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Does a radiused shoulder degrade accuracy?

SquarePizza

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Jan 9, 2012
496
143
43
NY
With all of the 6br style wildcats out there (like a 6gt or 6mm dasher, etc) that use a short case, and seem to just play with body length and shoulder angle, I have never seen anyone use a radius type shoulder similar to a weatherby cartridge. Does the rounder shoulder degrade potential accuracy or is it more of a practical choice for ease of case formation that we stick to more tradition shoulder angles.

From a "do my own thing" perspective, I think a weatherby case shortened into a fat little 6br magnum with a round shoulder would be pretty cool looking.
 
With all of the 6br style wildcats out there (like a 6gt or 6mm dasher, etc) that use a short case, and seem to just play with body length and shoulder angle, I have never seen anyone use a radius type shoulder similar to a weatherby cartridge. Does the rounder shoulder degrade potential accuracy or is it more of a practical choice for ease of case formation that we stick to more tradition shoulder angles.

From a "do my own thing" perspective, I think a weatherby case shortened into a fat little 6br magnum with a round shoulder would be pretty cool looking.
It'd end up being a custom reamer. I imagine it would be more expensive and that some reamer manufacturers wouldn't even want to mess with it...

Personally, I'd just stay with a traditional shoulder. Can't see that "cool looking" would buy any accuracy, performance or reliability benefits.

Granted, I'm not a Weatherby guy and I am unfamiliar with even the basic history of why Weatherby went that route in the first place.
 
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I'm not actually going to set up another rifle, but it was one of things I got to wondering about during a slow time at work.
 
It'd end up being a custom reamer. I imagine it would be more expensive and that some reamer manufacturers wouldn't even want to mess with it...

Personally, I'd just stay with a traditional shoulder. Can't see that "cool looking" would buy any accuracy, performance or reliability benefits.

Granted, I'm not a Weatherby guy and I am unfamiliar with even the basic history of why Weatherby went that route in the first place.
The double radius allowed him to patent it. There were others who had done the venturi radius on the neck or shoulder, but no one had done both.

From a practical standpoint it supposedly provides more uniform pressures although their claim was it accelerated gas flow.
 
Check out the line of SMC cartridges that Mick McPherson and Byrum Smalley designed 20 years ago

Here's a pic of their 20 cal.

Screenshot_20211014-203655_Chrome.jpg
 
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