I was under the understanding that it is a proprietary cartridge that would require dealing with z-hat.

 

May be but I know you can rent chamber reamers and get them made.

 

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If the shoulder is way out there and the neck is way short, a new barrel may be in the offing. May I suggest Hart. You can also get short-chambered barrels from, I believe, Shilen. The chamber is about 0.01 inches short. The barrel screws on, your 'smith finishes the chamber out to depth and you go shoot. Worth a look-see...

 

This is an unfired rifle with a Kreiger barrel, I'm not going to be replacing it unless there is something radically wrong and I don't see that happening. The previous owner is in the dark as to chambering so I figured that I would cream of wheat a case and see what it looks like and take it from there.

 

I figured that I would cream-of-wheat a case and see what it looks like and take it from there.

Quality Cartridge makes all sorts of brass. Give 'em a peek...

 

Isn't the Brown-Whelen basically the same as the Hawk ? HD1

 

I have 800 rounds of 30/06 military LC unfired brass that I have prepped from my Hipower days, I'm not going to spend $55 bucks per 20 when I have this laying around to use. I'm pretty sure I can reform this brass for this caliber.

 

Q, that's going to be some severe case forming. Why not see about simply re-chambering it to the newer 375 Ruger, and be done with it? O.T.O.H. you could expand a few 35 Whelen cases, up to the .375 cal. and then jam the bullets into the lands to maintain initial head spacing, when you touch them off.

Using C of W to fire form a .375" neck out of a .308" neck, means you will be out on the edge. I lost more than half my necks, the last time I tried to go from 8mm out to .416", with my 10.6mm x 375 Ruger wildcat.

Once you have five or so sample cases with which to order your dies with, you will still have all of your regular brass to make up the normal wildcat loads, down the road. Someone should be able to help you scrounge ten or so, 35 Whelen fired cases.All I have is some 8mm x 06's. I'll see if I can get a few expanded for .375 Bullets. But the 35 Whelen brass would be simpler to work with, IMO.

Putting in a .400" false shoulder for the cream of wheaties, will be a P.I.A. Then without the final F.L. reloading die, how will you form them back down, in order to touch them off?

This is one of the few times I would recommend taking the rifle out to your range and using bullets jammed into the lands, with moderate loads, to generate some sample cases for your die maker. FWIW, my die grinder wanted me to shoot my samples three times each. He says this will finish working the brass, and makes for a more precise CNC'd reloading die.

All in all, it may be simpler in the end, to learn about doing a Cerro-Safe chamber casting, and then draw a reamer print off of it. Pacific Tool and Gauge has a downloadable blank reamer print on their web site, to do just this. But this isn't any slam dunk, either.

 

I have another wild cat 375/350 rem mag and the dies have a tapered expander. I was going to anneal a few cases and then use that expander to open them up to the final .375 and then use the C of W fireform method to at least determine what it is. I can also do a chamber casting if I can't get a good cartridge.

 

I know this might be a little late ,but I did a 375/350 REM.MAG. almost 20 yrs. ago (with no regrets I might add) 60 grs. of IMR 4064 gives about 2750 with a 235 gr. Speer SS out of my 24 in. barrel. Also tried CFE223 and got 2800 with a 220 Hornady and dang good groups. Twist is 1 in 12. I make my case's from just about anything that has a belt although I did start with 200 350 RM case's just necked 'em up loaded 'em and went to the range.Crusty 'Ol Coot is right about wildcats being fun and if they serve to make us happy what else matters??

 

C of W will need a .400" false shoulder.

Quindecima, it sounds like you already have an equivalent cartridge. But the C of W blank will still need a false shoulder. At least you can play with that tapered expander, and then neck it back down with your present F.L. wildcat die. I use a RCBS 7mm RSAUM die set to neck size and seat bullets with, in my smaller diameter, 54mm long, 7mm VampKat.( 7mm x 300 RCM).

Personally, I prefer Hornady elliptical expander buttons for these chores. Using their .373" expander button gives you the correct neck tension for a 375 cal. bullet. They mostly run -.002" from the bullet's diameter.

Anyway, good luck with it.

 

If I can get the C of W to work fine and get the neck expanded ok then I will load it up with a reduced load and one of my .375 H&H bullets and get a good fire formed case. I thought about the .375 Ruger but I already have a .375 H&H.

 

Until you fire a brass in the chamber, you don't know what you have. With a great supply of '06 brass on hand, no need to purchase any. The Hawk was developed by two different writer/experimenter/developers, and their work was published in Handloader magazine some years ago. If I remember correctly, the 375 Hawk was a 9.3x62 necked up to the 375, which makes it a tiny bit longer than the '06 brass.

Wait till you see what you have. Possibly the barrel is marked. What action is it on? I agree on not doing business with anyone that won't answer the phone. If you can't talk with them before something takes place, what will be your options if it doesn't go well?

The standard 375-'06 will do all you could possibly hope for, using a small powder charge while doing it. One of my buddies is in the process of having an action barreled to that caliber presently. Accuracy is still the most important issue. A few feet per second will not make any bullet kill any deader or quicker.

If you don't like the present chamber, have the barrel set back and re-chamber to the standard 375-'06. Many options to pick from, pick the one you like the best.
Enjoy the new rifle.

 

It's on a Pre 64 Win. M70 and its a Kreiger Barrel. Very nice rifle. I don't want to make any dumb decisions with it.

 

Old smoothie

Q. It sounds like you have a handful of 375 rifles. I hope this one does what you have been looking for. But I doubt it will do anything more than your 375 x 350 Rem. Mag. wildcat. Brass may be a lot easier to find, though. In a Pre 64, Mdl. 70 CRF, it should feed pretty slick.

