The 375 Win barrel is here.

[Haywire Haywood]

Well, it's in.  The good news is that the groove is 376-377 and the bore is 366-367.  The bad news is that the throat is 382 and the chamber is more than a bit on the long side as if a 38-55 reamer was used instead of a 375 Winchester.  I will have to acquire some 38-55 brass for it instead of the 375 Winchester that I've already purchased.  The throat does have a nice gentle leade, so if I can get the bullets out there to it, it might be just as good.  I've ordered an LBT mold to drop a 250gr .379 gas checked WFN with plans to size/lube to .378.  I doubt that a jacketed bullet will ever see it's way down the bore. I'll update with accuracy when I get the mold in and some cast up.  I think a buddy of mine has some 380 bullets that I'll try.  Filling that throat might be what I have to do.

Ian

[Fred M]

Ian
Man, that is poor job. How did you get the measurements? Who did the job?

[Haywire Haywood]

I made an impact slug. Filled a piece of brass with lead, chambered it, dropped another cylinder of lead down the barrel and then used a mallet and rod to make an impact impression of the chamber. On the left is a piece of 375 Winchester brass, and on the right is a 38-55 dummy round.  the piece of brass I used to make the slug wasn't fireformed to the chamber and it crumpled a tad so it looks worse than it is.  This is Wayne York's work.  I need to fireform some brass and redo this with 38-55 brass and 375 Winchester brass both. --Ian

[Fred M]

Ian
In all fairness you should make a cast with Cerosafe. Thay stuff is not all that expensive and it is reuseable.  You can get it from Brownell.

Fred

[quickdtoo]

That was gonna be my recommendation too, it's really easy to use, you can melt it in boiling water! I use a glass measuring cup cuz it has a nice pouring lip on it and it sets in a pan of water real well. Best price I found was at Track. Instructions are below in the bottom link.

Tim

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/(S(kuvlgp554ygypjeyn0mob2vc))/categories/partList.aspx?catID=15&subID=88&styleID=1095

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/store/productdetail.aspx?p=384

http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/General/DisplayPDF.aspx?f=Inst-446.pdf

http://216.243.198.184/aspx/NS/General/DisplayPDF.aspx?f=bt002015.pdf

[Haywire Haywood]

I've got some of that but have not had much luck with it.  It tends to flow into places that you don't want it to.  I had a heck of a time getting it out of a levergun once.  Veral doesn't recommend it either.  The way it shrinks on cooling, and then expands again later doesn't give me much of a warm fuzzy.

Ian

[quickdtoo]

I've had no problems using it the 3 casts that I've done, doing a single shot is a piece of cake, doing a lever gun or bolt rilfe would required some special techniques, but I suppose some people can mess anything up. 

btw, Ian!!!

Tim

http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting2005/chambercast/index.asp

[Haywire Haywood]

I suppose some people can mess anything up.

You never spoke a truer word there Tim.... LOL

[cheatermk3]

I know I'd be shooting that puppy before I got all uptight about the chamber.

[Fred M]

Ian
Follow the directions, warm the barrel., put some plumbing putty around the ejector, lube the chamber lightly, put a cork stop at the start of the rifling. measure
after 15 min after you tap out the cast. I found 15 min gives the best measurments.
Fred

[Haywire Haywood]

I know I'd be shooting that puppy before I got all uptight about the chamber.

I know... I'm just making initial observations.  I'm going to get a buddy of mine to bring me some 380 commercial bullets to see if they will chamber.  If they will, I think I will change my mold order to drop something that I can size to 380 instead of 378.

Ian

[handirifle]

Let me know if you want to unload the 375 brass.

[Haywire Haywood]

Here's a pic of a piece of once fired and partially resized 38-55 brass with a 250gr .380 bullet seated.  Note no side bulge and with a normal case mouth flare (no 'M' or cowboy die), it slid right in with no more than normal effort.  Outside diameter of the case mouth after firing was .400.  What does this mean?  It means that I changed my mold order to 380 instead of 378.  Beyond that, I dunno.  Oh, and this dummy load w/ fat bullet dropped right into the chamber without hesitation.  Cerrosafe castings of chamber/throat forthcoming.  Handi, I need to work up some loads, and if I do end up using 38-55 brass, you have dibs on the 375 stuff.  I think I have 75 or 100. --Ian

Edit: Cerrosafe castings came out bad.. voids, holes, generally not crisp.  Barrel probably not warm enough.

[Haywire Haywood]

Ahem.... well... it's been over a year now.  No groups to show as of yet but soon.  Update on the long chamber.  It isn't as long as I thought it was.  I am using 38-55 brass but have to trim it down to keep the bullet out of the throat.  It started out at 2.080 and the bullets from Veral's mold got into the rifling, trimmed to 2.050 and the bullet is still imprints in the throat, but no longer in the rifling. I've got some trimmed to 030, 035 and 040 but haven't tried them out yet.  For reference, 2.020 is max brass length for the 375 Win. I'll post some groups as soon as I get some to show.  The rifle did take a doe this year and did a fantastic job of it, but just a few shots were taken offhand to get it on target.  It was EASY to get on target with the .379 250gr bullets from Veral's mold.

Ian

[Fred M]

Hi Ian
Happy new year glad to see you back. Hope you get your 375 shooting well.
I have been fooling around with my #3 trying to make the 225gr Hornady SP
shoot almost gave up on them until I loaded 39gr of h322 a very compressed load at 116%. Man do these loads shoot as good as the factory loads and they shoot into one hole at 50 yrds. I could go 40.0gr but that is right at max psi.

That 375 is one wicket performer, with plenty of recoil, at least for me. Shot a 1-3/4" group at 250yards. I need to raise the impact a bit at 100 when it gets warm outside and get some chrono values.

As you know I don't shoot any cast bullets, so I can help you at all.

Fred

[coyotejoe]

I have a friend who just loves his .375 Winchester. It is on a T/C Encore and cut short, about 20". He's loading the 220 grain Hornadys to about 2300 fps with excellent accuracy. He recently added a .375 JDJ barrel and after a lot of work he admitted he didn't know why he bothered, with the load he settled on he's only getting about 100 fps over the .375 Winchester and said that 100 fps comes with a lot more recoil. I shot his .375 Winchester and "really got a kick out of it", if you know what I mean.
  It's too bad that the .375 Winchester never really caught on. For people who favor bigger bullets it nicely fills the gap between the .35 Remington and the .444 Marlin.