375-06

[bigted]

I have been tossing round the idea to rebore my Ruger 77 into either the 35 Whelen or 375 Whelen with the nod going to the 375 because of the nice heavy bullets/boolits available for it as well as the liter ones for small game. seems like the 375 Whelen would be just about the perfect American big game round.

I like the larger diameter and ballistics as well as the short action requirements of this round. all the Magnums are way over powered for anything but a snarlin-growling- clawing-biting hunk of brown fury with the hump on his back shoulders so I require a round based on the good ol 06 round.

thought bout the 35 Whelen but I would like the bit larger 375 cal in the same 06 case. I believe this would be the purrfect round.

anybody have experience with the 375 Whelen? if so I would really like to hear both the pro's and con's of this round. thanks!

[bigted]

I completely agree ... I am moving soon and final destination is around 60 or so miles from him ... I will just slip over and talk to him about the transformation ... I thing the 375 Whelen should be just the shis nis round in a short barreled [20 or 22 inch] package. I have been messin with several big 375's as well as foolin with 2 38-55's so I do have some molds from "Lyman" [I have that mold as well as the RCBS 37-250] and "Accurate Molds". I also have a .372 inch slick [312 grain I think] that is for patchin so I figure that would be high on the cool factor as well. be fun to talk with Jess anyway and I think the 14 inch twist would be great for almost all boolits or bullets.

[TXGunNut]

Sounds like fun. I went with the 35 because (I thought) I had suitable moulds and quite frankly critters around here don't need as much killing as the 375 Whelen has to offer. As it turns out the 35 Whelen has way more than I need as well. I agree with excess650 on the 375449, it seems to work quite well in my 375 Winchester. I noticed my Winchester M670 is more affected by the heat as a 35 bore than it was as a 30 bore. I don't know what barrel contour your Ruger is but that could be a factor in your case.
Excellent thread under Gunsmithing on the 400 Whelen that actually sheds a bit of light on the whole family of cartridges.

[bigted]

thanks TX ... I see now that I have a bunch more investigation on this then what I had first surmised. I would want to have a trustworthy rifle being able to function with regards to feeding as well as an accurate hunting rifle ... maybe the 35 IS the direction to go as it seems like it has all the work done on it and has a SAMMI chamber to go by.

either way I figure still that a 20 inch barrel rifle in stainless ... scoped with a Leopold 1 to 4X and in the Hoage style rubber coated stock [which I dearly love] would be just the thing to crawl thru the brush with in western Oregon for Bear and Elk as well as downloaded for blacktail deer. should be accurate enough at 200 also for the eastern Oregon Muley's and Antelepe's! :veryconfu

[Bullshop]

I still have two. A 20"barrel on a 1903A3 with receiver sight and a26" barrel on a pre war Husky.
I can offer no cons just prose.
I once was a die hard 35 Whelen man until I started using the 375 Whelen.

[bigted]

excess ... yep that is just what I was thinkin ... the Ruger 375 or the H&H both have too much of a good thing for me. just no need for all that in an American cartridge in my opinion.

heya Dan ... good to hear from you on this. is there any special considerations on the correct chamber that a mouser claw extractor like the Ruger 77 has and feeding correctly?

I annealed some 06 cases the other day and ran em over my 375 mouth expander for the 38-55 enough to have a slight bell for cast and then seated a Hornaday 300 round nose bullet for a dummy and then seated a 275 grain Baco cast boolit ... other then the neck/mouth on the 06 case it is still the same dimension as the 06 this seems like a winner to me as there is enough shoulder left AND the case main body is still left with the taper that makes the 06 so easy to extract from the chamber.

I really like the look and if this works out I think none other would be better in the EVERYTHING dept.

[Uncle Grinch]

375 Whelan, now that is different, which is what I like. However, have you thought about the 9.3x62? It's also different, but is also common... in Europe and Africa and recently, even has a following here.

[Bullshop Junior]

I have been wanting a 375/06 for awhile. I would do it.

[bigted]

Uncle ... I like the 375 because im already setup with molds and knowledge concerning the 375 caliber. no interest in the 9.5 MM's but I would encourage your proceeding in that direction.

375 cal just seems rite to me. I like the cal as well as the 06 case so what's not to like ... unless it gets to be a can of worms. im bettin that Jess reboring has done a few and I will be within brain pickin distance after this goofy move.

Daniel ... still have a very BLUE pickup if you remember? and yes ... if it all comes together I think I will just do it but I may have to have my Encore barrel punched out first to have a single shot in the 375-06. the Encore would probably go from wild to almost unmanageable very quickly I bet.

[Bullshop]

There are a few reasons why I feel the 375/06 is the right choice.
#1 is brass availability The 9.3x62 case is harder to find.
#2 375 cal molds are more commonly available especially on the used market
#3 the 375/06 can easily equal the 9.3 Norma which was supposed to be an improvement over the 9.3x62
I have equaled the velocity of the 9.3 Norma a beltless magnum with the same bullet weight in the 375/06
#4 I just plain and simple like all calibers on the 06 case.
I just recently within the last couple days related my experience taking a very nice bull caribou with the 375/06. I don't want to repeat it here but if anyone is interested in reading it just search my most recent posts and it should be in the top twenty so easy to find.
I started my adventure with 375 cal on the 06 case with buying a rifle from a member here chambered for the 375 Hawk/Scovill.
I have all the load data from the Hawk labs and it is quite impressive. The Hawk design is basicly a 375 Brown whelen with the shoulder pushed forward a little and sharper shoulder. I found that with the heavy boolits I shoot, 320gn, 350gn, and about 365gn since they have to be fairly deep seated they use up any gain in powder space the Hawk gives over the standard. I could get the same velocities with these heavy boolits with both versions. The Hawk will out perform the standard with the lighter bullets though.
I found that a mold for a 9.3mm cartridge is perfect for paper patching in the 375 cal and that is what I used in 280gn to equal the velocity of the newish 9.3 Norma factory ammo with the same bullet weight. A better timber rifle for elk I can not think of and my receiver sighted 20" barrel Springfield is a perfect match to the cartridge for that purpose.
If ever I get a chance for a hog hunt guess what I would use?

