I'm putting together a .338 grooved barrel using a full length 357 max case with a 223 taper.

Is anyone else shooting this caliber if so, is there any loading data out there?

Frank

I've heard that there is at least one 33 RKS out there does anyone know who it could be and have contact info?

I do my chambers a bit different than most. I have neck and throat reamers for 25, 28 (7mm), 30, 32, and 33 calibers. I ream the cartridge length with the neck and throater then come back in with the body reamer to the head diameter that I want to finish the chamber.  I have 4 body reamers and can combine them to many cartridges. In my 33 Max, I have a very short neck, it's .360 dia. and only .300 long, with a freebore of .339 x .120 long and a 3/4 deg lead.

I should have mine shooting in a few day to a week. I have only to, octagon the outside, cut and crown the muzzle and fit a forearm. Finishing the outside will came after I work a basic load up.

I guess I'm going to start with 14 gr 4227 (I have the most of it) and then switch to H108 after I find something with the 4227. My bullet is a 248 gr spitzer that's 1.32 long.

Pictured is the bullet and sized case. I sized it in my arbor press and it took more press than I thought it would but, I found a technic that worked after I tore the rim off of the first one The case elongates .005 in sizing.

Frank

Mike,
That sounds like a cartridge way ahead of it's time and I'm sure it would have done very well. To bad it was lost, I'd guess someone didn't understand it and either took the barrel off or rechambered it to 33/40.

As a side note, I bought my Rem 357 Max cases in about 1990 for a Win SS  357 Mag that I had re-chambered. They are 1.605 long and seem to have a undersized rim thickness of .054. Is the rim on new cases that thickness also?

Frank

When you trim the .357 Maximum cases back to 1.470" (for tapering with .223 FL die) the mouth walls will be thicker (0.015") than the full length 1.605" case mouth walls (0.010").

After tapering; the cases grow, and you have to retrim to 1.470". Size without the rod in the FL die so you can knock them out of the die if they stick when sizing. Not so hard to press if you anneal the cases first. Yes Imperial sizing wax works wonders as well.

I have a 33RKS.

Thanks for the tip, Dave. I'll anneal the cases, run them into a 223 die to the shoulder and finish in my die.

My plan is to still use a single case and no wad for now so, I'm only going to make 10 more cases.

Frank

Frank the case is full length and straight tapered and is called the 33RKS Schuetzen and thus the custom reamer I have was designed by Ron Smith. Around 13.1 seems to be the sweet spot in the RKS barrel. Unfortunately it does not shoot any where as well as the 33-47 and thus I would not recommend going there based on my current experiences. Ron also built the barrel around the Jones bullet sent to him so the whole affair / concept of of the smaller case being the cats meow did not prove out. The barrel will be rechambered to 33-47 probably next winter and it should then become one hard to beat. I might have an interest in letting the reamer go and maybe not, it was only used by me to recut the chamber around 40 thousandths to get the barrrel to clock from another CPA to mine.

300MP and Rem 71/2 BR primers. I modified the earlier post a tad so you might want to re-visit.