Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers 375 marlin

Hello, what is a 375 marlin worth? How much more can it out perform. 35 Remington with the short carbine barrel? Wouldn't a modern 38 55 cowboy 336 out perform them all in the reloaders hands? The 375 I am looking at is strictly a shooter grey rat with the varnish coming off. Thanks!

John I've been a fan of the 375 for decades. However, the 358 outperforms the 375 with the same 200 grain bullet by a few hundred feet per second. Not sure on the 35 Rem, never owned one, but I would guess it does too, by a smaller margin. You can Google it up real quick.

The 375 is loaded to higher pressure than the 38-55 and anything a handloader could do to a 38-55, could also be done to the 375 to maintain an advantage. The biggest thing I can think of with the two is that the 38-55 shoots a 255 gr bullet typically, whereas the 375 shoots the 200 to 250 gr. IIRC the 38-55 is a 1800 fps shooter, while the 375 goes about 2200 fps, with a lighter bullet. Probably not much difference with the 375 250 and the 38-55 255.

The Marlins had a reputation for finicky accuracy, but if you've found a gray one it must be a shooter! Depending on price, buy it, they are a bunch of fun, but you need to handload for it. I use Sierra 200 gr flat point bullets and they shoot fantastic in my Savage carbine.

If you have choices, get a 358 carbine and rock on. Make that little sucker swing up in the air in a big arc and smile all day long.

When comparing Winchester/Olin factory 200 grain factory ammo, the 375 WIN gets a claimed 2,200 fps while the 35 REM get a claimed 2,020 fps. I don't know how much advantage an additional 180 fps gives you with flat/round point bullets, but there it is.

The disadvantages of the 375 WIN seem to be that there is only one factory load, the 200 grain PP from Winchester/Olin, and there are few components available. Also, the 375 WIN factory ammo is probably a seasonal, low volume, production item, so availability could be sketchy the longer rifles in 375 WIN have been out of production.

The advantage of the 35 REM seems to be that factory ammo from FED/REM/WIN has always been widely distributed and commonly available. Also, the 180 grain Speer FP is a great component bullet that allows for higher velocity at safe pressures.

I've owned a few Marlin and Savage lever guns in 375 WIN, even shot a couple of whitetails with a Marlin 375 and a Savage 99A-BG, but have let all of the rifles go down the road. I still have a couple hundred rounds of 200 and 250 grain white box "BIG BORE" factory ammo out at the shop.

I still have three rifles chambered in 35 REM; a Marlin 336SC, a Remington 141, and a Savage 170 and will probably keep all three of them around for awhile.

After further study, it seems the 375 calls 4 compressed loads. And the BC SD doesn't match the 35 R.E.M. Until you get to the 250 + weight bullet. Then they slow right down. I also am thinking about my own field observations, the 160 grain Hornady ftx bullet shot from a 300 savage has harvested mature cow elk at over 300 to 440 yards quite easily. Therefore I believe a 30/30 or 303 cartridge using the same ftx bullet should perform in similar positive fashion on the same sized game at under 200yards. So I hopefully will pass on the 375 marlin until I find one that is closer to collector grade at the price point that this one is at. I.E. $725.

Yeah, that's a ridiculous price for a gray rat. Could have shortened this discussion right down if we'd known that. I've had two Marlin .375's and paid $400 for each, like new shape.

Thanks. Please let me know when you find another.

Hey 260Remguy, I tried to contact you by private message, but your box is full. I recently acquired a 375 and would be interested in some or all of your ammo if you want to sell or trade it.( I have 35 Remington stuff)
Thanks
G-Man

I like the 375 Win and the Big Bore it's a great round and great for cast bullets.

This is from Buffalo Bore's Site:

Heavy 38-55 Winchester Ammo - 255 gr. J.F.N. Bonded Core .377dia.
(1,950fps/M.E.2,153 ft.lbs.)
20 Round Box

Using Our 38-55 Ammo in 375 Winchester Chambered Rifles

Our 38-55 ammo is designed to work in all 38-55 chambered firearms made with modern metallurgy for smokeless powder. It operates at 38,000 CUP—the 30-30 Winchester operates at an average max. pressure of 38,500 CUP. For those who are not aware, the 30-30 case is simply a necked down 38-55 casing.

OUR 38-55 WORKS IN ALL WINCHESTER 375 RIFLES

Our 38-55 ammo is also designed to work in ALL 375 Winchester chambered rifles. ALL means ALL. Winchester, Savage, and Marlin all chambered rifles in 375 Winchester. All 375 Winchester rifles utilize chambers long enough to accept the 2.085 inch 38-55 brass, even though 375 Winchester brass is only 2.020 inches long. By using the longer 38-55 brass, we accomplish two things:

1) We get the bullet closer to the rifling’s and this creates a generally more accurate load.