[Bullshop Junior]

With the 360gn MM design I was able to get close to 2200 fps from the 375 Whelen and slightly over 2400 fpr with the H&H and 375 Ruger.

The one caribou bull I shot with the 375 Whelen with this load had his horns literally blown off.

I was hunting with iron sights and it was about too dark to see the sights when some caribou came filtering through the trees. I pointed at each one as they went by but couldn't see the sights. One nice bull stopped in the middle of a small frozen pond and so being surrounded by white I could see the sights and took the shot. I aimed at the shoulder because as I said it was still tough seeing a finer aiming point. At the shot the caribou lunged forward and was out of sight. Walking over to investigate when I got to where the caribou stood when shot I found two very nice shed antlers and initially thought I had a bonus to my trophy bull. A few steps further lay my caribou bull bald as a melon. When that big boolit hit the bulls body convulsed violently enough to throw off both antlers. The exit wound on the off shoulder was the size of a hard ball and both shoulders were smashed. I cant remember for sure what the alloy was but most likely it was quenched COWW. A big hammer indeed!

Here.

[Bullshop]

That's it, thank you Jr.
BTW Jr. Sorry I couldn't talk on the phone today but do appreciate the thought.
Jr. my first begotten son with whom I am well pleased!

[Bullshop Junior]

That's it, thank you Jr.
BTW Jr. Sorry I couldn't talk on the phone today but do appreciate the thought.
Jr. my first begotten son with whom I am well pleased!

It's all good. I have something for you anyway. PM me the mailing address there and I will get it on the way.

[lotech]

I've used cast bullets in the .35 Whelen, .375 Whelen Improved, and the .411 Hawk. The .375 might be a slightly better hunting round than the .35, but full loads with heavy bullets certainly have greater recoil. The cost and availability of custom dies for the .375 version should also be considered.

[FrankG]

I have the .375-06 AI and use Redding dies. Shoot Hornady 270 gr SP and Lyman 275 gr cast in it . Cases were easy to form using Rem '06 brass and fire formed with cast loads. Easy to load for and recoil is like a '06 .

[bigted]

awesome ... wonder why I could not just have my 06 dies reamed out at the same time as doing the chamber? with the same dimension as the new chamber? seems like it should work ok.

also would be interested in the loads you guys use in the 375 Whelen ... or 375-06. what boolits n such.

Dan ... I would like to see a photo of your heavy 320 and 350 grain 375 boolit. these still sound great and my plan is to order a box of each to try either in my 375 Ruger or this new punched out 375 Whelen or both.

back to the blown out 06 case tho ... do you guys that have these ... have the case blown out to a larger diameter just below the neck? I would think that the 441 inch diameter [on the original 06 case] would be the perfect diameter and taper for easy loading thru the action AND easy on the extraction. I don't think that any more powder capacity is something I want to chase ... already have a BIG capacity case in my 375 Ruger ... that is what im trying to get away from as I think it is WAY over powered for American hunting. I simply desire to shoot the larger diameter boolits in a fairly compact package that still remains with a reasonable trajectory.
what do you guys have on yours and how do they feed and extract for 100% reliability?

[TXGunNut]

Not sure I'd sacrifice a good set of 30-06 dies to this project but after looking at the prices of special order dies I honestly don't know what to say. If you can use your 375 Ruger seating die all you will need is a sizing die, possibly two if you want a neck sizing die. Redding and RCBS both make dies for this cartridge but you'd have to verify the dimensions to make sure they match your chamber. Will JES modify a die?

[bigted]

not sure about Jess. will know more when I get down there and go talk with him. I really want him to do the re-bore. nice deep rifling for lead cast boolits ... should be just what the doctor ordered. I have a set of RCBS 06 dies that I plan to sacrifice for the project so just need to have them reamed out with the same chamber ream so I have a die set that match's the chamber closely. if Jess will not do it then im bettin I can do a chamber cast and find somebody to ream my dies to the chamber. as to the boolit seater ... I agree with the 375 Ruger seating and crimping die ... should do a very fine job.

I also want my thoughts on the rifling beginning [lead] with as little throat length as is reasonable so I can have as little disturbance to the boolit when it finds the rifling. a very slight lead into the rifling is what I have planned ... this should take cast greasers when they are loaded to engrave the slight lead into the rifling or paper patch with great accuracy ... least this is my thoughts at this time.

[TXGunNut]

Sounds good, I'm betting Jess will know which dies will work with his reamer. I think the custom FL dies were running about $100 a la carte.
I like throats with a short leade but sometimes that limits boolit choices. I'm thinking Jess, FrankG and Bullshop will be the ones to guide you on this matter.

[missionary5155]

Greetings
When I bought my 375 Whelen from JES he had dies available in the shop. Now that was near a year ago so maybe not today. But JES has several 375's ready to buy today. His main sales is now on Gunbroker. Every time I have looked at his buisiness site there are no rifles listed as used to be.
Mike in Peru