austrailian wildcats

[kevin.303]

i ran across a refearnce some where that mentioned that in austrailia there are popular wildcats basedon necking up or down the .303 brit. i haven't found any referce to this and was wondering if any one hear has ever tried or read about these.

[John Traveler]

The Aussies did a lot of development on .303 case wildcats because of the post WWII availability of SMLE actions and reloadable cases.

There was an article in Gun Digest several years ago that covered them.

HTH
John

[Rick Teal]

I believe the Australian wildcats merely consisted of necking up or down the standard case, while the Epps and Ackley cats included reforming the cases for better case life.

You may want to contact Steve Redgewell over at 303british.com.  I know he's done a lot of research on this, and one of his books may include something on them.

[onesonek]

I'm  not a 100% sure, but I believe JD Jones of SSK  has done some work with the .303 case. I think the 338 JDJ was on the 303, the 338JDJ II on the 444. I'm going on memory here, which isn't the best anymore :wink: It could have been a different caliber altogether??? That could be the difference between the 308 JDJ and the 309 JDJ. That's it I'm  :? , I'm going to quit while I'm behind :roll:

[Double D]

Here is a link to what was Ellwood Epp's gunShop. Epp's did a lot of work with wildcats and especially with the 303. I have heard Epps referred to as the P.O. Ackley of Canada  

http://www.ellwoodepps.com/

[Paul McC]

G’day kevin.303,

Most of the Australian messing around with .303 wildcats stems from the need for a smaller calibre centerfire rifles, and the fact that some States banned the military calibre for sporting use at one time.

There are probably more variations of the .22-303 wildcats than all others calibres (not all Australian), only because those who wanted to produce a serious .22 centerfire used one of the shortened versions to make a more efficient case for the powders available at the time. This usually meant using a Mauser type action to achieve the best ballistics. Those who wanted to keep costs down usually chose one of the full-length versions that would work through the magazine of the SMLE No1 MK3.

Other popular calibres were .303-243, .303-25, .303-270, with the .303-25 being the most popular to the point of having locally made factory ammunition readily available. The performance of these rounds was nearly always geared to the SMLE action and consequently the .303-25 was inferior to that of the .250 Savage.

Larger calibre wildcats were produced but were uncommon, mainly because we do not have much in the way of game that cannot be taken with the .303.

The Epps wildcats offer the greatest variation in calibre, including my favourite, the 6.5mm.

Paul

[Paul McC]

G'day yet again kevin.303,

I forgot to mention that there was one other oddball wildcat cartridge produced. This 7.7x54mm round was nothing more than the result of setting the barrel of a SMLE back one turn to prevent a standard .303 round from chambering.

This modification satisfied the "Powers that be" regarding the ban on military .303 rifles for sporting use. The full length .303 was, I believe, still legal for use on approved ranges by fullbore shooters.

Paul.

[Bob Riebe]

Gentlemen:
I found this place through the sixgunner site.
I thought I would just let you know that the new Cartridges of the World has a fairly good article on Aussie wildcats.
Bob

[sambar02]

     There is still a lot of 303 wildcats used here in Aust. the most popular being 303-25. Ammo is still available in 22, 243,25 &270 as most rifles are made on the no.1 mk.3 actions they are loaded fairly mild. I personally have a no. 4 in 303 epps, which works a treat on the local sambar deer using the local equivalent of IMR4831 (AR2213)57.5 grains behind a Woodleigh 174 grain. weld core. I suggest you visit Steve.Redgwell's 303 british.com site. Check out the 200grain. bullets he is making I can't wait to try them out.