I am sure I have bored you to death about my most recent Wildcat the .366 D.G.W. but good ideas come from all areas. If you were going to creat your own Wildcat, what would it be? Keep in mind we do not want to duplicate some other cartridge we want to creat somthing which is not already done. We do not need another .30 short mag that is hotter then the 06 but less then the 300 Win. for example.
Lets break this up into 3 categories, small bore, which is up to .308, medium bores .308 to .375, and big bores which is .375 and up.
I have done a fair number of wildcats and am always looking for new ones so what is your idea?

a 300 WSM necked up to .375, .416 or .423

Rock

That has crossed my mind, with a 20" barrel and loaded right the .375 would be close to the H&H and the .416 would rival the Taylor. Are you going to do it?

The WSM would probably work great with heavy-for-caliber bullets. Form from RUM cases, leave enough neck for what you're working with, use an action that allows for 3.1" COL and I bet you would be right beside the C-T belted cartridges.
Jamison already did it, but held to the 2.8" or 2.86" whatever. This case, with bullets seated long, would do just fine.
I have lots of ideas myself, only a few of which I'll ever get done in this life.
Some of the stranger ones are

• a .475 and a .435 on a 2.5" blown-out Rigby case, for use in K98 Mausers with minimal modification
• a long-action 6.5 on a blown-out 6.5x68 (5.236" at base, .510" at shoulder, 2.6575" case, 3.6" COL), a 6.5 on a 1.5" 308W case, (.26" neck, 20 deg shoulder, 2.26 COL) to rebarrel an AR to the perfect personal combat round (try fireforming 5000 rounds!)
• a .308 on the 280 Ross case (.555" rim, .53" base, .515" shoulder at 2.1476", 2.61" case, 3.34" COL) - basically a souped-up, beltless 300 Win Mag with a decent neck. Base dia is right inbetween the H&H case and the Jeffery, and the cases are only about $1/ea! (Find Jefferys/Dakota/what-have-you for that.)
• a .416 on the same case for all those who want a 416 Chatfield-Taylor without the rim (plus!)

you want more?

The thing of course, is to find something you want that hasn't been done, and this is getting rarer and rarer (thankfully!). But there's ever-bigger capacity, in all the various length actions, so you can either

• go faster than the next guy (338 LM necked to .375, blown out to .564" at shoulder, 25 deg shoulder, .37" neck, COL 3.6")
• do the same as the next guy in a smaller rifle action witness Jamison cartridges)
• do the same as the next guy with lower pressures and a longer case with maybe more rounds down the shoot (turn the rim and cut extractor groove on 400 NE cases (same base as '06), neck to .308 with 25 deg shoulder blown out to .458" at 2.446", 2.85" case, COL 3.6", rechamber a M70 '06 with new bolt-stop, etc, and you have five rounds in the mag, and more capacity than the 300 WinMag)
• duplicate a great but hard-to-find round (like re-inventing the Newtons on the 280 Ross case, excellent idea!)
• or "perfect" an already-existing case (like losing the rebate on the 284 Winchester by turning the rim off of 45 Basic and cutting an extractor groove - hell, while you're at it, make it 2.5" long and call it the 7mm-07!)

That's it, I'm going to bed!

[ 07-22-2003, 13:13: Message edited by: Bwana-be ]

I am not sure it is possible today to creat a new cartridge that does not already exist in at least an approximate equivalent!!

When I started wildcatting,it was almost impossible to find .45-90,45-110,45-3 1/4,.375 Flanged and much of the other sized brass that is availible today.

Any of the belted magnums built on the .375 H&H
case can be made in slightly shortened versions using the Flanged .375 H&H case using standard reamers and shortened dies.Even the Ackley Imp. can be used.

Many of the belted mags. can be short chambered to use the 45/70 ,.376 Styer,or .284 Win.cases.

The Ackley Imp.cartridges built on the 06{short chambered},308,or Mauser X57{short chambered} case can either be built on
the full length or shortened.444 Marlin case.

30-06 based cartridges can be short chambered
to use the .303 Br.or .35 Rem. cases.

Many useful wildcats can be built using standard reamers and dies.

WC

I don't follow wildcats as a rule but a .35 calibre on a WSM (short Jeffrey case) might be interesting. Should have a little more zip than a .350 Rem. Mag. I would think you could go from 225 grain bullets to 250 and still be around 2600 fps or a little better. Maybe it's already been tried.