The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - if you could design a rifle, what would it be?...

animal · April 21, 2012, 12:56 AM

Dunno if I’m picturing your design correctly, but a one piece receiver/ barrel shroud sounds like a real mother to machine. Also, if the "shroud" serves as the gas tube for the center-bored cylindrical gas piston, it might create heat issues in the receiver as well as defeat the purpose of a shroud. Your gas piston also has far greater wear surfaces than a traditional piston. The bore of the gas piston alone would at least equal the the outer diameter of a traditional piston and that would be added to the much greater outer diameter of your piston . It might still work well, but tolerances might be a real headache.

On your cartridge : you might want to look up the "338-223 Straight", an obsolete (never was?) wildcat
Maximum for it was a 200gr spire point bullet at 1820 fps. And that would be HOT!, tho I have no idea what the actual c.u.p. was. This is about as big as you can get for a cut down .223 case. IMO, it would be under-powered for a deer and fall right into the category of "intermediate power"

The .357 bullet is larger diameter than the outer diameter of the .223 case at the shoulder (.354")

April 21, 2012, 12:56 AM	#12
animal Senior Member Join Date: April 28, 2000 Location: Mississippi Posts: 705	Dunno if I’m picturing your design correctly, but a one piece receiver/ barrel shroud sounds like a real mother to machine. Also, if the "shroud" serves as the gas tube for the center-bored cylindrical gas piston, it might create heat issues in the receiver as well as defeat the purpose of a shroud. Your gas piston also has far greater wear surfaces than a traditional piston. The bore of the gas piston alone would at least equal the the outer diameter of a traditional piston and that would be added to the much greater outer diameter of your piston . It might still work well, but tolerances might be a real headache. On your cartridge : you might want to look up the "338-223 Straight", an obsolete (never was?) wildcat Maximum for it was a 200gr spire point bullet at 1820 fps. And that would be HOT!, tho I have no idea what the actual c.u.p. was. This is about as big as you can get for a cut down .223 case. IMO, it would be under-powered for a deer and fall right into the category of "intermediate power" The .357 bullet is larger diameter than the outer diameter of the .223 case at the shoulder (.354") __________________ Keep smiling ... it'll just make 'em wonder what you're up to...