Wildcat, Proprietary, & Obsolete Cartridges

[cable]

here is a not too common obsolete round:





25 remington .....this is from the series of cartridges introduced by remington for its pumps and model 8 semi-auto;this included the 25 remington as shown here, the 30 remington which was sort of a rimless 30/30, the 32 remington and the 35 remington, the only one of the series in common use today. the stevens company soon after introduced their lever action the stevens High Power using these same cartridges. this was the model 425. the stevens 425 was made from about 1910 to 1917, was offered in the rimless remington series, and was the first lever action made in 35 remington. they are not very common guns.










the stevens looks a bit like the later marlin lever actions, though very different mechanically ...but actually the later marlins look like the stevens, not vice versa. the marlins of 1910, the model 93, had the square bolt and looked quite different.

this cartridge has a bit more capacity than the winchester 25/35 and is closer to the 25/35 Improved cartridge.

[mart]

It's been a while since we added anything to this thread and I'm stuck on the slope waiting for the weather to clear so I can go home.

This entry is the delightful, mild mannered 256 Mannlicher, otherwise known as the 6.5x53 Rimmed. Housed in the 1893 Steyr rifle, known as the Dutch Mannlicher, it was commonly used by English smiths to create wonderful little sporting rifles that killed way out of proportion to their ballistics. They commonly were loaded with 160 grain round nose bullets in either expanding or solid configurations. W.D.M. Bell even used one briefly on elephants but found the little 6.5 bullets tended to bend and failed to penetrate in a straight line in an elephant's skull. He subsequently returned to his trusted 275 Rigby. Bell's failures with the 256 on elephant in no way translated to failure on thinned skinned game. The 256 and it's rimless brother, the 6.5x54 Mannlicher Schoenauer have an extensive history and success rate against all manner of big game. Charles Sheldon, hunter and explorer of Canada and Alaska, used one extensively and took sheep, mountain goat, moose, caribou and grizzly with his. Writers Ross Seyfried and Ken Waters were both fond of the 256.

My own 256 Mannlicher is a W.R. Pape rifle. Interestingly it is marked 6.5 on the barrel rather than 256. I suspect it may have been made by Pape for a European customer and marked in a manner more familiar to that customer. That of course, is pure speculation on my part. The rifle has had some use. It appears to have been well cared for but bears the marks of many seasons afield. In other words, it has character. As opposed to its owner who is a character.

The 1893 Steyr uses an actual clip, one of the few rifles we can get away with saying clip instead of magazine. It employs a five round enbloc clip, inserted into the magazine, which houses a spring that pushes the rounds into position for the bolt to carry them to the chamber. Once empty they will drop out or can be pushed out by the next clip as it is placed in the magazine.

Brass is nonexistent for the 256 but can be made from 303 British. To minimize case loss, I set the shoulder back with a 308 die, then reduce the neck diameter with a 7mm-08 die and finally finish it up in a 6.3x53 Rimmed die. One could use a 6.5x54 die as well but the rifle came with the dies.

The smaller 6.5's all seem to do yeoman's work with heavy bullets. The 160 grain 6.5mm bullet penetrates deeply at the velocities the smaller 6.5's move at and the list of very large game to fall to them is extensive. I haven't taken any game with mine yet though I carried it some last year for caribou. Perhaps this year.

Here's a few pics. Thanks for looking.

160 grain Hornady on the left and 156 grain RWS H Mantel's on the right.


The rifle.


And some components.

[cable]

very interesting..... at first glance the cartridge with that long bullet reminds me of the 6.5 carcano. which was originally called the 6.5 mannlicher-carcano.

very nice rifle !