Wildcatting: Long Ranger

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Last updated: 26/07/2018

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People just like to push the boundaries; none more so than in terms of long range shooting! Trouble is, you can find yourself chasing your arse sometimes, pawing over reload manuals, ballistic programs and old magazines seeing if anyone has missed something. Often, it’s already been done, the 204 Ruger is a fine example; originally the superb 20 Terminator, they decided to slightly alter and call it their own!

More efficient

I was looking for an efficient, long-range varmint rig and steel target clanger for 750 yds. +, something that with less powder than the 300 RUM I use for haggis bashing at 1000 yards. The 300 Win Mag was an obvious contender but that`s been done, 300 WSM, great but not for me, I like to work a little for it. I wanted a case more than a 30-06 but less than a 300 Win Mag. Bingo how about a 308 Norma Magnum round?

It was designed by Norma back in 1960 and is a belted magnum of 2.559” case length and H20 capacity of 86-grains, based on the large brother 358 Norma mag and equates to pushing a 180-grain pill at 3000 fps. It became popular in the States, as Norma supplied reamers for it and shooters could re-barrel old 30-06 rifles with minimal head alteration.

Bugger all difference

But, there was something even better in my view, the 300 H&H. The 375 H&H has been altered, cut expanded, you name it over the years and back in the day a round called the 300 Belted Newton was designed. This was shorter and improved, which further lead to rounds like the 338 Win Mag. And it was not long before the big .338 was necked to .30 cal (around 1958), to become the 30-338.

This 30-338 Win Mag case is slightly shorter than the 308 Norma Magnum at 2.50” and an H20 capacity of 85-grains, bugger all difference. It also gives a longer neck than the 300 Win Mag; so, allowing bullets to be seated further out for more powder space.

It won several 1000 yards matches at the Wimbledon Cup at Fort Perry USA. To me, it was the ideal candidate, as it could be formed to your spec, i.e. tight neck chamber or custom OAL neck length by re-forming; 338 Win Mag, 7mm Rem Mag, 7mm Weatherby, 300 H&H or 338 Win Mag and 358 Norma Mag cases.

Spec

Now the part I like, sorting all the parts for a rifle; re-barrelling, reloading kit etc. A few months later, an RPA Quadlite magnum action came up for sale in 30-338 Win Mag; game on! The RPA is a good choice for wildcat testing, as I use two Quadlite actions for testing most of mine. I fitted the superb Tier One 20 MOA Picatinny rail. The barrel was a 31” fluted, stainless, Walther, match grade unit with a 0.762” muzzle O/D threaded 15x1mm. Rifling twist was 1 in 10”, 5-groove and chambered for a standard neck diameter of 0.342” but throated long to allow more powder and is free-floated in a bench rest RPA fibre glass stock. It’s a large stock with wide, 3” forend and squared off butt section, so that it rides the bags. It has an adjustable cheekpiece, and what a great test bed it was going to be!

Load up

I had Norman Clarks gunsmith order me a set of Redding Type S bushing style neck die set number 78394. This comes with a neck die, where you can exchange the bushing and thus use to size cases exactly your chamber and it also resizes cases from a donor round. You also have a seater die and a very useful body die that is used to push back the shoulder on reformed cases to correct headspace. I had a few choices in which direction to form cases, as mentioned before, and I decided to try all of them; glutton for punishment but that’s how you learn.

I had new 7mm Weatherby un-primed, 358 Norma Mag ammo and new Nosler custom 300 H&H brass to play with. Sometimes, when you neck up or down and then fireform the brass, the case moves in odd ways and thicknesses can change the capacity inside a lot and so it’s good to have a few options.

Weights and measures

First up, were the 358 Norma Magnum ammo, I pulled them and these measured 0.3830” on the neck, with a 14 thou thickness and an overall length of 2.519”. I had already fireformed a load in the RPA and the spent case measured 0.3415” on the neck; so, I need to get from 0.3830 to 0.3415”, a 41.5 thou reduction. I passed it through the neck die without a bush, which reduced it to 0.3610”, I then fitted a 0.345” bush that dropped the measurement to 0.345”. Due to the neck increasing in length, I had to then use the body die to push the shoulder back and make sure the neck was sized all the way to the shoulder union.

The overall case length ran out at 0.2520”, which was just 20 thou over maximum length, which is perfect for me, as you can turn brass off to tune it but not put it back on. The 7mm Weatherby cases were easier and they only needed a simple, one pass neck expansion from the Sinclair Expander. This gave a .30 cal neck, with an O/D of 0.3315” but a shorter neck of 0.2496”, which is well within trim length.

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Finally, to make things hard for myself, I tried the Nosler 300 H&H cases, which were run through the 30-338 Win Mag body die only. Very slowly and well lubed with Imperial Sizing wax, it gave a nice case with a very long neck, which can be trimmed to length and then fireformed to get that more parallel side wall configuration. You can also use 300 Win Mag brass run through the full length 30-338 Win mag die but I had no Win Mag cases to hand, doh!

Results

I was surprised to also find quite a lot of load data in old reloading manuals that I lovingly hoarded over the years. Sierra had specific load data, as did PO Ackley’s Vol 2 book and of course good old Quickload ballistics program was a real asset, saving time working up loads and old 308 Norma Mag data is also relevant if not identical. Being a 1 in 10” twist, I was able to shoot up to the 215-grain bullets, but naturally I had to try a whole range of weights to satisfy my interest.

Being a magnum case, I used Magnum primers from CCI, i.e. 250 Mag and chose some slower burring powders to make use of that longer barrel.

Conclusions

At first glance, you might think why bother! But, like so many things in life, the often over-looked can be the best kept secret. This rifle shoots so well, at 100 yards with 215-grain Hybrids it was literally bullet on bullet! At 300, I had less than two-inch groups, admittedly three shots but great. I am now sourcing an MAE 15mm/1 mod for some extreme long-range fun. The 30-338 Win Mag or 308 Norma Mag for that matter is perfect for 30-06-sized actions and from my point of view more efficient and has more accuracy potential, due to the longer neck than the vaulted 300 Win mag.