2) The longer 38-55 brass, with thinner case walls than 375 Winchester brass, gives much more case capacity and this allows chamber pressures to drop immensely. i.e. our 38-55 loads give the same performance (a 250gr. bullet @ 2000 fps) as the original 375 Winchester loading, but at only 38,000 CUP instead of the industry max. pressure of 52,000 CUP that the original 375 Winchester was rated at.

TIME-TESTED & WELL-PROVEN

The concept of using 38-55 brass to produce ammo for the 375 Winchester may be new to you, but it is not to us, so please simply read carefully and believe me. We’ve sold hundreds of thousands of rounds of this ammo and about half of it has been shot in 375 Winchester rifles. A couple years before I started making 38-55 ammo as Buffalo Bore Ammunition Company, I was shooting Marlin, Savage and Winchester 375 Winchester chambered rifles and was using good old every-day 38-55 brass in all of them. To be fair and give credit where it is due, it was both Brian Pearce and Mic McPherson that pointed out I could use common, readily available and affordable 38-55 brass to make full power 375 Winchester loads.

I’ve been doing it for almost 20 years now and have not over-looked anything. If I sound jaded on this subject, it is because I am. Trying to convince folks of anything new, can be a futile attempt, so I am publishing this short text on our site and those who choose to believe me are invited to and we would love to sell you our excellent 38-55 ammo for use in your 375 Winchester or your 38-55. You will love how it performs and you’ll be glad you found a source of high quality high performance ammo for your 375 Winchester. As a customer, we owe you this type of high quality ammo and this type of time conserving straight talk. In our 17 years of doing business as Buffalo Bore Ammunition, many thousands of 375 Winchester chambered rifles have gobbled this ammo up and I’ve not had even one complaint, which I cannot say for all of our ammo.

THE TECHNICAL DETAILS

.375 BORE RIFLES

We use a bullet that is sized .377 inch. I am aware that 375 Winchester chambered rifles utilize a .375 inch bore. When fired, the .377 inch bullet will slug/size right down to .375 without raising pressures (we’ve tested the heck out of this) this is in part due to the construction of the bullet, but also due to our powder choice.

.381 BORE RIFLES

We are also aware that many old 38-55 rifles utilize a bore diameter of up to .381 inch, but most are between .377 and .380 inch. At 38,000 cup, there is enough pressure generated by this cartridge to cause that .377 diameter bullet to hit the rifling lands and slug up to the bore diameter (all the way up to .381 inch) and give wonderful accuracy.

HARD CAST SOMEDAY? - MAYBE

We’ve considered making hard cast loads for 38-55 also, (I personally shoot hard cast 270gr. bullets in all of my several 38-55 rifles) but they are too hard to slug up when fired, so the user would have to know his bore diameter and because of this and the numerous questions it would generate, I am still holding off on making any hard cast loads. Further, when firing hard cast loads, they are also too hard to size down to a smaller bore diameter without raising pressures and the thought of a customer trying to shoot a .380 inch hard bullet down the .375 inch bore of a 375 Winchester, has me a bit nervous. So to date, hard cast loads for the 38-55 are not in production and may never be.

If you email me and ask if what I wrote here is true, I will simply refer you back to everything I wrote here…..I will not tell you something more or different than what I have put in writing here on the site. What is written here is based on decades of my experience with my own rifles and with selling hundreds of thousands of rounds of this ammo to the shooting public…… Thank you for carefully reading this information.

Good shooting and God bless.

Best,
Tim

PS

Ps As an aside, because I love the utility of the 38-55 when loaded to full power, I’ll include the following; I own one of each of the Winchester 38-55 commemorative rifles…..Winchester made three different commemoratives. (Chief Crazy Horse, Legendary Frontiersmen and the Oliver Winchester) These are very functional and highly accurate rifles. I did not care about their collectability, so I installed aperture sights and sling swivel studs and have used them quite a bit. With proper loads, these collectable rifles will shoot 1 MOA @ 100 yards, which is super impressive for lever action 1894 design rifles. If you run across any of these commemorative Winchesters, do not dismiss them as useless collectables. They are pretty prevalent on the open market, because folks do not know just how useable a rifle they are. Part of the great utility of the 38-55 is that with our full power loads, they are capable of taking any North American game including grizzly or large AK Yukon bull moose, but they generate only about 50% of the felt recoil (this is a guess based on how the recoil feels to me) of our full power 45-70 loads……just sayin.

I shot mine today and i dont think it kicks any harder than my 35 Rem. I has a louder sharper crack to the report, but pleasant enough to shoot more than I can afford.

I would​ imagine, (not saying I know) that some amazing things could be done with that straight cased 375 vs a 35 rem, due to efficiency physics....Especially in short barrels. Similar to my anecdotal experience with the 357 Max vs the 35 rem
I'd be tempted to rebore and throat an 18" 30-30, just to see.

I'm not interested in selling or trading.