Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 41 vs .358 & 9.3 on bull moose observations:

I have
I've heard of the .416 Taylor. The late John Wooters did a good article in Handloader many years ago.
More gun than I needed at the time. I did however build a .375 Taylor on a Ruger M77 tang safety rifle. Dar thing split the stock soon after the build so I glass bedded it into a Ramline stock which has held up just fine. Same power and ballistics as the .375 H&H in a slightly shorter and somewhat lighter package.The cartridge works quite well with H4350 and 270 and 300 gr. bullets. Accuracy in the Ramline was surprising good, As with all cartridges in that ilk, especially in a 7.5 pound rifle recoil is quite stout. I original plan for the rifle was a dark timber elk hunt in very steep up and down country. Scope is an old all steel Lyman 4X with post and crosshair reticle. FWIW, making cases from .458 Win. Mag. is a lot easier that necking up .338 Win. mag. brass. Just a run through the sizing die and very slight trim, just enough to square the case necks.
PJ

Your .410 wildcat sounds similar to a 400 Whelen. What led you to base if off a 9,3x62 vs a plain old 06 case? If I understand correctly they are very similar.

I thought about a 400 Whelen a while back for cast bullets. It looked like about the right case to get to the speeds I wanted with cast and I figured that extra diameter would give me an advantage on game over a 375. Then I realized it would be a lot easier for me to get a 416 ruger and just down load it a bit. I'd have more bullet options when i want to run jacketed. So, I've had an eye out for a ruger 416 Alaskan for a while.

Just a few years after the 300 wsm came out a friend of mine that ran a pawn shop in Rupert idaho had an M70 rebarreled to 416 wsm. Iirc he was shooting speer 350g magtips and said he planned to use it to shoot wild hogs. It looked pretty cool but whenever I think big bores and potentially dangerous game I worry about reliability and feeding and that's not where short mags tend to shine.
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The older DG rounds designed for bolt guns like the 9.3x62 and 375 h&h had a decent amount of body taper and not too steep of shoulder angle which seems like a good idea.

I've heard the 400 whelen doesn't have enough shoulder to headspace reliably without being improved a bit but I don't think the case is much different than what you are using.

I've always loved 30-06 for fit and function. They just feed slick, stack nice in the mag box and extract well. Although I'm a pretty big 280 ai fan, I realize there are some better features of the plain old 280. So, to me the improved isn't an improvement in some ways. I'm guessing a 400 whelen and your wildcat are both blown out a bit at the shoulder and have less taper than a standard 30-06 case and maybe a steeper shoulder. Seems like they'd have to be to have a working shoulder.

I still think one of my jc Higgins model 50s, rebarreled to 400 whelen at 20" with maybe a 4 contour, definately something lighter than rugers 416's come with, would be a fun launching platform for cast bullets. Five in the mag that will feed slick launching 400g's at around 2100 should get some things done.

I'd be interested to know the difference between your wildcat and a 400 Whelen and if anyone here has done a 400 Whelen.

Bb

Medriver and Mart have done the .400 Whelen.

Burley boy, I went 9.3 because it was too easy to form cheap prvi brass and there was no fire forming like the 400 whelen requires.

The 9.3x62 case had nowhere near the taper of the 30-06 case, so a simple neck-up was all that was needed.

I actually despise reloading, its fkn boring, skilless and tedious. I'd rather be running dog teams, river boats and ported muscle saws. I don't have time for anything more than necking up brass.

Burleyboy, the .400 will do what you want it to as a cast bullet rifle. Headspace is not a problem if you get the Petrov/G&H reamer with a .458” shoulder.

Mainer’s .410 wildcat on the 9.3 case is the easy button case wise. The .416 Ruger is the easier button and the Ruger Alaskan looks identical to what I would build if starting from the ground up. I have one in .375 Ruger and they are great rifles.

The .400 Whelen is for those of us that like dicking around with forming cases, looking for components and trying to get rifles to feed reliably. Mine was a PITA but now feeds like it should with the bullets I want to shoot, mostly 300-360 grain jacketed bullets. If you find cylindrical brass it is a very straight forward process.

Mine has a fairly short throat so round nose 400 grainers and a lot of cast bullets are seated deeper than I like but have still safely tested 400 grainers up to 2138 from my 21” barrel. I run 360 North Forks at very similar speeds to Mainers A Frame 350 load using his recommended RL10X.

If you want to build a .400 on a specific action, I recommend making up some dummies (I can help with that) and running them through your rifle. I have ran various rounds through Winchester, Mauser, Montana and Ruger CRF actions. Some feed. Some don’t. I am sure most can be made to work but always easier if they just do without any screwing around. They have almost all worked good in push feed actions that I have tried.