Project recommendations

[fly-by]

Swung by the local fun shop after some last minute Christmas shopping and came home with an interesting rifle.  It's an FN 98 Mauser with a tang safety added, nicely fitted into a lightweight fiberglass stock.  The only issue is it's in a pretty obscure chambering, 35 Ackley Magnum. COL for this cartridge is 3.25" and bolt face diameter is .532.  Barrel length is 24", medium/light profile and it is just a little front heavy

I could use a light weight medium-big bore with an 18-20" barrel, and am thinking of the following:

Cut and recrown it.  Use faster powders to achieve full burn in the shorter barrel, with the hope of achieving .35 Whelen performance in a small package.  Will require expensive dies and careful load development.

.375 Ruger - Fits dimensionally, ample load data and cheap dies.

.458 WM - Neither stock nor I will handle full throttle loads, but easy enough to load down to 45-70 levels.  Will likely use heavy cast bullets at modest velocity.

Thoughts, recommendations, something I've overlooked?

[Biggerhammer]

Shoot it like it is.

[fly-by]

Just checked C4HD and dies are just $83 and there are a few reasonable choices for parent brass.  May make sense to try it as is for a while.

[Biggerhammer]

Just checked C4HD and dies are just $83 and there are a few reasonable choices for parent brass.  May make sense to try it as is for a while.

Give CH4D a call. They keep a large inventory on hand. They may have it in stock. I called them the other day and they had a set of 6.5 Gibbs to ship me. IN STOCK!

[Magnum_Willys]

Looks smoothed out, nice.  Saw double safety's ? Then read whole post, interesting.  I have a mauser 30-06 with double set triggers.  Shoots lights out.  I would spend the $83 for dies and shoot it a bit first.  375 ruger would be nice.

[AWS]

C&H is amazing, I'm surprised that it isn't more mainstream.  I needed dies for a 6.5x58 Rimmed Sauer, they haven't made factory ammo in Europe since the 1930's, C&H had a set on the shelf including a bullet sizing die to take .264's to .260.

It looks like that was a pretty decent piece in it's day, I to would shoot it as is.  I shot a 358 Norma Mag for many years and for "Giggles & Kicks" tried some 148gr double ended wadcutters for 38 Special target loads over a pinch of shotgun powder(data was in the lyman cast bullet handbook).  It would shoot cloverleafs at 50 yards.  I used it for rabbit and squirrel hunting in the off season, even killed a couple of called fox.  Something like Berry's plated bullets would be fun, no lube to deal with.

[fly-by]

Thanks for the suggestions.  Will leave it as is and see how she shoots.  Just ordered up some Cerrosafe from Brownells for a chamber cast. Apparently there were a couple of versions of this cartridge and I want to know what I have before ordering dies, much less firing it. 

[j_h_nimrod]

Keeping it as is and casting the chamber first is what I was going to recommend, but looks like you are ahead of me with the cerrosafe.  I like these old wildcats and they are fun to work with. I have a 450 Ackley Mag that is a lot of fun and I also have a .375 Gibbs original (just found out there is a new louden boomer version based on the 505 Gibbs case) that is a lot of fun to reload and shoot.

Have fun!