Back in 1993, I worked up a new wildcat cartridge for the Contender. It was based on the .356 Winchester case, necked down to .338, with the body taper blown out and a 40 degree shoulder. I called it the .338 GEF, and from a 12" Contender it would launch 200 grain Ballistic Tips at 2100 fps, and 250 Partitions at 1900 fps. I used it to take a number of game animals, ranging from pronghorn antelope, to mule deer, to feral hogs. It worked very well. With cast bullets, it was somewhat limited by the 1 in 10" twist of the barrel, and best accuracy was limited to about 1600-1700 fps. Cast HPs at 1600 fps did fine work on a moderate sized feral hog and a Corsican ram, but a 235 grain solid cast bullet left a little something to be desired on a 300+ lb hog. More velocity would be good (and pressures were quite low at this velocity), but the accuracy just wasn't there.
I shared this info with my good friend Dave Ewer, and Dave's simple response was "Why did you neck it down?". I had my reasons (including the 200 BT), but Dave's question was a good one. We talked it over in detail, and ultimately Dave decided that he was going to do a somewhat similar .35 caliber wildcat. He started with the .356 Winchester, and pushed the shoulder back about .010" (to prevent shooting factory ammo in this chamber), and ground the appropriate amount off the bottom of the RCBS sizer die. An ample supply of .356 Winchester brass was obtained and he was off and running. He bought a 14" stainless T/C barrel, cut the chamber by hand, and marked the barrel "356 TCE" (Thompson-Center-Ewer, following the precedent of the TCU wildcats). He started working up loading data last summer, and was getting good results with 4895 and the Hornady 180 Single Shot Pistol bullet at about 2200 fps. Sadly, Dave died last fall before he could get much farther with this project.
I bought the barrel from his estate because I didn't want to see the project sit around unfinished, but the bottom-line was I was having trouble getting motivated to work on it since it was so similar to my .338 wildcat. Then it hit me, the difference was the twist! The .356 TCE had a cast bullet friendly 1 in 14" twist, so I could focus on jacketed bullets in my .338, and focus on cast bullets in the .356 TCE (and I already have a wide variety of .35 caliber bullet moulds). I should be able to get 2100+ fps with the 200 grain cast bullets, and 1900+ with the SAECO 245. And then there is the 275 grain Lyman 358009 HP.... This is going to be a fun summer!
I shared this info with my good friend Dave Ewer, and Dave's simple response was "Why did you neck it down?". I had my reasons (including the 200 BT), but Dave's question was a good one. We talked it over in detail, and ultimately Dave decided that he was going to do a somewhat similar .35 caliber wildcat. He started with the .356 Winchester, and pushed the shoulder back about .010" (to prevent shooting factory ammo in this chamber), and ground the appropriate amount off the bottom of the RCBS sizer die. An ample supply of .356 Winchester brass was obtained and he was off and running. He bought a 14" stainless T/C barrel, cut the chamber by hand, and marked the barrel "356 TCE" (Thompson-Center-Ewer, following the precedent of the TCU wildcats). He started working up loading data last summer, and was getting good results with 4895 and the Hornady 180 Single Shot Pistol bullet at about 2200 fps. Sadly, Dave died last fall before he could get much farther with this project.
I bought the barrel from his estate because I didn't want to see the project sit around unfinished, but the bottom-line was I was having trouble getting motivated to work on it since it was so similar to my .338 wildcat. Then it hit me, the difference was the twist! The .356 TCE had a cast bullet friendly 1 in 14" twist, so I could focus on jacketed bullets in my .338, and focus on cast bullets in the .356 TCE (and I already have a wide variety of .35 caliber bullet moulds). I should be able to get 2100+ fps with the 200 grain cast bullets, and 1900+ with the SAECO 245. And then there is the 275 grain Lyman 358009 HP.... This is going to be a fun summer!