.356 TCE Contender

Glen

Moderator
Staff member
Back in 1993, I worked up a new wildcat cartridge for the Contender. It was based on the .356 Winchester case, necked down to .338, with the body taper blown out and a 40 degree shoulder. I called it the .338 GEF, and from a 12" Contender it would launch 200 grain Ballistic Tips at 2100 fps, and 250 Partitions at 1900 fps. I used it to take a number of game animals, ranging from pronghorn antelope, to mule deer, to feral hogs. It worked very well. With cast bullets, it was somewhat limited by the 1 in 10" twist of the barrel, and best accuracy was limited to about 1600-1700 fps. Cast HPs at 1600 fps did fine work on a moderate sized feral hog and a Corsican ram, but a 235 grain solid cast bullet left a little something to be desired on a 300+ lb hog. More velocity would be good (and pressures were quite low at this velocity), but the accuracy just wasn't there.

I shared this info with my good friend Dave Ewer, and Dave's simple response was "Why did you neck it down?". I had my reasons (including the 200 BT), but Dave's question was a good one. We talked it over in detail, and ultimately Dave decided that he was going to do a somewhat similar .35 caliber wildcat. He started with the .356 Winchester, and pushed the shoulder back about .010" (to prevent shooting factory ammo in this chamber), and ground the appropriate amount off the bottom of the RCBS sizer die. An ample supply of .356 Winchester brass was obtained and he was off and running. He bought a 14" stainless T/C barrel, cut the chamber by hand, and marked the barrel "356 TCE" (Thompson-Center-Ewer, following the precedent of the TCU wildcats). He started working up loading data last summer, and was getting good results with 4895 and the Hornady 180 Single Shot Pistol bullet at about 2200 fps. Sadly, Dave died last fall before he could get much farther with this project.

I bought the barrel from his estate because I didn't want to see the project sit around unfinished, but the bottom-line was I was having trouble getting motivated to work on it since it was so similar to my .338 wildcat. Then it hit me, the difference was the twist! The .356 TCE had a cast bullet friendly 1 in 14" twist, so I could focus on jacketed bullets in my .338, and focus on cast bullets in the .356 TCE (and I already have a wide variety of .35 caliber bullet moulds). I should be able to get 2100+ fps with the 200 grain cast bullets, and 1900+ with the SAECO 245. And then there is the 275 grain Lyman 358009 HP.... This is going to be a fun summer!
 

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  • 356 TCE and 200 Lee and 245 Saeco.jpg
    356 TCE and 200 Lee and 245 Saeco.jpg
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S Mac

Sept. 10, 2021 Steve left us. You are missed.
Sounds like a wicked handgun. Please share some range reports.
 

Eutectic

Active Member
Glen..... I see a fun time of cast load development for you this summer. The .356 TCE 14" may be about the perfect cast bullet hunting handgun as well!
Your post awakened some memories for me that have stayed with me since reading it however. I have now made up my mind to watch your load development for comparison and start my own development for my one and only wildcat design.... Some 25 years of neglect now under its belt!

I had a new 14" T/C barrel in .35 Remington in 1988. Cliff LaBounty in Washington had done several rebores for me and I liked his work. I talked to him about rechambering my barrel to a wildcat..... I had even named it.... The ".359 Line". I wanted Cliff to chamber the barrel short using a .35 Brown/Whelen chamber reamer... Overall case length at 2.300". Mr. LaBounty immediately went 'off' on me that the Contender couldn't handle such a wildcat. I said, "Cliff I know that operating at a normal 50,000 psi or so...... But my thoughts are more along the early big bore African cartridges that ran in the 35,000 psi range..... Like a fat .35 Remington that will hold more powder." Cliff chambered it.
I shortened a .35 Whelen Improved full length die I had laying around to start load development and ordered a custom .359 Line die set from RCBS when I had a fired case to send them. Rel 15 soon became my powder of choice. It roared like a lion and would handily dispatch one as well! I hate to confess, but jacketed is all it has seen and it has slept in the dark with no attention for a quarter century now!
Since my JES rebore .35 Whelen I have several .35 cast molds now. Why not test them in my .359 Line?. It has a deep enough throat that should keep at least 250 grs in the neck. Like 358318 maybe? I've attached a picture of a fireformed case with a .35 Remington on one side and an '06 on the other.

Please keep us up to date on your load development Glen!

Pete.359 Line Trio.jpg
 
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Glen

Moderator
Staff member
Very cool! Cliff LaBounty certainly knows his stuff, and I enjoyed (and learned from) every conversation I had with him. When I did my .338 wildcat back in '93, after several lengthy conversations with JD Jones, I decided to limit load development to 40,000-42,000 CUP to keep back-thrust within the limits of the Contender frame. JD Taught me some cute tricks to do that, and that load data has worked out very well over the last 25 years. Using those .338 velocities as reference data, makes it easy for me to tackle this .356 project -- yes, the case is ever so slightly smaller in the .356, but I am using cast bullets in the .356 vs. jacketed in the .338, so those differences should pretty much offset one another.

I got a chance to do some shooting over the weekend and it looks like AA 2520 is going to work very well in this case. The 200 grain Lee GCFP at 2050 fps gave very uniform velocities, and the SAECO 245 GCFP is able to reach 1900+ fps with no problems. I will be loading up more test loads this week, and doing some group shooting next weekend.
 

Glen

Moderator
Staff member
Re 15 turned in a very good showing today, with the 200 grain Lee GCFP at 2100 fps, and the SAECO 245 GCFP at 1950 fps.
 

GEMIHUR

Member
Please excuse post of carbines in pistol section
"shortened a .35 Whelen Improved full length die"
sounds like the 358 Alpo that David White, God rest his soul, did for a minister and fellow shooter.
I happened upon it and have never looked back.
35 Whelen and 358 Alpo X.jpg
David's maximizer brake on a super 14 Bbl was somewhat generous in the venting of gasses and noise at the time
358 Alpo and ammo.jpg
Myself and adjacent shooters found it to be obnoxious to say the least!
______________________________________________________________________________________
I am presently embroiled in the familiarization of the 7mm Super Bower
otherwise known as the 7mm JDJ #2 chambering offered by SSK Industries.
If anyone can offer insights toward the understanding and allowances permitted by
the redesigning of a 7-08 Rem case to a 40 degree Ackley configuration and an added rim and how that permits the use
in a Contender platform, I'm all ears! (aka 7x307AI) .... I do enjoy shaping wood for the little break-actions.
Below, a factory forearm and a piece of Flamed curly maple thumbhole buttstock that I fashioned ....
7 Super Bower w stock X.jpg
P.S. I'm looking for some reloading dies in 7-08 Ackley if anyone has some I'd be interested in securing them.
Thanks,
Jimmy
 
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