new wildcat -43 Express-

Evanguy

Evanguy

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so ive been wanting to build a second rifle in 43 mauser after my lee enfield no4 project was finished. i decided on using an intermediate Mauser action i had around. trying to find an easy way to deal with extraction and feeding with the very thick and large diameter rim on the 43 mauser i decided to try and make a rimless version of the case, so looking through my brass drawer grabbing all the fatter cases i saw, i found some 7mm stw they measured to be very usable in the base, shoulder and length areas. realizing the 7mm was based off the 375, i grabbed some more commen 300WM brass and used that.

pics show the process, i cut the necks off, expanded them to 40 cal, then annealed them, ran them through the 43 mauser dies and trimed to 62mm

The fire formed case holds 90gr water.

im looking at a load of about 55gr of imr3031 im hoping to push a .446" 400gr cast bullet at 2000fps for a muzzle energy of 3500 ftlb all while staying under 30k cup

Work to do still is bore the belt grove into the chamber setting headspace, open the bolt face up as well as work the extractor


i call it the "43 Express" it has a 3.000" OAL


So far there is 10 brass made and plan to make 25 when its not so late at night

i can use the 375hh shell plate and 43 mauser dies to resize and load the cases




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congratulations on your 1000 post

I will be sending you your congratulatory goat.

pickings are slim back at the little tree goat ranch but I'll try to find one that is not flea bitten and mangy :)
 
Thanks, but i have enough sheep here i dont want any goats lol, kind offer though.

And yeah im excited to see how it works.


Also i have a 71/84 barrel on the mauser. Its a large ring small shank, and turns out the threads are 1"- 12tpi on the 71/84 barrel and the receiver is .980" - 12tip so i just cut the threads 0.010" deeper on the barrel. Clocks correctly to the knox

This round fits in the 43 mauser chamber. But it needs a small counter bore for the belt and to set head space.

The case has a little more capacity then a 45-70 case. So im going to use lever action hodgdon data for it.

I plan to try this load over a crony. And going for 2000fps 23" barrel. Its 350 gr jacketed data. I will be using cast and a bit bigger case so im hoping for under 30,000cup

IMR 3031
350gr jacketed
Starting load
Grains56.5
Velocity (ft/s)2,022
Pressure31,400 CUP
 
so i had a chance to fire a few of these today over a crony.
there are lots of scuff marks on the brass and hard extraction on all but i believe its just chamber flaws ill need to polish out. i picked this barrel from a group of 5 due to its bore condition, the chamber is very tight and wont fit fired brass from any of my other 43 masuer firing guns (i thought that was going to be a good thing, but with this thicker brass the chamber is too tight). so ill have to polish it out a bit let the case stretch around a bit.

so the first shots fired in this were made followed
(started with 8 only ended up with 4) although now have the process down.



also the rifle is a 3+1 so 4 rounds is not not bad

virgin winchest 300 weatherby
brass cut to 62.5mm
expanded neck to .375"
annealed
expanded neck to .401"
cleaned and waxed
ran though a 43 masuer die full length sizing it
trimmed to 62mm
bumped on a flair die
ready to load

23 1/2" barrel
the load data is

winchester brass
trim length 62.00mm
Virgin brass Capacity 85gr water
winchester LRP mag
360gr cast RNPB .447"
53gr H4895
3.000" COAL

1800 fps +/- 12fps
no signs of pressure. should be around 25,000psi going by lever action 45-70 data and guessing a little with the 10gr case difference and cast not jacketed. would be cool to get a quick load print off of pressure vs fps vs charge weight.
i plan on trying to run this out to 2000fps with a 400gr bullet

Fireformed brass after FL resizing capacity 90gr water

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Ive been toying with the idea of blowing out the shoulder until neck it only .450" long. Makeing it look more like a nitro case opposed to an old style black powder case seeing how its rimless and belted, The long neck looks off.

The body is 13mm dia and the neck is 12mm dia. So i could pretty easy run a 13mm reamer and cut the body size deeper.

I have a few extra 43 mauser barrels i may try it on one
If i blow the shoulder out im going to order custom dies labled "43 Express"
 
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Could you explain the process of ordering custom dies? I think i have a good understanding of what i need and i see ch4d has listed the cartridge i want but there is alot of info listed. Although the cartridge im looking for is different im assuming the same things are needed.
A die set full length sizer and bullet seater. Gauge length gauge etc i get but where im fuzzy is what i need to order as in reamers and pilots.
Is there a canadian source? I like you enjoy shooting big bores and oddballs i just lack the ability to make it myself and thus need to pay someone for their skills and time. I just want to make sure i have everything in order before i start contacting places or ppl to get it all done. The cartridge im after is 375 rimless nitro express 2 1/4" aka 9.5x57 ms
 
After that i want a 40 cal and a 50 cal wildcat of which youve been a great inspiration for. I love reading your posts and this one in particular is very appealing
 
Thanks, and yeah wildcats and oddballs are my favorite. And i really like the big bore smokless rounds from the turn of the century. Im.glad you like this post. Im going to keep working on it as i get more and more stuff done.

I plan on getting custom dies, also designing a bullet mold for the bullet so i can use 43 express dies and bullet when loading.

The dies, mold and chamber reamer will all come from.the states. The prices for 40cal custom stuff is 230usd for reamer, 170usd for honady dies and 180usd for a custom 4 hole mold.

As for what you need. Simplest way it to get or make a drawing for the reamer. And the molds are pretty simple. Again just change some numbers on a drawing that is close to the design.

For dies i plan to get a FL sizer and bullet seater. So a 2 die set.

Ill edit in a second and add a bit for whats needed to get custom dies made up
 
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For custom dies from honady you need
Cartridge Name, Bullet Diameter, Parent Case, Three (3) Fired Cases,Chamber Reamer Drawings, Die Marking
(Up to 12 characters including spaces)
https://www.hornady.com/reloading/dies/custom-dies#!/

Custom dies from lee need,
For Custom Full Length Die Sets, we ask for payment in advance, five fired cases, and three sample bullets for testing purposes.
https://leeprecision.com/custom-services/custom-rifle-and-handgun-reloading-die-sets/

Custom molds cost the same as regular ones. As you add your design to his catalog and then you order it.
http://www.accuratemolds.com/

Lee has a 250$ tooling fee but they will do it too for 57$ per 6 cavity.
https://leeprecision.com/custom-services/custom-bullet-molds/


Custom chamber reamers in 40 cal
http://pacifictoolandgauge.com/custom-chamber-reamers-nopix-/19756-40-cal-custom-chamber-reamer.html
 
Thanks guys. Im pretty excited about it. With 2000 fps it will be 3500 pounds of energy and low pressure so longer brass life

Really its not going to do anything a lever action 45-70 wont do. But it has no rim and larger case to keep pressures down even more.

I love the 43 mauser and have 3 rifles chambered in it now. But 2 are tube mags and the other is single shot.

I wanted a bolt action repeter, mag fed. And i didnt want to have to machine my bolt so much to make it work with the large and thick rim on the 43. As it then would be usless for anything else later in life.

its fun to make stuff and 375hh cases are way easier to find then 43 mauser. I have 30, 43 mauser cases but useing them in my lee enfield is hard on them due to super thin brass at twice the pressure it was made for.
 
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