I am having a full blown relapse of wildcatomania.
Likely due to withdrawal of 26 Ripmoor and 10.4 Spiridon Moor effects, caused by bad weather, holiday cheer, and other interference.


There is no cure for this.
If I do not get regular BCT (Ballistic Concussive Therapy) as a mood stabilizer, I relapse into wildcatomania!


Case capacities shown below are calculated (not real measurements) and may be used for relative comparison of gross case capacities:





Combine a 470 Capstick reamer with a .375-404 Jeffery Saeed of 2012 reamer to make the "470-404 Jeffery-Capstick."

A 470 Capstick barrel may be rechambered.
The marking on the barrel then becomes:

-404 Jeffery-
470 ^ Capstick

And that way, your brass headstamp matches your rifle, of course.




Now I need a ".500 Buhmiller Belted" reamer to use along with the .375-404JS2012 reamer to make the "500-404 Jeffery-Buhmiller."

That will use a rebated-base bullet, .500-caliber fore and .477-cal aft.


From the John Buhmiller thread on the Big Bore Forum:

************************************************************************************************************************************

In the footsteps of Buhmiller, I have used a drill press and a bastard file to rebate some bullet bases.
Shades of the Bastard Bullet Works of Sam and Doc M!

In a more controlled lathe operation (or a custom bullet CNC run)
one might take off more uniformly about 10 to 15 grains of copper or brass to turn a .500-caliber bullet
into one with a .476-caliber heel. My filed ones are .475" to .477" in maximum diameters of the heel, with a file and a drill press.


John Bumiller made a .510-caliber/570-grainer into a 560-grainer with a heel of .487" diameter, IIRC, a lead-cored FMJ.

The length of the heel ought to be somewhere between 1/4"(minimum) to 1/2" long (maximum).
I'll aim for about .375" or 3/8" long.

Anyway, these crudities are good enough to start making some dummies by using 470 Capstick (2.85") and .458 WinMag (2.5") brass.
The only dies needed so far are 470 Capstick.












The 500-grain copper FN solid prototype has C.O.L. of 3.785".
The 400-grain brass HP soft prototype has C.O.L. of 3.758".



The CEB plastic tips can be loaded single-shot style on the long brass case, in a CZ 550 Magnum.
To run them through the magazine of a CZ 550 Magnum I can use the 2.5" brass case.
Now to see if I can get six of them into the box magazine, and see if they feed:



***************************************************************************************************

Some dummy .500/.475 rebated-base prototype bullets need to be lathe-turned from copper and brass bar stock.
Some brass barstock on hand measures .502".
My how economical! Minimum waste!
Surely the same can be done with copper!

2400 fps with a .500/550-grainer in a six-shooter rifle (5+1) has got to be the ultimate DGR.
Anything bigger is merely "bore envy" and chest thumping.
Afterall, the 404 Jeffery case head is the biggest thing that works to Mauser-Cosine-Law perfection in the available actions.

Just living up to my handle:

Riflecrank Internationale Permanente

U R badass

wamuley,
Thank U.
But you are too kind.
John Riley Buhmiller was the real-deal badass. William Wallace was a pampered whelp of decadence compared to Uncle John.

P. O. Ackley was an "ammunition designer" and highly accomplished in many other things.
But J. R. Buhmiller was a "Wildcatter Extraordinaire" and a Man of Steel!



In 1975, at 82 years old, 20 years after his first African safari, John Buhmiller was working a scheme to get back to Africa.
He planned to sell his 600 Nitro express to finance one more trip!

41 years ago, Jim Carmichel (above) was a starry-eyed kid visiting Uncle John.
Look at him in May 2016, with another starry-eyed kid (below). Jim is the one with the hat:



Woodhunter,
Are you trying to confuse me about pilot sizes? I do not use "50" all by its lonesome as a caliber designator in this discussion.

A .510-groove/.500-bore (.500" land diameter) barrel we will call a .510-caliber barrel.
That would take a .4995" pilot diameter, right?

A .500-groove/.490-bore barrel, call it a .500-caliber barrel, please, would use a .4895" pilot diameter, eh?

Or, if you like we could put some modifiers to the "50."
50-Heavy: .4995" pilot
50-Light: .4895" pilot

A .4895" pilot would be used on a .500 Buhmiller Belted reamer in a .500/.490 barrel.

Never a need to use any kind of "50" pilot on a 470 Capstick reamer!


