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I had to post this. After buying/trading/selling guns for over 40yrs I made my first used rifle purchase "on-line". Never did that before as I'm used to holding/haggling/etc so this was new to me. Anyway I see a Rem721 in 300H&H pop up on a site. Man, I always wanted to play with a 300 H&H and cant afford a pre64 mod70 so I keep looking at this. Well I call dude and buy it...for 50 buck extra, he sends me dies,brass,some factory ammo and some reloads. Figure I did good on that. So rifle shows up and its a little rough, but thats ok. I FINALLY got my 300 H&H!. I took rifle apart and cleaned all 50yr old grease and cleaned barrel. Well weather was nice so I GOT to shoot this rifle. I went out back and set a target at about 50yds to see if gun functions and try it with iron sights and my old eyes.Target had a 4in black bull. Well I put 2 older Rem factory loads in magazine to see how they feed. Slicker than snot. (as a side note I immediately pulled bullets from cases that were some dudes reloads, I dont use anyones reloads). So I touch one off and dont see hole in white of target so I'm hopin its in black.I work the bolt empty goes flying and load in the remaining round and fire that one.Eject round and dont see a mark on target so I walk down to see if in black or totally misses. Well both shots in x ring I'm tickled. I'm smiling at how well an old dope like me with poor eyesight can still shoot and cant wait to get a scope on my new 300 H&H to see what it can do. I was SOOO happy!
I get back to the bench and bend down to pick up the two fired emptys....much to my despair there are two 300 Weatherby cases there!!!!! Man was I pizzed. How can that be??
To dudes credit he called me within minutes of me sending him a nasty email, thinking I might have to get the postal service and batf fraud dept after him. And he graciously offered a full refund. His story is he used once for elk, didnt reload, and its been in his safe for 15yrs. Dont know where reloads he sent me came from but oh well lesson learned.
Sorry for long disertation...and what does this all have to do with JB's article in Rifle you ask??
Well I'm reading the article AFTER the above happened and there it is is black and white....on page 285... I quote "unmarked rechamberings are something to watch for, ESPECIALLY (my highlight) with any older 300 H&H rifle, because many were rechambered to some blown-out version, often the 300 Weatherby Magnum."
There it was staring me in the face.
What a coincidence, and story of my life.

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Small world, and probably a karmic sign.


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Yeah small world it is.
Plus, side is if I woulda bought from some dude at a gun show, I may not have had all his contact info and would have been stuck with it.
So now my search for a 300 H&H continues....anyone have a Ruger #1B by chance??

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fwiw,
You might want to keep it. He has an interesting article on the history of the .300 Weatherby in this month's Rifle. That could be karma or fate that lead you to that old .300 Roy...

Regards, Matt.


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I bought a Model 700 .375 H&H on G/broker. It was a Remington Custom Shop gun with REALLY nice wood that I got it for the starting price and was a steal. I loaded some new brass with some Speer 235 grain semi-points and gradually increasing charges of IMR-4064.

I probably wasn't paying as much attention to the fired brass of the first four shots as I should have but when I picked them up to put them back in the box, they looked DIFFERENT! They had blown out to what looked to me like the .375 Weatherby. Damn!

I figured no harm, no foul on the first four and since it headspaces on the belt, I'll see what this thing can do. I fired four more four shot groups. They went 1.1, 0.7, 1.0 and 0.8. DAMN. Guess I'll have find some dies and keep it.

The next time out with the top load in .375 H&H brass, the first three went into 1/2" and the fourth opened the group to 0.9".

One of these days I guess i'll have to have it properly marked. grin

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Had a similar experience one time when I went to buy a used FN Mauser in 257 Roberts (back when folks sold used firearms through the local classifieds). The guy lived in the country and said I could test fire it in his back field. I found an old box of ammo at the gunshop and bought it - glad I did - the rifle had been rechambered (but not remarked) to 25-06. That box of ammo saved me a lot of trouble.


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Originally Posted by nick
I had to post this. After buying/trading/selling guns for over 40yrs I made my first used rifle purchase "on-line". Never did that before as I'm used to holding/haggling/etc so this was new to me. Anyway I see a Rem721 in 300H&H pop up on a site. Man, I always wanted to play with a 300 H&H and cant afford a pre64 mod70 so I keep looking at this. Well I call dude and buy it...for 50 buck extra, he sends me dies,brass,some factory ammo and some reloads. Figure I did good on that. So rifle shows up and its a little rough, but thats ok. I FINALLY got my 300 H&H!. I took rifle apart and cleaned all 50yr old grease and cleaned barrel. Well weather was nice so I GOT to shoot this rifle. I went out back and set a target at about 50yds to see if gun functions and try it with iron sights and my old eyes.Target had a 4in black bull. Well I put 2 older Rem factory loads in magazine to see how they feed. Slicker than snot. (as a side note I immediately pulled bullets from cases that were some dudes reloads, I dont use anyones reloads). So I touch one off and dont see hole in white of target so I'm hopin its in black.I work the bolt empty goes flying and load in the remaining round and fire that one.Eject round and dont see a mark on target so I walk down to see if in black or totally misses. Well both shots in x ring I'm tickled. I'm smiling at how well an old dope like me with poor eyesight can still shoot and cant wait to get a scope on my new 300 H&H to see what it can do. I was SOOO happy!
I get back to the bench and bend down to pick up the two fired emptys....much to my despair there are two 300 Weatherby cases there!!!!! Man was I pizzed. How can that be??
To dudes credit he called me within minutes of me sending him a nasty email, thinking I might have to get the postal service and batf fraud dept after him. And he graciously offered a full refund. His story is he used once for elk, didnt reload, and its been in his safe for 15yrs. Dont know where reloads he sent me came from but oh well lesson learned.
Sorry for long disertation...and what does this all have to do with JB's article in Rifle you ask??
Well I'm reading the article AFTER the above happened and there it is is black and white....on page 285... I quote "unmarked rechamberings are something to watch for, ESPECIALLY (my highlight) with any older 300 H&H rifle, because many were rechambered to some blown-out version, often the 300 Weatherby Magnum."
There it was staring me in the face.
What a coincidence, and story of my life.


