Best Walk About Shot Caliber To Build- WHat Should I Build?

[35 Rem]

The 32-20 is a great little cartridge for this type shooting. I'd give it a lot of thought.

[Texas by God]

The .256 Winchester makes more sense than the 25-20 nowadays based on availability of brass alone.
Not much .256 brass out there; but there’s a lot of .357 brass to make it from.
I’m a fan of the .218 Bee for my “between .22 LR and .223 Rem” needs.


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[dverna]

The .256 Winchester makes more sense than the 25-20 nowadays based on availability of brass alone.
Not much .256 brass out there; but there’s a lot of .357 brass to make it from.
I’m a fan of the .218 Bee for my “between .22 LR and .223 Rem” needs.


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.218 Bee should be ideal. Just checked Ammoseek and neither the .218 Bee or the parent case (.32/20) are available. It would suck to download a .223 and not meet the obscure "need".

[besk]

In my opinion, the cartridge would have a rim, be somewhere from 25 to 30 caliber, not have overly thin case walls and have a decent neck length. My choice would definitely be the 256 Winchester. The .32/20 is surely a nice choice though.

[racepres]

I seem to enjoy my contender caliber betters when I can get / make my brass from stuff that I can pick up at the range.

And then I will throw in a caliber between the two above. 7 TCU uses 223 brass and works great in a Contender (I love mine and shoot it a lot). This round will be more powerful than the two above, but less of an "overkill" for small game than stuff like the 30-30 or bigger. My gun loves the Lee 128 if you do not already have suitable a 7mm mold. This one is very close to the 30 Herrett in performance, but is a little easier to make.

If you like the idea of 30 cal and want more power than the 30 Badger, consider the 300 BO. I did a Quickload study and the 300 BO will give you the same or slightly better performance in a Contender than a 30 Herrett. Case capacity is a little less, but allowed pressure is higher. Again, I like the 223 based case (both from a cost standpoint and from a diameter standpoint). Dies are easier to find than any previously mentioned round.

For both the 7 TCU and the 300 BO, rimless should not worry you at all unless there is some special concern such as use in extreme cold or bad hands/fingers.

I will echo the 7mm TCU recommendation. The problem I see is trying to get both the powder puff and the 200 yard requirements to play nice together. Me, I'd get a 32-20 and call it good enough, though it would leave the woodchuck at 175 yards out of range from me.

7 TCU is about perfect for a walk around rifle. I load up 130 grain cast, with a frugal amount of 2400, for my 10" pistol barrel and hit my 10" iron target at 200 yards just about every time. Accurate soft recoil with the cast bullets and you have the option of respectable velocity with hotter loads.

Again, take a look at the 7 TCU. Very easy to make from 223 brass. Like a number of others, I have found it to be "cast friendly". More rare was the 6.5 TCU. I am not sure I have seen much on using cast in the 6.5 TCU.

Made me give some thought to how much I use My 7TCU...
Probably the Very Most of Any...Excellent Round, Especially with Cast!!!. Can you say Versatile?
But, I still consider the 410 as Obscure...certainly based on Price/Availability!!!!!
Some Interesting responses...

[TurnipEaterDown]

You Could do your own cartridge, and have the reamer made.
This is not expensive. I have done it several times.

The expensive part is forming dies when needed, and you would need to send the reamer off to a TC barrel maker.
The "normal" reloading dies wouldn't be much different in cost for some cases, oddballs fall into specialty groups for RCBS dies for instance and they are pricey anyway.

TC Contender - Rimmed case is good.
Don't do a JDJ and use something like a 225 Winchester parent -- ground is plowed, capacity and head size is such that you better have pressure equipment, and the 225 availability (lack of) should be well known.
Head size: 30-30 max for 45-50 K Psi. 44 Rem Mag - max for 40 K psi. 357 Mag - run it as you like (you could lean on to 60 K psi).
Bore - want to cast, have a good supply of commercial jacketed, use for pest / small / medium game -- go as small as 25 Cal.

You'll probably find what you can think of has been done, or is Functionally something already done (wildcatting is that way, new ideas aren't new). BUT: you will have put in some educational work doing something over again, because you didn't realize you were.

Maybe something along the lines of:

44 rem mag parent case, neck w/ 35 degree to 6.5 mm, 0.25" neck - Yes a bullet will hang out (come back to that).
Parallel throat - 0.001" over sized cast bullet dia, 3 degree taper to rifling, throat to touch ogive for 120 gr cast of your choice w/ base of bullet at base of neck, twist it at 1:9 (slow as offered).

Shoot bullets 120 gr & under.
Want to shoot a moderate size game animal, use a 120 gr partition.

Cast: the bullet will hang out. Powder coat or use the traditional lube bullets only at the range.

