HAWK Wildcats

by Z-Hat Custom

These are a eleven (11) of the most exciting wildcats ever produced. Hunting cartridges, with magnum velocities, low recoil, and without the belt.  Best of all, they will fit any standard length action.  Brass is easy to find and inexpensive.

You may have seen Hawk wildcats written up in Handloader # 166, #193,  #197, #204,  Petersen's Rifle Shooter, Bugle,  The Legacy of Lever Guns, and Deer & Big Game Rifles magazines.  Available in everything from 240 to 411, there is a caliber for every kind of hunting.

Each of  our cartridges at left is based on the 280 Remington case which is slightly longer than the 30-06.  The big four cases, 338-411 Hawk (lower right) are based upon the 30-06 case.

Hawk cartridges 338 and above, have a powder capacity approximately 9% greater than the parent cartridge. This allows us to achieve magnum velocities, in a standard length bolt action. The 375 Hawk/Scovill was written up in Handloader Magazine#166.  These big four, 338, 358, 375, and 411 Hawk are the cartridges Wayne van Zwoll referred to when he said, "Hawk Cartridges approach my notion of ideal elk rounds...".

Recoil is much lighter than with magnum calibers because we are burning substantially less powder for the same velocity. Efficiency has never been so attractive.  Efficiency = Power without heavy recoil.

Why do Hawk cartridges provide such unbelievable ballistics?

Over the years many wildcats have been based on the 30-06 case. The problem is that in many instances the idea was to wring every last bit of velocity out of the cartridge. That was never the goal in developing the Hawk cartridges. We were interested in reliability and accuracy first and added velocity was the byproduct.

In designing these cartridges we put into practice the guidelines set forth by P.O. Ackley. That allows us to produce amazing velocities without pressure problems. See Ackley's book, "Handbook for Shooters & Reloaders, volume 1" Page 137 "Pressure."  Or check out this link.  Many of our loads have been tested with an Oehler Model 43 PSI system.  A business acquaintance sent us a copy of a thread from one of the message boards on the web; a guy in this thread charged us with manipulating the case  capacity of Hawk cartridges as compared to Gibbs cartridges in my book, "Wildcat Cartridges".  I went to the book to see what it was that this guy thought I was "manipulating"...  Turns out he was looking at the case capacity listed under the drawing for each case, our drawings were produced in RCBS.Load, the folks who produce this software were kind enough to develop this part of the software for the production of my book, many thanks to Greg Mushial of GMDR.  The reason for the difference in capacity is simple, the Hawk cartridges from 240 to 3200 use 280 Remington brass as the parent case, which is longer than 06 and has more capacity in the parent form.  Since Rocky's old designs were all based on 06 there is a difference in capacity.  So before jumping up and down about any gunsmith's claims or "manipulations", be sure you read all the details, it's no fun to egg on your face... especially in a forum that will be on the Internet for years to come.   We publish a Hawk Reloading Manual on CD so that you will have all the technical data and experience that we have developed with Hawk Cartridges at your finger tips.

Hawk calibers are perfectly suited for the 1895 Winchester tm, Browning 1895, and the Browning BLR as well as most any 30-06 length bolt action.   What a combination, power, range, and the speed of a lever action, or the familiar comfort of your favorite bolt gun.

We produce custom dies for Hawk cartridges. Providing superior accuracy for the hunter. Click here for details. Also we are an RCBS dealer so we can offer you standard RCBS die sets for all of the Hawk calibers. We are carrying several of the calibers in stock so you can take delivery right away.

We can rebarrel or rebore your rifle for the Hawk caliber of your choice. We can also build you a Custom Rifle.   Just about any 30-06 class action will work. Contact us by E-mail at Rifle.Builder@Z-Hat.com. We will be happy to answer your questions!

For more information on the Hawk line, click here for Hawk Ballistics. Click here to read the Article in Rifle Shooter (Text only) or Handloader (Text only).  We have an archive of articles about Hawk and related subjects.

Demand for Hawk brass, and ammunition has grown so much that we have added formed brass and custom loaded ammo to our line.  For more information, follow these links;  

Hawk Contents Page|Hawk Ammunition | Hawk Brass| Email Us

Snail mail:

Z-Hat Custom Inc.

432 E. Idaho St., Suite C420

Kalispell, MT 59901