M77Mk11, 300Win Mag to 375 Ruger.

[Four Fingers of Death]

The rebarreling part is easy what else needs attention? I notice the 375s are 50% dearer than the run of the mill magnums and others. I suppose they have lots of stock reinforcing, etc.

I would probably be better off selling the 300WM and buying a new 375Ruger, but I kinda fancy getting a really smick barrel.

[Bret4207]

I'm not much on these new fangled rounds, but I think the 375 Ruger uses a standard 30-'06 case head not the magnum size of the 300. Might want to check that as I may be wrong-again....

[BruceB]

Actually, the .375 Ruger's base diameter is .532", exactly the same as all the H&H-based cartridges.

The body of the case, ahead of the extractor groove, doesn't have a belt, and the cartridge picks up a good bit of its capacity by being larger in diameter than the belted H&H series.

The length of the case is the same 2.5" as the '06, and therefore the new .375 is a very easy conversion for all those 7mm Remingtons, ,300 Winchesters and .338s out there.

[NVcurmudgeon]

I would probably be better off selling the 300WM and buying a new 375Ruger, but I kinda fancy getting a really smick barrel.[/QUOTE]

Mick, there is a somewhat obscure wildcat cartridge that might suit your smick barrel idea, the .375 Epstein. About 1972 Mike Epstein, left handed first baseman
of the Oakland Athletics, had a rifle built on the Savage 110 action. It was little more than a .375 on the .338 Winchester case. IIRC, the shoulder was set back slightly to gain a longer neck. Of course, with the .375 Epstein being so little known, dies and chambering reamers probably would cost more than the .375 Ruger rifle.

One must be very old, a gun nut, and an Oakland Athletics baseball fan to have ever heard of Epstein's wildcat!

[45nut]

One of my Enfields is such a critter Bill. A fine choice. Cheap 338 brass,,a simple neck expansion and stoked with IMR 4064 and you have it.

[Four Fingers of Death]

It sounds like an interesting conversion. I'm still wondering about the stock, etc. Apparently the 375 Ruger performs as well or better that the 375H&H, but will do it it in a 20" Bbl. Now that would be an ear- ringer! Mick.

[BruceB]

Mick;

Sako at one time made a Mannlicher-stocked .375 H&H with a 20" barrel. I always thought that would make an absolutely first-class moose rifle, with the bullet weight and power to make the job very "certain" indeed.

Yes, I KNOW that a .375 isn't necessary for moose; I've killed them with rifles from the (handloaded) .32-40 up through a variety of "magnums". I still think that short Sako would have fitted my particular 'sense of style' very nicely indeed.

The .375 is not hampered by short barrels as badly as smaller-diameter rounds often are. I once ran the figures on my Powley Computer (remember them? Neat gadget!) As I recall, going from 26" to 20" in the .375 H&H only cost about 150 fps. I can live with that. My .404 has a 20" barrel, and delivers the Kynoch factory-loaded 400-grain bullet at precisely the claimed 2100-plus factory velocity. I have no trouble heaving that same weight of bullet at 2400 fps, so a 20" .375 should easily get 2600 or thereabouts with a good handloaded 270-grainer....and might even do it with 300 grains.

My employer in the trophy caribou camps was given one of the first Remington M700 "Mountain Rifles" in .375 H&H. He talked me into sighting it in for him. The whole outfit weighed a good bit less than eight pounds, scoped, slung and loaded. Strangely enough, it was actually quite tolerable even on the rustic benchrest I'd cobbled-up from scrap lumber out there in the Barren Lands.

I like the .375, and I see Ruger plans to introduce a LEFT-HANDED .375R Hawkeye later this year. Hmmmmm....

[Four Fingers of Death]

Actually, Craig Boddingon got one and wrote a review on it in a yankee gun mag a monthor so ago. Lord knows where it is, I am in the middle of assembling new office furniture and sorting junk for my office / den at the moment. 4 Bedroom house and one one offspring (he hasn't got much spring in him though) at home.