7mm Gradle Express

[richhodg66]

Went to a small town gun show and a guy I know casually who works in an LGS in another town had this beautiful custom rifle on a commercial Mauser action chambered in this. I'd never heard of it before, but I'm pretty sure from what I've found, this rifle is one of Gradle's and not one someone else made.

The round pre-date the various 7mm magnums (late '40s, early '50s) and is made by modifyuing a .348 Winchester case. The rifle came with a set of dies and 30-40 formed cases. Rifle Magazine had a pretty good article on the cartridge a few years ago, and looking at them side by side, it looks real similar to the 7mm WSM case, might even be able to use 7mm WSM brass to make ammo somehow.

Anyone else ever heard of this? Considering the work, the Zeiss scope and Stith mount, that rifle would be obscenely expensive to make today, think $3000-$4000, I would guess. The stock work and finish on this thing was breathtaking.

[runfiverun]

yep I remember it.
there was an article in the hand loader magazine about it back in about 06-07 iirc.
airc you turned the rims down and cut an extractor slot on 348 win brass then re-sized it and fire formed.
it got you up to about 7 mag velocity's, and had nearly the same case capacity as the
7-wsm.

[richhodg66]

I'm looking at this and wondering is 7mm WSM brass would work with fireforming. That rifle was unbelieveable, but turning off rims and cutting new extractor grooves is a lot of work and .348 brass isn't real common either.

[lotech]

Years ago, I had a friend who used a 7mm Gradle Express for elk hunting. Rifle was based on a 1917 Enfield action. When he explained the steps in modifying .348 brass, I lost interest quickly, but he was a machinist, so I guess it wasn't too difficult for him.

There should be a number of such rifles around; seems like Gradle used to run regular ads in the AMERICAN RIFLEMAN in the 'fifties, maybe early 'sixties. Certainly the 7mm Rem. Magnum pretty well killed it.

[richhodg66]

Does anybody have a diagram with the case dimensions of the 7mm Gradle Exress? Sure does look close to the 7mm WSM and I bet if the case head is the same diameter, it could be fireformed to work in the Gradle.

[runfiverun]

Rich.this should help clear everything up.
http://www.riflemagazine.com/magazine/PDF/R248%20Partial%20.pdf
the shoulder would be the hardest part of using the 7 wsm brass but I bet some hydraulic forming could be used before fire forming.

[richhodg66]

I'm pretty sure from looking at this that a guy could make 7mm WSM brass work. It might be better to start with .300 WSM brass as it might stretch on necking down to take care of some of the shorter case. SOme fireforming loads with cast and I bet a guy would be in business.

I might just have to pick that rifle up. It's crazy when I have a good 7mm Rem mag, but it was such a nice rifle and harkens back to a better age. The rifle looked just like this one;

http://www.gunbroker.com/item/599075535