What is involved in a new Wildcat?

This is one of those education thread requests. I'm just wondering what is involved in wildcatting a new cartridge.

How does one get reamers, reloading gear and what all is required to successfuly alter a gun that has a useable barrel already.

i have seen reamers for rent from places and have bought a couple from brownells you'd have to contact one of those places to find the maker.
the die's can be made by rcbs i'd contact them first off as what you want to do may already exist and they'd have a die set on hand, or could suggest a slight change to what you propose.
other than that it's a cut, and finish job.
make some cases /loads up, or close enough to fireform and get dies made from the fired cases which lee will make a die set from.

Welcome to the Guide Bob.

As r5r said, I would contact RCBS first. They have all kinds of wildcats in stock and also forming dies when necessary. I have also had Lee make custom Collet neck sizer and factory crimp dies for me - they are relatively inexpensive and of decent quality, and they will also make FL sizers and seaters, but they usually need a dummy round to work from.

What sort of wildcat did you have in mind? It saves a LOT of hassle if you choose a wildcat based on a case with a common head size - that way you don't have to mess with alterations to the bolt face. Sometimes it's possible - depending on the parent case and the specific wildcat to rechamber, but often you have to rebarrel.

Are you going to do the work yourself? If so you need to own or have access to a lathe and possibly a milling machine depending on the action. What action do you plan to use? Each different kind of action has a different action wrench, but you just need one barrel vice and use different sized wood or aluminum bushings to fit the barrel.

This is an excellent place to rent reamers and headspace gauges: http://www.4-dproducts.com