Data - model your Wildcat in a reliable program, and look at a 6.5 Grendel for comparative volume (it's Likely close) to triangulate the data to known Grendel data.
Keep your target Energy at / below what the model says when you use a chronograph (as long as the model makes good estimates for teh comparative case like the Grendel).

Look for Close To 6.5 Grendel performance, but it's yours and it's rimmed.

[Texas by God]

.218 Bee should be ideal. Just checked Ammoseek and neither the .218 Bee or the parent case (.32/20) are available. It would suck to download a .223 and not meet the obscure "need".

I inherited 200 .218 Bee brass before I barreled the gun. Otherwise I would have done without a Bee based on the ridiculous price of ammo or the rarity of brass for it. All of my .223s are ARs so I can’t download them, but I have before for bolt action .223s- and 22-250s so I see your point there!


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[uscra112]

If .218 Bee is a permitted option, how about the .22 2R Lovell? Same case capacity, but according to contemporary sources more accurate.

There's a basketful of brass and a set of dies on Gunbroker at this very moment. $400 for the lot isn't too shocking given today's brass prices.

If it comes to it, brass can be made from .223, although it's a laborious process.

Handles anything up to coyotes, and maybe Texas deer, but not our northern behemoth bucks. Download it to .22 LR velocity for small game.

[John Taylor]

Update on the 10x25R, we switched to necking down Starline .44 Russian brass, which produces a 0.975" case in one pass with no trimming or neck reaming needed. John has the reamer and can make dies by annealing, shortening, reaming, polishing and rehardening .38-40 dies.

With 180-grain lead Accurate 40-182H .38-40 bullet 5 grains of Bullseye gives 1000 fps in a 5-1/2" revolver and 1080 fps in a 22-inch rifle barrel. An Accurate 40-224H 224-grain lead bullet with 6 grains of Unique gives 950 fps revolver and 1070 fps rifle. A lightly compressed charge of 22 grains Goex 3Fg with the. 40-224H gives 670 fps in a 5-inch revolver, and 1000 fps from the rifle. Accurate 40-252H with 16 grains of IMR4227 gives 1080 fps revolver and 1340 fps rifle. A fully adequate woods deer rifle.
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I make reloading dies from pieces of barrel blanks, 4140 steel. Reloading dies are made from 12L14 and case hardened ( Nitrided ), once you cut through the case they are soft.

[Bigslug]

Joining the thread late, and have only skimmed, but. . .

How about the .30-40 Krag? Not unlike the .30-30, but with more boiler room, neck length, and throw weight potential.

Edit to add: The .32-40 Win emphatically does not suck either. One of the classic single shot 200 yard Scheutzen rounds.

[uscra112]

I make reloading dies from pieces of barrel blanks, 4140 steel. Reloading dies are made from 12L14 and case hardened ( Nitrided ), once you cut through the case they are soft.

I know that's true of Lee dies. Have others jumped on that bandwagon? My older non-Lee dies seem to be through-hsrdened. Although I don't go hacking around on them very often, the times when I have shortened one I had to use a cutoff wheel.

[Jeff Michel]

38-40 or 7mm TCU

[wch]

I suggest the 22 Hornet.
I have a Winchester 1885 low wall in 22 K Hornet and it makes an ideal walk-around for me.

[Shanghai Jack]

I do like the option of a necked up 223 or 223 derived cartridge just due to plentiful brass. What's out there using either 223 or 221 fireball brass? obviously I know the blackout but thinking maybe something in between the .224 and .308? Lots of great options.

30 Herrett?

[gunther]

The original "walk around rifle" was probably the 30 carbine.
Read "Shots Fired in Anger". Use your energy working out accurizing the Carbine. Then write an article on that effort.

[JDHasty]

I’ve got a pair 17 & 20 Garin Remington 580s. The Garin cartridges are based on the 30 Carbine case. There are also 22, 24 & 25 versions.

http://surestrikesystem.com/technical/loadData.php

[pull the trigger]

277 wolverine

222

[5090SS]

You could walk about with a .300 Rook

[Te Hopo]

Personally I'd be using the .22Hornet barrel you say you have.
But seeing as youre asking for something different, I'd be looking at the 256Win Mag.
Plenty of parent brass and projectile selection out there, decent amount of power and its a dandy looking little round.

[Wayne Smith]

I wanted a quarter bore single shot. Settled on the 25 Krag AI because A) I found a set of dies on Midway sale years ago, B) internal capacity better than the 256 Winchester or the 30-30 necked down. A fellow member here offered me a set of reamers he would not use because of his age. I got a barrel for my Encore and have been using it for several years. I have posted my process of making cartridges here in the past. It's capacity is 2 grains of water less than the 25-06 and two grains of water more than the 257 Roberts AI and I have data for both. Those reamers are in the hands of a gunsmith in Virginia Beach, VA, if anyone else wants to follow my process.