.375 wildcat for NEF handi rifle

[Earl54]

Want a medium bore(.375 ) relatively low pressure cartridge for my handi rifle. In my research I came across the .375 Renner, it is based on the 45/90 case formed in a shortened .375 H&H sizing die. A few loads are listed on his web site - they are quick load workups, 200gr j-word,IMR 3031,2418fps @ 26703 psi, and 245gr cast, trail boss, 1496fps @ 27898 psi. Taking into account that Handi Rifles are chambered in rounds with much higher pressure and almost the same base dia. is this a good idea?

[rking22]

Won’t hurt the SB2 frame, will not be fun to shoot!

[Earl54]

Hard to be worse than a 5 pound 4 oz, 22 inch barrel, 3.5 inch, 12 gauge - LOL Its on the same SB2 frame. Real easy to carry, only thumps you when you shoot.

[Good Cheer]

1982 or so for a hunting rifle I ended up using Lyman's #375296, a 45-70 case and a No.3 action.
The concept was to provide enough case volume to use slow burning powders, so as to whoosh a soft boolit with "kinder, gentler" acceleration without putting the base through enough plastic deformation as to lose accuracy. It worked. My hunting load ended up being a compressed charge of 760 and CCI-250 primer.

[eastbank]

i went the 375 jdj route, 444 marlin case necked to .375 in one stroke with no fire forming. speeds are very close. i have it on a TC g-2 rifle.

[Texas by God]

38-55 or .375 Winchester will do what you want easily.

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[Jedman]

I have 2 handi rifles in .375 caliber, both were shotgun barrels with a turned down rifle barrel used as a liner.
The one is a 20 ga. with a Winchester 94 AE barrel chambered in 375 Win. that I believe are still available from Numrich. The OD of the barrel is large enough at the muzzle to clean up to fit a 20 ga. and the factory chamber will except the longer 38-55 Win. brass and bollits up to .379 or if you use 375 Win. brass you need to keep bullet dia. down a few thousands smaller to chamber as the necks are thicker.

My other is what I call my 375 H&R which is nothing more than a 375 H&H sizing die with the bottom cut off right where the top of the belt recess is and the brass I use is Starline 45-100 or 45 - 2.6”.
It forms perfectly in one pass thru the die and grows in length a little from the taper and necking down and I trim them to 2.625” OAL. The handi barrel is the same a 20 ga. that I bored the chamber a little larger on the ID and turned a 375 H&H barrel to epoxy in as a liner. You don’t need a reamer you just make some dummy brass with your cut down sizing die and use them for a gauge and just cut the chamber end back to remove the belt recess and cut a rim recess to fit the rimmed brass.
I also have one of these 375 H&R wildcats built on a Greener martini shotgun Action and is a great rifle if you want to hot rod it a little. Both of these projects are quite easy to make as you just turn a take off barrel to fit and epoxy in the shotgun bore, no refinishing needed if done carefully and you can add sights or a scope easy enough.

Jedman

[Mk42gunner]

Hard to be worse than a 5 pound 4 oz, 22 inch barrel, 3.5 inch, 12 gauge - LOL Its on the same SB2 frame. Real easy to carry, only thumps you when you shoot.

I never weighed mine, but it has to be close to that.

I relegated it to 2 3/4" field loads for use as a squirrel gun.

Robert

[sukivel]

Good cheer, what did you size those down with?

[John Taylor]

I remember when Roger designed the 375 RJ Renner and I may have been the person to do the contour on the first barrel. Roger has come out with many great designs over the years including some very fancy under hammer muzzle loaders. He taught me about Forsyth rifling and I made a few barrels for him with that stile rifling. http://underhammers.blogspot.com/

[Jedman]

Attachment 295461Attachment 295462

I remember when Roger designed the 375 RJ Renner and I may have been the person to do the contour on the first barrel. Roger has come out with many great designs over the years including some very fancy under hammer muzzle loaders. He taught me about Forsyth rifling and I made a few barrels for him with that stile rifling. http://underhammers.blogspot.com/

I guess it’s not unusual for several people to come up with virtually the same wildcat round. I have a whole series of rimmed wildcat rounds that I have made by shortening sizing dies from common calibers and forming the cartridge on a common rimmed case mainly for handi rifles but I also have the 375H&R built on a Greener martini shotgun action and converted to a big game rifle.
The enclosed picture of what I call the 375 H&R that is a shortened 375 H&H formed on 45-100 or 45 x 2.6 Starline brass and after forming thru the 375 die it grows to a OAL almost .100 longer so I trim it to 2.625.

Jedman

[sukivel]

1982 or so for a hunting rifle I ended up using Lyman's #375296, a 45-70 case and a No.3 action.
The concept was to provide enough case volume to use slow burning powders, so as to whoosh a soft boolit with "kinder, gentler" acceleration without putting the base through enough plastic deformation as to lose accuracy. It worked. My hunting load ended up being a compressed charge of 760 and CCI-250 primer.

Did you have dies made for this? What about your rifle chamber?


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[rockrat]

I have a Handi in 38-72win. Form from 405 win cases, trimmed to 2.6" IIRC. Recoil was pretty stout. IIRC, 255's @ 2400fps.
Recoil was so stout, that the trigger/hammer safety bar came flying out of the gun after about 12 shots.

[357Mag]

Earl -

Howdy !

Depending on how much powder space you really want, a potential wildcat could be .375" cal based off .220 Swift.

The case could be cut right @ the shoulder-body juncture, for a case oal of 1.723". Or, cut the .220 Swift neck off the case, and expand the shoulder out..... for a case oal of 1.906.

This .375" cal wildcat would have a .473" rim diam. If you add case wall thickness @ the case mouth + .375" calibre, the wildcat's case mouth OD would be around .400"... or so. That happens to be what the diam the cutoff .220 Swift case would be, w/o much need to " blow out " the cases.

Just thinkin' .


With regards,

357Mag

[nhithaca]

"The case could be cut right @ the shoulder-body juncture, for a case oal of 1.723". Or, cut the .220 Swift neck off the case, and expand the shoulder out..... for a case oal of 1.906."

Sounds like a long version of the 375 Supermag...a 375 Supersupermag. Or a short 375 Winchester.

[dh2]

I am not sure the handi rifle frame it up to the pressure but I have a CVA in 35 Whelen I have no worry of killing any thing that walks in North America , So if the .375 bullet is a must why not the 375 Whelen?

[1006]

375 Winchester, or 38-55 might get the job done, without too much engineering or recoil.

[Jim22]

i went the 375 jdj route, 444 marlin case necked to .375 in one stroke with no fire forming. speeds are very close. i have it on a TC g-2 rifle.

Another vote for the .375 JDJ. Mine is built on a Ruger #3 that started life as a .45-70. A 27" barrel makes it the same length as a 22" bolt rifle. I'm working with the Lee 200 grain .379 GC boolit. That rifle will push a Sierra 250 grain to 2700 fps. Don't need that kind of performance since leaving Alaska.

Jim