I just ordered two wildcats based on the 444 Marlin brass. A 308 Bellm and a 358 Bellm. I read that one just uses a 358 Winchester die and 308 die to do this. The brass is a box of unfired brass (Remington) from Midway. The case mouths are not real round, but I do not have a 44 die set. When I lube cases with Imperial wax I get a crease in the neck. I am trying to go slow. Any suggestions on not ruining my brass? My 358 die is an old CH, my 308 die is brand new RCBS.

Sounds like your first jump is too far. You should get a .40 or .375 die before you go to the .358 die. The crease does not really hurt anything. It will iron out when you fire it first, but it often comes back when resizing.

I've got a .308 Bellm and a .358x444 Improved by David White and if you do not start with case mouths that are as round as possible you will get a crease down the neck quite often. Get a set of .444 dies and full length resize before you start. Mike Bellm even recommended at one time to run fireformed .308 Bellm brass through the full length .444 die if they started to fit tight in the chamber. I have even resized then belled the case mouth then resized again on the worst cases. The Imperial wax is all I use and by following this procedure I have all but eliminated creasing brass. A set of .444 Marlin (not .44) full length dies is about your only hope unless you want to sort out all out of round cases. You shouldn't really need anything else if you already have the .308 and .358 dies.

Dennis

Thanks Dennis,

No problem, I lost almost 40 out of my first 100 cases before I broke down and got some .444 dies. Also, make sure that the .308 and .358 dies are full length resizing or you may still get creased necks (at least I did anyway).

Dennis,

Do you have any load data for the 308 Bellm? I plan on using 150g Nosler Ballistic Tips in it and I just got some Hornady 180 spire points for the 358 Bellm.

The only thing I have is from Mike Bellm's website. I tried the 150 BT's but settled on the 125 grain BT or the Hornady 130 grain SSP. The 125's and 130's hit same POI at 100 yds. and shoot flatter than the 150's. I haven't taken anything with the BT's but the Hornady's gave complete pass through on a 130 pound doe. My .308 barrel is 17" a 30-30 rechamber and the 125's with 51 grains of w760 chrono's at 2640fps and the 130 grains chrono at 2667.

Start at the low end of the data with BT's and work up slowly

Bellm Data