375/350 Rem Magnum

[Con]

Guys,
The postings on the 375 Taylor got me wondering. I've a spare short action M70 Featherweight and a spare 375H&H barrel. Could the two be put together to make a "budget" brush rifle in 375/350 Rem Magnum for elk-sized soft skinned game? Any thoughts or experiences?
Cheers...
Con

[handirifle]

I don't know anything about a 375/350 but a 350 mag should be fine on anything on this continent to at least 250yds.

[Con]

handirifle,
True a 350 Rem Mag would be adequate for anything in the States or Australia (my location), but would require purchasing a new barrel. At this point I'm trying to make use of the two items I already have and keep costs down somewhat. Bolt face and magazine/feed rails will need altering, I can accept that. But if I can use the 375 barrel I already have that would be a real bonus. Dies are available from CH/4D so it seems that a 375/350 Rem Mag is a viable proposition.
Cheers...
Con

[handirifle]

Con
Without  knowing any of the case demensions, have you considered the 375 JDJ?  It's based on the rimmed 444 Marlin case.  Don't know if this would work with your bolt face and all.  Or maybe a necked down 458 Lott case or similar.

[Bigboar]

I have been thinking of doing something with the 450 Marlin case necked down to .375.  I think it would be fun to do in a bolt gun.  I am not sure about the bolt face.

bigboar

[Daveinthebush]

The .35 Whelen was at one time converted to the .375 Whelen.  It had enough shoulder barely to function.  Could the .35 RM be converted?  I think you would loose too much power space with the bullet intruding into the case to gain much.  You might be better extending the mag. space and throating it longer.  How about a .350 taken up to 9.3 or 9.6?

[Judson]

One of my customers has had me build him a .375/350 mag.    With a 20" barrel he is duplicating .375 H&H  270 grain factory loads for velocity.
    His pressures are higher then the .375 H&H but seem to be in the range of modern cartridges.    Now he is thinking of necking the Winchester short mag up to .375, seems he does not have enough.    The guy I built this for calls the .375-350 Mag the .375 NABB for North American Big Bore.    I have the reamer and if you want loading information contact me.

[Con]

Judson,
Thanks for the offer of reamer, but I doubt you want to send it to Australia! Any idea what the shoulder angle is on the 375/350 Rem Magnum? At this point I'm debating whether it's cost effective to alter bolt face and magazine for my M70 short action. Perhaps it'll just be easier to rebarrel to 358 Winchester and just be happy. Mind you I really would love something on a short action capable of throwing 300gr at 2150 fps or thereabouts....
Thanks for all the responses, if I can find a reamer in Australia the project may still be on!
Cheers...
Con

[lgm270]

I've seen an article on the .350 Rem necked up to .416 and down to 8mm, but not to .375.  It should be identical in performance to the .375 Whelen improved (i.e. 30-06 necked up to .375).

The .375/350 sounds like fun.  It would avoid any potential head space problems.  On a mauser length action it would be possible to seat out the bullets so that the base was flush with the case neck so as to provide more powder capacity in space that would otherwise be occupied by the base of the deep-seated bullet.  

I read an article about a guy who did that with the .350 Rem. Mag and was able to get longer oal  of cartridges by seating bullets all the way out. He was getting 2600 fps. with the 250 grain bullet in a 20" barrel.  

I sold off my last 375 H&H years ago, but I still have a bunch of compoents.  maybe a .375/350 Rem mag on a mil-surp mauser action would be a way to use them up.

Somebody mentioned necking the .350 Rem Mag up to 9.3 mm (.366" bullet diameter) .  A very cool idea. Long throated on a mil-surp mauser length action adapted to belted cases,  it should duplicate the ballistics of the old 9.2x63 mm which was basically a 30-06 necked up to .366" using 286 grain bullets at about 2,400 fps I think.   The 9.3x62 mm was a classic African calliber that was considered to comparable in killing power to the .375 H&H, even thought it was slightly smaller.  There are many good bullets for this caliber being made today.  Nosler,  Barnes, Woodleigh and Swift  offer some really sexy 9.3 mm premium hunting bullets in teh 250-310 weight range. Hawk  also makes a variety of weights in this caliber and you can cast your own if you've a mind to.  

A 9.3mm-.350 Rem Mag?  Now there's an  idea! l

[Gowge]

....... Perhaps it'll just be easier to rebarrel to 358 Winchester and just be happy. Mind you I really would love something on a short action capable of throwing 300gr at 2150 fps or thereabouts....

Cheers...
Con

Con, if you go with a .358 Winchester, you could just bump it out to .375 with a few tweaks as Paco did with his .356 Winchester and be very close to your performance with a standard bolt face...

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/paco/375-356.htm

This is a very clever way to get better performance from a .375 Winchester Lever Action!  

Even when staying within the (40k) pressure limits of the lever action, Paco got some pretty decent performance - he wrote:

"Respectable jump.....my new case held 53.5 grains of 748 for a top load under a the 200 gr.375 bullet and gave over 2474 fps in a 20 inch barrel."

Your stronger Winchester Model 70 could do much more with this much capacity.



GOOD LUCK M8E!   :wink:

[/i]

[handirifle]

con
Looking at the cartridge dimentions at reloadbench.com it looks to me that it is very doable, but I am not a gunsmith.  The rim and the belt dimensions are the same but the barrel would have to be set back and re-chambered.  Depending on the bolt face, it might need work too.  This sounds costly, but I guess that depends on what a new rifle costs to begin with.

It sounds like it would give some impressive performance with the 250-270gr bullet class.

I'm working up loads now for my 375 Big Bore using 38-55 brass as mentioned in Paco's article.  Trying to eek out some more power for the 250gr class bullets.