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A wildcat cartridge, often shortened to wildcat, is a custom cartridge for which
ammunition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other we ...
and/or
firearms A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes ...
are not mass-produced. These cartridges are often created in order to optimize a certain performance characteristic (such as the power, size, or efficiency) of an existing commercial cartridge. Developing and using wildcat cartridges does not generally serve a purpose in military or law enforcement; it is more a hobby for serious shooting,
hunting Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...
, gunsmithing, and
handloading Handloading, or reloading, is the practice of making firearm cartridges by assembling the individual components (case, primer, propellant, and projectile), rather than purchasing mass-assembled, factory-loaded ammunition. The term ''handlo ...
enthusiasts, particularly in the United States. There are potentially endless varieties of wildcat cartridge: one source of gunsmithing equipment has a library of over 6,000 different wildcat cartridges for which they produce equipment such as
chamber reamer A chamber reamer is a specific type of fluted reamer used by gunsmiths and firearms manufacturers to cut the Chamber (firearms), chamber of a handgun, rifle, or shotgun. The chamber reamer is inserted into the bore of a Barrel (firearms), barrel ...
s.


Development of a wildcat

Often, wildcats are commercially sold rounds that have been modified in some way to alter the cartridge's performance. Barrels for the caliber are originally manufactured by
gunsmith A gunsmith is a person who repairs, modifies, designs, or builds guns. The occupation differs from an armorer, who usually replaces only worn parts in standard firearms. Gunsmiths do modifications and changes to a firearm that may require a very ...
s specializing in barrel making. Generally, the same makers also offer reloading dies, tools to custom-load bullets into cases. Because changing the barrel of a gun to accommodate custom cartridges requires precision equipment, most wildcats are developed by or in association with custom barrel makers. Ammunition is handloaded, using modified parent cases and the gunsmith-provided wildcat dies. Generally, the supplier of the barrel or dies will also provide the buyer with basic reloading data, giving a variety of powders, charge weights, and bullet weights that can be used for developing loads. Handloaders use the data to develop a load by starting with minimum loads and carefully working up. Wildcat cases and cartridges can be found for sale, but only from small makers. Larger manufacturers usually do not produce wildcats because there is such a limited market for them and because there are no established CIP (Commission Internationale Permanente Pour L'Epreuve Des Armes A Feu Portatives - Permanent International Commission for the Proof of Small Arms) or SAAMI standards, which causes liability concerns.