But me thinks you will struggle to get custom reloading dies which will highlight the accuracy potential of that Krieger barrel. Doing both the fire forming and a Cerro-Safe casting may help you obtain the very best possible fitment with your new reloading die set.

One suggestion here is to pick up a Hornady New Dimension Sleeved Seating die, on E-Bay. With some piddling around, it will adjust to seat bullets in all three of your 375 caliber cartridges. And they will be very concentric, so you may also pick up some accuracy in your two pre-existing ones.

 

Rifle is here, which is a story into itself. Here are some pics. haven't done anything yet but look at chamber which appears to have a pretty sharp shoulder. The barrel is marked .375 Ackley Whelen I know where a set of dies are that are marked .375 Whelen Imp. 40. Are these the same thing?

 

That's one fine looking rifle! I'd think the .375 Whelen AI would be one a$$-kicking round . Enjoy that rifle and getting it dialed in for your needs.

 

The Ackley has a 33 degree shoulder. The improved has a 40 degree shoulder

 

just my thoughts.

I'd do it in a 9.3x62. a standard cartridge with similar ballistics as the hawk and none of the problem...can form from '06 brass

 

I'm going to give it everything I have as far as determining what the caliber is. I just got a bar of cerrosafe in the mail today so depending on how the fireforming goes I am looking at making a chamber casting. I seally don't want to rechamber unless I absolutely cannot resolve it and then I am looking at the 9.3x62 as a possibility.

 

Exhibition Grade Walnut Stock

You have an exceptionally fine rifle there. So much for setting the barrel back. You don't want to mess with adding any gaps between the barrel and the forearm. The Cerro-Safe will get your shoulders, neck, and throat lined out. It may have to go back to your die grinder, along with the normal three fired cases, and a drawing. I can't get my shoulder angles down on paper close enough, so I always send some brass along with a drawing.

I just think its strange that you didn't get any custom dies with this rifle. But if its unfired, then that's where the previous owner dropped the ball. This is definitely a wildcat rifle. But just maybe that G.S. left the door open for fire forming the 35 Whelen brass in it. Why not smoke some 35 Whelen case necks and shoulders, with a candle, and then see if you get shiny lines along the shoulders? This barrel just may have been chambered from a blank, where the shoulders are shorter than the 06's, from the git go.

F.W.I.W. When I did my first 8 x 06, from the old 8 x 57, I went with the standard profile. I knew I was going on to make a 8mm Mag. wildcat, so I wanted my own reamer to clean up the first wildcat's shoulders. If your necks are really short, then a 9.5 Afrikaans, ( .375 x 338 Win. Mag.), may not clean up your shoulders.

The 375 Ruger will probably be about the last resort, for a re-chambering job. So I hope you can get really good reloading dies for your present one. You sure don't want to mess up that beautiful stock, or its Model 70 action.

 

O.K. I have one fire formed case from Unique and cornmeal. Here are the pics, what does it look like?

 

Moving along.........I now have three cases that have been formed. I am now going to load them up with 200gn Sierra s that I had laying around for who knows what and maybe 58gns of 4064 and touch them off at the local range this weekend. Then off to C-H for maybe custom dies or they may have them in stock, they have 3 different shoulder dimensions for this round. As near as I can tell the neck length is .400, I am hoping that changes this weekend because that is pretty long. I am thinking a caliber length would be a lot better.

I have been staring and measuring and comparing this case to a drawing of a .375 Whelen Imp. and they LOOK identical but there is a 30 and 40 degree shoulder on two of the variations and looking at that tiny shoulder its hard to differentiate between the two angles.

Well, after another hour or so I may have it figured out. I took a piece of paper and drew out the cartridge. I measured the neck and cartridge and divided by two and came up with the dimension of one side of the neck to the base. I then put on a loupe and in a good light measured the distance from the end of the base to the start of the neck. That gave me two known sides then

C=small c over small b =Tan C. I realize that the measurements I took were only close but that gave me a shoulder angle of 45 degrees 9 minutes which is close to 40 degrees. I think that is as close as I can get with my dig. calipers.

 

Shoot samples three times

You may be ahead by shooting each one of your samples, three times before you mail them back to your die grinder.

45 degree shoulders are pretty much the maximum shoulder angle. To get the exact dimensions, you need sophisticated comparators. I leave this inspection to the die grinders, themselves.

 

Yeah, I'm going to start this weekend. I'll have to go to the range, back to resize the necks and back out to the range. I should be done by next weekend. I'm running the necks into my 370/350 rem. mag dies. I also used those dies with the extra expander button to expand the cases to .375.

 

I know photographs can be fickle, but just maybe, the reason you don't have reloading dies which came with this rifle, is because the first die grinder threw up his hands over your chamber's shoulders. It almost looks as if there are two brass tubes, with one soldered inside the other. This is an illusion, but it may mean that there's a real weak spot, at the neck shoulder junction.

I have had a freshly formed case, from a bushing die, come apart in my kinetic bullet puller right at the case body, shoulder junction. It left the bullet, seated in a tiny brass funnel. A lip on my bushing forced the brass, straight backwards, leaving a bright line behind the shoulder. When I tried to break it down, for the components, it failed.

Sending back a Cerro-Safe casting should give your die maker a good picture of how sharp the neck shoulder junction is creased. If you need a little gentler shoulder, you will want this redone before you shell out for a new custom die set.

 

I was going to just send in the three fired cases but I have the cerrosafe here I can make a chamber casting and send it in also.