Im kinda new here so if this has been asked befor don't flame me. Has anyone tryed to neck a .700 case down and put a .600 bullet on it. Im also new to the whole wildcat thing to so if this is a impossible thing to do, don't flame me. Just think it'd be kinda cool.

Not that I know of. Considering how expensive 700 NE brass is, and the limited number of actions that can handle it, I believe it is unlikely to be used as a basis of a wildcat. There is also the issue of componet primers, the 700 NE uses a special Federal primer to ignite the large amount of powder in the case. The federal 215 primer isn't hot enough to get consistant ingition with such large amounts of powder.

The two practicle options that I would look at are the 600 Overkill and it's varient, basically a belted version of the 600 JDJ, or using the 50 BMG as a basis, which provides inexpspensive strong brass and a primer to light off the charges.

Paul,
Where to you get this primer? I know Federal makes one for the 470NE however my understanding is that they are not sold to the public.

That's the problem with the 700 NE, you can't buy the proper primers. From what I've read, the Federal 215 is good for up to 150-160 gr's of powder, when you try to light off more than that, you'll get inconsistant ignition and hangfires.

I for one would have absolutely no desire to fire something burning 170 grs of powder, and then not know exactly when it was going to go off

I do not know of a 700/600 but Westley Richards have to date built one 700-577, the ammunition was developed by Wolfang Romey, supposedly using a Woodleigh heavy for calibre 900 grain bullet.

Rumour is that Woodleigh made no 900 bullets in .577 so just what bullet Romey used in the ammunition I can't say. I have a solid nosed round in my collection and it is certainly a Woodleigh bullet, possibly the more common 750 grain.

As for priming, the 700 case was very large indeed and even with 180 grains of powder much airspace remained thus requiring some form of wad to keep the powder pressed against the flash hole. Problems with ignition did exist, especially with the Normal large rifle primers.

Jim Bell did much (most all) developoment with the original rounds in the late 1980's and used Federal #215 primers, he seated the bullets much further back into the case than do current ammunition makers and also I think used some form of wad.

Romey and Kynamco (Kynoch) both load ammunition in .700 and both utilise the BMG primer, which makes more sense for a case of this dimension, especially if wildcatting with the possibility of greater load density is the order of the day, this makes the possibility of hang-fires much less likely.

Woodleigh made one run of 900 grain .585 flat nose softs. I think the run was 400 or 500 bullet. This I know because I was the largest subscriber to that order.

However, the 700/577 appears to be loaded with a round nose, and I have no idea about how many of those Woodleigh produced.

quote:

Originally posted by Paul H:
That's the problem with the 700 NE, you can't buy the proper primers. From what I've read, the Federal 215 is good for up to 150-160 gr's of powder, when you try to light off more than that, you'll get inconsistant ignition and hangfires.

I for one would have absolutely no desire to fire something burning 170 grs of powder, and then not know exactly when it was going to go off

I always imagined the solution to this problem was to drill the cases out to accept a .50 BMG primer. Do you think that would work?

I don't shoot either one of these cartridges but in my collection I do have a 700 NE that has a flash tube installed and what appears to be a standard LR primer, probably a 215 Magnum. Would that be a solution?

Ray