Wildcat goals and methods

Wildcat cartridges are developed for many reasons. Generally, the goal is to optimize some characteristics of a commercial cartridge in a given context. Higher velocities, greater energy, better efficiency, greater consistency (which yields greater precision), and complying with a minimal permitted caliber or bullet weight for the legal hunting of certain species of game in a particular jurisdiction are the top reasons. The sport of
metallic silhouette Metallic silhouette shooting is a group of target shooting disciplines that involves shooting at steel targets representing game animals at varying distances, seeking to knock the metal target over. Metallic silhouette is shot with large bore rifl ...
shooting, has given rise to a great number of wildcats, as several rifle rounds are adapted to fire from a handgun. In using autopistols for hunting or competitive shooting, improved feeding of softnose or hollowpoint bullets is also an issue; the bottlenecked .45/38, for instance, was created because the straight-cased
.45 ACP The .45 ACP ( Automatic Colt Pistol) or .45 Auto (11.43×23mm) is a rimless straight-walled handgun cartridge designed by John Moses Browning in 1904, for use in his prototype Colt semi-automatic pistol. After successful military trials, it ...
had trouble feeding hollow points. Wildcat cartridges are generally developed because: * Higher velocities can be obtained by increasing the case capacity or reducing the caliber. * Greater energy can be attained by increasing the caliber or the case capacity. * Better efficiency can be achieved by increasing the shoulder angle, shortening the case, and reducing the case taper (see internal ballistics). * Greater consistency can be achieved by tuning the case capacity to a certain bullet diameter, weight, and velocity that give consistent results. * Feeding problems can be fixed. Some methods used to develop a wildcat are: * Cold forming. The parent case is well lubricated and forced carefully into the reloading die for the wildcat caliber. This will swage the case into a new shape. This type of operation is used for reducing case dimensions, such as changing the neck diameter or pushing the shoulder back. *
Fire forming The term fire forming in firearms refers to the process of thermomechanically reshaping a metallic cartridge case to optimally fit a new chamber by firing it within that chamber.Glenn Newick, "The Ultimate in Rifle Accuracy", Stroger Publishing C ...
. This consists of taking the parent case, or a partially cold formed case, loading it with a light bullet and light load of powder, and firing it in the firearm it will be used in. Another technique uses a charge of fast-burning powder topped with a case full of Cream of Wheat and a wad, to form a special
blank cartridge A blank is a firearm cartridge that, when fired, does not shoot a projectile like a bullet or pellet, but generates a muzzle flash and an explosive sound ( muzzle report) like a normal gunshot would. Firearms may need to be modified to allow a b ...
that will expand the case. This technique is used for increasing case dimensions, such as pushing the neck forward, increasing the neck angle, or straightening the case walls. * Trimming to length. Generally, after either a cold forming or a fire forming operation, the mouth of the case will be longer than ideal, and the case will be trimmed back to the "trim to" length. Trimming is a normal reloading operation, as high-pressure cartridges will flow each time they are fired, and periodically need trimming to remove the brass that flows to the mouth. * Changing the diameter of the case (to suit a new caliber). Called "necking up" or "necking down", this is the most common way of making a wildcat. The new caliber allows a different range of bullet weights, and can greatly increase the velocity or the power or the resistance to wind drift as compared to the parent cartridge. * Necking back. This is a
cold forming In metallurgy, cold forming or cold working is any metalworking process in which metal is shaped below its recrystallization temperature, usually at the ambient temperature. Such processes are contrasted with hot working techniques like hot r ...
operation in which the neck is pushed back to reduce case capacity. This is often done when developing rounds for shorter barrels, such as turning a
rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...
cartridge into a handgun cartridge. * Blowing out. This is a fire-forming operation that moves the shoulder forward to increase case capacity. * Changing the shoulder angle. By making the shoulder closer to square, the resulting space is closer to the ideal spherical shape, resulting in a more efficient burn. If the shoulder is also to be moved back, this is a cold forming operation; if the shoulder is to stay or be moved forward, it is a hot forming operation. * Reducing the case taper. This hot forming operation makes the cartridge more cylindrical, giving similar results to a shoulder angle change. * Changing the rim. While this is a wildcatting operation, it is generally only done by commercial operations, due to the precision turning needed. Generally, this is a conversion from rimmed to a rimless cartridge, or from rimless to rebated, and is done to allow a larger parent case than the firearm action was designed for. The opposite operation, adding a rim to a case, is also generally only done by major manufacturers; examples are the .45 Auto Rim, a rimmed .45 ACP allowing ejection in .45 revolvers without the use of
moon clips A moon clip is a ring-shaped or star-shaped piece of metal designed to hold multiple cartridges together as a unit, for simultaneous insertion and extraction from a revolver cylinder. Moon clips may either hold an entire cylinder's worth of cartr ...
, and the
.307 Winchester The .307 Winchester cartridge was introduced by Winchester in 1982 to meet the demand of .300 Savage performance in a lever-action rifle equipped with a tubular magazine. It is nearly dimensionally identical to the more common .308 Winchester ...
, a rimmed
.308 Winchester The .308 Winchester is a smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge widely used for hunting, target shooting, police, military, and personal protection applications globally. It is similar but not identical to the 7.62×51mm NATO ...
, developed for use in lever-action rifles. A handloader can add a rim, by swaging a ring of metal onto a rimless case, then turning it down, but this is a very labor-intensive process and requires a special swaging die and precision metalworking lathe. It is far easier for most handloaders to simply start with a rimmed case, either of the desired diameter or reamed out as desired. *Increasing the case length. This process (which allows the cartridge to contain more propellant and thus increases the potential energy of the bullet) was used to make the powerful
.357 Magnum The .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum, .357 S&W Magnum, .357 Magnum, or 9×33mmR as it is known in unofficial metric designation, is a smokeless powder cartridge with a bullet diameter. It was created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, and Douglas B. ...
cartridge from the much weaker
.38 Special The .38 Special, also commonly known as .38 S&W Special (not to be confused with .38 S&W), .38 Smith & Wesson Special, .38 Spl, .38 Spc, (pronounced "thirty-eight special"), or 9x29mmR is a rimmed, centerfire cartridge designed by Smith & ...
: A .357 magnum bullet has more than 3 times more
energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of ...
than a .38 special bullet of the same weight. Increasing the length of a bullet's case usually involves getting rid of the old case and making a completely new one from scratch, which all but limits the feasibility of this kind of modification for commercial manufacturers. It is possible to draw an existing case into a slightly longer form, thinning and stretching the existing case, but this is an operation requiring special equipment and expertise. It is far easier and more common to reduce, not extend the length of a case.


