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There was a bloke from ny that had a reamer for 30-06 and for the 308 blown out to a straight wall for 44 cal. Headspace is on front of cartridge. Does any one know who he is or any one else have this service? I looked at JES site a couple times and don't see this service so I thought I would try here before I bother JES. I have spent alot of time reading about this conversion years ago and now looking for a new toy.
I found good info from Ken Howell and I will now continue the process.
So, it's been a while, did you go forward with your project? I've personally been thinking about the 30-06 blown out to 429 bore and running some hawk or garret bullets in the 350 grn range. sounds like quite the thumper cartridge for my savage 110.
I got cold feet on whether It would feed or not. I am convinced from the experience of others it would work as far as headspacing correctly. I still want to do it but to answer your question, no I did not do it yet.
Manson reamers Probably has a reamer print on file that would work. If not they'll make you whatever you want. I'm in S.E. lower Michigan in a "limited firearms zone" for deer, so any rifle cartridge I use has have a case that is straight walled and less than 1.8" long. A couple years back I converted a 1891 mauser over to 44x1.8". The pressure is limited in this old action, but in my ar10 it equals 444 marlin. No issues with headspacing. You do have to check your sized brass for length a little closer than you would for a rimmed cartridge, and not crimp heavily into a crimp groove. I usually set the canalure just forward of the case mouth so over crimping is not an issue.
Manson is who I am going to talk with if building a reamer is necessary, I am still hoping to find an existing reamer, but having a reamer and headspace gauges around might be better than renting anyway...
Pretty sure you'll need to have one made or modified so that it has the correct step for the casemouth to headspace on.
I think the max to go would be a 408-410 dia bullet. Then you could have a shoulder. Unless you want to duplicate experiments on the 444 marlins potential at higher pressure. been done to little effect
My experience with a couple of 444's especially in my Win Timber rifle, with a Barnes bullet that round at full power is gonna be hard to beat at some rather hefty distance for a straight wall cartridge! Gives a kick on both ends!Quote:
Originally Posted by bearcove
I like the 444, just bought a T/C contender barrel, a 44 mag super 14 that has been rechambered to 444. I don't know what is to be gained by putting it in a bolt gun cause most loads are already compressed at max. The rimless case headspaced on the neck is not gonna be an easy thing to use for a field gun. Ken Howell used it as a test bed to see if it would perform better at higher pressures but I think he found the case was too small to gain much. If you want to gain then the way to go would be to do a 444-30-06 then you would have some volume you could put to use.
Better would be a 400 Whelen. Then you have a shoulder to headspace on, a small one but much bigger than the neck on a 444 case. Another problem with a rimless 444 and feeding is, can you get enough crimp to headspace and keep bullets from pushing back into the case in the mag during recoil. You wondered about feeding, that only matters if you don't want a single shot.
I formed up a dummy 40 cal for a gentleman on here a few years ago. I used a 300 win mag case trimmed to 1.8" long. This allowed for headspace on the belt instead of the case mouth. I simply tapered the case to be 40 cal at the mouth neck portion. Might be an alternative if you don't mind opening a bolt face up.
PTG has the chamber reamer, http://pacifictoolandgauge.com/44-ca...bore-neck.html