Wildcats for the 112 Magnum action

I'm playing around with a few wildcat ideas to take advantage of the 112 Magnum action and I'm just curious what others have come up with. I did my 375 BME a few years ago to get as much performance as I could from a standard magnum bolt face in a target action and I'm still happy with the results. (350gr bullet at 2950+ fps) I'm just curious now what I can do with a Lapua sized single shot action.

I have a few ideas ranging from 7mm up to 375 off of different cases with a .580" bolt face that should make for some fun projects.

The 300 Norma Mag is getting real popular. Some guys are even running 300 Norma AI variants. a 230Berger at 3100fps is going a long ways!

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Originally Posted by LoneWolf

The 300 Norma Mag is getting real popular. Some guys are even running 300 Norma AI variants. a 230Berger at 3100fps is going a long ways!

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This is an excellent cartridge, and was originaly designed to be used with Rem 700 actions.
I personaly wouldn't be using a 700 action or a Savage either for one, but that's me and
obviously lots feel otherwise. Many years back a PA gunsmith by name of Howard Wolfe created a
cartridge that he could use at Williamsport with a 30" barrel. He shortened the 378 Weatherby case
and called it the 30x378 Wolfe. Localy it was simply referred to as the short version, or Wolfe version.
I ended up with one built by Howard on a mark V Weatherby action. About 5 or 6 years ago a friend had a 300 Norma
built on a 700 action he had. He brought it to the camp for bear season and showed me the cartridge.
I said that looks almost exactly like my short Wolfe case. We filled each with water and found they were within 1 grain of capacity.
For long range hunting its my favorite gun. I use 190 gr bullets in mine for hunting which have a velocity over 3350.
Theres really no need for me to own another gun for long range hunting.
However if the goal is to send bullets to extreme distances, I wouldn't even be thinking less than a 300 gr 338 in a big case built on a big action.
But again, that's me and to each his own.

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Originally Posted by LoneWolf

The 300 Norma Mag is getting real popular. Some guys are even running 300 Norma AI variants. a 230Berger at 3100fps is going a long ways!

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The Norma case is nice, but it's nothing more than a shortened and improved 338 Lapua. Even the improved Lapua leaves a lot unused potential. My 375 BME (improved 404 case) can match anything that the improved Lapua case will do. I'm looking at the 450 Dakota and Excalibur cases to work off of on the Savage action. If I'm going to make something over the top and excessive, why not go all out!

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Originally Posted by yobuck

However if the goal is to send bullets to extreme distances, I wouldn't even be thinking less than a 300 gr 338 in a big case built on a big action.
But again, that's me and to each his own.

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I've gone that route too. I have one 338/408 Improved rifle done and I just sent off the parts to have a specialty pistol made in 338/408 as well. Here's the rifle and the pile of parts for the pistol.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...4C91903DBD.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...BF955387E9.jpg

The problem with the really big stuff like the CheyTac is that you end up with a big, heavy gun that's beyond what the average guy wants to deal with. I like to come up with ideas that can be done for a reasonable price on readily available actions. The 338/408 rifle cost about $3000 to build after carefully shopping around for components. The pistol will be closer to $4000 when it's done. Those are both without optics. We all know how affordable it can be to build off of a Savage with just a simple barrel swap. The goal is just to come up with something to bridge the gap between the RUM/Lapua based rounds and the CheyTac case, but at a reasonable cost.

What ever happened with the Borden action?
And I'm almost afraid to ask, but did Russo ever come thru with your stock?

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Originally Posted by yobuck

What ever happened with the Borden action?
And I'm almost afraid to ask, but did Russo ever come thru with your stock?

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The Borden found a new home with a buddy of mine who made me the right offer on the right day. I still regret selling it every once in a while, but then I remember that he paid me nearly $700 more than i paid for it!

The pistol stock in the picture is the one I got from Russo. He actually delivered it in about 3 months and the price was right too. I think it's going to be a real looker when the whole project is done in a few months. Russo had a few bubinga blanks I could choose from but I went with a fairly straight grain just for the extra density and strength. Alex Wheeler at Wheeler Accuracy is doing all of the work on the pistol project. The stock's going to end up with a couple coats of high gloss automotive clear coat and then all the metal will get a high polish to match.

A couple of very nice builds, Andrew!

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Originally Posted by Hotolds442

A couple of very nice builds, Andrew!

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Thanks! I think it's funny that even after playing around with a couple different custom actions I still keep coming back to the Savages. My favorite guns are still ones that I slapped together in the garage out of parts I had in a drawer. My target actions that were worked over by SSS are still some of the smoothest actions I have. If I get around to buying one of the 112 Magnums I think I can stay busy for a while designing wildcats off of a .585 bolt face.

I mentioned having a 300 norma clone, which has the large face as does the 338 lapua.
My son has a 300 ultra mag with the standard mag boltface and really for our type use it works as well as my gun.
I also have a good friend owning a 338 edge on a rem 700 action. Weve proven that his gun will
pretty much stay door to door with my chey tac to 1500 yds.
Weve also proven that we (might) get maybe one day about every couple years (during hunting season)
where the weather and air conditions are suitable to see well enough to shoot even that far.
So while its nice to be prepared, by way of equiptment, its also wise to keep in touch with reality
when faced with a short window of opportunity like a 2 week hunting season.