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Winchester SSMs
Alan Rushing
Member Posts: 8,805 ✭✭✭
What is the most recent information folks might have regarding the Winchester SSMs?
Believe that the standards have been the .223, .243 and the .25 . I'd imagine that they have been wildcatted up some. What do folks here know about same.
They seem more than a mite interesting and figured that I could learn the latest right here.
Believe that the standards have been the .223, .243 and the .25 . I'd imagine that they have been wildcatted up some. What do folks here know about same.
They seem more than a mite interesting and figured that I could learn the latest right here.
Comments
The WSSM information stream seems to have plateaued for the time being. Most of the interest and activity is at it's peak in the beginning with the release of ammunition and components. By the time the WSSMs hit the market, the general public was a little overwhelmed by new cartridges and these went wanting for quite some time.
However, as many of us experimenters got more of the brass, caliber changes ruled the day. I've run this case from 17 cal. up through .33 cal. just for fun and the pleasure of trying something different.
Tight now the standard .25 WSSM is the leader in the rifle chambers but the 6.5mm version is leading in the wildcat race. The bigger news is the .300 Olympic Super Short Magnum for AR builds. Olympic Arms is the designer/manufacturer:
Update from olyarms.com
.300 Olympic Super Short Magnum (OSSM)
Exceeds 30-06 Ballistics
150 Grain bullets at 3,000+ FPS!
MAde by HSM
20 Rounds per box
Many of us were wondering where all the 25 WSSM brass was going for quite a period of time and this is the answer. We chambered up a couple of AR platforms for this cartridge to test and the performance was O.K. We have just plain run out of time with work load ruling the day instead of testing this cartridge.
Best.
I won't post a link since that is frowned on, but.....if you google "wssmzone" you will find a wealth of info specifically on those cartridges and their wildcat spawn.
I'll also agree that the case just gets better as it gets necked up. The current favorite is the 6.5 (Heaton) as that is the caliber top longrange shooters are using to begin with. However, I have seen results in .300, 8mm, and .338 and as noted this little case comes into it's own. I believe it better balances the ratio of length to case diameter to neck size, when that (neck size) goes up. The .300 Olympic has better than 30-06 ballistics and so does the 8mm have better ballistics than the 8mm Mauser. From what I saw the .338 sat somewhere between the .338 Fed and the .338-06. Those were from light to heavy bullets.
I'll also say that I'm not thinking with the economy and the way the WSSM's were received over their first five years that there will be any factory introductions of the shorter mag case in a larger caliber anytime soon. As much as I like the .25 over the rest, it might probably have been better for the whole lot of WSSM's if Winchester had introduced one in .338. At the time that caliber was just picking up steam. At this time now there are a bunch of long range bullets for it. Whereas with the .25 there is still really only the Berger 115 as a dedicated long range bullet. If .25 cal's could come twisted in 1-9" then quite possibly it would be more viable. But, that wasn't the market Winchester went after. They went after the 'lightweight hunting rifle' crowd. Even though they came out with several versions of accuracy platforms, none were truly optimized to extreme long range shooting.
I had been near completely ignorant about them ... almost entirely. Had tried to unsuccessfully to find anything useful for my purposes. You have given me what I was hoping to find.
I appreciate any and all, and it is giving me a good feel for what has been happening and not happening with them. I'm following up on all of it.
I'll be honest with one of those "I only wish that I had known" OR "I wish that I had jumped on that when I had the opportunity". I had an owner of a WSSM in .25 (in believe) make me an offer on one several months ago, while I was hanging out for a bit in the Great STate of Texas!
I had looked it over well, etc., etc. One of those deals that you'd be hard pressed to go wrong for any chambering what so ever. I'd checked with rifle nuts that I know ... none of them knew a darn thing about the WSSMs either!
Well _ells Bells I guress that I could attempt to contact the gentleman, but what are the chances this far into the year???
At least you guys jump started my interests in this chambering and case and me obtaining much of information regarding it. Will see how far I might manage to go with it.
