Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Ask Rick Bin Questions About the .338-.375 Campfire

Timmy

It has come to my attenion that Ron made a 7mm-378 WBY Magnum reamer last summer...He wants to run it through my STW in the worst way...He's got the rifle right now...Hopefully it will still be a STW when it comes back.

Do you have enough meat on your shank to do it?

Easy number 4 contour on that barrel.Lots of steel there.

But would rather my STW so he'll need to find another project gun...grin..

I try not to be a pesimist but maybe I am,I saw all the perenthesis around all that cost money item,and Im not knocking your round at all but a few years back I aquired a 338-06 A square and in the ballistics Ive read on it,she rolls right along at 100 fps. behind the 338 win mag.my particular rifle will shoot little ragged one holers in a bullseye at 100 yds. with H-380 and 250 gr. bullets and all I need is some old 06 brass cases,powder primers and bullets and Im in the game,So maybe I missed the boat but Im curious what a 338/375 campfire can do that my 338-06 cant other than maybe a battered shoulder,Id surley think in the hands of a good rifleman the 338-06 should take anything the 338/375 campfire can more economially and easier to get set up in,and then again there are some that like to swim off thier own private island and I guess I just have not reached that fork in the trail yet,dont get me wrong,Im not knockin you wildcat,Im sure its a thumper,my
$.02 on the matter at hand............

coyo:

All those parenthetical items is why I didn't do it before the advent of the .375 Ruger case.

With the .375 Ruger case, all you do is run it through a neck sizing die, just like you would with any lot of new brass to eliminate dents and flats in case mouths, and load away. It will feed in a regular old belted magnum action without modification (at least it will in my 700s and 70s).

The .338-06 is a fine round. The .338-.375 Campfire will have significantly more case capacity, with all the pluses and minuses inherent thereto. It's just a question of whether that appeals to you or not.

rb

Okay, so where are the pictures of the RIFLE itself?

Maybe I missed it but why the decision to stop at a 50KPSI limit? Seems like you would lose any performance advantage over the 60K+ win mag.

Rick,

Just ran across this on the home page.

All I can say is astounding!

I'm eager to hear more about your mastadon masher.

$bob$

I was quite happy to have a 50,000 psi max limit originally as there is no load date for this round. Erring on the conservative side was A-OK by me.

That said, I AM going to wring this cartridge out. With Ramshot Magnum, even though I exceeded Ken's max by .5 of a grain, the main reason why I stopped was because accuracy was deteriorating with each increase in charge weight above 86 grains, and also because at 88 and 89 grains I could feel the powder crushing when I seated bullets.

I'm going to try H4350 and Re19 next, and will also try Re22, H4831, maybe IMR 7828, and heck, the new RE 17 might be worth a try as well.

I especially want to see what this cartridge will do with 250s.

rb

I'm trying like heck to get to the range this weekend for more load data results.

rb

camera broke?

Ah I see...you used 50K to set a baseline and get a reasonable max charge. The round will obviously run similar pressures as any other modern round.

I got a question....was the lead in your chamber made to support a max OAL of 3.34" so this round will still work in standard length actions? Hint hint M77s......

Thanks!

That's a damn personal question!

Looks like a natural Rick. As a 340 afficionado, it looks like you have one in a shorter case and if it matters without a belt. I do like the shorter cartridge concept the most as the most accurate OAL with my 340 with it's favorite bullet in a "long" 700 is right up to the front magazine wall.

I would like to see chron'd loads (and your rifle of course) although I would guess that I can guess quite closely what they would be. Good day.

Gdv

Edited to say, sorry you already posted them; looks good!

The whole thing looks like a complete and utter waste of time to me........

AD

How do you really feel Allan ? Frankly, though it'll never reach the status of the 338 Win, it might be a better design. Sacrilage? I don't think so.

Gdv

That's real interesting Rick. I been thinking of a .338 something on that case for the Encore. Otherwise the .338-376OTTR, is my other thought. I look forward to your testing of the H4350, it's one powder I use a lot of. Very seldom has it failed my expectations. But I could live with the RSM 86-87 loads for all my intents and purposes also!

"The whole thing looks like a complete and utter waste of time to me........"

Most wildcats are, but has little to do with it. We would be missing some very good commerical rounds without wildcat'n.
It may not fill many niches, but when comparing Ricks results to the .338WM. I would much prefer the rimless over the belted case, for my applications.

Dave

Let's see, we already have the 338 Win. Mag., 340 Wby., 338 Lapua, 338-378 Wby., 338-06, 338 Federal, 338 RSM, and good grief, what else? I don't see any gaps that need filling in the way of another 338.....

Plus, logistically, unless you're going to just hunt paper or else hunt the South 40 for elk, I simply can't see the common-sense in hunting with a cartridge where the nearest source of ammo resupply is on your loading bench back home. For me, elk hunting's 200 + miles from home here in the S of C (75 miles if I decided to hunt Roosevelt elk), and much of of my hunting's 2,000 miles to 10,000 miles from home.

So we're to take a logistical big risk with a redundant wildcat that won't do anything that a host of other common (or at least semi-common, SAMMI-spec cartridges will do, and for the sake of WHAT??

Fun and games is one thing, but logistical common-sense-type applcation is often quite another ballgame altogether, and that goes for business as well as hunting......


AD

Funsucker

Allan, practically speaking you're dead right and you can see that I proved your point if you look at my last couple of posts on the 2008 CO Elk thread. I was just speaking from a design perspective, no more.

There is a lot to be said for keeping it simple. Have a good day my friend.

Gdv