A while back, I decided to use a .450 Alaskan Reamer to chamber a shilen blank I picked up and put it on a 1970's Win M70 action.
: This chambering will also fit on a standard 98 Mauser and would be preferable to the m70 modern.
: In order to feed properly, no alteration of the magazine was required. To fit the magnum bolt face, the rim of the .348 case is turned down on a small lathe & a new extractor groove is cut. This is a 1 1/2 min job per case, max an only has to be done once. The brass is easily formed by opening up the .348's neck to .50 then necking back down with a standard seater die body, then FL die body. Only the base of the die is used, until they chamber. I am waiting for dies at this time, but use the base openings of a 7mm/06 die set for neck sizing at this time.
: The case capacity is listed as being 97gr., 7gr. more than the .458 win. Mag.(Donnely) Due to it's necked case design, the bullet doens't intrude on case capacity as badly as it does in the Winchester's straight walled case.
: This means that .458 data can be used, and even improved upon. So far, I haven't explored the top-end loads, but the .348 brass is immensley strong and suitable for this.
: The best reason for this wildcat, is it's compact size,(2.10" case) coupled with it's excellent performance with jacketed or cast bullets. At this time, I'm shooting 350gr. "X" and 400gr.Barnes Spitzers on up to 510gr. cast, all going into less than 1" at 100 meters. So far, the jacketed bullets at 2,250fps are soft loads, recoil-wise and performace wise as well.
: I used a Pacific reamer for the chamber job & did it by hand - quite easily, too, as I do all my widlcats.
: The picture shows both the .450 Alaskan(rimmed) and the .458 Alaskan - the only difference is the rebated rim and crimp groove, hense the .458 Alaskan designaton.