Has anyone ever wildcatted the x52 or x54 MS case to 30 cal or even 8mm or 35 cal?

Roger

35 Remington?
Use the Carcano case to make a 35 Remington of sorts?

Use 35 WCF dies and reamer to make a 35 carcano?

Short or long, that would be my route.

I made a 35 rem Carcano. Works great, I did throat it out so I could seat spritzers and not intrude on the powder space. 2200+ fps with 200 grn spritzers.

my last carcano came with 200 rounds of ammo - i paid X. I went to the next gunshow, and sold 100 rounds of the ammo for about 1.5X - i used the rest of the ammo to try and get off 5 aimed shots, quickly -- have a nice scar on my palm from that effort, and sold the rifle and fired brass for about X ...

Unfortunately the 35 Rem is virtually unknown here in Oz.......so, my next question is......35 Rem base is about 6 to 8 thou larger than the Carcano and MS base, is that too much to expand to if I was to cut a long chamber with a 35 Rem reamer.....the carcano and MS cases are 4 and 6 mm longer than the Remington ?

Roger

.....how about some pics of yours Tony ??

Look at using the 35 WCF AKA 35 Winchester dies and reamer if you wanted longer than the 35 Remington.

Nope...even bigger again...
Just a thought, why can't I cut a chamber in a 35 cal barrel with my 6.5x54 MS reamer and a pilot bush, then use a .358 throater ?

Roger

How long do you want it to be?

I always think in terms of reloading dies. 35 rem dies are everywhere, your wildcat, which I expect would work fine, may be a pain to reload.

A 35 Rem with a longer neck would be cool.
use factory 35 Rem ammo or load long or use a long neck wildcat to desired length for increased velocity.
A 35 Winchester/Carcano would be cool as well but a long neck 35 Rem would have more flexibility.

Tony, did you modify the Carcano mag set-up in any way for the 35 Rem?

Roger

Its the worlds strongest action, all but impossible to blow up and Lord knows Ive tried..That's the good news, the bad news is it is the worlds ugliest action..

Your thinking of the jap 38 action, as the strongest.
But, the Italians paid CZ a good price for the recipe of their steel to make the carcano out of, so are better then "junk" as some call them.
Nothing has to be done to make a 35 rem fit in a carcano, you do lose one round in the clip from the less tapered case. I may have a 35 neck and throat reamer you can borrow. The throat certainly should be longer then factory speck to take advantage of the extra space a carcano action has.

35 Winchester dies and reamer are a good option for the reloader.

Thanks Tony.
I don't want to start an argument because you have one and I don't, but from all the cartridge drawings I can find, the Remington has more taper than either of the 6.5 cases....53 thou o/a compared to 23 and 24 thou for the 6.5's.
Did you buy a new barrel or use a take-off? One of the biggest problems here in Australia is that barrels start at about $450, and no one re-bores barrels here.



Roger

P.S. Thanks for the offer, if I get a barrel I'll take you up on it.......when are you coming back to Oz for a visit?

How about a 9,3x64 of sorts using a 9,3x74R reamer to the 64mm depth and shortened 9,3x74 dies?

There are probably endless possibilities as to what you could ream the chamber to, providing you can keep to the smaller head size of the Carcano bolt face. If you kept to the original body length...base to shoulder...of the 6.5 case, the shorter 9.3 would work but you would gain nothing in case capacity, you might as well just neck ream the original chamber with a 9.3
Reaming a short chamber with the x74 to 64mm would make the base too big.

I think the 6.5x54 chamber with the neck reamed to .358 would give the best result, you would get basically a 35 Rem with a 5mm longer body ( more powder capacity )and as for dies you could machine the x54 dies out to 35 cal neck or just neck size if used in just one rifle.

Roger

Many ways to skin a wildcat.

http://www.cartridgecollector....tro-express-2-%C2%BE

400/350 Nitro Express 2 3/4” short would be fun to play with on a bolt action.

I don't know what to say now. The strippers hold 6 rounds of 6.5 don't they? I can jamb 6 35's into the clip, but the last one is trying to jump out, so only put 5 in. 6 might make it an assult weapon anyway!!!
I used a barrel Midway used to sell, A&B, made by who ever they could get to make them cheap and marketed as A&B. Cost me $60 from a fellow who didn't want it anymore. I gave $40 for the Carcano, and a friend had the reamer and chambered it for me. It was just a whim, but makes a great cast bullet gun, and I have grown rather fond of it.
Any take off barrel that would give you 1.1 inch to butt against the receiver would work.
I'm hoping they hurry up and invent the teleporter to go back and forth to OZ with. It's a long ass ways!

I do have a 35 cal neck and throater. So if you find someone with a 6.5 MS or carcano reamer, you could run the N&T reamer in and PRESTO 35 carcano wildcat. Likely be able to use 35 rem dies to partly size and seat with.

Sorry Tony, I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that, I'm just amazed that the extra .008 thou per round ( just over a millimetre in total ) would effect the stripper clip so much.
Thanks again for the reamer offer, I have a 6.5 MS reamer and it looks like I may have a 358 take-off barrel, so we'll see how it goes.

