrel life. However .338's and .375 is usually not as big of a problem all things considered when talking about magnums. .338 will probably have better bullet selection.
I've never had any interest in wildcatting any cartridges so I leave that to someone else to talk about.
I've never had any interest in wildcatting any cartridges so I leave that to someone else to talk about.
I used my Google Fu to check out the 358 ultra Mag, I recommend it, pretty popular actually. Too much data to relay for you.
https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!msg/rec.guns/iC-CoKQCeW8/UF0WINR94kAJ
Heres Barts old barrel life formula, I only read about it on a recent post but it seems pretty accurate to me.
Anyway, Honestly i think the Ultras cases are just TOO damn big for most of the calibers they are in.
I think an ultra in .338-.358 with a longer neck might be a good options. Ive read some of what horseys referring to on the .358 and that seems like where id start looking at the full length case.
Personally I want to mess with the .375 ruger case, that seem like a really good option for a sensible increase in capacity paired with reliability and easy of feeding. I was thinking a .358STA class round on an 06 length action would be kinda cool.
Ill mess with quickloads when i get home friday, and see if there are anything comparable to the ultras necked from .338-400, just to see whats already been done.
For powders, id be youd be in the H1000 or slower range for most of the bore dias.
Heres Barts old barrel life formula, I only read about it on a recent post but it seems pretty accurate to me.
Anyway, Honestly i think the Ultras cases are just TOO damn big for most of the calibers they are in.
I think an ultra in .338-.358 with a longer neck might be a good options. Ive read some of what horseys referring to on the .358 and that seems like where id start looking at the full length case.
Personally I want to mess with the .375 ruger case, that seem like a really good option for a sensible increase in capacity paired with reliability and easy of feeding. I was thinking a .358STA class round on an 06 length action would be kinda cool.
Ill mess with quickloads when i get home friday, and see if there are anything comparable to the ultras necked from .338-400, just to see whats already been done.
For powders, id be youd be in the H1000 or slower range for most of the bore dias.
I've been REALLY wanting to wildcat an uberoverbore on the ol Jeffrey case too, sadly.....that too is in the "one day" category
I think a .458 RUM would be good. It wouldn't be quite as powerful as the .460 Weatherby but I'm sure the recoil would be severe enough to crack a poorly bedded wood stock. Something like this would probably work best in a graphite/carbon fiber aluminum bedded stock like the one on the Remington 700 Sendero.
http://www.longrangehunting.com/threads/test-drove-my-new-450-ultra-magnum-on-a-wa-bull.80281/
Some ones done a .450 Ultra, way more than i think i could handle sans alot of gun weight and a GREAT brake.
Some ones done a .450 Ultra, way more than i think i could handle sans alot of gun weight and a GREAT brake.
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Yep it didn't take long before the UM case was being necked up, down, and blown out to this, that, or another caliber, angle, or taper. A couple of folks from out in Montana brought out a few successful wildcats bsaed on it, and a couple of them are still holding on pretty strong. As to the smaller calibers being short on barrel life, that is a relative thing. For one, you don't build on something like this to head out to a dog town for a week long shoot. Most of these type rifles are built for a specific purpose, either long range target or hunting big game. If your into the long range target thing, well your probably looking at getting around 1500'ish shots on a 7mm barrel with careful loading, a longer shank barrel and a slower twist. With the shank being longer it can be set back usually at least once to be cleaned up for another go before having to actually replace it.
With the 338 Edge, it has shown to be a great round in a number of different type rifles. It runs right in there with the Lapua but is a little more efficient. There has been a ton of game taken with it and there is plenty of data available for several different bullet weights. Yes powders for these type rounds are usually in the slowest bracket with a lot of folks using the surplus 50 cal pull down powder.
I had a rifle built back around 2007-8 by Kirby Allen using the 7mm or 300 RUM case necked down to .270, (270 Allen Magnum) with the taper straightened out some and the neck blown out a bit. It will easily push a 169gr Wildcat bullet up to the mid 3400fps range. It sports a 30" Lilja barrel with a real nice brake on the end. The recoil is not much more than a standard .270, but the noise, well that is a completely different story. I purchased surplus 872 powder for it, which is like burning charcoal. In working up the load and dialing it in with a supply of the custom made bullets, I have maybe 300-350 rounds through it. It shoots awesome out to further than I am capable right now, but when I was working things up and had everything set I did shoot a 9.5" group at 1175yds using the 195gr Wildcat's. Once!!! Out to 500-800yds was where I really had things dialed in good. It was built for eliminating feral hogs which were decimating a friends pastures and cotton fields. In an overnight period they could ruin several acres of coastal and the cotton field would look like an artillery practice range. We found that at the extended ranges they didn't run at the sound of the shot like they did up close so we had a couple of custom rifles built to reach out and touch them.
With mine I had both the 169, and 195gr Wildcat bullets and either of them would fully put the smack down on a 2-300 pound hog similar to what a 22-250 might do to a prairie dog. That said though if you did your part you could still end up with a nice clean head shot which didn't ruin much if any of the good parts. Hit a shoulder though and it was pretty much a mess. Amazingly enough though, when using some 150gr Nosler Solid Base bullets running around 3450'ish FPS it made a very fine hunting rifle and did little more damage than if you had used a standard 270 and a 130gr load. I REALLY liked those old Solid Base bullets and sure wished they still made them. I have tried any of the newer Accubond's through it yet, but see no reason whey they wouldn't be an awesome one to use as well.
If I were going to build something similar today I would probably go with either the 7mm Allen Mag or simply the 338 Edge. With the 7mm you might not get 2000 rounds through the barrel, but it would be for hunting those same danged hogs and shots wouldn't be fast or long in session. Using the heavy Berger bullets it would really reach out and put a whollop on them. The same could be said with the 338 Edge as well. Using the fine long range Accubond's it too would be a very fine long range hammer.
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