Wildcat question

[midwesthunter]

OK i know i ask a bunch of questions but how you going to learn right? OK i have read and read threads on here. I am a speed freak but have to be accurate. I was wondering if some one has taken a 7mm RUM and necked it down to a .22 cal? would that push the too fast to get any acuracy out of it? My grandfather was a big wildcater back in the day. But back then it was cheap to do macien work and he had access to a lot of matterials

[steve smith]

I doubt that to many have attempted that combination. A 22cal with 100+grains of powder would be way into the area of diminishing returns. In fact It would probably be to far, I'm guessing that it would probably only get something like 200-300 rounds down the tube before rebarreling. Something along the lines of a 22-06 (a 30-06 neck to 22) would probably be as far as you would want to go with a 22 cal. Even that will have a very short barrel life.

[BountyHunter]

That is so overbore, I am not sure your barrel would last thru the load development. I would be surprised if you got 400 rounds out of the barrel before it was toast.

PO Ackley in his Vol 2 book talks about a 22/378 Weatherby shooting 105 grains of powder and max velocity was 4600 fps.

In order to keep bullets together at that velocity you would have to go to a 1-14 or 15 twist at least also.

Lot of effort and expense for such a little gain.

BH

[jwp475]

The 2 post above nailed it IMHO

[midwesthunter]

Thanks guys i should have been a little more spesific. I was wanting to push the heavier .22 bullets over or arounf 4000 fps. Bullets in the 70 grain range. What about necking down to a .243 caliber?

[steve smith]

The smallest I've seen the Rum case taken down to is a 25x300RUM, and it's still a real barrel burner. I have a 270x300Rum and only got about 1100 rounds through the barrel before it really lost it's accuracy potential, a 6x7mmRum is probably not going to last 1000 rounds. The 6mm-06 or it's shorter twin the 6mm-284win, is probably as far as someone who's just starting into wildcatting should go. One thing you should remember and keep in mind is that the larger the bore diameter is with respect to the case capacity, the longer it will last. Small calibers with larger case capacities are hot rods, but they don't last that long.

I understand the speed freak thing, I was there once. Just try to remember that being the fastest isn't everything.

Personaly, I'd suggest that you think about a 22cal based off of a 243win case, or maybe an improved version. something like this would allow you to push the heavier bullets whilst prolonging the bore life for a while longer than anything off of the RUM case.

[Derek M.]

Originally Posted by midwesthunter

Thanks guys i should have been a little more spesific. I was wanting to push the heavier .22 bullets over or arounf 4000 fps. Bullets in the 70 grain range. What about necking down to a .243 caliber?

Forget the 243. What you are looking for is the 22-6mm Remington. Get a 27" bbl. You'll be pushing fast but stick to the accuracy department line of thinking. If you're bullets are going faster than 4000fps but you can't hit the target, then what's the point?

Plus, I can't think of ANYTHING wrong with THREE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED FEET PER SECOND. Can you? You'll save case life, throat life and your accuracy may surprise you.

I love speed too but not at the sake of accuracy. That's why we have better designed bullets with high BCs. I'll take accuracy and known trajectory ANY DAY over velocity, period.