Sorry, wrong site, I guess this one started at Cast Boolits.

Lar45,
Its OK, I read it over there too, I guess I should have replied there when I read it. That is exactly what I have in mind except I would like to use something like the Lee soup can at much lower velocities and pressures. The idea of a small capacity case and a light for caliber boolit has a lot of appeal to me. Why try to fight air space in a bottle neck cartridge if you don't have to. I might just have to get a reamer one of these days and see what happens. I think it would be great in a small frame lever gun too.
350mag

I've got a Rossi 357 lever gun, it would seem to be the right size and price. I picked mine up used for around $200. I don't know how hard it would be to rebarrel to 30 cal. What about a 32-20?

That's actually a pretty old idea, but a good one. My gunsmith buddy Bob Paxton used to make these up for Martini Cadets back in the '60's, and also did several revolvers in .30/.357 and/or .30/38 Spl., depending on cylinder length. They're listed in one of Ackley's wildcat data books as ".30/.357 Paxton". It'll be great to see this become a "legitimate" round. Sadly, Bob's in failing health these days; we had some good times together over the years. floodgate

Ken, I had a little time to play today and this is what I came up with.


I took a 38 special case and used a short bolt to run it up into my 30-06 sizer die with the decaping pin removed. I then used a small rod to tap it out after sizeing. The neck looked to be fairly well centered after forming. I seated the bullet in the 357 die.
38 special 1.147"
CB30 1.158" so it grew some.
.39" neck length
22gns of water, which is the same as a 32-20
I ran some numbers through Quickload.
20" bbl, Lee soup can, seated .34" into neck.
2400:
6gns 1052fps 6.9kpsi
10gns 1676fps 21.1kpsi

Unique:
3.3gns 1067fps 8.8kpsi
5.4gns 1454fps 21.6kpsi

296:
13.7gns 1829fps 21.3kpsi, 90% load density

AAno2:
3.3gns 1062fps 9.2kpsi
5.3gns 1419fps 21.4kpsi

The 32-20 load data runs up around 30kpsi, so depending on what action you end up with will probably determine your max pressure.