Example wildcat cartridges

In terms of sheer numbers of varieties, there are more wildcat cartridges than there are production cartridges. Most wildcats are custom made, therefore are not generally well-known. Some wildcat cartridges, however, are produced commercially in small quantities by small manufacturers. This is a list of some representative wildcats. * .30 Herrett. Based on the
.30-30 Winchester The .30-30 Winchester/.30 Winchester Center Fire cartridge was first marketed in 1895 for the Winchester Model 1894 lever-action rifle.Thompson Center Arms Contender pistol. * .10 Eichelberger Long Rifle. This is one of a smaller number of wildcats based on rimfire cartridges. It is made by disassembling a
.22 Long Rifle The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smo ...
cartridge, and re-using the case. The .10 caliber (2.5 mm) is the smallest
rifled In firearms, rifling is machining helical grooves into the internal (bore) surface of a gun's barrel for the purpose of exerting torque and thus imparting a spin to a projectile around its longitudinal axis during shooting to stabilize the ...
barrel made. The tiny .10 caliber bullets produce almost no recoil and travel at very high velocities. While it can be used on small game at short ranges, this cartridge is more of a curiosity than practical hunting or target round.AmmoGuide.com
free registration may be required.
* 5.7 MMJ, or 5.7mm Spitfire. A
.30 Carbine The .30 Carbine (7.62×33mm) is a rimless carbine/rifle cartridge used in the M1 carbine introduced in the 1940s. It is a light rifle round designed to be fired from the M1 carbine's 18-inch (458 mm) barrel. History Shortly before World W ...
case necked down to .223 caliber (5.56 mm), this cartridge was developed to convert military surplus M1 Carbines into short range varmint guns. *
6mm PPC The 6mm PPC (Palmisano & Pindel Cartridge), or 6 PPC as it is more often called, is a centerfire rifle cartridge used almost exclusively for benchrest shooting. It is one of the most accurate cartridges available at distances of up to 300  ...
. Based on the .220 Russian, which is in turn based on the 7.62×39mm intermediate-power cartridge. The 6mm PPC was developed in 1975 specifically for
benchrest shooting Benchrest shooting is a shooting sport discipline in which high-precision rifles are rested on a table or bench — rather than being carried in the shooter's hands — while shooting at paper or steel targets, hence the name "benchrest". ...
. While it is anything but common anywhere else, the 6mm PPC unseated the .222 Remington from its 20-year spot as the best benchrest cartridge available. Chambered only in single-shot rifles due to its short, fat case and sharp shoulder angle, the 6mm PPC is still going strong in benchrest after 30 years. *
.22 Eargesplitten Loudenboomer Parker Otto Ackley (May 25, 1903, Granville, New York – August 23, 1989) was an American gunsmith, barrel maker, author, columnist, and wildcat cartridge developer. The Ackley Improved family of wildcat cartridges are designed to be easily mad ...
. This humorously named cartridge was developed by P. O. Ackley specifically to exceed muzzle velocity. Based on a .378 Weatherby Magnum case, the case is impractically overpowered for the bore diameter, and so the cartridge remains a curiosity. * 7 mm TCU (also known as 7TCU). Based on the
.223 Remington The .223 Remington (designated as the 223 Remington by the SAAMI and 223 Rem by the CIP) is a rimless, bottlenecked rifle cartridge. It was developed in 1957 by Remington Arms and Fairchild Industries for the U.S. Continental Army Command ...
case, the 7 mm TCU is popular in single-shot handguns such as the Thompson Center Arms' Contender and G2 Contender. It is but one of a family of wildcat TCU cartridges.