Oh, yes Phil ... I did as you suggested ... do not know if it was that site or my PC but I was having great difficulty getting anywhere or getting useful info from the site, but I will attempt some more. Sometimes it seems one may get further into a site depending on the time of day, which door one goes through or how one holds their jaw or clenches their jaw when going into the place!
Thanks again!
the best all, Alan
There's alot of good info there. I have been there several times in the last few days....no problems at all.
Somewhere in there I forgot to mention I also saw results from it being necked up to 7mm. With the heavy 7mm Bullets it was pushing them right up there with the 7mm-08. Which BTW, I have found, is able to push just a little harder than the 7x57. It's simply the bolt thrust. The tapered case has more and won't handle it as well as the less tapered case. So, the squared off little WSSM case can run more pressure than it's equal volume counterpart, the 7mm-08. It can probably run close to the .280 Rem.
Anyhow, long story short, it would be worth it to me if I was looking for one to check back with your acquaintance in Texas and see if he still is wanting to part with it.
I like the little round and have done well with it. I took second twice at our little winter competition up here using it. Beating a guy who said there was too much bolt thrust with it to make it a viable competition round. I think had I changed some things up when doing the reloading I could have found a reasonable way to make it work better. Still, it is an accurate enough round. Finding good brass and not overworking it are two aspects you have to watch. Also, when reloading for it, it's best to stay below pressure signs. Pressure spikes hard when you {edit: get start to move over} peak safe pressure.
Some thoughts for you if you were to get one with thoughts of wildcatting later on. The .270, 7mm, .300 and 8mm (.325) all have WSM cases, and downloading them to your tastes might be easier than getting set-up with one of those calibers in that case. Then again it wouldn't be too efficient either. 6.5 is gaining and stuff can be found for it. .338 is gaining popularity. But, the bullets are almost longer than that short little case! Necking up a WSM might be more the way to go than that. Let us know what you do.
I had also searched through some of the other forums that heave been helpgul for my purposes in the past but had come-up with little of interest. Do have one other site that has been interesting in the past, will be there later.
The derth of info is no doubt the way that so many new and interesting chamberings seemed to have come out at relatively the same period. I was not finding much, probably due to that reality. I wanted to assure myself that it was not from some zinger of a problem with those chamberings. Had heard that the .223WSSM probably burned barrels easily or readily ... (not a big surprise).
What I have gotten here sounds quite interesting and worth going further.
PS: For some reason my searches here had been running about the same speed as thick molasses on a cold winter morning! They are at last up to speed for me. Anyway the above sort of information and notion give me more of what I wanted to learn. As always thank you all.
best all, Alan
No, Phil I've not as yet seen an email from you.
IF, you would resend it to me I will be vigilant. I have fairly tight parameters against spam due to past experience. I've been unable to use the GB email component and figured that it is still disabled.
Have been surfing and searching most recent to: http://www.6mmbr.com/index.html
Phil, I've not as yet seen an email from you, please resend if you have my regular non-GB email address, as I have not received. Thanks!
guntech59 - Yes Phil, I had done several searches here on our forums and digested everything that I found, it just wasn't substantial enough to fill my appetite. The information that you gentlemen have provided me this go around is actually more to the point of what I was looking for and not finding elsewhere.
I had also searched through some of the other forums that heave been helpgul for my purposes in the past but had come-up with little of interest. Do have one other site that has been interesting in the past, will be there later.
The derth of info is no doubt the way that so many new and interesting chamberings seemed to have come out at relatively the same period. I was not finding much, probably due to that reality. I wanted to assure myself that it was not from some zinger of a problem with those chamberings. Had heard that the .223WSSM probably burned barrels easily or readily ... (not a big surprise).
What I have gotten here sounds quite interesting and worth going further.
PS: For some reason my searches here had been running about the same speed as thick molasses on a cold winter morning! They are at last up to speed for me. Anyway the above sort of information and notion give me more of what I wanted to learn. As always thank you all.
best all, Alan
Did you get the email I sent?