Anyone who wildcats knows that there are hundreds of attemtped cartridges and none of us know all of them probably. The book I have on wildcats is pretty old now.

In reading post on different wildcats I come up with the normal questions, i.e. 1. what is it built off of, 2. what are the ballistics, e. case dimensions and capacity etc. etc.

I have been thinking how great it would be to have a new book. One that not only talks about the cartridges, gives accurate chronograph data and so on, but also gives information for people wanting to build one. Info. like action length and type that could be used, what would have to be done to it(like open the bolt face, open the rails, lengthen the magazine box).

What does everybody think about doing this? Like an accuraterleoading project? We have the reloading page which has some data, I think it could be fleshed out a lot though. Even if we never got it to print we could do it in Adobe .pdf format and let it be distributed for free.

Is this too big a project? Am I just looney? What does everybody think?

Red

Dago Red,
I've done similar research for the last four years for the data that's in the AccuLoad cartridge database. It's tough work. There are over 1,100 cartridges in the database, as marketed now, but an additional 175 are already done for the next version release.
"Popular" wildcats vary in dimensions from source to source, primarily because the various reamer makers, gunsmiths and barrel makers don't standardize among themselves. That was the aim of Ken Howell in his book of Custom Cartridges and was the topic of several discussions between us. This was the reason we started listing our resources for each cartridge (over 12,000 now). We attempt to locate the designer and obtain a cartridge drawing, a dummy round and a couple of fired empties for capacity and dimensional measurements. After all, no better source than he who made it.
There are many generous folks that frequent this board and have contributed their knowledge and material to further us along. I'm sure there are many more who would welcome such a project, but it would be difficult to format and maintain. If you succeed in getting it started, count us in.
Regards,
HockeyPuck

I haven't seen your database before, is it on the website you have under your signature?

I had no idea that there were that many. Incredible. If you figure two pages per cartridge, more maybe with drawings charts, it would just be way too much I think. Still going to mull it over, might be too big an idea to get off the ground though.

thanks.

Red

Dago Red,
I've emailed you an exmple of a cartridge entry. As you will see, it's a lot of work!
Good luck.
Regards,
HockeyPuck

[ 04-23-2003, 04:31: Message edited by: HockeyPuck ]

Red, Triebel in Germany has a CD packed with cartridge data.

www.triebel-guntools.de

If interested, be prepared for a stiff price.

I'd kinda like to see a new book that based the chapters on parent case rather than caliber. That way one could see what all has been done with each parent case. Families of cartridges are more interesting to me than families of calibers. Just my 2 cents worth....

Has anyone put case dimensions on a spreadsheet format? I was doing a little theoretical bookwork when i got tired of flipping pages and put serveral cartridges onto microsoft spreadsheet. I could then arrange them all by rim, base, or neck diameter; even added length and diameter at shoulder too. I have a very limited document now, but I think this sort of format with all the critical dimensions listed would be very useful.

[ 05-01-2003, 09:48: Message edited by: 45LCshooter ]

45LCshooter
A lot of the spreadsheets will sort on any column, but leave the other columns "as is", so you have to generate a macro, or be very, very careful.
AccuLoad can sort the cartridges in it's database (1,100 of them) by name; bullet diameter then name; bullet diameter then case capacity; rim diameter then name; maximum case length then name; or maximum overall cartridge length then name.
Sorting by parent cartridge may be tough. For example cartridge "A" may be based on the .300 H&H, but any belted case of sufficient length with a .532 rim would work. I think maybe we should add a sort on rim size then case type.
Regards,
HockeyPuck

HockeyPuck,

Thanks, I am new to this and realized that what I was thinking of was rather simlpistic after I had looked closer at accuload. I even thought of deleting my post. I have to be very careful when browsing the data I have compiled as it will only rearrange the specified column if I don't specify for it to arrange them all, so I know what you mean there. Thanks again.

45LCshooter,
As you say, a new book with that information would run several thousand pages. I spoke with our programmer today concerning new sort templates for the AccuLoad database, including a sort by rim diameter, subsorted by case type (rimless, belted, etc.) and another sort by parent case. We also discussed extracting the entire cartridge database, including the cartridge reference files and making it a stand-alone program. He thinks he can get this done in less than two months.
My thanks to you, and all of the others who emailed us with these suggestions.
Regards,
Hockeypuck