One of those thoughts popped into my head; what mild medium caliber cartridges or wildcats shooting spitzers are suitable in a contender rifle?

I saw reference to the 6.5 Grendel, but that seems like a bit too much taters for the sack. 6.8mm SPC looks like a good fit, with good ballistics and now some 100 grain bullets designed for it.

But the good old .30 WCF has been necked up and down to everything. I found some threads here and elsewhere on the 6.5x30-30 AI and the Bullberry equivalent, but how does the plain jane wildcat do?

Not looking for detailed loads just yet, simply want to know what it'll do in terms of chrono'ed data.

thanks

A good rule, per one of the gun writers, is that the AI versions of most cartridges give ~100 fps more than the standard version. You can get the approximate ballistics of the AI version from the pig hunting section of the forum; ~2600 fps, IIRC. So ~2500 with the same bullet in the standard case.

ClaMar

One thing: Not sure why you'd not go to the AI, since both are wildcats.

ClaMar

Check out this link: https://www.bullberry.com/bull...rtridge-loading-data

That's where I started with my 6.5 Bullberry/6.5x30-30 Imp. It is nice in the Condtender package. Bobby Tomek also runs this cartridge and has had good results.

I did some work with the 22/30-30AI some years back. the results are in a Handloader magazine from the early 1990s. the results were just a slight amount above the 22/250; somewhat less than the 220 Swift. So necking it to 6.5mm, I'd say for load development you could start with 250 Savage data and work-up from there, the bore and case capacity being slightly larger than the 250 would result in slightly lower pressure for a given load.

Ask Bobby Tomek in the Hog hunting forum or in a PM. I think he would share information with you.

What advantage would it have over the 25-35..unless you pushed the shoulder out to a 6.5x3030 IMP. and brass would last longer..but then one could do the same with the 25-35 IMP and duplicate factory 250-3000, been that route before...wasn't worth the trouble IMO.

quote:

Originally posted by ghostrider272:
Check out this link: https://www.bullberry.com/bull...rtridge-loading-data

That's where I started with my 6.5 Bullberry/6.5x30-30 Imp. It is nice in the Condtender package. Bobby Tomek also runs this cartridge and has had good results.

That's the ticket! I didn't think to look at the Bullberry wildcats, but their data is what I needed. Thanks.

This gives me an idea. I have my Grandmothers old Stevens 325 30/30, that never sees any use. Rebarreling it to a 6.5 bullberry would probably make it a lot more fun. It should be a simple barrel swap since the 325 uses a barrel nut like the Savage 110.

Plug along on your project.I have built several wildcats over the years. In your realm of preference;2 come to mind. A 25-Krag on a Martini action + a 219 zipper on a Remington rolling block.I love the 6.5 bullet as well.My favorite is still the 1903 M/S.And heaven knows there are a lot of wildcats to be made from the 30-30 case.I had several thousand cases a few years ago but donated them to the junior rifle team as they could exchange brass for 223 loaded rounds.

Thanks Norm.