New project started, room must be made.

For Sale! T/C Contender 14" barrel rechambered by Mike Bellm. Barrel is blue with usual frame marks, it has a muzzle break, rechambered in .308 Fusilier/Bellm. This is the same chambering Mike is now using in his Triad of 7MM / .308 /.358 Bellm cartridges. Barrel will shoot under 1" at 100 yards, and holds 5" groups at 500 yards with a Bushnell Trophy 2-6 pistol scope, scope, rings and base are not included. $200 + shipping.

I will include with this barrel copies of my load data and Crony sheets.

If the buyer is interested, I have 100 formed cases, 20 of which are loaded with 168 Berger VLD's, and 26 loaded with Hornady 155 A-MAX's. Plus 2 full boxes of Berger 168 VLD bullet's that I will sell for $40 + UPS shipping & handling.

dwkkak@sunlink.net

[ 09-17-2003, 12:12: Message edited by: LRHA-Shooter ]

I am sure mike will chime in here on theis, but didn't this chambering use 300 Savage dies?

LouisB

The 308 Fusilier uses 308 Dies. The cartridge that Mike chambered that used 300 Savage Dies was the 300 Bellm/Stewart. I have a 7mm Fusilier. It is exactly the same as the 7mm Bellm with a slightly longer neck. I use 7-08 Dies.
Outback

Outback is On Track.

Work with Fusilier Casting Co. when they were in business in Alpine, UT was the basis for the three rounds based on .308 Win.-type dies and dubbed "The Triad" by Don Shearer.

While these chambers were originally devised for extremely hard lead alloy bullets, it turned out that most folks who got them were shooting jacketed with superb results.

When I moved from Utah and Fusilier later went out of business, I shortened the neck back to standard .444 Marlin trim length, 2.200," and moved the shoulder forward some.

The .444 cases elongate when necked down, which was fine for Fusilier's intentions with lead bullets, but I saw no need to leave the extra length, and usually the case mouths benefit from shortening a tad after the necking down process.

.300 BS (Bellm/Stewart) is the .307 Win. case run through a backed off .300 Savage die.... .065" was the difference in body length as I recall, but the .300 BS chamber would by design not accept a standard .307 Win. round, ie, it eliminated the possibility of shooting factory .307 Win. ammo in it which is too hot.

.300 BS is a good round in a new custom barrel, but .308 Bellm is better from the standpoint of a slightly less tapered chamber, and the added length for the full length .444 case eats up the existing factory .30/30 chambers and throats so there is an opportunity to cut a new throat that is aligned with the bore..... such is not the case with the .300 BS.

Starting from a .30/30 chamber, which is slightly longer than a .307 Win. case, you end up with whatever throat the factory put in it, good or bad. The best you can do is extend the throat, but you still have garbage between the chamber neck and the new throat cut ahead of the factory throat.

You can use the .308 Bellm loads in the Fusilier chamber, but bear in mind that the trim length is longer for the Fusilier...... 2.250" I believe.

But if you trim a .444 case or two back to something less than 2.200" after necking it down most of the way, get the size die set to produce the correct case head protrusion.... ie, about .001" less than the barrel-to-frame gap measures, then lock the die in place, when necked down at that correct size die setting, the overly long cases will hit on the end of the chamber neck inside and make the cases stick out too far.

Plop your Bellm Headspace Indicator on the end of the barrel, measure how far the case heads now stick out in excess of the correct amount, then trim that amount off the cases plus another .020" for case neck end clearance.

This may sound complicated, but it isn't at all. Get the barrel, and I will walk you through it if you need help.

Mike