Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats .375-.338WM Questions

Got a nice Win. 70 in .338 Win. Mag. that is not a particularly good shooter,really have to be kind to it to get 1.75 moa groups.Just about every combination under the sun has been tried and a lot of frustration to boot.
Been wondering if anyone has tried a .338 Win. Mag. opened up to .375,seems like a sensible round for Africa or other medium heavy game.I especially like not having to battle feeding problems as the new cartridge should feed well.Don't know that reboring the existing barrel would work as muzzle diameter at 24" barrel length is only .615",would have to go with about 20" barrel to make a muzzle diameter of .675".
Could 2500fps be feasible with 300 gr. bullets? RL15 or something similar might be good! Any votes for a .416 Taylor? Thank You!

If reboring, I would consider chambering for 375 Ruger. 2500 with 300 gr bullets is no sweat.

I had one for a while. It had a 22" barrel in a Mark X action with a McMillan stock. Killed two elk with authority in the woods with it as well as a nice wt in SC.



From my documents:

The chambering often called the 375 Taylor aka 375/338 win mag. Very easy to make by necking up 338 win mag brass. Can be loaded to shoot a 300 gr bullet as fast as 2490 fps. Shoots the 260 accubond up to 2775 fps. This is close to 375 H and H performance. It can also be loaded down due to the cartridge’s small size. Powders like Varget and RL-15 work well in this chambering.

64 gr of varget, 300 sierra, vel 2490 4100 ft/lb of energy KO FACTOR 40
59 gr of RL-15, 260 accubond, vel 2325
66 gr of RL-15, 260 accubond, vel 2675 KO FACTOR 37
68 gr of RL-15, 260 accubond, vel 2775 4466 ft/lb of energy KO FACTOR 38
75 gr of RL-15, 235 TSX, vel 2990
235 Speer, 72 gr H4831, vel 2325
70 gr of Varget 220 gr hornady flat nose 2770 fps 3778 ft/lb

This unless you just have a lot of 338 brass. I have not heard of anyone getting ammo confiscated for the wrong head stamp but it is in the rules for a couple of countries in Africa. Some of the PHs might know of instances where this happened.

The Ruger would be good as you can get the performance you want at lower pressures. The Taylor round needs to be run at near max to get or even come close to that velocity. Redline loads or even heavily compressed loads are not a good idea for hot weather hunting. I have had some undesirable results when ammo has been left in a hot vehicle. Loads that shot fine even in 100 degree weather would be sticky to extract with the additional heat.
The Ruger would also clean up the chamber nicely if that is at maximum spec or otherwise out of wack. The Taylor has almost the same capacity as the H&H so you can use that for comparison. Some H&Hs have to work hard to go much over 2500 and most need at least 22 inches of barrel to get there.

Contact Jess to see if the barrel has enough steel for the re-bore. A 21 inch barrel would not be a bad thing but is another reason in favor of the Ruger as the Taylor would have to work even harder with a 20-21" barrel.

I had one of those 375Taylors. It was a great rifle that would equal an H&H with ease. I shot two moose with it and a Yukon mountain caribou.

From a practical standpoint you would be far better off just selling the 338 and buying a 375Ruger. The Taylor won't do anything the Ruger won't do.

SC - dandy 'bou!

Check this link for some data:

http://www.lchr.org/a/25/kc/375Taylor.htm

I had one on a M70 push feed, 21" barrel and aperture sights. It was a handy rifle, but just too much recoil w/ my neck issues. Sold my CH-4D dies a few years back.

I got to 2,500 with 300 gr Partitions and IMR-4064 and RL-15. You can also use Varget.

Like others said, the 375 Ruger makes more sense these days. There's no law that says things have to make sense in Loonytown.

The Chatfield-Taylor rounds made more sense when only the H&H cases were around. Now there are multiple choices for shorter magnum cases. But they were and are a good design. But a re-bore is cheaper than all but the Ruger American and a few others.

Exactly! ..... The 375 CT and 416Taylor and other similar were made in the time when std M98s were plentiful and magnum actions were not.

Sent the barreled action off to JES yesterday.Going with the .375-.338WM as I'm quite sure there will be no feeding issues.Brass will be simple and have some .375 bullets from previous rifles.Recoil could be brisk as finished rifle weight will come in around eight pounds,just have to concentrate a little more!

Paul, that was a great caribou and positioning for retrieval was optimal!

I used to own a 375/338 and it was great until I went on a hunt with it and my ammo bag did not get packed. Bonehead move I know, but a 338 or 375 h&h would have bailed me out. As it was, I used my 270 loaded with 150 Noslers and it worked fine

I have an Interarms MK X 7 RM that's likely to end up as a .375-338 or .375 Ruger. Just need to allocate funds and order up a McMillan for it. Just too many other more pressing projects ahead of it.