Have an option to buy a 14" TC bbl in 10mm,what would be a good caliber to rechammber to?

I have rechambered a few over the years to .38/40 WCF, and when stoked up gets pretty interesting. Factory ammo is loaded way down for the old revolvers and '73 Winchesters, etc. But when you load it up, it gets pretty respectable.

I don't know right off how it compares with 10mm Auto, but would expect it to have more hp.

I have done some years back on .444 brass full length ala JDJ type.

It is a long shot, but if you could come up with dies for the old Herters .401 "Power Mag" made from .30/30 cases, this could be fun. You could even do dies in tandem to load for it possibly. With some dabbling around with case length and dies such as .30/30 Imp (or even 7-30 Waters) and one of the .40 cal./10mm/.38/40 die sets, you could make cases from .30/30s perhaps shortened only a little. It is also possible that a .375 Win. seat die would give the right dimensions, or close enough, to size such a case.

With a .40 cal. bullet in a case with a .415" head size and normally about a .420" chamber mouth diameter, you are pushing it with .40 cal. Such a round would have virtually zero taper to it and the case would be somewhat larger at the neck than at the head, but it apparently worked for ole George Leonard Herter. Let's see, you'd have to be crowding 40 to remember the old Herter's catalogs many of us drooled over for years.

Mike

Not crowding,but aways past that number

Thanks Mike

Have you considered the .405 Winchester? Charlie Sharps on the TC-List has one and speaks highly of it.

Mike, have you done anything with the .405? I would think it might be interesting to wildcat. Casehead smaller than the 444, but with plenty of case capacity...

You can get .401 Herters PowerMag dies at Buffalo Arms. They are a little steep in price at $84.00.

$84 for .401 dies is not out of line at all, really. Something similar from RCBS or Redding today is up well over $100 I believe. Good to know. Thanks.

As for .405 Win., I have only done one that comes to mind rebarrelling a Win. M95 rifle years ago. I do not remember exactly what the bullet diameter is for that cal., but it is I believe .412."

10mm, .40 cal., .38/40 are all .401." Correct me if I'm wrong.

Some of the .40s were .406," another was .408?" My reference books are buried deep in storage yet, so I don't have anything handy to refer to.

.405 Win would be a possibility going from .41 Mag or .414 SM.

I do have some .410" stainless blanks I cut rifled years ago and have no use for that I plan to burn up making some .41 cal. Contender barrels sometime in the future.

Mike

Ch4D also has .401 Herters PowerMag Dies for $60.00. Or you can use 10mm/40 S$W sizing die to resize the brass and .38/40 seater die to seat the bullets. Just a thought.

Outback

That should work, too.
Good price on the Power Mag dies. Didn't realize they had them.

So long as the dies you use are long enough inside, you can make the chamber longer than the PowerMag.

Now I am wondering if I can stretch things to the limit and do the .375 Win. case necked to .40. It would be straight, straight, no taper to the case at all.

Look what you guys started.

Mike

Mike,

Another thought I had was using the 5.6X50 R brass necked up to hold a 358 bullet and reaming either a mag or max contender barrel out to a cartridge case length of about 1.9", the finished length of the 5.6R case.

May be a good fix for the factory Max chambers to get a better throat area.

I'd cut the top off a Mag carbide sizer die so it would fit for clearance if needed and just decap with a decapping die.

Think this would be a potent "little" round with the added powder space and also the benefit of the smaller case diameter.

Thinking too much I guess.

Regards

Ed Wasika and I were going to do that years ago... the 5.6 x 50 R case as a .35 cal.... but never did.

Cutting the case off at the top of the shoulder might be a better idea.

I have a TC factory S-14 barrel listed on the store that is a candidate for such a treatment. No reason I can see why it wouldn't work.

You would add some case length, but with a longish cylindrical throat and bullets seated out to create more powder capacity, you can up the performance of the Max. by a noticeable amount. Taking advantage of the capacity potential of the Max. case via using a longer throat is more cost effective.