Roger

You didn't do anything but ask. I assumed ( always wrong to do) that the 35 was wider. I'll have to see if I have any MS brass, I doubt I have carcano brass, to see whats going on with the fit. Let me know when you "pull the trigger" on the build, it may take the throater awhile to get there with the mail nowdays.

A bloke has offered me a Pac-Nor barrel in .358 bore that has fired 150 rounds of 35 Sambar ( a 300WSM necked to .35 ) for a reasonable price, so it looks like it's all go for a new Wildcat!!
Once I'm down to the final bits with the barrel, Tony, we'll organise the throater.
A mate and I are just setting up a copy machine for doing our own stocks so things will start getting interesting! We are concentrating on two piece stocks...Enfields, single shots and lever actions.

Roger

Just made up a dummy round to see what it looks like.......



L-R...35 Rem, 35 Carcano, 30-30 Win.

The 35 Carcano, for want of a better name, is about 1/2 a millimetre (.020") less in diameter and about two and a half millimetres longer in the body than a 358 Winchester. Longer and with less taper than the 35 Rem.

Tony, I can see why you can only get 5 rounds in the en-bloc clip, with six 6.5's in, there's not much wiggle room left.

Roger

358 Tasmanian Devil?

quote:

Originally posted by yumastepside:
Just made up a dummy round to see what it looks like.......



L-R...35 Rem, 35 Carcano, 30-30 Win.

The 35 Carcano, for want of a better name, is about 1/2 a millimetre (.020") less in diameter and about two and a half millimetres longer in the body than a 358 Winchester. Longer and with less taper than the 35 Rem.

Tony, I can see why you can only get 5 rounds in the en-bloc clip, with six 6.5's in, there's not much wiggle room left.

Roger

....hijacking my own thread here with a bit of a side question.....Any of you with a 35 Remington, what bullet weight are you using at what sort of speed?

Roger

I can't believe its over a year since I started this.....Well, I picked up a Ruger 358 take-of barrel, a 6.5x54MS reamer, 200 once fired cases and the neck and throat reamer is on its way. ( thanks Tony )
I've ben playing with the original stock that came with one of the two Carcano's, lengthened, widened, pistol gripped and generally modified to get what I want....still a lot to do, cheekpiece, lots of sanding, etc before I send it to be copied.
The other one will be in 6.5x54MS with A 6.5X55 barrel and full length stock...it needs a bit more work too 6.5x54MS cases are too expensive, so I'll be blowing out the x52 Carcano case the extra 1 1/2 mm.



Roger

That reamer still hasn't shown up?
I don't remember when I sent it. It does take awhile at times, but thought it should be there by now.

Friday afternoon here and nothing yet, I will let you know as soon as it arrives.

Roger

I had forgotten about it, tell the truth. It takes a long time now and then.
Things are looking good with the project though!

All that work and all that money and one still has a carcano!! Not my idea of fun and games..I would feel much better doing the same with a Enfield, Springfield, or cheap Mauser...but like I said its the worlds strongest action. well make that bolt action.

It's a silk purse thing, anyone can ( and has ) done the work to Mauser's, Enfields, ad infinitum, but who does the oddbods? ( well, me ) I probably have a total investment of about 4oo or so dollars in the pair of them, and besides, I like to modify things, well actually everything, even Baikal's

Roger

Alrighty then, we have lift-off, the throat and neck reamer arrived today ( 46 days in the post )so I can now fit and chamber the barrel. I just bought 400 hard cast 180gr round nose projectiles for testing and set up, not bad at $68 for 400.
....stay tuned, more to come.....

Roger

I love playing with projects like this too.
I have about $50 in my 35 Rem carcano, and about that much in stripper clips! But it was fun finding bits and pieces to put it together. I still enjoy shooting it after all these years.

Alrighty then, a bit of light at the end of the tunnel...Finally got the barreled action back for the Carcano, the stocks about ready for the pantograph and I can start on the metalwork now.
I will refit the front sight back on but its only for looks as I will most likely use a forward mounted optic or red dot ( mainly because of the Enbloc clips )
Now I need to make up a load for the 180 grain pills I have, so if anyone has a starting load for the 35 Remington, that should be as good a starting point as any. Once I have some cases fireformed, I will need someone with one of those computer loading programmes to run the numbers for me.... here's a pic of the animal back in its stock, still some amount of work to do, but getting there...



...also showing off a bit of my leatherwork

Roger

...Sending your reamer back next week, Tony, could not have done without it, thanks !!

Yahoo! Looks great!!
I dont find anything I've loaded my 35 with 180's.
I have a pretty good stash of 200 grn spitzers. My best load with the 200 grn is 40 grns of H335 for 2380 fps. My 35 rem carcano has a 22" barrel.
How are you set for clips for your new toy?

Once I cut the old chamber out ( 35 Sambar/35 WSM ), I was left with a 20" barrel, nice and heavy, points well. I've got 3 or 4 clips, so good for now.
Should be an interest exercise to work up a load...

Roger

You should end up just shy of 358 win power.
So, look at what powders you have that would work in a 358.

Nice work. Stock and metal. This project is a lot more than just a wildcat; it is real gunsmithing, a rare and disappearing skill; should be in that section too.

....having a bit of a play with optic mounts...this would work if it zeroed every time, and you don't mind taking the scope of every six shots...



...I think a Red Dot is the way to go.

Roger