Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 30-30 wildcats

Everyone, I am looking for info on any wildcat based off of the 30-30 winchester case. In particular, .257, 6mm, and 6.5 mm. I know you have the BRM rounds, but would like real world experience from some of these rounds. I am looking at taking a stevens 325 C and pulling the barrel off, doing away with the barrel nut, and buying a blank to have threaded for this action. Any help with any of these rounds please?

Maybe it's just me, but the single locking lug and generally crappy trigger of the entire Savage 340 family seems like they would be a poor platform to put $$ into.

I understand your valid points .260. But I bought the rifle for little to nothing, and figure why not. I am going to do away with the barrel nut, and just thread a barrel for the action. Kind of thought it to be a nice rifle myself. The lady likes it, so thought a shorter range deer rifle would be nice to make her

I think that a 25-35AI would be pretty cool.

Bullberry Improveds (from Bullberry Barrel Works)

I was reading about the .25-35 tomcat last nite. A very interesting round to say the least. Does it share the same rim dia as the 30-30?

i have owned a couple of guns chambered for the .25x30/30 Ackley Improved for a few years...it is not too far from .250/3000 speeds. Reloder15 has worked well for me with bullets from 75-90gr. Both my guns are TC's, a 15" pistol, and a 22" carbine.

i use virgin 30/30 brass, neck down to 7mm with a 7x30 waters die, then neck to .257 using my .25x30/30AI dies. After necking to .257, i trim to 2.05", load, and fireform.

If you anneal you may be able to go .257 in a step, but without annealing i was crushing a bit of brass in going from .30 to .25 in one pass. Both my .25's are 1-10 twist and shot everything from 70-100 gr fairly well. The 15" shoots about any 85-87gr bullet great. In the 22" barrel, the barnes 80gr TTSX has become my do-all bullet.

I had a 6.5x30/30AI built recently, 22" barrel, and it is a 1-8" twist....also shoot the standard 30/30 ackley. In necking down 30/30, i think we only lost a few cases when necking down to .264.

also been shooting the regular 30/30 ackley for a long time, been happy with it as well.

Both my .25 and 6.5mm -AI dies are from Ch4D.

Thank you very much for the post FyrePowr, I definitely love that rifle in your hands. The .25 and 6.5 are probably more of interest to me than some of the other rounds. I wanted something that would be a good fit to the rifle, while offering reloading components that are readily available. I have nothing against the 30-30, but would like to extend its range a bit and at the same time mess with a wild cat as this. Partly because, I have been wanting to mess with some of the same bullet diameters based off of the .303 and the 30-40 krag. I know case capacity is very different, but feel that if I mess with a lesser capacity case first, I can figure out if I really want to step to the larger rimmed cases. With your 25 and 6.5 versions, what ballistics are you getting?

what about the 7mm Eastern Times Whatever? Its based on a 307 case, but might work.

Micky, you know I have read about that one in the past but forgot all about it. I might have to check it out. If someone has the case dimensions, that would be a start. This is one of those cases where I know I can not expect magnum ballistics, but I feel I can better the 30-30 by going another route while staying within the same rim dia.

Wild thought here so bear with me. Can you turn the .444 marlin rim down to fit a 30-30 bolt? If so, would the case be to large in diameter to function? I ask because if it could work, it could offer more case capacity and a stronger case to work with

Regardless of which cartridge you pick, you may find that getting them to work though the Savage 340 series magazines might be a challenge.

My pick would be a .25 based on the .30-30 or 25-35 either one Ackley Improved. For somewhat more power the .25 Ackley Krag would be my choice.

That is one thing I have put a little thought into. That is more the reason why I want to stick with a round based off of the 30-30 case

I do really love the looks and sound of the 2 original rounds I was asking about. The 25 and 6.5 in the Improved versions. And yes, I really do like the looks of the 25-35 and the improved versions of it. For the purposes of this rifle, I think it may fill the needs I am after pretty well. Perhaps some members here can offer some ballistics on some of these rounds?

Check your magazine and make sure it will accept an overall length for the bullets you plan on using. I had dreams of shooting "pointy" bullets in my Remington 788 30-30. The problem was my magazine would not allow it.

I will do that and get back to you on this. If I go with a necked down version, I would or rather could make do with the lighter weights of the bullet diameters. If by chance the round(s) are still to long, the 25-35 with up to 100 grain bullets may be the better choice

Micky mentioned the round on the 307 case. That was known as the 7mm Shooting Times Easterner. It was built to be used in the Marlin 336 series and is basically a 7-08 shooting a flat nosed bullet. Developed by Layne Simpson. Just might be a little much for the rifle in question. Not sure, just threw that out there. Good round though.

80's will be running a touch over 2900, 85's at about 2850 in the .25 variant. Probably could hit 3000 fps with 80's if you tried, and 70 gr blitzkings would hollow out some varmints pretty good at over 3100fps.

I seem to recall reading from a fellow TC shooter who is on here also said his 6.5mm version was getting around 2600-ish with 120's...Bobby, if you see, this, correct me if i'm wrong on that....

As for the .444, i have owned a couple of wildcats on that case, but case head diameter would essentially be .473 (308 sized) even with rims turned, and if you could make it feed (unlikely) you'd still have the issues of that size case head giving a bit too much bolt thrust/pressure to work in that action unless you hobbled loads down to very low speeds....dont think it'd be worth it...

.303 and 30-40 Krag,with rims turned down, abut equals the .35remington as far as case head size. I use both to make .35rimmed (load using .35rem dies, but formed from either of those cases trimmed shorter and fireformed.) Again, dont think you'd gain much going to those, with feeding/pressure constraints.

i've killed several deer, several 'yotes, and a few hogs with my .25x30/30AI, kills stuff well, and very low recoil.....







If bobby sees this, he's killed enough stuff with the 6.5 to fill a dump truck, so i'll let him give you the scoop on the 6.5mm.....

Many moons ago, I had an E A Brown single shot built in 6.5 BRM for my then infant son. He turns 21 in a month! It is a bit different in that it has a 21 inch light barrel with a 12.5 inch lop. With the short barrel, it will easly do 2300 fps with 140 gr bullets. 120gr BT are accurate and do 2500 from my short barrel. My son killed his first buck with a 100gr partition at 2500fps - a really lite load. I have loaded them to 2750 in this rifle. Bet you could do 100 - 150 fps faster with a 24 - 26 inch barrel and still have a handy single shot.