.375 ruger or .375 H&H.....

[Vern Humphrey]

Please, unless it has already been butchered, don't destroy a P14. They are somewhat rare and really cool. The P14 is not a Remington or Eddystone, it is an Enfield. They were designed to replace the No1 MkIII rifle that had been in service with the British since the early 1900s. There were too few at the outbreak of WWI so the No1 MkIII was kept.

You're thinking of the P13, which was .280 caliber similar to the .280 Ross. At the outbreak of the First World War, the British decided not to change horses in mid-stream and stuck with the Lee Enfield. British agents came to America and contracted with Winchester, Remington and Eddystone to build a rifle virtually identical to the P13, but in .303 British. That rifle is the P14.

 

[LoonWulf]

Just got the call from Shaw, barrels on its way to me....now to see if I can get the stuff to chamber it and some ammo before june 2nds cow hunt.....

 

[LoonWulf]

Barrel arrived today, amidst the AC going out in the family car, and still needing to fix the fuel line in my truck....Im not going to even try get this thing ready before the 2nds hunt.
I did thread it into the action and it fits beautifully, it IS a little tight in the stock. I went ahead and ceramacoated it so it would have some weather resistance.
Ive got dies, bullets, and brass on order. I just need to rent the reamer and gauges to chamber the barrel and do the necessary stock work. Still tho thats more time than I think ill have before hunting.

Ill probably do the assembly tonight, should have some pictures up in a day or so.

 

[Robert]

Awesome!

 

[LoonWulf]

Put it all together to see how it looked, fit, and what the weight came out to.

I was going to finish the bedding today, but it appears i ran out of marine tex and never bought more....guess a trip to ace is in order.

Total weight unloaded is 8lbs 6oz, which actually makes this one of the lightest rifles i own...oh GOODY!!! It balances well, and has a hefty Kick EEz pad on it tho, so im not horribly concerned about it hurting. The Nikon Buckmasters isnt long enough for me to get a perfect eye relief, but it IS useable. After our up coming hunt, ill probably pull the Burris FF2 off my 6.5x284 and use that, as it has a longer tube.
All thats left mechanically is finish reaming the chamber, which will have to wait till next month, time and money ran out on this project for now.

Anyway, pictures...and yes it looks pretty much exactly like it did before i shipped of the barrel....which came back in case someone wants a tomato stake.

 

[JeffG]

Suweeet!

 

[mdauben]

Please note, I do not like belted cases. I'd opt for the Ruger .375 as a heavy rifle.

I've heard this sentiment before, but never the actual reason for it. What is the disadvantage of a belted magnum over a non-belted one?

 

[LoonWulf]

Generally the belts are considered superfluous, theoretically make feeding a little rougher, cause premature case stretch (poor fit to chamber, due to manfactures making cases short since they headspace on the belt), poor accuracy (usually also attributed to loose fit of factory rounds). Known in the state of California to make your baby come out ugly.....
....the list of ills both real and imagined go on, and on.

For the most part it's personal preference, which is cool.
The belt isn't necessary on most not 300h&h cartridges, is just for decoration/marketing. But honestly causes few real problems.
Factory cases with shoulders a ways back(or generally kind of inconsistent) are something I've experienced. I generally expand magnum brass onc or two Cal larger then neck down for a crush fit for the first firing. I've found a few rifles, and/or batches of cases, where the shoulder was a ways forward of where it would otherwise be on a crush fit.

 

[LoonWulf]

I've actually never seen a belted magnum fail to feed well, besides one 700 in 7mm. I have seen issues with the rebated rim magnums, tho that was back when they were first released.

 

[Robert]

I've never had a feeding issue with my 375 H&H, though I tend to work the action with authority. As for accurate, well I've put three in an area the size of my palm at 500y, that'll do for me.

Back on track, that is a great looking rifle!

 

[LoonWulf]

Thanks Robert, im itching to actually shoot it.....The 270 speer btsp bullets came in yesterday with a bunch of other stuff, and putting them next to my loaded 7.62x39 is hilarious.