Wildcat cartridges in Australia

In Australia, wildcat cartridges were relatively common. Most are made primarily for hunting species such as
deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...
,
kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...
, and are generally based on the
.303 British The .303 British (designated as the 303 British by the C.I.P. and SAAMI) or 7.7×56mmR, is a calibre rimmed rifle cartridge. The .303 inch bore diameter is measured between rifling lands as is the common practice in Europe which follows th ...
because of the post-war popularity of that round and of the cheap surplus Australian Lee–Enfield MkIII military rifles available. Many of these surplus rifles were re-barreled to .257 caliber, known as the 303-25. One of the unique features is that these cartridges relied less on handloading - and instead, factory ammunition was produced by the Super Cartridge Company, Riverbrand, IMI, and Sportco. Since having an existing barrel rebored and rechambered was (at that time) less expensive than fitting a new barrel, a 303-25 rifle with a worn-out barrel could be economically converted to .277 caliber, known as the 303-270. The
.222 Remington The .222 Remington or 5.7×43mm (C.I.P), also known as the triple deuce, triple two, and treble two, is a centerfire rifle cartridge. Introduced in 1950, it was the first commercial rimless .22 (5.56 mm) cartridge made in the United Stat ...
- a .222 Rimmed in a Martini was also commonly found. As too were the "Tini-Mite" and "Mini-Mite" cartridges, .17 caliber rimfire cartridges based on the .22 Long Rifle case.