Sounds like you got a good one. Now it can shoot H&H or Wby ammo safely and accurately. That was a great deal.

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I can top all of these stories. I bought an unfired custom 300 RUM off gunbroker that had a Shilen heavy barrel with a muzzle brake. I started doing some shooting to try and get it on paper. I usually bore sight at 100 yards as I am usually close at that distance. Couldn't get it on a large piece of cardboard. Tried 50 yds, still no dice. Finally shot at 25 yards and had a nice side profile bullet hole in the cardboard. Shot a couple more with the same result.

Took the rifle over to a buddy's house and we figured out the problem. Chambered for 300 RUM, 30 cal orifice in the muzzle brake, bore diameter .338! After about a month, much wailing and gnashing of teeth and lots of stress I was put in contact with the gunsmith who replaced the barrel with the proper one at no cost. He said that the fellow who had done the original work no longer worked there and he was doing it all himself.

It shot in the .3's when it came back and I sold it to a happy buyer. Just didn't want it any more after all the stress. I'm fortunate that the bullets didn't blow the brake apart after rattling down the oversize bore.

Another time I bought an MRC action here on the fire from its second or third owner, action had never been barreled. Sent it off to my smith to be barreled, who subsequently discovered that someone had started to true up the action threads to oversize but had stopped part way through.

The seller, who was as befuddled as me, offered a refund but he had sold the action due to medical bills and I didn't want to do that to him. I had it trued up the rest of the way and the barrel installed. It turned out pretty nice but I sold it as well.

I seem to have the reverse Midas touch when it comes to second hand firearm purchases.


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Originally Posted by sambo3006
I can top all of these stories. I bought an unfired custom 300 RUM off gunbroker that had a Shilen heavy barrel with a muzzle brake. I started doing some shooting to try and get it on paper. I usually bore sight at 100 yards as I am usually close at that distance. Couldn't get it on a large piece of cardboard. Tried 50 yds, still no dice. Finally shot at 25 yards and had a nice side profile bullet hole in the cardboard. Shot a couple more with the same result.

Took the rifle over to a buddy's house and we figured out the problem. Chambered for 300 RUM, 30 cal orifice in the muzzle brake, bore diameter .338! After about a month, much wailing and gnashing of teeth and lots of stress I was put in contact with the gunsmith who replaced the barrel with the proper one at no cost. He said that the fellow who had done the original work no longer worked there and he was doing it all himself.

It shot in the .3's when it came back and I sold it to a happy buyer. Just didn't want it any more after all the stress. I'm fortunate that the bullets didn't blow the brake apart after rattling down the oversize bore.

Another time I bought an MRC action here on the fire from its second or third owner, action had never been barreled. Sent it off to my smith to be barreled, who subsequently discovered that someone had started to true up the action threads to oversize but had stopped part way through.

The seller, who was as befuddled as me, offered a refund but he had sold the action due to medical bills and I didn't want to do that to him. I had it trued up the rest of the way and the barrel installed. It turned out pretty nice but I sold it as well.

I seem to have the reverse Midas touch when it comes to second hand firearm purchases.

Sounds like sm


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I always ASSUMED anyone who would rechamber a rifle would mark barrel, but you know what happens when you assume.

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You didn't happen to buy that 721 off Facebook did you? There was just one in well used condition in 300 H&H for $300 and some bloke beat me to it. smile That was in the Remington 700 group a week or two back.

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Don't worry if something happens to me my wife will have a couple dozen rifles without the caliber stamped on them to sell. I almost never stamp the caliber on my own guns when I rebarrel them. It'll be like an Easter egg hunt!

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moosemike....no, bought it of GB...he relisted it now as 300 H&H/ 300 Weatherby
got it listed at $700 I paid $600 I guess its worth more now that its a weatherby...

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I just remembered that my good friend bought a 7x57 Ackley off gunbroker a few years ago. I got lucky and found him some dies at a gun show for $15 so we were in business. He went to fire form and the brass came out looking more like a stretched Gibbs. Some numbnut had run the reamer in WAY too far.


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I was at a Gun show winter of 2014.There was a very nice Custom rifle(Wood & Blue)built on a Sako action.It is marked 8MM on the barrel and 8 MM Mauser on the hang tag.Super nice wood.I bought it and when I got home put a 8 Mauser in the barrel and it disappeared.I then broke the barreled action from the Stock and on the bottom of the barrel it is stamped 8MM Remington Mag.Turns out to really shoot good.


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