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Originally Posted by SaxonPig
I once suggested to Remington that their semi-auto hunting rifle (M7400?) in 338 Magnum would be a big hit with folks in bear country. They sent me a 3 page contract releasing any and all interest in such a design before they would respond to my comment. I signed the release and returned it so they could reply "This concept doesn't fit our needs at this time."
I'm thing a 16" semi-auto rifle with a 5 round detachable magazine in a short 375 caliber. The 35 Whelan is the '06 necked up to .358, has anyone made a 358 from the 7.62x39 case? Might work well in a compact action, Wonder if meaningful velocity would be possible with 200 grain bullets?
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The .35 Whelan is about as large as the '06 case can be opened up and still maintain adequate shoulder for headspacing. The 7.62X39 case would probably present even greater limitations, especially sufficient case capacity to launch much heavier bullets. Existing semi-auto actions might, or might not, be able to function reliably because of the differences in peak pressures and pressure curves.
The wildcat .35/30-30 was moderately popular back in the 1960's and 1970's, usually with heavy cast bullets for use in lever action hunting rifles. Probably a fairly short range combination.
About 30 years ago I caught a deal on a used short action Remington 700 on hand with a badly bulged barrel. I devised a cartridge based on the .308 Winchester necked up to .338 caliber, RCBS made the dies for me, and Douglas produced the barrel. I dubbed this the 8.5X51mm.
Performance with 200 grain spitzers was in the 2300FPS range. The 250 grain bullets topped out at aroud 2100FPS. Purchased a bullet mold for a 220 grain RN-GC (cast in Linotype metal @ 206 grains with gas check) and loaded those to 2000FPS. Groups well under 3" at 100 yards, and pie plates at 200 yards weren't difficult. Kept the sights adjusted for 3" high at 100 yards and used the same point of aim out to 200.
I considered it to be excellent for elk hunting in the timber. Redfield receiver sight and ivory bead front ramp sight. Under 8 pounds with sling.
Rifle was stolen in a burglary of my home and never recovered. Someone probably found out that there was no such thing as factory ammo for it and threw it away. I'd like to have it back, but at today's prices for barrels, custom reloading dies, and good gunsmith work I'm not willing to recreate it just yet.
Bolt action, lever action, and single shot rifles present fewer challenges than the semi-autos which require ammunition functioning within a specific range for which the action was designed.