anyone ever play with the old wildcat 257 Magnum ???

[Magnum Wheel Man]

anyone ever play with the old wildcat 257 Magnum ??? new pics added

my custom revolver is functional this week... ( project was converting a Ruger single 10 into an 8 shot 257 ) barrel is mounted, custom cylinder is fabricated, firing pin has been changed over from rim fire to center fire... dies are being finished up this week, & will include a file trim die... I lathe cut 150 cases to rough length yesterday

my brass trim length is going to be finalized somewhere around 1.15 - 1.2" or so, so this will actually be a wildcat "special" version of the 257 magnum wildcat... cases are trimmed & straight tapered from 22 Hornet cases

will be loading soon, so I'm coming up with some recipes... curious if anyone else ever played with the 257 in a revolver ???

 

[Jbotto]

Interesting... I'd never even heard of this one before now. I'm posting in here so I can see when new info gets posted!

 

[tjh]

Do you mean the old 256 mag , it was a necked down 357mag to .25cal

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

Nope this one is more uncommon...I think originally named 257 Magnum Revolver, it was made from blown out / straight tapered 22 Hornet cases with a case length of 1.3" & used .257 rifle barrel, instead of the .251 pistol barrel...

... my "single" frame even with a little clean up of the frame window only allows enough room for a 1.15 - 1.2" case length with normal 25-20 bullets... because cases are hard to come by right now, I bought 150 - 22 K Hornet cases at the last gun show, & cut them up for the 257 cases... the sharp shoulder forced me to cut them at 1.15" which is fine, though we chambered the cylinder for 1.2" cases...

Dies are being heat treated today... likely by this weekend, I'll be file trimming the lathe cut cases... to start with, I'm going to try using a special bullet my buddy "makes", he takes 55 grain jacketed soft point .243 bullets & puts them in a swaging die he made, that makes a shorter pointed soft point 257 bullet, that he uses in a wild cat, & in his 256 Magnum ( the 357 magnum cased cartridge ) he's also cutting me some cast bullet molds, & I'm on the list at Midway for the Hornady 60 grain 25-20 soft point... so those are the bullet options... if the swaged 55 grain jacketed bullets work well, I'll likely order 500 of those & borrow my buddy's equipment to get those swaged up... still thinking about powders... will likely start with the regular players, & or the powders I use in my 22 Hornet revolver... unless I run across anyone that loaded this round in the 60's - 70's when I think it was conceived ???

 

[mxsailor803]

Magnum, we need to see some pics of this thing once you get situated. It caught my interest indeed.

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

most of my guns aren't camera shy, so I'm betting it'll be posted soon...

BTW... We used carbon steel for the barrel & cylinder, & the single 10 is stainless, so the gun will be silver & black when done... I'm currently looking at 2 sources to blue the barrel & cylinder... ( I'd like to get it done while there is still snow on the ground, before I'm wanting to develop loads for it ) so depending on lead time ( if I can get it in right away ) there may be a delay on the pics...

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

picked up my revolver & dies today I'll snap a couple pictures, but in all honesty, the freshly machined chrome moly looks lust like the stainless gun ( whole thing looks just like it did before the conversion, except the hole in the muzzle is just a lil bit bigger... will file trim / finish trimming the brass tonight,... I could load a couple of the 75 grain bullets I had but will ideally will be loading both the 55 grain custom swagged bullets from my buddy, & the 60 grain Hornady 25-20 bullets when ever they come in ???

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

a couple pics...

3rd pic shows firing pin relocation ( sorry, my old camera at work )... BTW... all the work done could be reversed, so the gun could be changed back to a 10 shot 22

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

well... last night I sized & file trimmed the brass, tumbled off the lube, & started chamfering the case mouths ( don't have to worry about turning the case mouths with the thin 22 Hornet brass ) I'll be uniforming my primer pockets & flash holes, as the bag K Hornet cases I bought to cut down, consisted of like 5 different brands / headstamps of cases ( I think I've only ever seen 3 before, & I shoot a lot of 22 Hornet )... & generally the smaller the case, the more important the little things are in group sizes

... the 75 grain 257 bullets I currently have, have too long an olgive, where I can't get a crimp & stay within my need COL, so I'll have to wait for either my buddy's swaged 55 grain 243 bullets, or for the Hornady 60 grain 25-20 bullets to come in...

the mocked up cartridge with the 75's has an interesting ( wicked ) look to it... my buddy's bullets will be pointed, but are much shorter, might look as "wicked"... the 25-20 bullets will look more "traditional"

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

here's a pic of the 243 Dog Town 55 grain soft point swagged to a shorter .257 soft point, seated in one of my cases... this fits nicely into the cylinder... now to start developing loads

 

[Jbotto]

Any update on this MWM? How's it shooting? How did the loading go?

 

[mattL46]

That is so freakin' awesome. Inspiring.

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

working on 3 different loadings right now... the cast bullet load, from a 6 mold cavity I had made up, has been throwing 61 grain bullets, & may be inherently accurate??? seems, so far to be accurate with any of a couple loads of Unique... I've been just tumble lubing them, but they are tight in the throats, requiring a little extra push to get them in the chambers... I just got my lubrisizer die for that bullet ( .258" ) but haven't run any through yet... trying Hornady's 25-20 bullets, & the custom swaged 50 grain .243 to .257 bullets, but only mediocre accuracy so far, with Lil gun... my pressures are pretty low initially, so I'll try working up a hotter charge, before looking at a different powder... I only have a limited number of cases so far... like to find some more Hornet cases, but anyone that's looked for them, knows they are hard to come by, as most components are right now...

 

[Jbotto]

Very cool! Thanks for the update! This is a very interesting project to me!