Friend of mine actually saw my sks and offered me an old beat up one for cheap....i wonder what a 200gr .375Win bullet would get out of that case....

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Think of a belted case as a rimmed case -- with a very THICK rim -- and an extractor groove cut in the rim. It's kind of a kludge, to allow a rimmed case to work in a Mauser-style magazine and with a Mauser-style extractor. Holland and Holland wanted a rimmed case so they could bore the chamber a bit deeper to allow for crud and so on to be pushed ahead of the case and not prevent feeding in nasty, tropical conditions. That was a trick used in the Enfield rifle.

That also allowed very sloping shoulders, which the British felt worked well with cordite.

Except for the .458 Win Mag and cartridges based on the .458 Win Mag, there is no other use for the belt.

 

[MCMXI]

@LoonWulf , that's a great looking rifle, and I don't want to hijack your thread, but ....

Except for the .458 Win Mag and cartridges based on the .458 Win Mag, there is no other use for the belt.

I agree with you Vern but it should also be stated that there's zero problem with the belt either, whether it's rifle function, accuracy/precision with new brass, accuracy/precision with reloads or case life.

Ken Brucklacher set a 1,000 yard world record with a .300 Weatherby Mag using brand new brass with zero case prep! I haven't set any world records but I've shot many, many tiny 5-shot groups using belted cartridges.

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2009/05/ken-brucklacher-sets-1000-yard-score-record-100-8x/

I've never had a feeding issue with my 375 H&H, though I tend to work the action with authority. As for accurate, well I've put three in an area the size of my palm at 500y, that'll do for me.

I've never had any feeding issues with my .375 H&H either, whether I'm running factory rounds, handloads or empty cases. The rifle shown below is a tack driver (5-shot groups sub .65 moa) and I'm on the sixth and seventh loading of Remington brass without a single issue.

 

[LoonWulf]

@LoonWulf , that's a great looking rifle, and I don't want to hijack your thread, but ....

All good, Its actually usefull info someone may find helpfull if they find this thread when considering a similar cartridge choice.

 

[MCMXI]

This entire thread has plenty of useful information for someone looking to buy a turnkey rifle in either chambering, or someone like yourself looking to re-barrel an existing rifle or build a rifle from scratch. . Both are great cartridges and if I didn't have such an awesome .375 H&H already I'd take a good look at the .375 Ruger. My next project might well be another .375 cal but it wouldn't be a 3.6" cartridge. I'm interested in building a couple of .375 SAMs on the 8400 WSM platform with 20" barrels. These would be "short action" moose, elk, bear, camp rifles.

Looking forward to seeing some results from your rifle and seeing what kind of velocities you'll get. I shoot a 250gr TTSX at 2,800 fps from a 22" barrel but recently I ordered and received 250 of the 270gr LRX with the idea that it would give me another 150 yards of ethical range for larger game. An elk at 600 yards is kind of normal out here given the terrain. Last year I could have taken a shot at a bull at 725 yards but I wasn't comfortable with the 250gr TTSX at that range/velocity, not to mention that my RZ600 reticle only has holdovers out to 600 yards!

 

[Legionnaire]

Nice. A project like this is beyond my current knowledge/ability. I would love to be able to rebarrel and/or rechamber a rifle myself. At this point, I'm comfortable installing and headspacing a remage barrel, but that's a simpler proposition.

I have really enjoyed the thread, and look forward to hearing a range report!

 

[LoonWulf]

Hopefully next week I'll have everything done. I just placed the rental order for the reamer and guages this afternoon.

If I get my cases this weekend I'll make some preliminary loads and be ready to shoot soon as my Chambers reamed.

I actually found that the Nikon Buckmasters 4.5-14x40 has both a longer tube, and longer eye relief than the 3-9x40. So I pulled the scope from my .22 and put it on the .375, it fits about perfect.... we'll see how well it handles the recoil.

