At a recent gun show I picked up several unknowns. One (a dummy) is on a 308 Win case with what appears to be a "regular" soft-pt hunting bullet. The case is 1.6 inches long.

Is this a named wildcat? Or just a doodling by a guy with time to spare?

thanks, the_captn

I have only heard it called the .308x1.6 in.

It was inspired by the .308x1.5 in. Barnes and is said to be a good cast bullet shooter.

Both the 1.5"and 1.6" versions can be loaded to excede the 30/30 Win.

WC

you have another one name 30 Kurtz that look as the 308 barnes but slighty different dims

big problem with barnes and Kurtz when you shortened the 308 wall of th ecase became very thick and you get trouble with forming and neck turning

actually 30 BR ( on 6 BR or 7 bR case ) are far better with less body taper and longer neck

good shooting

DAN TEC

I used to own a beautiful .308 X 1.5 on a birdseye maple stock. Sniff. And in fact prior to that I developed a wildcat I nicknamed the .308 X 7.62MM Jackrabbit and joked that the name was as long as the cartridge. My jackrabbit was based on the 300 Savage case shortened to 1.5 inches. Only two of my design that I know of ever built and of no great advantage at all over the more widely known version. Such cartridges are definately opposite from the American madness of "bigger is better."

What I can tell you is such rifles are wonderful little weapons. As fate would have it, the largest mule deer I ever killed was with my "Jackrabbit" and 125 gr bullet in the rib cage.

125/130 gr seemed to be the best with them.

Very pleasant to shoot. Good varmit and deer rifles if range doesn't get too crazy. A good choice for some of the smaller ring Mauser MilSurp rifles.

clever to use 300 savage , case draw is thinner than regular 308

how have you solve the magazinz / feeding problem with short case ?

Lapua make new 30 cal bullet name "hedge" they are very light and design for varmint use , they are perhaps available in the USA .

good shooting and keep USA strong

DAN TEC

[ 10-07-2003, 20:18: Message edited by: dantec ]

I have designed and built a series of wildcats that are 41m/m in length (1.625") These were designed in the early 60s but not completed till 1981. (no$$$). Frank Barnes prior to that had built not only the 30X1.5" he cambered a 30 X 1.6" rifle I believe on an Ajax action so he could equal or exceed 30-30 balistics. It does. He did.

I forgot. The 30 X 1.6, If I remember correctly, came into being by Barnes to drive a 100 or 110 gr. bullet at 3000 ft./ sec.

As the cast bullet aspect of the 30x1.6" has been brought up, please let me comment that the cartridge, or something very close, has been around a long time.

John Ardito, several-time Grand National Champion of the Cast Bullet Association used one in competition for a number of years....though his chambers mostly actually measured 1.625" long, and when they wasn't called the .30x1-5/8", were usually called the .30 Ardito.

My 1st Cast Bullet Benchrest purpose-built custom rifle was built by Ardito in that chambering in 1993, and would regularly shoot groups below 0.4" at 100 yards if I called the wind correctly. Both John & I commonly used .300 Savage brass to make our cases, when we wanted to use large primers. If we wanted to use small rifle primers, we used the original Remington "BR" cases which were at first full .308 size, but with thin case walls and small rifle primer pockets.

One note about Ardito chambers or those cut to his specs...his rifles had a tapered throat that began at about 0.3145" diameter and ran in a 3-degree-included straight taper to bore diameter.

For these rifles to shoot well, they MUST use bullets with a .314" or slightly larger diameter base band. The one John preferred until he designed his own was the Lyman 314299. That's also the bullet my rifle preferred. I would "bump" the bullet base diameter to .3146", and "taper-size" the nose to .3012" so it would chamber. Contrary to popular belief, it creates no pressure problems at all to boot that .3146" linotype alloy (Brinnell Hardness 21-22) ca. 200-grain bullet down a .308" bore.

As many of these chambered rifles were set up specifically for lead bullet competition, I strongly recommend that anyone acquiring such a gun with an unknown lineage, make a chamber cast using Cerrosafe. Using the cast, measure the throat, and match your bullet to the throat.

If you would like to learn more about making these guns shoot sub-half minute, feel free to contact me directly at canuck@ramcell.net

Best wishes,

AC

[ 10-13-2003, 09:57: Message edited by: Alberta Canuck ]

I have a .30x1-5/8,I call it the .30 HLS
CHEAPSKATE.

The chamber is cut with the 30-06 Springfield reamer.Cases are made from the .35 Rem.,.303 Br.,
or .445 SuperMag.Case capacity is 34.1 grs. of water.Dies are shortened .30-06 Springfield.

I named it the Cheapskate because,I used a free
Remington takeoff barrel to build it.

It was built to shoot cast bullets,although I
have not had the time to fully test it.

WC

WC - The cartridge you are using is a good one.

Dave Lee, who still holds a pretty fair number of National Records in CBA benchrest, used a .30-06 Ackley Improved reamer run in about 7/8" short to chamber his BR rifles for a number of years.

I also shot a rifle smithed by Dave in that chambering, in 1993-94 competition, but switched over to the .30 BR (1.5260 length) in late '94-early '95 because it was so much easier to make brass...just neck up either 7 BR or 6 BR cases.

Anyway, your method produces a very accurate competition-capable chambering.

AC

[ 10-14-2003, 21:59: Message edited by: Alberta Canuck ]