I know that the question doesnīt realy fit here, maybe it would be better to place it on another forum-but because itīs connected with cast boolits, paper patch and BP (or duplex maybe), I ask it here. Also, take in account that Iīm in Europe, so a lot of things has a price tag twice as high as in the US, but itīs in euros, not dollars. As well, thereīs limited supply of many cartridges I would otherwise take into account.
Background-please read:
Thereīs not allowed to use any kind of non-cartridge gun for hunting in my country and there are several reasons to have a repater-otherwise I would get a Sharps or maybe Highwall directly in 45-70, for which I can get cases easily.
So Iīm looking for some readily availible repeater of at least 40 or better 45 cal, which allows for 45-70 to 45-90 laborations. As well, the budget is quite tight-I can perfectly imagine what rifle I want, but no way to finance the custom build in close future.
I have several demands for the cartridge: no sharp corners and and angles on the body, because that shortens the case life a bit; enought room for 45-90-550 paper patched laboration, easy case maitenance and durability.
I maybe can get a Win 1876 in 45-70 custom build, but the waiting would be almost two years now and I donīt want waste such a rifle by current telescopic sight big enought to use it in the night. And I know that the traditional telecopes have too great aperture number to be any good for selective hog hunting on 100 m even in moonlight-which is a must.
So, if I look for availible and accesible (time- and finance-vise) actions and barrels (if rebarreling needed), there are only two so-so acceptable calibers: 458 win Mag and 416 Rigby. I donīt want use them on their full MV, I ended with them because of the diameter, bullet weight, Taylor KO factor and capability to push a decent BP load into accesible hunting-legal weapon here.
I wanted to avoid a belted cartridge (as 458 WinMag), due to possibility of accumulation of the material in front of the belt due to repeated resizing-but maybe when using a fireformed brass in one chamber, even on this cartridge only neck maitenance is needed and full-lenght resizing is needed only after lenght trimming, if the need for it occurs.
As well, I wanted to avoid steeply necked cartridges (as the 416 Rigby is), due to possibility of crack issues on the abrupt neck-to-body transition.
The best solution would be 404 Jeffery or 450 NE cartridge (albeit a bit too voluminous), but no way to get the rifle for my accesible money. I know that I would use the abovementioned cartridges with pressures at about 2/5 to 1/2 of their CIP standard, which may be very helpful in maintaining case life, but the bug is still bitting...
(Side note: Yes, I can get cheaply a hunting-legal rifle, but I donīt give a s/*t about the small-dia, fast, flat-shooting cartridges. Maybe comfortable for shooting due to flat trajectory, but the old "a 30 cal MAY expand, but the 45 willl NEVER shrink" applies fully. When I see what these fast, light bullets do with the meat and how terrible the wounds from a non-ideal shot placement are, how long does it take to track some of the poor animals, what agony they must go through when the light bullet desintegrates into small shrapnel after hitting the bone and not making the wound lethal, not bleeding enought for so-so easy tracking and just and only painful, I simply reject these calibers. I disdain the people who talks about easy ballistics (total flat out to 200 m), who canīt shoot, leaves the game untracked to die in pain and call it a "tradition"-which comes from the communist era, when almost illiterate nerds were put into game managent just to their "working class" origin...)
So-final questions:
What is your experienced case life (how many reloads) for a well-maintained case of 458 Win mag caliber? What dies would you recomend for 1200-2000 rounds a year, for both hunting and some target shooting up to 600 m? What about 416 Riby for the same purpose?
Or any other ideas how to solve the dilemma?
Thanks for opinions