 

[Nature Boy]

Looking forward to seeing some holes (big holes) in paper

 

[LoonWulf]

Nice. A project like this is beyond my current knowledge/ability. I would love to be able to rebarrel and/or rechamber a rifle myself. At this point, I'm comfortable installing and headspacing a remage barrel, but that's a simpler proposition.

I have really enjoyed the thread, and look forward to hearing a range report!

Give it a try some time, it dosent seem nearly so hard after you dont ruin your first one.....

Doing this kind of work with hand tools dosent provide the same kind of precision using a lathe does tho. So while a steady hand (not me by 930), and a good sharp cutter can do a good job, its not the preferred method for precision rifle work. Your also at the mercy of your barrel provider supplying you a barrel to spec, and you should always check it before screwing it in. Its actually best if you can send a barrel for them to take measurements from if your doing a weird action.

Looking forward to seeing some holes (big holes) in paper

Me too

 

[LoonWulf]

Reamer, and gauges showed up today. So did the brass actually.
Got the barrel chambered, now just need to make some test loads and go play.

I made some dummy rounds with 270 Speer btsp, at 3.45 and I've still got space to go longer with both barrel and mag. So I might be able to get a bit more out of the longer bullets than I originally thought.

 

[416ruger]

I have both and of course you van go wrong with either. I just prefer short, lightweight hitting rifles.

 

[LoonWulf]

I have both and of course you van go wrong with either. I just prefer short, lightweight hitting rifles.

This one came out lighter than id intended, for some reason it didnt occur to me that removing a fair chunk from the inside of the barrel would make the gun weigh less....Its stuff like that i miss regularly....
Anyway, I changed up the scope again. My little bushnell ultraHD from my muzzle loader (which i forgot i owned) fits and has a long enough eye relief to be a permanent addition to this rifle. Still trying to replace the u joint on my kia (waiting on parts from Korea...go figgure lol), hopefully tomorrow....then i can at least go shoot this thing.
Heh, and i already droped it....so i guess its broken in lol

 

[LoonWulf]

Not fantastic, but pretty damn good for sitting on the ground and shooting off a wobbly cheap camera tripod.

Most of the random shots were from zeroing at 25yds, and the highpoint.

I shot two 3 shot groups at 100 after walking down from the top of the box. The one at the bottom of the black is an overcorrection, I was talking to a guy at the range and adjusting the scope at the same time.
Three just left of the bull we're the last I fired.

I did shoot a couple balls someone left at the range, as fast as I could load, aquire and squeeze.
Making those 6" balls jump wasnt a whole lot of effort, this thing shoots really nicely.

Recoil isn't painfull, but having fired 20 rounds in about 1/2hr (only shot 2 mags from the highpoint before pushing the box back to 100), my arms fatigued now. My shoulded will probably show a bruise tomorrow.
All in all tho it's much more pleasant than a heavily loaded 300 imo.

Ended up putting my 1.75-6x32 UltraHD on it....looks too small I'm, but it does work well.

 

[Robert]

People are scared of the size of the 375, but in all honesty it kicks less than the 300s and 338. Or rather it shoves different then they kick. Now work up some decent handloads and watch it come alive. I use 4895, because it's what I have, but my partner uses RE15 with great results.

 

[LoonWulf]

I agree, they are kinda intimidating looking. The guy i was talking to showed up right before i started shooting at 100yds, and helped me pick a few of my cases up while i was moving over so he could set up his table. He compared one to his 7-08, shook his head, and handed it back.

Im going to order more of these 270 speer bullets, and a few others to do some load testing. Next time ill take a table and a rest, rather than just my little tripod with its saddle.
These 20 were loaded with 79-83grn of H4350, behind the 270 at 3.40. Mostly I wanted to shoot the gun, get it on paper, and get some chronograph data so id know kinda where Im at playing with quikloads and from the reloading manual data ive got (Speer for instance goes as high as 87grns, which is into ridiculous territory according to quickloads). Course i forgot the chronograph, so while i have a pressure ladder done with no signs im approaching any limits, ive got no velocity data to correlate.

Nother plus side, the .338 ultramag magazines feed perfectly!