Loading Oddball Rifle Cartridges

A Sauer drilling came with 6.5x57R dies and ammunition, so it was relatively easy to work up handloads using 6.5x55 data. Rimmed versions of European cartridges designed for use in break-action guns use the same dies as the rimless versions but a different shellholder.

- John Barsness

Cases are often part of the deal when buying oddball rifles (otherwise the previous owner would have trouble selling them), but if brass wasn’t included, it’s far more possible to buy oddball cases today than a generation ago. Modern manufacturing makes it possible to profitably produce smaller batches of brass, and the Internet makes finding them much easier. At least a dozen companies produce relatively rare cases these days, and if there’s sufficient demand, even some retailers order brass with their own headstamps.

Over the decades, I’ve handloaded for a number of rifles chambered for cartridges most Americans would consider oddballs, including the .22 Savage High Power, 6.5x54 Mannlicher Schönauer, 6.5x57R Mauser, .303 Savage, .33 WCF, 9.3x72R and .450/.400 Nitro Express 3-inch. I just checked the website of Graf & Sons (www.grafs.com), a well known retailer of reloading supplies, and it listed all but the 6.5x57R in stock. I then checked Huntington Die Specialties, (www .huntingtons.com), another top source for oddball cases, which listed RWS 6.5x57R cases for a reasonable price.

During this brief cyberspace quest, brass for some other oddballs turned up, including the .25-20 Single Shot, .30 Remington, .30 Newton, .30 Super Flanged (the rimmed version of the .300 H&H), 8x56R Hungarian Mannlicher, .360 No. 2 Nitro Express, .425 Westley Richards, .43 Egyptian, .505 Gibbs and .600 Nitro Express. Of course, none of these are quite as “affordable” as .30-06 brass. As an extreme example, Bertram .600

Nitro Express cases cost over $10 apiece. On the other hand, if you’re planning to take your .600 after elephants, you can probably afford enough cases to get by.