Commercially accepted wildcats

Some cartridges started out as custom-made (non-commercially developed) wildcats and gained wide enough acceptance or popularity to become commercial cartridges. Generally, cartridges become popular commercially after a commercial firearms maker begins offering a weapon chambered in the cartridge. Once popular enough, funding is generated for SAAMI standards development. After SAAMI standards are in place, any firearms or ammunition maker can be sure that any products manufactured to the SAAMI standards can be safely used. Some examples of custom cartridges that became commercially accepted are: *
.22-250 The .22-250 Remington is a very high-velocity, short action, .22 caliber rifle cartridge primarily used for varmint hunting and small game hunting. It is capable of reaching over 4000 feet per second. It does find occasional use by women and yo ...
. Based on a .250 Savage case, the .22-250 is still one of the fastest shooting .22 caliber (5.56 mm) cartridges available. First offered in a factory firearm by Browning in 1963 (the first factory gun chambered for a wildcat), the .22-250 was later adopted by Remington as the .22-250 Remington. *
.22 CHeetah The .22 CHeetah (both C and H are upper-case, referring to ''Carmichel'' / ''Huntington'') is a .22 wildcat cartridge developed in the 1970s or 1980s by Jim Carmichel and Fred Huntington. The .22 CHeetah is essentially a Remington .308 BR, modifi ...
. A .308 BR (Bench Rest) case necked down to .22 caliber, the .22 CHeetah provides a flat trajectory with a .22 caliber bullet that has a relatively high speed of 4,000 ft/s. Hard on barrels, it provides a very effective 300-yard varmint round. * .303/25. A
.303 British The .303 British (designated as the 303 British by the C.I.P. and SAAMI) or 7.7×56mmR, is a calibre rimmed rifle cartridge. The .303 inch bore diameter is measured between rifling lands as is the common practice in Europe which follows th ...
cartridge necked down to fire a .25 caliber projectile, developed in Australia during the 1940s as a
Kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...
culling In biology, culling is the process of segregating organisms from a group according to desired or undesired characteristics. In animal breeding, it is the process of removing or segregating animals from a breeding stock based on a specific tr ...
and pest control round. Popularised in the late 1940s and 1950s in
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
, owing to restrictions in that state on ownership of .303 British caliber firearm and the difficulties of obtaining commercial hunting arms and ammunition from overseas. Now largely obsolete, but there are still large numbers of converted
Lee–Enfield The Lee–Enfield or Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the British Army's sta ...
rifles chambered for this round in Australia. * 6.8 mm SPC. This cartridge was developed by American military special operations soldiers in search of a more lethal round than the 5.56×45mm NATO. It is based on the .30 Remington cartridge necked down to .270 caliber, and sized to fit in the
M16 rifle The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-r ...
. *
7 mm-08 The 7mm-08 Remington is a rifle cartridge that is almost a direct copy of a wildcat cartridge developed around 1958 known as the 7mm/308. As these names would suggest, it is the .308 Winchester case necked down to accept 7 mm (.284) bullets wit ...
. A
.308 Winchester The .308 Winchester is a smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge widely used for hunting, target shooting, police, military, and personal protection applications globally. It is similar but not identical to the 7.62×51mm NATO ...
necked down to 7 mm (.284 caliber), the 7 mm-08 provides a flatter trajectory with lighter, more aerodynamic 7 mm bullets. *
7-30 Waters The 7-30 Waters cartridge was originally a wildcat cartridge developed by author Ken Waters in 1976 to give better performance to lever-action rifle shooters than the parent .30-30 Winchester cartridge, by providing a higher velocity and flatter tr ...
. Designed to improve the performance of lever-action rifle designs dating back to the 1890s, the 7-30 Waters is a
.30-30 Winchester The .30-30 Winchester/.30 Winchester Center Fire cartridge was first marketed in 1895 for the Winchester Model 1894 lever-action rifle.T/C Contender or G2, which can take advantage of spitzer (pointed) bullets that are unsafe in tubular magazines. It is very efficient on small to medium-sized game including whitetails and mule deer. *
.454 Casull The .454 Casull () is a firearm cartridge, developed as a wildcat cartridge in 1958 by Dick Casull, Duane Marsh and Jack Fullmer. It was announced in November 1959 by ''Guns & Ammo'' magazine. The design is a lengthened and structurally improve ...
. This magnum revolver cartridge, a lengthened
.45 Colt The .45 Colt (11.43×33mmR), is a rimmed, straight-walled, handgun cartridge dating to 1872. It was originally a black-powder revolver round developed for the Colt Single Action Army revolver. This cartridge was adopted by the U.S. Army in 1 ...
, was developed by
Dick Casull Richard J. Casull () (February 15, 1931 – May 6, 2018) was a Salt Lake City-born gunsmith and wildcat cartridge developer whose experiments with .45 Colt ammunition in the 1950s led to the creation of the .454 Casull cartridge. Casull's passion w ...
and Jack Fulmer in 1957 as a high-powered big game hunting round. For many years, the small Wyoming manufacturer Freedom Arms was the only substantial maker of guns for the cartridge. In the mid-1990s, two major manufacturers, Ruger and Taurus, started selling guns chambered in .454 Casull because it was popular due to its extreme power. It was finally commercialized in 1997 when SAAMI published its first standards for the cartridge.