Riflecrank Internationale Permanente

Dave Manson made my .395 H&H reamer. I whited out some specs and penciled in some new ones to specify the .500 Bumiller Belted.
In the footsteps of Uncle John:







RIP

The simple construction of the 22 rimfire. Turned into a a centerfire big bore. Nice!

quote:

Originally posted by .366torque:
The simple construction of the 22 rimfire. Turned into a a centerfire big bore. Nice!

Yes! The .500 BB Long Rifle!
Then a .500 BB Short.
Maybe a .500 BB Flobert Parlor/Gallery/Saloon/CB Cap/BB Cap gun.





Riflecrank International Permanente

quote:

Originally posted by WoodHunter:
So correct me:

I was assuming .500 bore .510 groove

Glad that is clear as mud now, this .500 means .500", not .510".
The .510-caliber barrels and throaters will not work at all for this!

Your drawing shows .500 groove .490 bore

That is correct.

.500 bullets are a little non standard.

Not really. CEB and Northfork make a bunch of standard .500-caliber bullets of .500" diameter.
The .500 handgun is not so unusual anymore, S&W, AE, GI, etc.
Many rifles:
My 12.7x68mm Magnum "Tornado" (.500/.338 Lapua Magnum Improved) uses a .500/.490 barrel of 1:12" twist.
.500 B&M, and shorter and longer versions by B&M, all on RUM cases like the .500 MDM
.500 B&M Alsakan on a .348 WCF case ... and who knows how many more by now by B&M?
They all use .500/.490 barrels (groove/bore)IIRC.

You thinking of a special bullet run from a bullet maker?

Yep, a .500-caliber bullet with a heel of .475" to 477" diameter.
I need to play with Hornady basic cylindrical H&H brass and neck up some Norma 404 Jeffery brass before finalizing.
Also a cast bullet mould and considering a slow twist like 1:18" for lead bullets.
A double-stepped-rebated heel on the cast bullet for gas check?


The pleasures of Wildcatting!

Hear!Hear!

Riflecrank International Permanente

Awesome thread, Hey RIP, your aging well judging from your picture there..Im 82 and don't look near that good...

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
Awesome thread, Hey RIP, your aging well judging from your picture there..Im 82 and don't look near that good...

Ray,
Thank U 2, I hope to be as fit as you in 20 more years.
If I make it that long, I shall aspire to emulate the octagenarian Buhmiller:



I have had a "come to Jesus" moment.
I am starting with the .500-404 Jeffery-Buhmiller.
It will be called the .500 Buhmiller Beltless.
Uncle John did wear suspenders, but even if he was a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy,
I am sure he sometimes skipped the belt.

The .500/.375 H&H will be called simply the ".500 Buhmiller," a RIPoff of his ".510 Buhmiller."
His .510/378 WBY was simply called the "50 Buhmiller" before there were all the copycats.

I think it is best to start with the .500 Buhmiller Beltless
and work my way down to the 470-404 Jeffery-Capstick, and more ...

(Insert maniacal laughter of Vincent Price here.)

Riflecrank Internationale Permanente

Some wishful ballistics for a six-shooter:



I will start here and work my way toward reality.

And it occurs to me to go from there to a .510 Buhmiller Beltless.
This would use the .510-caliber, 560-grain, rebated-base bullet, in a 404 Jeffery case.
Hey! The shoulder on that is slightly better than the one on the 400 Whelen-Petrov of 2003.

Thread title must change now.

Riflecrank Internationale Permanente

If you get tired of rebating bullets you could borrow the reamer for the 500 Kill-All.

A rebated bullet:

A rebated rim:

RIflecrank International Permanente

You could use Jeffery brass and have zero rebate. All no .

Would be a 25 thou fatter 470 Capstick pooping out half inch death at decent velocity.

boom stick,
You gotta be kidding!
You think I should use a 404 Jeffery basic cylindrical with a belt swaged onto it?
When rebating the base of a .510 caliber bullet is so much easier?

Here is a drawing showing that the .510 Buhmiller Beltless has a better shoulder than the 400 Whelen-Petrov of 2003.
The 400 Whelen-Petrov works.
The .510 Buhmiller Beltless is based on a 404 Jeffery basic with a rebated .510-caliber bullet.
It will work also.
It's amazing how the neck length works out to .510" just by using the .375/404 Jeffery Saeed shoulder and a 2.850" case length.
This thing designed itself:



In summary, to show the up-to-date nomenclature, all of these use heeled/rebated-base bullets:






I like the .500 Buhmiller and the .510 Buhmiller Beltless.

Riflecrank Internationale Permanente

My brain has gone down the rebated shank road before but I thought the 458-06 was the knees of the bees. Imagine stripper clips of 450 NE power!

