Old Wildcat

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  • Last Post 24 December 2025
pat i posted this 13 December 2025

I was cleaning up a box of assorted brass and came across my first cast bullet benchrest cartridge. The story is all I had for reamers at the time was a 45/70 and a 30/06. Wanting a short 30 I turned a spare 06 sizing die down until I thought the length looked about right and ran a 35 Remington case in to end up with this. Of course there was trimming and neck turning involved but I don't remember it being overwhelming.  For a gun I had an old cheap plastic stocked Savage 110 in 22/250 I got from a store going out of business for 99 bucks. I took a 3x3x6 piece of walnut and routered it out to fit on the forend. A little epoxy and sanding and I had my br stock. I fit a Shilen select match barrel to it and away I went. I don't remember how it shot but I don't think it did too bad. This was the first barrel I chambered and fit after taking an evening class at a community college and buying an old Sheldon lathe. Sometimes not knowing what you're doing but doung it anyway works out. I'm sure I'm leaving out stuff because my memory is shot but it's close. I think I was calling it a 30/35.

 

 

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MarkinEllensburg posted this 13 December 2025

If you shot it in CBA matches and if you have the years and if you have the TFS archive cds you could find records of how it did for you,

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pat i posted this 13 December 2025

I lost all my old FS in a move. I wouldn't even know where to begin looking anyway.

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pat i posted this 13 December 2025

Here it is next to a 06 case.

 

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Larry Gibson posted this 13 December 2025

Back in the late '70s, early '80s I also had similar thoughts.  I set back a new 2 groove '03A3 barrel and installed it on a M93 action.  Then I short chambered it with a 308W reamer and lengthened the neck to '06 length with an '06 reamer creating what I called the 308 CBC at the time.  It's the left cartridge with a standard 308W next to it.

Middle cartridge is the 30x57 XCB which is a short chambered '06.  Idea there was to create an inexpensive 30 cal wildcat with case capacity of the 308W, the longer '06 neck and correct case body taper for trouble free feeding in Mauser actions.  It is an excellent cast bullet cartridge for higher velocities using the NOE 30 XCB cast bullet up through 2600 fps with 13 - 16" twist barrels.  

Forth cartridge is the 30x60 XCP which was developed to give 3000+/- fps out of 27" + barrels with 16 or 17" twists.  I built one on a CZ24 M98 Mauser action with a 16" twist barrel of 31" length.  [Tim Malcom of MBT in Conway Arkansas did the rebarrel and chambering]  That rifle has shot 10 shot moa groups consistently out to 600 yards with the 30 XCB bullet pushed at 2900 fps.

Right end cartridge is a standard 30-06 for comparison.

 

Also, some time back a friend was seeking a solution to misfires in a 35 Rem Contender barrel. He wondered if there was a similar rimmed 35 cal cartridge the Contender barrel could be rechambered to and had heard mention of a rimmed 35 Rem I had "developed".  I had simply run a Brit 303 case into a 35 Rem FL die and then trimmed to length.  He like that.  No need to rechamber or use other than his 35 Rem dies with a 303 shell holder.    I centered the Contender barrel in my lathe and simply cut clearance for the rim only deep enough for minimal rim headspace for the Winchester and Remington 303 cases he was going to use.  This was done with the extractor in place with no problems encountered.  He was very pleased as he had no more misfires and could even still use the 35 Rem cases.  

 

LMG

Concealment is not cover.........

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4060may posted this 13 December 2025

Pat

I barreled a rifle for Bart Wineland , Winchester , was Allen ODell's rifle originally, the 30/35 has a case capacity close to 30BR, with 311299, 32 grains of Varget works wonders at 500m

Bart shot the rifle one time after I did the work, and Fell out if a tree blind RIP

Chuck

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pat i posted this 13 December 2025

I love hearing about what people have done. I chambered up a barrel in 6.5 ppc long ago. For a mold I used a 22 rcbs and cut an inch and a quarter 170 grain bullet for it. It shot pretty good at around 1750 fps using of all things 4350.. Then there was the time I chambered a 10 twist barrel in 30ppc and shot a 235 grain Mos bullet in it at 1700 fps. One lube groove. I set a 200 yard 5 shot record with it in Oregon that lasted about a week. At the time I had more money than sense and was looking for what I believed would be the perfect cast bullet combo. My last barrel before I backed away from match shooting was a 17 twist shooting a 160 grain .5 radius ogive LBT spitzer with 1 lube groove. Being so short I asked Veral to give me more bearing surface so he went with the .5 ogive. I was shooting it at 2550 fps. There were the normal 30br and 30ppc along the way with different twist rates. It was a lot of fun.

