Post by magnumwheelman on Oct 6, 2015 8:45:15 GMT -5
as many wildcats as are listed on this site, I'm hoping you guys can take a few minutes to explain your cartridge...
I thought I'd start with my 257 Special ( how hard can this be??? ) of course when I was switching to photobucket Internet Explorer refreshed, & I lost almost a page of typoing...
so I'm starting over... we'll see if I write as much...
The Cartridge... 257 Special ( 22 Hornet case expanded to a straight taper, & trimmed to fit a Ruger "Single" cylinder )
The Concept... my local retired machinist buddy & I often sit around & talk conceptual cartridges ( I actually have several ) I had bought a new Ruger Single 10 & just couldn't fall in love with it... I'm not a huge rimfire fan anyway, & with this gun's 10 round cylinder, & no reverse index, I often found that since I needed to stop between clicks, that I often missed a spent case, & needed to do a full rotation to eject that missed case... one day I was fed up enough, that I took the gun to my buddies & discussed switching it to centerfire, & building a new cylinder... he had just gone through his take off barrel stock, & told me he had a nice 257 Roberts barrel... so we talked about trimming a 22 Hornet case to fit the cylinder using available 25-20 bullets, & putting a straight taper on the case ( he thought he could more easily make reamers & such, if the case were straight tapered )
The Barrel & Cylinder... the barrel was pretty simple... cut to length, profile to correct diameter, thread, add forcing cone, & crown... for the cylinder, my buddy has designed & built a 2 piece jig for making very precise single action cylinders... 1st the 4140 blank was machined to the proper length & diameter... ratchet was cut to time for 8 chambers, & 8 chambers were marked out... a chamber reamer was cut, & after the chambers drilled, to the proper throat diameter, the chambers were reamed...
The Dies... a 2nd reamer was cut to make the loading dies ( slightly smaller ) & a full set of dies were made, 2 dies for belling & expanding, a sizing die, a & a file trim die, which was then heat treated... I purchased an extended shell holder for the file trim die, & a regular shell holder both for the parent cartridge, 22 Hornet...
The Cases... I 1st used a couple 100 ( fired too many times ) 22 K Hornet cases, as they had the neck pushed out past the length I needed, & I was able to just part them off on the lathe about .010" - .015" long, & finish them in the file trim die... my buddy was thinking, when he made the expanders, as I'm able to take new 22 Hornet cases & expand them to the 257's straight taper without damaging any cases... i'm still parting them off on the lathe & finishing them in the File Trim die
The Loads... since this is totally out of the box, I started slowly, with the "usual" suspects for powder... W-321, Unique, AA#5 ( I didn't have any AA#2 ) & Lil Gun... I have Speer 75 Grain Hot Core for the 25-20, along with some Sierra 75 grain JHP, for the jacketed bullets... I also bought 65 grain cast flat points from Western Bullet, & 85 grain cast flat points from Meister Casting... I'm currently at about 1/3 case fill using AA#5 & have been getting acceptable accuracy with everything I've tried so far...
The Gun (s) & Finish... since the gun was stainless, & the barrel & cylinder were carbon steel, the gun is two tone... the stainless parts are now at high polish, & the carbon parts high polish blue... a set of buffalo horn grips were added to finish the look... the frame has been engraved to say 257 Special under the loading gate, & I kept the fiber optic sights the Single 10 had originally... BTW... I also had a 10" 257 Special barrel made up out of the rest of the blank, for my Contender...
The Results... I'm really happy with this cartridge & combination... cases are easy to make, durable, accuracy is good, & cost to built was reasonable, & my buddy found the build interesting, & challenging, without being overwhelming
Pictures to follow...
I thought I'd start with my 257 Special ( how hard can this be??? ) of course when I was switching to photobucket Internet Explorer refreshed, & I lost almost a page of typoing...
so I'm starting over... we'll see if I write as much...
The Cartridge... 257 Special ( 22 Hornet case expanded to a straight taper, & trimmed to fit a Ruger "Single" cylinder )
The Concept... my local retired machinist buddy & I often sit around & talk conceptual cartridges ( I actually have several ) I had bought a new Ruger Single 10 & just couldn't fall in love with it... I'm not a huge rimfire fan anyway, & with this gun's 10 round cylinder, & no reverse index, I often found that since I needed to stop between clicks, that I often missed a spent case, & needed to do a full rotation to eject that missed case... one day I was fed up enough, that I took the gun to my buddies & discussed switching it to centerfire, & building a new cylinder... he had just gone through his take off barrel stock, & told me he had a nice 257 Roberts barrel... so we talked about trimming a 22 Hornet case to fit the cylinder using available 25-20 bullets, & putting a straight taper on the case ( he thought he could more easily make reamers & such, if the case were straight tapered )
The Barrel & Cylinder... the barrel was pretty simple... cut to length, profile to correct diameter, thread, add forcing cone, & crown... for the cylinder, my buddy has designed & built a 2 piece jig for making very precise single action cylinders... 1st the 4140 blank was machined to the proper length & diameter... ratchet was cut to time for 8 chambers, & 8 chambers were marked out... a chamber reamer was cut, & after the chambers drilled, to the proper throat diameter, the chambers were reamed...
The Dies... a 2nd reamer was cut to make the loading dies ( slightly smaller ) & a full set of dies were made, 2 dies for belling & expanding, a sizing die, a & a file trim die, which was then heat treated... I purchased an extended shell holder for the file trim die, & a regular shell holder both for the parent cartridge, 22 Hornet...
The Cases... I 1st used a couple 100 ( fired too many times ) 22 K Hornet cases, as they had the neck pushed out past the length I needed, & I was able to just part them off on the lathe about .010" - .015" long, & finish them in the file trim die... my buddy was thinking, when he made the expanders, as I'm able to take new 22 Hornet cases & expand them to the 257's straight taper without damaging any cases... i'm still parting them off on the lathe & finishing them in the File Trim die
The Loads... since this is totally out of the box, I started slowly, with the "usual" suspects for powder... W-321, Unique, AA#5 ( I didn't have any AA#2 ) & Lil Gun... I have Speer 75 Grain Hot Core for the 25-20, along with some Sierra 75 grain JHP, for the jacketed bullets... I also bought 65 grain cast flat points from Western Bullet, & 85 grain cast flat points from Meister Casting... I'm currently at about 1/3 case fill using AA#5 & have been getting acceptable accuracy with everything I've tried so far...
The Gun (s) & Finish... since the gun was stainless, & the barrel & cylinder were carbon steel, the gun is two tone... the stainless parts are now at high polish, & the carbon parts high polish blue... a set of buffalo horn grips were added to finish the look... the frame has been engraved to say 257 Special under the loading gate, & I kept the fiber optic sights the Single 10 had originally... BTW... I also had a 10" 257 Special barrel made up out of the rest of the blank, for my Contender...
The Results... I'm really happy with this cartridge & combination... cases are easy to make, durable, accuracy is good, & cost to built was reasonable, & my buddy found the build interesting, & challenging, without being overwhelming
Pictures to follow...
( would think that gun would make an awesome 327 today... )