Radical Wolf Pup Hunter BR Cartridge

Al Nyhus and Stan Ware have created a radical short-necked “Wolf Pup” wildcat that won a number of matches in 2006. Al and Stan started with a 30BR design and blew the shoulder forward until the case had enough water capacity to satisfy the Hunter Benchrest rules. The Wolf Pup neck is only about .080″. Even with the ultra-short case neck, the Wolf Pup displays uniform neck-tension, long case life, and great accuracy. During testing, groups in the ‘teens were routine with several powders and the case appears to every bit as tuneable as the 30BR. Tuning is simple as “max accuracy and max velocity occur simultaneously”, according to Stan.

Left to Right: Lapua 6BR case; 6BR case necked-up to .30 caliber; neck-turned case ready to fire; fire-formed 30 Wolf Pup case; loaded 30 Wolf Pup round.

Al tells us: “This is a radical new case that myself and Stan Ware (SGR Custom Rifles) are trying in IBS and NBRSA Hunter Bench Rest (HBR) competition. The cartridges used in HBR must hold at least 45.0 or 45.5 of water, depending on whether you’re reading the IBS or NBRSA rulebook. The Wolf Pup holds 45.7 grains of H20, so it’s legal under either set of rules. When you look at the ratio between case capacity and bore size it is almost identical to a 6PPC.

Our Wolf Pup cases (.080″-.085″ neck lengths) show similar loaded round runout figures to our other .30 caliber cases with .320″ and .250″ neck lengths. We set the throat to position the base of the bullet well below the neck-shoulder junction. Obviously, the throat is quite a bit longer on this setup than the freebore length that we’ve been running with our more traditional neck lengths…that is, freebore lengths in the .000″ to .035″ range for bullets based on the 1.00″ long jackets and weights in the 118-125 range. We worried about bullet misalignment in that short neck, but jamming the bullets into the lands seems to take care of that–provided the chamber has as little runout as possible, is well-centered to the bore and the cases are sized aggressively enough to allow a bit of ‘wiggle room’ in the chamber.

We’re still learning–remember that the concept was not to have a short neck, but the short neck was the consequence of blowing the shoulder forward enough to reach legal case capacity for Hunter Benchrest class rules. But as we got into the project, we decided to take a fresh approach to the neck length issue. Like everyone, we’ve been amazed that this ultra-short neck works so well. The 30 Wolf Pup has been one of the most fun and interesting projects we’ve ever worked with. It delivers great accuracy, easy tuning, and long case life.” (Target shown was a 5-shot group fired 4-8-06 at 100 yards on the Wolf Pup’s first outing.)