Now I've graduated to shooting powder coated plain base bullets in a Winchester 670 30/06 at 1400 fps. Seems a little odd but I think the trials of trying to get it to shoot keeps it interesting. I've been fighting this thing for about 5 years but have no intention of giving up until either I beat it or they plant it with me.

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RicinYakima posted this 13 December 2025

I love hearing that Pat! Shot my last match in 2018 and miss the other shooters, not the travel. Now just having fun with more projects than I could ever complete. 

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pat i posted this 14 December 2025

I love hearing that Pat! Shot my last match in 2018 and miss the other shooters, not the travel. Now just having fun with more projects than I could ever complete. 

I think the traveling is what took the shine off the match program for me too but you're 100% correct about missing the people. I'm in Illinois and went to matches in Michigan, Minnesota, Virginia, one of the Carolinas, Oregon, Missouri, and that's not including the 400 mile round trip monthly match at Windhill along with a few times a year trip out there just to shoot the breeze with Ed Doonan and whoever happened to show up that day. I got burned out from all the running and driving. I just started going back to Windhill for one match the last two years and it's a lot easier on both my back and pocketbook. Hopefully I'll make two Windhill matches and the nationals this year, at least that's my plan. I turned 70 this year and my advise to younger guys is if you want to do something do it now because it doesn't get any easier the older you get.

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muley posted this 14 December 2025

Pat i, u are a "pup" yet come shoot with us old folks. hope to see u at KC

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pat i posted this 14 December 2025

Pat i, u are a "pup" yet come shoot with us old folks. hope to see u at KC

Replaced knee and hip. Carpel tunnel surgery on both hands. Surgery on foot for bone spurs. Hair falling out at an alarming rate. Eyesight going down the drain. Back aches every morning. Arthritis in both shoulders. And this is all in the last 10 years. I don't feel like much of a pup.

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Glenn R. Latham posted this 14 December 2025

Andy Barniskis formed a similar wildcat from the 35 Remington case back in 1968 (Fouling Shot #56).  He called it the 30 x $2 since he used a $2 Springfield 2-groove barrel for the project.  Years ago a friend gave me a 2-groove barrel that he said, "has a funny looking spot about midway down the bore."  Yes, it did.  (Now that I have a bore scope I should take a closer look at it.)  I didn't have a Springfield to put it on but did also have a pull-off Remington barrel, so I shortened both of them to fit this wildcat.  I shot them once, and if I kept the results I have since lost them.  I will have to get them back out and compare 2-groove and 6-groove barrels with various bullets.

Glenn

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pat i posted this 14 December 2025

Andy Barniskis formed a similar wildcat from the 35 Remington case back in 1968 (Fouling Shot #56).  He called it the 30 x $2 since he used a $2 Springfield 2-groove barrel for the project.  Years ago a friend gave me a 2-groove barrel that he said, "has a funny looking spot about midway down the bore."  Yes, it did.  (Now that I have a bore scope I should take a closer look at it.)  I didn't have a Springfield to put it on but did also have a pull-off Remington barrel, so I shortened both of them to fit this wildcat.  I shot them once, and if I kept the results I have since lost them.  I will have to get them back out and compare 2-groove and 6-groove barrels with various bullets.

Glenn

Just goes to show there's nothing new under the sun when it comes to this stuff no matter how cutting edge you think you are.

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beltfed posted this 23 December 2025

This is a Wildcat that I designed and chambered into my rebarrelled rear grip XP100.

The 30 SCBS   aka 30 SeitzCastBulletSpecial

It is a shortened, long neck 300 Savage. Short chambered with 300 Sav reamer, then (carefully) lengthened 

the neck with a 30-06 reeamer. Had to cut off the 300 sav die to size form the brass from 308W cases

Left to right, Chicken load  130 gr H&G bullet  

                     Pig and Turkey, 162 gr  311466

                     Rams,                190 gr 311334

Ram load clocked 1950 for sure knock down wherever I hit the rams

beltfed/arnie

 

 

 

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MP1886 posted this 24 December 2025

Pat just about what you came up with on your wildcat is the old 30 Remington. 

One of my wildcats is what I called the 8mmSKSKurtz. I cut a 8x57 die to an length that was close to the 8mm Kurtz of WW2 and I had a brand new 8x57 Yugo barrel and cut the chamber back to fit my wildcat and machined it to fit an SKS barreled action I had. Lots of work. I also make the fit up with a Savage like barrel nut. It cam out pretty good and it was able to launch a 175 grain LEE cast 8mm bullet to 2300-2400 fps. I could load about five rounds in the SKS magazine as my wildcat wasn't as tapered at the original 7x62 by 39. I think I used 6.5 Mannlicher brass to form the cases. 

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