Hi again Bob,
I understand what you say about Wildcatting and Wildcatters.
And, even though I have had absolutely no trouble whatsoever, bagging critters with factory standard cartridges and ballistics, far be it from me to tell people they should not tinker with self-designed cartridges.
People should have hobbies, whether or not other people regard whatever it is as especially meaningful or not.
I once had an uncle who loved building balsa wood model motor boats.
He installed tiny motors in them and remote control electronics, so that he could take those things to the local city park and launch them.
He would stand on the sidewalk, beside the little lake there and via his hand held remote control panel, “drive” each hand made little boat, here and there over the water.
That, while enthusiastically smoking his pipe and grinning intermittently.
Definitely not something that I was drawn to.
However, my good old Uncle Archy was a generally happy and kind hearted fellow, who never bothered anyone that I know of.
So again, far be it from me to say he should not have spent his weekends building model boats and puttering them around on the neighborhood lake.
There is no doubt that I am a rifle looney in every sense of the term.
That said, my preference toward factory standard cartridges is because, while tramping about, wherever I may be, I like being able to pop into the nearest sporting goods dealer or general store, etc. and buy a box of ammunition.
This is just in case, if for any reason I have run out (shooting ground squirrels for instance) or, the airline has lost my luggage containing my ammunition.
Lately, I do not try to cross international borders with firearms any more.
But here in the USA, I often do bring one or two with me, while visiting other states or even flying within my home state for hunting and fishing trips to the bush.
The closest thing to wildcatting that interests me is the Winchester .25-20 cartridge.
It is not available in Alaska any more.
So if I had one, I would have to re-form Winchester .32-20 caliber brass, neck ream it, ever so slightly flare the neck, then prime, charge, seat the bullet and crimp.
Likewise, the only jacketed bullet for it being made today, that I am aware of is, the Hornady 60 grain flat point.
I’d rather have the original 86 grainers but, without the rifle, I don’t need any bullets of any description for it. Ha.
This would be for shooting large western jack rabbits here in N. America, and yet with enough punch to humanely bag the occasional coyote as well.
The below pictured rifle is an excellent copy of a vintage Winchester design, later offered from Browning Firearms Company.
Browning sadly never offered it in .25-20 caliber or else, I likely would’ve bought one back when they were new.
I did have one for a time in .32-20 and it was a very fine rifle.
Indeed I did travel to Nevada with it and sacked more than one or two jack rabbits with it.
But, about that time I also “discovered” Africa and sold that rifle, along with over 100 other firearms, to help finance Africa hunting and fishing trips.
My original plan was to eventually have the barrel lined with a .25-20 caliber pipe or complete re-barrel, sight re-installed, etc.
Oh well.
And so you see, although I am not a wild cat enthusiast by any stretch of the imagination, nonetheless I am a fellow rifle looney for sure.
Cheers,
Paul.
