243 wildcat?

[rifleman25]

I am purchaseing a custom rifle from a local gunsmith who makes them in his shop. Doc Carlson from Crofton Nebraska makes these rifles in his shop called The Upper Missouri Trading co. I said that incase you were familiar with any of his work. He is pushing me towards either the 243 catbird which seems like a nice round, or a 280 Ackley improved. I believe he orders his actions form Jarrett but am not sure and he uses a fluted barrel which I didn't recognise the name, or Christensen graphite barrels. I am wondering whick of these rounds would be the easiest to load for, and a little input on the calibers themselfs from you. He said the 243 catbird will push a 70 gr bullet at 4,000 fps. Is that true? He said the 280 will do about 3250 fps. I am a bit skeptical because that is flat out moving for both rounds. Help me AJ.

[AJ]

Re: 243 wildcat?

I have the same cartridge as the Catbird, but its a 6mm-06 Improved. Unless you want a long range varmint gun, I would not advise going with it. The extra powder that it needs does not give much boost in velocity over the 243 Ackley or the 6mm Rem Ackley. It needs a long action, which is not as accurate as a short action (flex), and is hard on barrels. If I had to do it over again, I would not have built mine. Since I have it, custom dies, and fireformed brass, I will keep it till the throat is gone. I only use mine for long range shots of 500 yards and farther. Mine has a 28" barrel and will shoot a 70 gr bullet about 3950 fps. It shoots a 60 gr bullet 4200 fps. You have to be careful in your bullet selection as you can frag bullets shortly after they come out of the muzzle. I tore up my first chronograph by pushing some bullets too fast and they fragged over the screens. If you want a commercial round that is very close to the same performance, look at the 243 WSSM. Another popular wildcats in this family is the 6/284 which is a 284 Win case necked down to 243. It shoots very close to the Catbird.

This round is a wildcat meaning you have to reload. You need custom dies which are a lot more expensive than standard dies.

The .280 Rem Ackley is a decent cartridge. It is more of a big game cartridge, as there are not too many varmint bullets for the 7mm. Its between a .280 Rem and a 7mm Rem Mag in performance. The nice thing about the 280 AI, is you can shoot factory ammo if you have to. You will get a slight reduction in velocity as the pressure will drop as the case is fireformed to the AI chamber. Again you need custom dies, but the brass will last longer as it does not need to be necked down like the Catbird.

One thing to keep in mind with wildcats is they loose their value extremely fast. Resale of a wildcat chambered rifle is no where near the value or price invested. Load data is nill as its not standard. If you know how internal ballistics work and can compare some cartridges with similar case capacity, you can come up with starting points but you have to work up your own loads. The advantage of the 280 AI is you can start with max charges for the parent cartridge and work up slowly monitoring pressure signs. It's your money and wildcats can be fun to play with but I would stay with commercial cartridges.