Wildcat appreciation thread

[yerimaginaryM8]

Mines a simple one no reamer involved at least yet.

I got frustrated with a model 7 7mm saum not being able to seat close to lands and fit mag.

Barrel came off and chamber was shortened 200 thou from the rear and polished at the rear to increase diameter slightly (thanks Mitch Maxberry)

Got a form die made up with 4 sequential inserts (Spencer tool and grind USA) )to make a 200 thou short saum. After 4 trips through the form die cases are trimmed first with a lee trimmer in drill to get rough length then wilson and then annealed and neck turned. Norma brass is so soft only 1-2 annealings required to finished case. Early attempts with rem brass were more tricky. I shoot 162 ELDM's under 51.5 grains 2209 CCI LR primer at about 2800 out of 24 inch barrel. capacity/performance is about the same as a modern 7x57AI

Resizing is done with a redding body die with 200 thou trimmed off the bottom and a modified Lee collet die (300 wsm body, 7mm mandrel shortened 200 thou).

Been running it over 10 years. 50 brass last about 5 firings before most are lost in the tussock. About a 10% loss rate per reload batch. Forming fills in a few winter evenings once every year or so. Finding new norma Saum brass is challenging (thanks Sidney for selling me my current batch at a great price much appreciated)