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Daniel Watters · July 2, 1999, 05:03 PM

There was a wildcat based on the .44 Magnum necked down to .224": the .224 Stark. There is a brief mention of the cartridge in P.O. Ackley's Handbook for Shooters & Reloaders, Volume 2 on page 119. The quoted ballistics are around the .223 Remington level, but the barrel length is not mentioned. (Approach historical reloading data sources like this with extreme caution.)

The text mentions that Clymer once made the chamber reamers and RCBS offered custom dies. It is conceivable that both might still have the diamensional specs on hand. The case looks like it has a 40 degree shoulder, no body taper, and a decent amount of neck length. For your wildcat, you would just specify that you wish to use 6mm projectiles instead of .224".

In a box magazine weapon like the LAR Grizzly, I suspect that your bullet selection would be extremely limited by the short OAL needed to fit and feed from the magazine. Personally, I would rechamber a T/C Contender barrel first to see whether the ballistics were worth the trouble before I wasted money converting a repeater, especially an autoloader.

Another thing to consider is how much mass you will need to remove from the slide and/or barrel in order to get your wildcat to function. It may not be convertable back to the original caliber once you have finished. The safest bet if you must have a repeater would be to convert a Ruger 96/44 or 77/44.

For another source on wildcats, Brownells ( www.brownells.com ) is selling Designing & Forming Custom Cartridges. It has dimensional specs and case forming instructions for 900 different cartridges...wildcats, experimental, foreign, military, etc. (#414-100-000 $59.95)

Along similar lines, they also have The Handloader's Manual of Cartridge Conversions (#833-883-136 $34.95) which also details 900 caertridge conversions and the P.O Ackley two volume set mentioned earlier (#707-100-012 $35.90).

[This message has been edited by Daniel Watters (edited July 02, 1999).]

July 2, 1999, 05:03 PM	#6
Daniel Watters Senior Member Join Date: February 7, 1999 Location: USA Posts: 644	There was a wildcat based on the .44 Magnum necked down to .224": the .224 Stark. There is a brief mention of the cartridge in P.O. Ackley's Handbook for Shooters & Reloaders, Volume 2 on page 119. The quoted ballistics are around the .223 Remington level, but the barrel length is not mentioned. (Approach historical reloading data sources like this with extreme caution.) The text mentions that Clymer once made the chamber reamers and RCBS offered custom dies. It is conceivable that both might still have the diamensional specs on hand. The case looks like it has a 40 degree shoulder, no body taper, and a decent amount of neck length. For your wildcat, you would just specify that you wish to use 6mm projectiles instead of .224". In a box magazine weapon like the LAR Grizzly, I suspect that your bullet selection would be extremely limited by the short OAL needed to fit and feed from the magazine. Personally, I would rechamber a T/C Contender barrel first to see whether the ballistics were worth the trouble before I wasted money converting a repeater, especially an autoloader. Another thing to consider is how much mass you will need to remove from the slide and/or barrel in order to get your wildcat to function. It may not be convertable back to the original caliber once you have finished. The safest bet if you must have a repeater would be to convert a Ruger 96/44 or 77/44. For another source on wildcats, Brownells ( www.brownells.com ) is selling Designing & Forming Custom Cartridges. It has dimensional specs and case forming instructions for 900 different cartridges...wildcats, experimental, foreign, military, etc. (#414-100-000 $59.95) Along similar lines, they also have The Handloader's Manual of Cartridge Conversions (#833-883-136 $34.95) which also details 900 caertridge conversions and the P.O Ackley two volume set mentioned earlier (#707-100-012 $35.90). [This message has been edited by Daniel Watters (edited July 02, 1999).]