Reprinted here in text only format, from "Handloader, Ammuntion Reloading Journal"
issue #193, June 1998. Copyright Wolfe Publishing, & Mark Harris Publishing Inc.

Hawk Cartridges

A lineup of useful wildcats. by Wayne van Zwoll

In Handloader No.166, Dave Scovill described a .375 round fashioned not on a .30-06 but on a 9.3x62 Mauser hull. Bob Fulton of Glenrock, Wyoming, had come up with the idea. (Riflemen know Bob in connection with Hawk Laboratories, which builds controlled-expansion Hawk bullets. Bob has since sold that company. Andy Hill now supplies the bullets from his shop at 849 Hawks Bridge Road, Salem NJ 08079.) Substituting the German 9.3 case gave Bob more powder capacity because the shoulder is located farther forward than on the otherwise-similar .30-06. The shoulder is also slightly larger in diameter.

While the 9.3x62 factory load accelerates a 286-grain, .366-inch bullet to about 2,350 fps, Dave reported that 62grains of IMR-4320 would yield 2,640 fps with a 232-grain bullet. Here was potential for a hard-hitting .375 that would work through standard actions! But a pebble in the road changed the design of Bob's new cartridge. Using the cheaper and more readily available .30-06 case, Dave found that it expanded significantly in front of the web. Roughly .01 inch smaller in diameter than the 9.3x62 case, it needed a tighter chamber. Clymer built a reamer for the wildcat that cut chambers .470 inch (.30-06-diameter) just ahead of the extractor groove. Shoulder position stayed the same, as did the shoulder angle common to both rounds: 17 degrees, 30 minutes.

The .375 Hawk on the 9.3x62 case and the .375 Scovill on the .3O~06 case give shooters about 10 percent more fuel space than a .371-06, approximately 5 percent more than the Whelen Improved version. Dave's load development with the .375 Scovill produced velocities of 2,900 fps with a 210 grain Barnes X-Bullet, 2,700 with the 250-grain Hawk and 2,400 with the 300-grain Hornady. (These velocities, rounded here, were not achieved with all loads tested.)

There's not much more you can ask of a .30-06 case at least, if you want to drive .375 bullets, but some shooters like other sizes. For them Bob Fulton and a young Casper, Wyoming, gunsmith named, Fred Zeglin, began experimenting with .338, .358 and .411 versions of the Hawk design, standardizing case dimensions save for neck size. Shoulder angle became 17 degrees, 15 minutes.

A 1984 graduate of Lassen College in California, Fred has been building guns and making dies since. He moved to Casper in 1994 and bought his first Hawk reamer - a .375 that Clymer had on sale shortly thereafter. The .375 worked so well, he tooled up for the .358. Now Fred offers a full line of Hawks: .243, .257, .264, .270, .284, .300 and .323 besides the four big bores. All but the .338, .358, .366 .375 and .411 have 25-degree shoulders. The Hawk wildcat cartridges are designed to obtain top performance from the basic .30-06 case for use on big game.

The .358 was an obvious follow-up to the .375. Its forebear, the .35 Brown-Whelen, dates to 1967, when JGS Precision Tool Mfg. of Coos Bay, Oregon, manufactured a reamer patterned from a case supplied by Keith Stegall. Apparently C. Norman Brown of Anchorage, Alaska, came up with the dimensions. The Brown-Whelen hasn't been very popular, partly because it looks like a cartridge for thickets when current headlines play to the quick medium-bores. A complicated case-forming procedure doesn't help its standing either. You must first expand a .30-06 neck to .375 or .400 inch, then neck it back down to .358 to establish the proper shoulder and fireform. (The .40-caliber expander is my choice because it ensures a positive stop.) An alternative is to neck the case up to .358 inch, then seat bullets hard against the lands to maintain proper headspace dulling fire-forming. Neither procedure is all that difficult, but both can seem a lot of trouble to shooters not familiar or comfortable with wildcatting.

Handloader No.187 carried a feature article on the .35 Brown-Whelen. In it, author Richard Conrad wrote that he could not duplicate with his rifle the performance that P.O. Ackley ascribed to this cartridge. According to Richard, Ackley claimed 2,900 fps from a 220grain bullet in front of 70 grains of IMR-4320, 2,700 fps from a 250-grain bullet ldcked along by 71 grains of 1MR4350 and 2,595 fps with a 300-grain round nose and 68 grains of 1MR4350. The Brown-Whelen case will not readily accommodate 70 grains of stick powder and a long bullet!

As Richard noted in his article, however, powders as slow as IMR-4350 are less versatile than some faster propellants. Boosting bullet base diameter from .308 to .358 inch allows for much quicker dissipation of pressure as the powder burns. When the bullet starts moving, it vacates a bigger area per unit of time. Because the area of a circle equals pi times the radius squared, the effect of increasing bullet diameter is greater than it might at first appear.

