I'm certainly guilty of looking over any new cartridge case for its 'hidden potential'. I currently run a few wildcats ... 458AccRel, 458B&M, 22/204, 6x45mm, 223AI, have a 17PeeWee coming soon, plus a set of 22/06 dies coming for another build. I have run 375/08 and plan on another, will also do a 6.5/250 (6.5mm on the 22/250 case) as I want to stir up a mate with his 6.5x47Lapua. Oh ... and there's a PacNor 35cal barrel coming destined for a 358RUM ... the A&B 35cal barrel I planned on using for it will be re-contoured and slapped onto a Lee Speed action as a 35/303. Wildcatting is a madness, second only to Savage addiction ... oddly, the two go hand in hand as with a few receivers the sky is the limit.
If you can PM me an email address, I'll send the articles that described the WSM wildcats.
The 257WSM was 'tempermental' in that its pressures fluctuated significantly with a very narrow operating window in terms of powders. The author is an M98 fan and chambered to it (seems like an odd choice to me) and had lug set-back. Add to that collapsed cases and wild velocity and pressure fluctuations. It certainly worked and exceeded 257Weatherby speeds in certain loads, but was simply too tempermental to have ever been a factory offering.
Cheers...
Con
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