Need info on .25 Dinant Wildcat dies and cartridge

[strangwn]

I have stumbled upon a very interesting 2-die set of .25 Dinant Wildcat rifle dies, homemade I assume. The only markings are on the 7/8" lock rings and the end of the decap/exp rod. The sizer lock ring has " .25 Dinant Wildcat", the seater lock ring has ".25 Wildcat Seater", and the decap/exp rod has ".25 Wildcat". Everything is steel and very well made. The decap/exp rod appears to be turned from one piece of steel, then the expand button was heat treated. The decap pin is tapered and fits so well that it looks as if it was also turned as part of the rod.

My immediate assumption was that this caliber was based on the .30-06 family of brass, so I lubed and shoved a W-W .25-06 case all the way(cammed over) into the sizer(see the before and after picture). The sizer slightly shoved back the shoulder and steepened it. Here are the approx dimensions of the formed case:
Base to shoulder 1.90"
Base to base of neck 2.04"
Shoulder OD 0.440"
Base of neck OD 0.284"
OAL 2.464"

These dimensions indicate a shoulder angle of approx 29 degrees.

Who developed this wildcat? When? Any idea who made these dies?
Does anybody know any more about this wildcat?

[Johnch]

Almost looks like a 257 Roberts based round
As the Roberts case is about ( no max OAL chart handy and doing this from memory ) 2.23 and the 25/06 is about 2.5

I used to load for the 257 AI , witch your sized case sort of looks like if you blew it out a little

John

[strangwn]

John,
Thanks for your comments. I made the comparison with 257 AI. Don't have the numbers with me right now, but will post them ASAP. Seems like the 257 AI was showing 1.8" base-to-shoulder and 40 degrees. More later.

[shooter93]

Wildcats are tough. In their hay day everyone made one. Shoulder angles varied by only a few degrees which ofcourse made "my round" better. It could be named after the designer and since it seems to be like a 25-06 maybe the neck was pushed back to gain more grip or for heavier bullets still held in the neck. Capacity is slightly reduced too so since the 25-06 was considered overbore this could have been done to make the "perfect" 25 caliber case capacity.

[Johnch]

I was thinking
Along with the 257 AI
RCBS had their own improved version of the 257 Roberts
From memory it had a little less shoulder angle

But as Shooter93 said
It could just be Joe Blows idea of the perfict 25 cal cart.

John

[BerdanIII]

I looked in Ackley's book: bupkis.