Commercially developed wildcats

Though a cartridge technically has to not be developed commercially to be considered a wildcat, some commercial cartridges were developed by ammunition and firearm manufacturers by modifying existing cartridges – using essentially the same process used to make wildcats. Cartridges that are modified by being made longer (usually to make them more powerful) are for the most part only created commercially because of the difficulty of the process. One example of such a cartridge is the
.357 Magnum The .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum, .357 S&W Magnum, .357 Magnum, or 9×33mmR as it is known in unofficial metric designation, is a smokeless powder cartridge with a bullet diameter. It was created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, and Douglas B. ...
, which was developed from the
.38 Special The .38 Special, also commonly known as .38 S&W Special (not to be confused with .38 S&W), .38 Smith & Wesson Special, .38 Spl, .38 Spc, (pronounced "thirty-eight special"), or 9x29mmR is a rimmed, centerfire cartridge designed by Smith & ...
in 1934 by firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson. *
.38-40 The .38-40 Winchester is actually a .40 caliber (10 mm) cartridge shooting .401" (10.2 mm) caliber bullets. The cartridge was introduced by Winchester in 1874 and is derived from their .44-40 Winchester. This cartridge was introduced f ...
. One of the oldest wildcats, the .38-40, introduced by Winchester Repeating Arms Company in 1874, was made by necking down a .44-40. Actually a .401 in (10.2 mm) cartridge, the .38-40 had faded into obsolescence before being revived with the growing popularity of Cowboy action shooting. The ballistics of the .38-40 are close to those of the .40 S&W. *
.221 Fireball The .221 Remington Fireball, often simply referred to as .221 Fireball, is a centerfire cartridge created by Remington Arms Company in 1963 as a special round for use in their experimental single-shot bolt-action pistol, the XP-100. A shortene ...
. This cartridge was developed by
Remington Arms Remington Arms Company, LLC was an American manufacturer of firearms and ammunition, now broken into two companies, each bearing the Remington name. The firearms manufacturer is ''Remington Arms''. The ammunition business is called ''Remington ...
for the XP-100 pistol, which was a single shot bolt action pistol. The .221 Fireball was a necked back
.222 Remington The .222 Remington or 5.7×43mm (C.I.P), also known as the triple deuce, triple two, and treble two, is a centerfire rifle cartridge. Introduced in 1950, it was the first commercial rimless .22 (5.56 mm) cartridge made in the United Stat ...
, designed for greater efficiency in the 10 in (25 cm) barrel of the XP-100. Even loaded with a smaller load of faster powder for the short barrel, the .221 Fireball lived up to its name, with a massive muzzle flash; the performance, however, was unheard of for its day: over 2700 feet per second (885 m/s) out of the short XP-100 barrel. It remains the fastest SAAMI-approved handgun cartridge, and the cartridge is so efficient and accurate that it has been chambered in rifles as well. *
.22 Remington Jet The .22 Remington Jet (also known as .22 Jet, .22 Center Fire Magnum, or .22 CFM)Barnes, p.148, ".22 Remington Jet". is a .22 in (5.6mm) American centerfire revolver and rifle cartridge. Developed jointly by Remington and Smith & Wesson, it w ...
. This cartridge was developed by Remington for a Smith & Wesson Model 53 revolver and a Marlin Model 62 lever-action rifle, but the rifle was never produced in this caliber. The .22 Remington Jet was a necked-down .357 Magnum case. The .22 Jet is no longer manufactured by Remington or other commercial manufacturers. *
.357 SIG The .357 SIG (designated as the 357 Sig by the SAAMI and 357 SIG by the C.I.P. or 9×22mm in unofficial metric notation) is a bottlenecked rimless centerfire handgun cartridge developed by the Swiss- German firearms manufacturer SIG Sauer, ...
. This now-popular pistol cartridge was developed by Swiss weapons company Sig Sauer in an attempt to produce ballistics matching the powerful