I started shooting a .358 Hawk last summer, when Fred Zeglin's friend Graydon Snapp graciously loaned me the rifle Fred had built him on a VZ24 Mauser action. It wears a 26-inch Douglas barrel, number 4 in contour. The American walnut stock, a cooperative project between Graydon and Fred, has conservative lines and the long, open grip I prefer. Though not light, the rifle balances very well. The trigger breaks cleanly at 3 pounds. Recoil, albeit stiffer than that of a .30-06, did not prove bothersome at the bench. A Sorbethane recoil pad softened the kick.

Graydon's first handloads developed modest pressures but promising bullet velocities. Working up one grain at a time, he found the cartridge could deliver significantly more punch than the .35 Whelen. Here are four of his loads:

200gr. Hornady AAC-2700 65.0gr. 2857 feet per second (fps)

250gr. Hawk Varget 60.0gr. 2565 fps

250gr. Hornady Varget 62.0gr. 2707 fps

250gr. Hornady H-4895 61.0gr. 2728 fps

Graydon observed that light loads did not form a crisp shoulder. Even 64 grains of AAC-2700 thrusting a 200-grain bullet at 2,719 fps failed to fully shape the case! He also remarked in his range notes that the standard deviations (SD) were uniformly low. A charge of 59 grains of H-4895 with a 250-grain Hornady gave a three-shot SD of 4. The top load of 61 grains registered an SD of only 6. He wrote that this was his preferred hunting load.

I neck-sized Graydon's once-fired brass and tried several powders and bullets to get some idea of the .358 Hawk's potential. The loads listed here gave me no signs of excessive pressure, while producing velocities 10 percent higher than factory-loaded Whelen ammunition. Actually, the .358 Hawk comes close to duplicating the performance of commercial loads for Winchester's .338 Magnum. A stiff wind precluded meaningful accuracy trials. (In Wyoming old log chains tacked to power poles give you some idea of wind speed, and that day the chains were almost horizontal. A breeze is not too strong for shooting by local standards until the poles blow over.)

The .338 Hawk is essentially a .338-06 with 10 percent more room for fuel. Fred Zeglin chambered his own hunting rifle for the .338 Hawk and loaned it to me for some chronographing. First I dug through his files to see what he and his central-Wyoming compatriots had turned up. Loads from Ed Plummer's rifle (24-inch barrel) yielded these results:

200 gr. Hawk H-4895 55.0 gr. 2712 feet per second

210 gr. Nosler H-4895 53.0 gr. 2700 fps

210 gr. Nosler IMR-4895 56.5 gr. 2778 fps

210 gr. Nosler IMR-4064 56.5 gr. 2758 fps

230 gr. Hawk IMR-4320 55.0 gr. 2578 fsp

Fred's rifle wears a 23-inch Shilen barrel. It produced this set of data:

225 gr. Hornady H-4895 55.0 gr. 2726 feet per second

225 gr. Hornady H-335 53.0 gr. 2623 fps

225 gr. Speer IMR-4064 55.5 gr. 2592 fps

225 gr. Speer IMR-4350 63.0 gr. 2562 fps

The most interesting Hawk cartridge to me is the .411. The ~338 and .358 are surely more versatile, and the .375 offers enough bullet weight for the biggest of North American game in the thickest of cover, but the .411 is an iconoclast. It challenges the notion that .40-bore wildcats are not practical on a .30-06 case. For years shooters have criticized the .400 Whelen because it has such an insignificant shoulder: "Not enough bulge to maintain proper headspace."

Rifles chambered in .411 Hawk have .400-inch bores with grooves cut to .410. But the Hawk case shows only .0786-inch body taper. Its shoulder measures .454 inch in diameter, compared to the '06's .441 shoulder. Bob Fulton points out that even a slight bump in case diameter will serve as an adequate stop because "you've got one tube sliding into another. If all of a sudden you make the inside tube a few thouandths bigger than the hole in the outside tube, it won't fit. Period. You won't move it at all without substantial force.

Bob also insists that a 17-degree, 15 minute slope works just fine. He sees no need for the sharp Acldey slope. "A gentle shoulder makes for smooth feeding," he says. Bob admits that with a .375 or .411-inch bullet, the .30-06 case has so little shoulder that its angle has almost no effect on feeding, but he adds that small shoulders give you negligible increase in case capacity when you blow them out. Fred Zeglin concurs. Both men concede that before fireforming, the small, gentle shoulder of a .411 Hawk can allow the case to be forced forward incrementally. That's why Fred prefers Mauser-style actions claw extractor.

Fred forms .411 cases by running a .424 expander into .30-06 brass, then neck sizing with the .411 die and fireforming. Two firings are often necessary. Incidentally, necks on the four big-bore Hawk cartridges are a bit shorter than bullet diameter. They seem to offer plenty of grip.

