What rare or obscure calibers do you shoot?

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Just a general question. I'm not looking for the everyday stuff, I'm thinking of the kind of stuff that you really need to be into reloading to make it worth shooting. I personally don't have any acceptable examples in my collection. The closest for me would be 5.7x28 and .35 Remington and those are a far cry from what I am talking about.
 
I inherited my grandad's gun closet. He had some oddball stuff:

* 30-40 Krag: It's sporterized and a beautiful deer rifle.
* 35 Whelen Improved: A sporterized 1917 Enfield. Granddad's elk gun. 10 shots and I have a headache.
* R2-Lovell: it's a wildcat of a wildcat. Basically it's a 25-20 Single Shot necked down to .22 and blown out (improved). Only 1 place in Australia makes 25-20ss brass. It'll push a 45gr bullet 3,000fps. Granddad called it "the squirrel cannon".
 
I have a model 94 in .375 winchester. Only place I can find it is online. Someday I need to reload for it. That's why I keep all my spent brass for it.

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I shoot 38 S&W in my Model 10 Victory. It was my first gun, handed down from my grandfather to my father to me. It was the reason I got into reloading. I love the gun and the accuracy.

Curtis
 
A friend has a 1903 Winchester .22 semi auto that uses "22 Winchester auto". It looks like 22LR and shoots a 45gr lead bullet, but the case's inside diameter is .222 and its outside diameter is .250. He didn't know the difference and tried firing .22LR in it and the case burst. He has a really tough time finding ammo.
 
10.4x42mm Swiss

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Read all about it here:
http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/threads/26678-New-life-for-an-old-soldier

Jack
 
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It's not necessarily rare, but it'd be very difficult to shoot 250 Savage w/o reloading. Fortunately you can very easily form brass from the common 22-250 (the 250 was its parent cartridge) and the other components are pretty easy to come by.

The 250 Savage is awesome...kinda like a .243 Winchester w/ much better barrel life. I can't figure out why its not more popular.
 
Does 40/65 Winchester count? Fired from a rebarreled 1885 Winchester. Bullet weight from 260 gr (factory load) to 400 gr .410 dia bullet.
 
I shoot a friend's rifle a lot. It's what he calls ".30 Custom". It's a .458 Win Mag necked down to .30 caliber. It's a 18lb bench gun and is very accurate.
 
I have a lot of reading and research ahead of me. There are some fantastic examples in this thread of the type of cartridges I was thinking of.
 
.577-450 Martini formed out of 24 gauge full brass shotshells.
20110112202857.jpg


.577 Snider (L) and .577-450 Martini (R) with paper patched bullet
IMG_1145.jpg
 
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For me it's 11.15x60R Mauser and .455 Webley Mk. II of which I have a few rounds;
.30 Luger, .30 Mauser, 7.62 Nagant and .38 S&W of which I have squirreled away a
lifetime supply.
Now, if I only could find some 7.35 Carcano....
 
.577-450 Martini formed out of 24 gauge full brass shotshells.
20110112202857.jpg


.577 Snider (L) and .577-450 Martini (R) with paper patched bullet
IMG_1145.jpg

What are you using for a bullet? I am in the process of cleaning up my Martini and am going to start loading this shortly.
 
What are you using for a bullet? I am in the process of cleaning up my Martini and am going to start loading this shortly.

I cast both 405 grain and 500 grain 0.458 RN bullets, then dry size them to 0.458". I paper patch with notebook pad paper to a final diameter of about 0.470" for the Mk. IV Martini. You should slug your bore and find out what the actual diameter is. For instance, when I slugged the Braendlin Carbine shown in the photo, I found that it's bore is more in line with standard 0.458" so I don't have to paper patch for that one, just cast and lube, which is a timesaver.

There is a lot more info on the British Militaria Forum which you can google and find a treasure trove of information.
 
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