From the Bob Bell article on the John Buhmiller thread in the Big Bore Forum:



http://forums.accuratereloadin...043/m/3261046722/p/1

John Buhmiller made something like this one work in a hunting rifle, Brevex Mauser.
It used a .510-caliber/560-grain bullet with a .487"-diameter heel, rebated base:



You'd think there would be feeding or extraction issues with only .003" of total case body taper.

Buhmiller opined in his letters and interviews that the .510 Buhmiller might be made up in shortened-case form with the .510-caliber bullet.
He also suggested that a .500-caliber bullet would be good to avoid waste by turning the bullets from half-inch bar stock.
I have heard tell that bar stock might come about .502" in diameter in brass, copper, etc.

One way to make a .510 Buhmiller:
Use a 470 Capstick reamer with a pilot for .510-grooved barrel.
Then use a throating reamer of .511" diameter too make a combination cartridge neck and parallel-sided free-bore.
This will run all the way from somewhere in the lower part of the 470 Capstick chamber to a point about a half inch beyond a 2.85" case length.

The .510 Buhmiller chamber would be like a belted throat.

Game of Wildcats continues.
A man with a lathe can do a better job of "heeling" bullets than one with a file and a drill press.
Some odds-and-ends .500-caliber bullets are now well-heeled to .476-caliber:



The "heeled" .500-caliber bullets are for the .500 Buhmiller, on the H&H basic belted case.
They are for making dummies for feed work, magazine work, or for just lookin' at 'em.

Some .510-caliber bullets are in the back row, in case I ever get around to the .510 Buhmiller Beltless, on the 404 Jeffery case.

Meanwhile a .50-70 Govt. Remington Rolling Block similar to General Custer's sporting rifle awaits completion.



A similar rifle was owned by Chief Touch the Clouds, Miniconjou,Teton Lakota Sioux, a cousin of Crazy Horse, Oglala Lakota Sioux.
And we all know Crazy Horse was there when Custer died:



But my Roller will have a .510-caliber barrel, 28" long, with a 1:24" twist.

I might also try some .510-caliber bullets with smokeless Mach-1 loads in the Roller, just for fun,
mainly to see if the 650-grain Hoch cast bullet will stabilize in a 24" twist.



Free associating, I just highjacked my own thread.

Riflecrank Internationale Permanente

I am guesstimating that John Buhmiller used a 1:18" twist on his .510 Buhmiller.
I think that would be an excellent twist to use on either the .500 Buhmiller or the .510 Buhmiller beltless.
Using the McGowen twist calculator:
1:24" twist will stabilize any .500-caliber bullet up to 1.5" long at MV of 2400 fps.
That works for specific gravity from 11.3 (lead) to 7.8 (steel), jacketed, copper, and brass included.

Having used PAC-NOR .500/.490 barrels to build two rifles previously,
and seeing that they have an 8-groove, 1:18" twist barrel of .500-caliber as a standard offering,
that would be my first pick for the .500 Buhmiller, with No. 6 Sporter PAC-NOR contour, stainless.

And that .50-70 Govt. with 1:24" twist will have to use smokeless to get the 650-grain Hoch cast lead bullet up to 1320 fps.
That will out-Quigley any .50-140-3.25" using BP.
Penetration out the wahzoo.
Like making the .50-70-450 (1.75" case) loading into a .50-70+-650 (1.75" case)
with maybe use of a longer throat and with changing from .515-groove to .510-groove:
That's wildcatting.
All's fair in love, war, and the Game of Wildcats, even smokeless for black.

Now let's see if McGowen makes the right twist for the .510 Buhmiller Beltless.
Kalispell, Montana is the rifleman's social center of the universe.
And it was all started by John R. Buhmiller.

Riflecrank Internationale Permanente

.510 Buhmiller Beltless:

McGowen has a 1:20" twist, 6-groove, .510-groove/.500-bore barrel as a standard offering. Sweet.

1:25" is fast enough for any 1.5"-long bullet of SG 7.8 to 11.3, at 2400 fps.

1:20" will be more than sufficient, it will even allow me to shoot a 750-grain lead bullet at MV as low as 1170 fps.

It is decided. 1:20" twist barrel for the .510 Buhmiller Beltless.
Another McGowen Barrel from the home of the "Flathead Genius."


http://www.discoverkalispell.com/

Riflecrank Internationale Permanente

Ron,

What are you going to build next?

