.357-30?

[20cows]

Surely someone has made this wildcat before.

I have an old barrel with a really nasty bore, but I would like to use it with a particular early Winchester 94 receiver. I could go the .38-55 route and still might, but I'd like to look into other options. I want to stay with the .30-30 case for bolt and feeding considerations.

The .357 Herret starts with the .30-30 case, but is too short to use in my barrel as the chamber on the .30-30 is too big in the shoulder area. None of the other cartridges I'm familiar with except the .38-55 use the same case dimensions with a bigger bore.

Anybody got any ideas?

[Doc Hudson]

According to Cartridges of the World, the .35-.30-30, aka .35-30, is the oldest wildcat in existence. It was formed by necking up a .30-30 WCF cartridge to .35-caliber back around the turn of the 20th Century.

CotW lists several handloads, one 200 gr JSP at around1900 fps on up to a 292 grain lead bullet at about 1600 fps.

If you want more load info, let me know and I will scan the entry and e-mail it to you.

[20cows]

There ya' go! I need to look into that! I would appreciate all the info you can give me.

Thanks!

[20cows]

I just went back into Steves Pages and found the .350 Maine Guide. It is based on the .38-55 case or the .32 special case. I'm guessing this is a similar beast to what you're talking about?

All it shows is case dimensions.

[Old Savage]

I have always been intrigued with the 35-30 but have a fine 35 Rem. Seems to me the simplest and best choice for what you are looking at.

[20cows]

The 35 Remington has a different size case head and would necessitate working on the bolt face.

[pokey]

you could sleeve the barrel and go smaller, say 25-35, or back to 30-30, or 32ws, etc.

[Hobie]

The .35-30 is a good cast bullet cartridge because of the long neck. Ballistics approach the .35 Rem but not quite. Jesse should be able to rebore... HOWEVER, and this is pure practicality, you already shoot the .38-55 and this is what I'd do if I were you, i.e. rebore/rechamber to .38-55.

[3leggedturtle]

Yep was going to have contender carbine barrel chambered for it. Was going to use 357 Herrett dies. And keep the case full length 30/30 case necked up. Mike Bellm wil cut chamber and neck length to your specs. Herret dies are real cheap compared to getting 35-30/30 dies. Tho CH4D.com are reasonable for custom made dies.

[AJMD429]

More on the .35-30, or at least one variant:

http://ammoguide.com/?catid=688

Sounds like a good cartridge, especially if you have other ".35" caliber firearms.

[mikehaas]

The AmmoGuide ReBarrel/ReChambering Guide (Use the 'no login' option if you don't have an account) says these rounds are all DIMENSIONAL candidates (some you would NEVER consider, but dimensionally, they fit):



Mike

[mikehaas]

The more I think about this, it doesn't make sense. Logically, the .357 Herrett SHOULD be a descendant of the .30-30 and unless something else is going on, I would think this conversion would work. I believe I will try to verify AmmoGuide's neck length for the Herrett (may be too long). It wouldn't be the first case dimension inconsistency the "ReBarreling/ReChambering Guide" has helped uncover. This is sometimes a problem with non-SAAMI rounds. In researching one wildcat, I uncovered no less that SIX different case diagrams! Standby.

FOLLOWUP: Well, I did find what I believe are more reliable dimensions. Since researching the Herrett, I've since aquired Donnelley's "Handbook of Cartridge Conversions" (an excellent reference BTW) and his diagram makes sense, lengthening the neck to exactly one caliber. BUT... that even WORSENS the dimensional differences preventing a direct re-chamber. (BTW, above displayed case diagram has been updated to the latest Herrett definition.)

However, in this case, I would think a gunsmith should be able to do the conversion if the barrel can be setback a thread or 2.

Mike

[O.S.O.K.]

Considering the age of the reciever, why not 32 Win Special?

[20cows]

Mucho food for thought!