.357 Magnum The .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum, .357 S&W Magnum, .357 Magnum, or 9×33mmR as it is known in unofficial metric designation, is a smokeless powder cartridge with a bullet diameter. It was created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, and Douglas B. ...
revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating firearm, repeating handgun that has at least one gun barrel, barrel and uses a revolving cylinder (firearms), cylinder containing multiple chamber (firearms), chambers (each holding a single ...
load, but in a semi-automatic pistol cartridge. The cartridge was made by necking down and slightly stretching the .40 S&W case, which itself derived from the 10mm Auto. *
.400 Corbon The .400 Corbon is an automatic pistol cartridge developed by Cor-Bon in 1997. It was created to mimic the ballistics of the 10 mm Auto cartridge in a .45 ACP form factor. It is essentially a .45 ACP case, necked down to .40 caliber with a 2 ...
. This cartridge was designed to produce 10mm Auto ballistics in a cartridge that could be chambered in a
.45 ACP The .45 ACP ( Automatic Colt Pistol) or .45 Auto (11.43×23mm) is a rimless straight-walled handgun cartridge designed by John Moses Browning in 1904, for use in his prototype Colt semi-automatic pistol. After successful military trials, it ...
pistol with a simple barrel swap. It was made by necking a
.45 ACP The .45 ACP ( Automatic Colt Pistol) or .45 Auto (11.43×23mm) is a rimless straight-walled handgun cartridge designed by John Moses Browning in 1904, for use in his prototype Colt semi-automatic pistol. After successful military trials, it ...
down to .40 (10 mm). Initially, no firearms were available in .400 Cor-Bon, but barrels in the new caliber were produced for the M1911 pistol. *
.41 Action Express The .41 Action Express is a pistol cartridge developed in 1986 to reproduce the performance of the .41 Magnum police load (which is a reduced load) in semi-automatic pistols. History The .41 Action Express was designed by Evan Whildin, vice pre ...
. Developed in 1986 by Action Arms for the Jericho 941 pistol. It, like the .357 SIG, attempted to make a magnum-power cartridge for a semi-automatic pistol. It started with a
.41 Magnum The .41 Remington Magnum, also known as .41 Magnum or 10.4×33mmR (as it is known in unofficial metric designation), is a center fire firearms cartridge primarily developed for use in large-frame revolvers, introduced in 1964 by the Remington A ...
case and cut it down to fit in a semi-automatic pistol chambered for 9×19mm. The rim was then turned down to the same dimensions as the 9×19mm, making it a rebated rim cartridge. This allowed a unique switch up to a larger caliber. The .41 AE never saw huge commercial success because of the creation of the similarly powerful .40 S&W in 1990. *
.204 Ruger The .204 Ruger is a centerfire rifle cartridge developed by Hornady and Ruger. At the time of its introduction in 2004, the .204 Ruger was the second-highest velocity commercially produced ammunition and the only centerfire cartridge produc ...
. Introduced in 2004 by Ruger, in its time it held the title of fastest production cartridge with a velocity of 4225 ft/s (1290 m/s) with a , .204 bullet from a barrel. Intended as a
varmint rifle Varmint rifle is an American English term for a small-caliber precision firearm or high-powered airgun primarily used for both varmint hunting (the elimination of outdoor animals which harass properties) and pest control (the eradication of indoor ...
cartridge, the .204 was based on the
.222 Remington Magnum The .222 Remington Magnum was a short-lived commercially produced cartridge derived from the .222 Remington. Originally developed for a US military prototype Armalite AR-15 rifle in 1958, the cartridge was not adopted by the military, but ...
, which is slightly longer than the .223 Remington and offers about 5% more case capacity. Designed to have a very long point blank range, the factory loading offers impressive ballistics, placing a 32gr Hornady V-Max bullet 1.96 inches high at , and low at .


