Custom wildcat cartridge

[AbitNutz]

So I have this waste of time/money idea of making my own wildcat cartridge. The base cartridge is a 45 Win Mag pistol case necked down to .308. It's essentially a .308 Winchester short. I want to work up loads using my LAR Grizzly MKI. I have a barrel maker that will make the barrel and I can get the reamer made for the chamber and sizing die. What I'm wondering about is, how do I about getting the forming dies? I don't believe there is any way I can go from 45 to 30 cal in one pass. I would bet I have to have at least two forming dies, maybe three. I have a lot of experience in making wildcat cartridges, but not designing them.

I just thought I would throw this out there in case anyone else has ever traveled down this path.

 

[RTH1800]

It would be best to go with at least 3 passes to get that reduction. 4 would be better. Why not start with 308 case and shorten it?
You could get better brass quality and availability.

 

[Steel head]

You know there’s already two shortened 308 wildcats out there.
A 1.5” long version and a 1.75 long version.
They look like 7.92 kurz

 

[supercorndogs]

300 Savage is right in there too.

 

[Chickentoast]

30 BR

 

[EMorr]

If I were you I would talk to the folks at CH4D, they have literally thousands of forming dies in their catalog and can point you in the right direction to get where you want to be. They will also make custom dies for an additional cost.

 

[AbitNutz]

You know there’s already two shortened 308 wildcats out there.
A 1.5” long version and a 1.75 long version.
They look like 7.92 kurz

I have seen some but none are short enough to fit in a LAR Grizzly's magazine.

 

[Jonathan Swift]

Wasn't this called the 308 barnes

 

[AbitNutz]

I've placed my order and paid for the barrel and reamer and gotten in line for the custom dies I'll need. It's going to take the better part of 6 months to make this happen.
I have a Sprinco setup in my Grizzly now that lets me tune things up pretty well. But going from 230-grain bullets down to 110 grain will require drastic changes in the recoil spring, hammer spring, and firing pin stop to make it function reliably.

 

[RTH1800]

30 carbine?

 

[Steel head]

Wasn't this called the 308 barnes

I think that’s it!

 

[AbitNutz]

I think that’s it!

The case on the .308 Barnes is 1-1/2". The max case length I can use is 1.2. actually, 1.198, which is the length of the 45 in Mag case. I didn't use a 308 case cut down to 1.2 inches. Can you imagine how much you would have to ream a 308 case to get it thin enough to case form into a .308 neck at that length? You could certainly do that but it would be a lot of work.