Wildcat calibers?

rotarymike · May 7, 2014

Anyone play with wildcats? Specifically, I'm thinking .30-06 (or any of the various derivatives) cut down and necked to take .458 bullets but fit in an AR platform. Kinda like a .458 SOCOM but without the proprietary brass. Also could be done with .308 which is even cheaper brass.

The .458 SOCOM already uses the same case head (.473) but it's rebated - so a .458-06 AR would lose a bit of case capacity but should still be able to match the SOCOM ballistics, or very nearly.

If I wanted to make one of these, would I be able to use the LEE .458S dies as forming dies, or would I have to get custom ones made? I'm pretty sure I could get a custom reamer from PTG or Manson easily enough. I could use a 7.62x39 bolt and normal 5.56 mags. Rock River and a few others carry barrels in that cal so it's just finding who makes them and getting an unchambered one.

Want to see a bad idea get worse? I'm considering this as a pistol build. :twisted:

Clicker · May 8, 2014

I'm taking the easy way out on a wildcat, looking at the 25-223 for my next upper. Just need a barrel and die set.

Ritter Gottes · May 8, 2014

Mike,
I have a 1903A3 Springfield That I inherited from my dad that he customized (gulp) back in the early 1960's (it is a beautiful rifle btw, Smith Corona mfg.) and had the chamber reamed for the 30-06 Ackley Improved cartridge. The cases are formed by firing the standard 30-06 cartridge in the rifle and the cases are fire formed to the chamber specs. It expands the case a bit and changes the shoulder to a steeper angle. Looking through his books by P.O. Ackley the claim is made that you can duplicate the velocity of a 300 H&H magnum, which is something like 3000fps with a 180 gr. projectile. Once you form the cases all that needs to be done in prepping them is de-prime and neck size as the case body is formed to the rifle chamber during the firing. Also, with the slightly bigger case you will lose 1 round capacity in the rifle magazine. One of the reloading die manufacturers, I think it is Redding, still makes reloading dies for the 30-06 Ackley Improved.

... Just an interesting option that you may be interested in looking into.

Cheers!
RG

rotarymike · May 8, 2014

.30-06AI won't, however, fit in an AR15 platform magazine.

Ritter Gottes · May 8, 2014

LOL.. true.

RG

Red Hat · May 9, 2014

One of my older and favorite AR builds is my 6mm/.223. I built it back in the early 80's. My favorite load is 100 gr Hornady soft-point bullets with 25.5 gr of BLC2 pushing around 2500 fps.