The Zen Master/Liver-Eatin' Johnston,

I have a Ruger No. One 20 Gauge From Purgatory 3.5-Inch (20GFP) that has been stuck in purgatory for a while,
and a Rolling Block 50-70 Govt which just entered purgatory a few days ago. God bless their souls.

After those wayward ladies work off their sins and reach the Happy Hunting Ground:

There is a CZ 550 Magnum .458 WinMag formerly rechambered to .458 Lott that is getting fitted into a B&C Kevlar/Aramid/whatchamacallit stock.
That rifle is dying to become a .500 Buhmiller. She is in her death throes now.
Of course that means she will have to go to purgatory too.

If the CZ ever makes it to The Happy Hunting Ground, I'll be waiting to see which of my hussies wants to become an angel and dies to become a .510 Buhmiller Beltless.

Whenever, so be it. Sometimes a man cannot hurry this Game of Wildcatting as fast as a man would like it to happen.

Riflecrank Internationale Permanente

quote:

Originally posted by RIP:
Sometimes a man cannot hurry this Game of Wildcatting as fast as a man would like it to happen.

Man, you can say THAT again brother... I looked back at when I started mine (Nov 2013) - seems like a lifetime ago.

This wildcatomania is incurable.
I just thought about using this as a fire-forming/plinking slug for a .500 Buhmiller, or a .500 Buhmiller Beltless:



That's a 440-grain .500 S&W mould/mold from Lee.
The gas check base of the bullet would easily fit into a 470 Capstick case, then it could be seated deeper, shaving off the lower band,
firmly seating the boolit.
Or maybe a .50-caliber roundball load for squirrels and such. Patched if needed.
Presto plinko.

For the .510 Buhmiller Beltless, use a .510-caliber, gaschecked bullet (without the gas check)
for fire-form plinking, and barking squirrels.
This one is a little longer than needed, but the gas check base is .475" in diameter.
Shorten to suit, with a hacksaw.
Finally a use for this boolitt.
Only about 760 grains without the gas check and lube, Lyman No.2 alloy, NEI mould.
Look out squirrels!



Riflecrank Internationale Permanente

Riflecrank Internationale Permanente

What's up with the collet fixture?

quote:

Originally posted by The Zen Master:
What's up with the collet fixture?

Perfect for .500" bearing diameter (rebated base to .476" diameter) "heeled" bullets in .500" diameter O.D. brass neck.
Sort of a crimp die, makes sure that where neck meets bullet all is flush and smooth,
and .500" diameter.

I previously used that collet fixture with a collet that fits the RMC 12GaFH brass case,
as a crimper on 12GaFH.
The .500 Buhmiller will be light duty for this "crimper."

Thanks to robgunbuilder



and Ed Hubel for the pointers when I was loading .730/1400gr lead slugs in 3.85" RMC, turned brass.




Collet and fixture need cleanup of some old, petrified oil/grease before use on the .500 Buhmiller.

Riflecrank Internationale Permanente

For some diseases there is no cure.

For some, the cure IS the disease!

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
For some diseases there is no cure.

quote:

Originally posted by The Zen Master:
For some, the cure IS the disease!

Gentlemen, I have read your words out loud.
I have considered their meaning.
No truer words have ever been spoken.

Look at this cartridge drawing for the .500 S&W, there is zero case taper from base to mouth:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.500_S%26W_Magnum



Well! The .510 Buhmiller has .003" of case taper from above the belt to case mouth!

But, first things first: Build a .500 Buhmiller, with a whopping .013" of case body taper from above the belt to case mouth.

The standard twist for the .500 S&W seems to be given as 1:18.75" (1:476.25mm).
I have chosen 1:18" so I am good, for sure, with usual bullet weights at faster velocity than the .500 S&W.
The fun will come when playing with heavier bullets. Custom bullets, no doubt.


I am off to cast some 440-grain/GC, .500 S&W "pistol" bullets, with the Lee mould/mold.
I might be able to closely duplicate .50-70 Govt. bison-killing loads with plinking loads in the .500 Buhmiller (without gascheck),
or with gaschecks in a .500 S&W Handi-Rifle, or a 6.5" Model 500 revolver.
I will find a use for them one way or another.
Another symptom of my disease, and it ain't lead poisoning ... yet.

Lessee ... 70 grains of FFg in a 470 Capstick case, topped with wads and a Lee .501"-sized/440grGC cast bullet without the gascheck, SPG lube,
touched off with a WLRM primer ...
Nah, smokeless first, but aiming for .50-70 Govt. ballistics for starters.

Riflecrank Internationale Permanente