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I'm going way out and calling it a .307 Winchester.
I can't tell if the cartridge in question is rimmed or not. I suppose we'll find out in a bit.
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I'm going way out and calling it a .307 Winchester.
I am leaning toward .338 Federal. The headstamp makes no sense, however.
I give. A .303 of some sort? SOMEONE IDENTIFY IT!!
So the bullet diameter is .311, which puts it in the same arena as the .303 British and the Soviet bloc bullet diameters. The case is more than 2mm longer than it should be for a .338 Federal (the new name for .338-08), and the headstamp is Lake City 1963 Match, which makes it either a 7.62x51 or a 30-06 originally.
Either your measurement is wrong and the bullet is actually .338" and the case was formed in a die by Fred the Shadetree Reloader from a 7.62x51 round and not trimmed afterword or it was formed from a .30-06 and not trimmed enough afterword and it's a .338-08 or .338-06, or it's a badly-trimmed 7.62x51 that someone managed to jam a .311 bullet into.
Is it just the photo, or is there a bright band across the case a little more than halfway up the cartridge? What is that about? Is it a thin spot in the case indicating imminent separation?
Where did you get the round? I wonder if someone was messing around trying to make a .303-08 or a 7.7-08 wildcat. Or, maybe someone was just trying to use some bullets they found to reload .308 and figured .311 was close enough. Do you have any more like this or is this the only example?
Do you have any pics of the head of the case?
The head of the case it the shot that you have. There is no annulus on the primer, which makes me think that it's a reload. The primer definitely doesn't look original, in any event. Here's an original:
View attachment 37997
The case looks like it was turned at some point as well. Those scratches start more than halfway up and go to the top.
Kip, you're probably right about it starting as an '06. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced it'd be harder to increase the bullet diameter while lengthening the case by over two millimeters if it had started as a 7.62x51.
I'm not sure what it is, but it's interesting. I'd hold on to it to see if someone might know in the future. To me, it looks like the product of someone's backyard experimentation.
Thank you very much for the game, though. It's been a lot of fun!