Despite the name this cartridge was invented by P.O. Ackley a prolific American wildcatter. Wildcat cartridges are ones that are not made to a standard adopted by any major manufacturer.
This particular cartridge could send a .22 caliber round 5,000 fps (1,524 m/s). The case it uses in this picture is that of a .378 Weatherby Magnum necked down to hold a .223 caliber bullet, but another design of the same name used .50 BMG cases.
It splitts eargers
Is there a practical use case for this cartridge?
Converting free time into noise. I’m pretty sure was just one of those things people have done because they wanted to see what would happen / it would be funny.
Realistically a cartridge like this would have a very short barrel life.
I am not much of a gun connoisseur, but isn’t the point of cartridges to have an extremely short barrel life, and aren’t cartridges with a long barrel life called misfire?
When I was talking about a ‘short barrel life’ I was referring to how many rounds a barrel chambered in this cartridge could be expected to be fired before its accuracy fell outside of a user’s acceptable standard.
Barrels get worn out due to heat and friction, so cartridges that fire smaller projectiles with more powder tend to wear faster.
Unrelated to barrel lifespan, a cartridge that took longer than usual to send the bullet out the barrel would be a misfire. More specifically a hangfire. These are bad.
Perfect for when you want to spray a fine lead mist at someone with extreme speed
Shooting .22 out of .378 barrel doesn’t seem like the path to accuracy.
Thats not what’s happening though. The Casing is a .378 case but the neck of the case (which holds the bullet in place) is formed down to .223. The barrel is also presumed to be .223 diameter with a chamber that is reamed out to accommodate the length and diameter of the cartridge to be fired. It’s a path to putting a ton of powder behind a small diameter bullet (much like an even more extreme version some more modern calibers like 6.5-300 weatherby magnum). Actually with a little work (and some very long and heavy .223 diameter bullets) you could probably make this thing hilariously accurate for a thousand rounds or so before you absolutely wrecked the rifling.
Actually with a little work (and some very long and heavy .223 diameter bullets) you could probably make this thing hilariously accurate for a thousand rounds or so before you absolutely wrecked the rifling.
I agree. Every round would be hand loaded (because no company loads it). And precision is nothing more than repeatability. If you’ve found a good action and barrel nothing should stop you from shooting sub MOA groups.
For the most part particular chamberings are only more or less ‘accurate’ based on the ballistic coefficient / drop and the standard at which the manufacturer makes the cartridges.
Probably had a horrible barrel lifespan since the burn time for that powder is going to be super long and the flame is getting focused down to .223in.
A good rule of thumb is to use slower powders for bigger cartridges and heavier bullets, but this design kinda breaks that rule on a number of levels. To slow a powder burn and you are spraying powder. To fast, and you are basically building a grenade.
