"Donaldson Wasp"

[dgibson]

A local gun dealer has a used rifle for sale that he describes as "Custom Brno VZ24, 29-1/2in Barrel, Donaldson Wasp." While I'm not really interested in the rifle, I'm curious about the cartridge. What's a Donaldson Wasp and why the jumongous barrel? I haven't physically seen the rifle yet, so I don't know what size the bore is. Could be a .17 or could be a 3/4" drainpipe.

 

[Fatman]

The 219 Donaldson Wasp can be made by necking down a 30-30 to .224 and trimming length to 1.800". It can supposedly push a 40 gr. bullets in the upper 3700 fps range. Sounds like it might be a fun round to do some playing around with.

 

[dgibson]

Sounds interesting. I bet it's fun modifying a Mauser action to handle rimmed cases like the .30-30.

 

[WDSWIFT]

dg, on a rimmed cartidge used in a Mauser action, like the 220 swift or the 30-30, they can be either single shot'd by putting a follower plate in them or you can (at least on my swift anyway) load the cartridges in stairstep fashion, so that the rim of the second round is toward the muzzle from the first and the rim of the third is ahead of the second etc etc.

On something like that rifle that you describe, I'd assume that it wouldn't be rapid fired any way so a single shot style would probably work ok.

I've never seen a "Donaldson Wasp" other than in pictures, so can't help you out on that. WD

 

[Calif. Hunter]

When you say the "first round", you mean the first one loaded into the magazine...the one on the bottom, right? The round on top's rim should be ahead of (towards the muzzle) the rim below it.
That way the rim sliding forward will not catch on the rim below it. Right?

 

[dgibson]

Very interesting! With a 29-1/2 in barrel, who needs a second shot anyway? If you miss the first time you can just club the target.

 

[WDSWIFT]

Calif, correct. Stair step'd or how ever. Just a matter of terminology.

With that much barrel ya can't brag about a long shot, as the barrel reaches most of the way to the target anyway. WD

 

[danr55]

Com'on you guys. Don't be bad mouthin' long barrels. I'm helping a guy right now build a little wildcat that may have some significance in long range shooting. Besides, some of the newer custom jobs described as "Long Range Rifles" built in "Long Range Calibers" like 30-378 and 7mm-378 are using barrels in the 30 inch range. You can pole vault 4 strand fences, use them for crossing canyons and joust with them if there's nothing to shoot. I kind of like the idea of shooting a 180 grain bullet at 3600 pfs though. That has some interesting possibilities. If you remember our discussion about overbore, you recall that the length of the barrel was a primary consideration in the determination of overbore. With enough barrel there is no such thing as overbore. I just can't afford to hire the two guys I would need to carry the darned thing in the woods for me.

Oh, Darrin, You might want to take a close look at that rifle and see if there is a gunsmiths name on it. A lot of those old BRNO mausers were built by Roy Weatherby. I used to have one in 250-3000. They do have some collector value if you don't want them as shooters.