Second (and later) generation wildcats

Some wildcats are based not on commercial rounds, but on other successful wildcats. The .308 × 1.5" Barnes, a wildcat from noted cartridge author Frank Barnes made by simply necking a
.308 Winchester The .308 Winchester is a smokeless powder rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge widely used for hunting, target shooting, police, military, and personal protection applications globally. It is similar but not identical to the 7.62×51mm NATO ...
back to in length (38.1 mm) is probably the best example of a wildcat that has spawned many other successful wildcats. The .308 x 1.5" case is available from a number of case manufacturers and differs from a homemade .308 x 1.5" in that it has a small primer pocket, whereas the original .308 Winchester case has a larger primer pocket (the smaller primer is more suited to the smaller case capacity of the short round). There are at least 8 wildcats that are made from the small primer .308 x 1.5" brass, including some very successful benchrest rounds, including the Benchrest Remington family of cartridges,
.22 BR The .22 Bench Rest Remington cartridge, commonly referred to as the .22 BR Remington, is a wildcat cartridge commonly used in varmint hunting and benchrest shooting. It is based on the .308×1.5-inch Barnes cartridge, necked down to .22 caliber, ...
,
6mm BR This is a list of firearm cartridges which have bullets of a caliber between and . *''Length'' refers to the cartridge case length *''OAL'' refers to the overall length of the cartridge Measurements are in millimeters then inches, i.e. ''mm ( ...
, 6.5mm BR, 7mm BR, .30 BR. Another example is the .220 Russian, based on the 7.62×39mm. Since nearly all 7.62×39mm ammunition made in the 1970s used the complex-to-reload Berdan priming, and often
steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistan ...
cases, it made a poor choice for wildcatting. The .220 Russian, however, was and still is readily available in Boxer-primed, brass cases of high quality. The .220 Russian is still the parent cartridge of choice for the PPC line of cartridges, such as the .22 PPC and 6mm PPC, even though there are far more PPC-chambered firearms available than .220 Russian chamberings. Likewise, the PPC line of cartridges were the parent case of the
6.5 Grendel The 6.5mm Grendel is an intermediate cartridge jointly designed by British-American armorer Bill Alexander, competitive shooter Arne Brennan (of Houston, Texas) and Lapua ballistician Janne Pohjoispää, as a low-recoil, high-precision rifle cartr ...
, a long-range, high-energy cartridge for the
AR-15 An AR-15-style rifle is any lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on the Colt AR-15 design. The original ArmaLite AR-15 is a scaled-down derivative of Eugene Stoner's ArmaLite AR-10 design. The then Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation ...
.


See also

*
Small arms ammunition pressure testing Small arms ammunition pressure testing is used to establish standards for maximum average peak pressures of chamberings, as well as determining the safety of particular loads for the purposes of new load development. In metallic cartridges, peak ...
* Overpressure ammunition * C.I.P., a European standardization organization for firearm cartridges * SAAMI, an American standardization organization for firearm cartridges *
NATO EPVAT testing NATO EPVAT testing is one of the three recognized classes of procedures used in the world to control the safety and quality of firearms ammunition. Beside this, there are also the '' Commission Internationale Permanente pour l'Epreuve des Armes ...
*
DEVA Deva may refer to: Entertainment * ''Deva'' (1989 film), a 1989 Kannada film * ''Deva'' (1995 film), a 1995 Tamil film * ''Deva'' (2002 film), a 2002 Bengali film * Deva (2007 Telugu film) * ''Deva'' (2017 film), a 2017 Marathi film * Deva ...
, a German firearms test institute


Notable wildcat cartridges

* Whisper (cartridge family), proprietary cartridges by J. D. Jones * .30-06 Springfield wildcat cartridges * List of wildcat cartridges


References


External links


The Wild Cat: An Endangered Species?
''Guns'' magazine, Dec 2000 by Charles E. Petty
Loading Wildcat Cartridges: a Few Simple Considerations Make Life Much Easier
''Guns'' magazine, August 2005 by Charles E. Petty

wildcat cartridge descriptions at The Reload Bench

, ''Performance Shooter'', April 1996

A gunsmith's description of Wildcat Cartridges. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wildcat Cartridge Cartridge families Ammunition