Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Built your own Wildcat? Tell me

...and that therein is the beauty if it..!

The .416 Barnes is pretty similar, except they size it to .416 and have a somewhat tapered case.
I want to straighten the walls with 35� shoulder and size mine to .410 allowing me to use heavy bullets from the 450/400 3in and at the same time using any of the light weight bullets for the .41 Rem. Mag. as well.

Very interesting..... I still like the idea of yours and in case some one brings up the feeding issue my 348AI with straight case and sharp shoulders etc feeds terrific. IF it were me, I would shorten the neck up somewhat to give more powder capacity as well. Quite OK to have a longer bullet go into the case body somewhat when seated, you STILL have more case capacity than if you had made the neck long.

Let us know how it works out!

On one of the Realtree Monster Bucks videos about 7 or 8 years ago, a guy was using a 40 cal wildcat based on the 444 Marlin in a Marlin lever gun. Similar concept on a slightly smaller case. Sounds like a winner.

Ya think

I'm buildin my wife a .257X22-250AI....grin.

Yeah I am not sure how long to have the neck be. I have always heard you wanted a neck at least the same as the caliber. I.E. in my case its a .41 caliber so the neck should be at least .410 long.
I am visiting a far more knowledgeable friend this weekend, I will ask his advice on that.

How about that range of bullets weights in .410? All the way from the big 400 grainers made for the .450/.400 down to the 170/180 grain hollowpoints.


In thinking on it more I think I am going to build a single shot on a T/C Encore frame first, then if it proves as cool as I think I move ahead and get a levergun put together on a Marlin.

Why do that? Costs are not going to be much different, if at all and the cool factor and usefulness of a powerful but also adaptable medium bore levergun goes to zero with a break top single shot.

True enough...
My only thought was that I could pick up an encore with a .41 rem mag barrel and run my reamer to chamber it, then I would have at least something up and running with a bit less cost.



Could just chuck some more cash in the pot and get the levergun from the start I guess. Might have to starte checking the local show for a Marlin .45-70

I've always had a desire to neck a 300 H&H to 7mm and twist it for 160s.....the big 7mm H&H that H&H never made.

(already got a 244, 300, 375 and 400 H&Hs)

I have been wanting to do a 7mm big boomer. I know there are tons of factory versions to be had...but after seeing what Rick did with the 375 ruger case...a 7mm based on that thing should flat scoot. Of course 140NAB would be my boolit of choice. Should make one hell of a long range whitetail rig. And besides...cant let my buddy Tim have all the cool sounding calibers

Thomasmagnum,

PM me your phone number if you care to and I will keep on the lookout for a pre safety model 1895 Marlin 45/70 for you. I am a gunshow rat and a locally known part time buyer and seller of all things that go bang. I have had a couple of these and they are not hard to find out this way.

I guess part of my interest in your project is that a lineup of wildcats based on the 45/70 was one of my first wildcat idea's and even brought up the idea with some folks at Speer back in about 1985 or so (just friendly conversation I was and still am a nobody in the ammo world) but sadly one I never pursued so I will be most pleased to see you or anyone else get this rolling. Grand idea, IMHO.

Can anyone recommend a shop to make a reamer? I know Clymer, and PTG are probably the two best known. Anyone else?