I don't remember whether I ever tried blowing a 5.6x50 R case out straight or not... best try it before pursuing a 1.9" case length.

Mike

Mike heres another question for you,over on the bigbire or gunsmith thread they were talking aabout the 9.3 guns,there is a gentleman in Africa that has built a 9,3x70,its based on the 404 necked down, now put your thinking cap on will the Encore handle the presure of the 404 based rounds? The gunsmith stated in Harti times article that equals or betters the 375H&H.
I was thinking along the lines of a heavy bull in 26"

In regard to larger cases like the .404 Jeffery, as you increase the diameter of the chamber you also increase the amount of force out the back end of the chamber due to having increased the fraction of an inch the psi (pounds per square inch) are working on.

So if you intend to load to the same pressure levels as the H&H type mags, you will find yourself in trouble.

But if you down load it to workable levels, you can use the larger case. But you will probably not get as good or not likely any better than you would with a full length blown out case like the .375 H&H Ackley Imp. necked down to 9.3mm.

So what is the point in going to the larger case? By and large, there is none.

For this and safety reasons I decline to chamber Encore barrels for any of the high pressure rounds larger in diameter than the approx. .510" base diameter of the H&H type mags.... 7mm Rem. Mag./.300 Win. Mag. size.

Mike

Thanks Mike,That answered alot of the questions i had about the Encore,Will more than likely go to the Number-1 for the conversion

Thanks Mike,

Maybe I'll fool around with a couple of 5.6X50 cases here to see how hard it is to neck them up. I know they (RWS) blow out fine to full diameter during fireforming to 6.5 with the "taller" case walls.

That Max barrel is what got me thinking along this way too.

Too many ideas, so little time and only two hands.

Regards

Headstamp,

I also got to thinking about a 357 ultra max Mike suggested that it might not have much of an advantage over the std max in a 10" tube, but in a 12-14", it might be interesting. I think it would also have the advantage of being able to take advantage of AA 1680, which is just a tad too slow to really do it's thing in the max. I've been really stuffing 1680 in my max, and while it is accurate, it gives up at least 100 fps to H 110 in max loads, though my H 110 max loads are so horribly strung as to be useless.

I also think RL 7 might stand up and do its thing in the the 357 ultra max.

I agree Paul, this cartridge would present some interesting experimentation opportunity.

A 14" bbl would be mandatory, as the Max I would consider about right in the 10" or longer for efficiency.

I like your handle in the the Ultra Max, I was thinking Super Max myself.

I also like the ease of a straight case to work with once they are formed. Almost in the vain of the old, long, straight-sided cases from a bygone era.

I also think it would really chuck 200 gr bullets with some authority.

Regards

[ 10-12-2002, 06:01: Message edited by: Headstamp ]

Ray, let me know what you find when you try to blow out the 5.6 case full length. I can't remember if I have tried it or not. Just have my doubts.

From the FWIW department, Howard won't budge off of WW296 in the Max. Says it is optimum.

Mike

Hello Mike,Paul

Just thought I'd share a little info from some cursery experimentation with the topic on the forum.

I have been able to neck up the 5.6X50R cases to 35 caliber without too much trouble using some expander stems I have around here. (If I were to go into full production, I'd make up at least one custom stem) First I annealed the stock case in the neck and shoulder area. Then, I used a 22 to 6.5 stem I have for making 6.5 Bellm cases which worked fine. Then I used another stem to go to 30 caliber and then another to go to 35 cal. Again, no splitting and really not a bad forming job. They would have to be fire-formed to iron them out some to chamber dimensions in the mid area.

From what I can measure, the neck wall thickness runs virtually identical to some Remington Max brass I have here.(.005-.007 by caliper measurement) and is pretty much even all the way around. Necks are pretty strong too under finger squeeze pressure.

I would say that of finished case length, maybe a 1.9" min with a max of 1.910" with the .10" for trim-to variation. This gives you about .3" longer than Factory Max cases. Seems like a worthwhile amount of added powder space.




Regards