Here are some of the .411 Hawk loads I tested with one of Fred's custom rifles, a Parker-Hale Mauser wearing a 26inch barrel and a 39x Leupold scope. like the .358 I used, it belongs to Graydon Snapp.

300 gr. Hawk BLC-2 60.0 gr. 2244 feet per second

300 gr. Hawk H-4895 63.0 gr. 2516 fps

350 gr. Swift IMR-4064 61.0 gr. 2366 fps

350 gr. Swift IMR-4064 61.0 gr. 2366 fps

Bob Fulton owns a Ruger No.1 with a 27-inch barrel chambered in .411. He likes to shoot 270-grain cast bullets with these charges: 38.0 grains of IMR-4198, 1,830 fps; 42.0 grains of IMR-3031, 1,890 fps; 44.0 grains of IMR3031 (magnum primer), 1,910 fps; 42.0 grains of H-4895 (magnum primer), 1620 fps; and 46.0 grains of H-4895(magnum primer), 1,850. He also loads the 270grain Hawk over 62.0 grains of H4895 at 2,610 ips or the same bullet over 64.0 grains of H4895 for 2,690 fps and the 300-grain Hawk over 62.0 grains of H4895 at 2,567 fps.

Bob reports no leading or copper fouling in his Douglas barrel after lapping. He reported light, uniform copper fouling before that operation. Several jacketed-bullet groups have since measured under one minute of angle. The cast-bullet loads are for prairie dogs and milk jugs at long range with iron sights! Bob installed a military Krag rear sight on the No.1 and a globe front sight of his own making. It features a crosswire insert that offers a precise aiming point.

What makes the .411 Hawk so appealing to me is its efficiency. From a .30-06 case it can drive a 300-grain bullet as fast as the .375 H&H Magnum! Granted, sectional density is lower for the .411, but the bullet also makes a bigger entry hole. At the ranges big-bore rifles are commonly used, ballistic coefficient hardly matters. Not only would the .411 suffice for big, surly bears in alder patches, it seems an excellent choice for heavy African antelopes and even buffalo. Its slender, rimless torso feeds smoothly, and you'll get a high-capacity magazine without having to hire an expensive smith to make your rifle look pregnant. Recoil is noticeably less than that of rounds offering equal muzzle energy. Powder charge as well as bullet weight contributes to felt recoil, and the .411 Hawk operates on little fuel.

Fred notes that he'll throat longer than normal on request. Dave Kiff of Pacific Tool & Gage (P0 Box 2549, White City OR 97503) has supplied most of his reamers.

Wildcatters have always been at the mercy of component suppliers. Offbeat cases and bore diameters restrict options. That's the main reason Bob Fulton began fashioning Hawks on the .30-06 case and Dave Scovill went back to it. Jacketed bullet choices for the .411 are still limited. Hawk, Barnes and Swift offer them. The barrels Fred Zeglin uses come from Douglas and Bauska. Dies for Hawk cartridges did not arrive fast enough to suit Fred, who soon began making his own. His "Z-Hat" dies feature a self-centering decapping rod. Fred says he'd like to increase his die business, but orders for Hawk-chambered rifles keep coming.

One of them is mine. For some time I've had a Sears Model 51 .30-06 taking up closet space. The commercial Mauser action appeals to me, but the barrel is shorter than I'd like, and the stock has a big yellow streak of sapwood and a comb thin enough to shave with. Fred has the rifle now, and a piece of curly maple from Don Cantwell (Wood Products, Rt. 5 Box 271, Chico CA 95926).  Fred will equip this Mauser with a 24-inch Douglas barrel chambered in .411 Hawk. I haven't decided yet on a sight. likely I'll install irons.  (For more on this rifle click here.)

The .411 Hawk really has no counter part among modern cartridges, partly because the trend in big game rounds has been toward those with guitar string trajectories. It might be considered tan to the .405 Winchester or the .40 Adolph Express, a cartridge developed before the Great War by Charles Newton and Fred Adolph on the .404 Jeffery case. The .40 Adolph (or Newton, if you prefer) had more capacity but did not offer substantially better performance.

Fred likes the .338 Hawk because it gives him a versatile deer and elk rifle with 300 yard point-blank capability. Graydon Snapp, a Whelen disciple, finds in the .358 Hawk a super .35 that the colonel himself would no doubt have embraced, and the .30-06 case may be at its most effective in the form of Dave Scovill's .375. Perhaps my passion for the .411 Hawk shows an affinity for the unique. I haven't parted my hair differently since JFK was president, but the .411 also evokes images of close cover hunting when big bullets were still fashionable and laser range finders yet undiscovered - a time when most hunters met their quarry eye to eye where the animals lived and where bullets breached not hundreds of yards but dozens of feet. The .411 may just be my ticket to another era.

Fred Zeglin can be reached at

Z-Hat Custom Dies

Suite. 72

4010A So. Poplar St.

Casper WY 82601.

His e-mail address is: Rifle.Builder@z-hat.com