I finally broke down and put on hold a Mauser 98 action Bench Rest rifle. It is going to be a loosing proposition but an interesting one. The guns caliber is .243 Rockchucker. It is basically a reformed and necked down .257 Roberts. Very heavy gun, perhaps 13-14 lbs. The interesting thing is the barrel. It is marked with not only the caliber marking, but the RCBS trademark. The founder of RCBS actually wildcatted this cartridge. The stock is custom and very high end for it's time period.

Anyrate, it's prolly a fools errand and I will never be able to recover the cost of the gun, dies, reforming die, brass....etc. But I've been agonizing over doing this up right. I've actually published in the past and thought it might make a interesting article on reviving this old Wildcat in modern times.

Color me Crazy...still a little on the fence on this project. What do you folks think?

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Non gratum anus rodentum

It sounds like a great challenge to me- and a lot of fun too if you can afford it. I think that Handloader and Rifle magazines might be interested as well as American Rifleman and some others. Even though I'll never probably have and handload for an exotic rifle and caliber I like to read about experiments. Good luck and let us know what you decide.

Charlie

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SWCA # 2294

Charlie,

Thanks...and I think you understand the challenge. This is by todays standards a old gun. And it is kind of exciting to have a chance to recreate what the WildCatters were doing back in the day. So, even though it might end up being a loss on the dollars, it might be a gain in knowledge. Imagine a wildcat based on another wildcat...

Who'd of thunk?

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Non gratum anus rodentum

I'd love to get into that. The load development could take all summer.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I have a beautifull somewhat oddball one in .270 win. Mine has a mauser supream commercial action. Doesnt have a saftey. The rifle has beautifull workmanship and fancy wood. Someone owed me a big favor years ago and I got the rifle. I have had it for many years and only shot it a couple times. I just never got into that type shooting. Its a heavy beast!

gizamo: I have some words of caution; this rifle is most likely had lots of very hot rounds shot thru it over the barrel's life time. Given that the accuracy could be gone. Barrel rifling will only last a certain number of rounds for utmost accuracy. The throat area just ahead of the chamber is the first to go. Only a CerroSafe casting of the chamber and throat area could give you any advance warning of this. You might look into the throat (leade) area with some sort of optical device to look for evidence of "alligatoring". The same condition you see on some very well worn asphalt streets. If the barrel is only worn in the throat area and the barrel has enough material left, one could set the barrel back and re-chamber at additional expense.

Secondly, the Mauser action makes a great sporting rifle or battle rifle, but not a benchrest quality action. The tendon length is not long enough to support a heavy barrel and the bolt slop allows too much movement from shot to shot. Vastly better for benchrest accuracy are the Remington 700 and the Savage 110 families of actions. Aftermarket triggers when this rifle was built were not built with near the adjust-ability or repeatability that modern day triggers are.

All in all, IMHO, you would be far ahead to pass on this rifle and look for a recently gunsmithed (blueprinted) Remington or Savage action. Then have that action newly barreled with a cartridge of your choice.

You might contact Chuck Huntington at RCBS with the description and serial number of this rifle. Perhaps he could give you some info on the origin of this rifle. The original hot wildcat based on the .257 Roberts was Warren Page's .240 Page Super Pooper. He worked with Fred Huntington to develop the mechanical dimensions. Fred gave Warren what he wanted, but in a discussion with P.O. Ackley felt that Warren's shoulder angle could be tweaked just a little from 27deg. to 32 deg. I know all this because my Gunsmith Boss in the Reno gunshop where I was No.2 gunsmith was working with Fred and P.O. at the same time on a 6mm wildcat of his own. My Boss finally decided to just go with the .240PSP. For all intents and purposes the .243 Rockchucker and the .240PSP give the same results with the .240PSP being much easier to reload. I still have a .240PSP built in 1959. It started shooting 3 shot 1/2 moa. At about 2k rounds the accuracy started dropping off. Now with about 6k rounds thru its P.O.Ackley barrel it is shooting 1 1/4 moa.

PM me if you have any further questions and/or comments. I have all the neat old books on Wildcat Cartridges and their development. .... Big Cholla

The Mauser action is the best you can get, if the gun is built right then you will first find out how good you can reload the how well you can shoot. I had 7 rifles built and the one bench model was the 7mmBR and it would cut only one small hole at 200 yards. Have fun, and hope you have a big check book, to many bullets and brass along with power out there to get and work a load on.

Giz,

Speer #2 and #4 have the loading data.

See if you can have the barrel scoped by a 'smith w/a borescope.

Dies are the only "expensive" item, and there are ways around that.

Sounds like a "fun project" and it's not another 700 in a plastic stock!

Good shooting.