Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only Question for the .400 Whelen Crowd

First major (kinda) setback of the project...

I ordered a SS barrel from Pac-Nor. It was invoiced as such and even stamped on the breach as such. It is all fitted to my action and the stock has been glass bedded to the barreled action. Since the MRC action is coated I asked my smith to test and see if it is stainless or CM. If it was stainless I would just bead blast the whole works...if the action is CM I would get the barreled action cerakoted to match. He ran the test with some cold blue gel on the receiver and it is CM...he put a little on the barrel and it turned out to be CM too!

I called pac-nor and they have been very responsive about making it right. They are willing to take the rifle back and do the rebarrel in-house so I am not out the work twice. No issues with them whatsoever but now I have a rifle that is 95% complete and being a .400 I am a little cautious on who actually puts it together since there isn't much margin for error on the headspace. Basically, I would be paying for work from a smith that I trust but having someone I don't know complete it.

A good portion of this rifles intended purpose revolves around Alaska and wet miserable conditions...thus the desire for stainless. I know CM rifles don't disintegrate at the first hint of moisture....heck, I think Mart hunted his "in the white" a bit if I am not mistaken???....but I have to decide whether I can live with the CM barrel or if it will bug me that my custom isn't exactly what I spec'd.

I did visit with a buddy that had a wildcat put together by Pac-nor and he has had no complaints with the work they did. His .17 Practical rifle shoots amazingly well.

I'll never own another blued hunting rifle for coastal AK use.

.400 Whelen is pretty cool stuff. You definitely want to pick Mart's brain on this chambering.

I did indeed hunt mine in the white. But it was good weather and only turned out to be a one day hunt. Before the next season I had it rust blued.

I have since hunted it in all kinds of bad weather. Inland and coastal. I’ve never had a spot if rust on it. I keep it cleaned and protected. I wipe it down liberally before the season with paste wax. It seems to do a fine job of protecting the finish.

Cerakoting is a good option for a CM barrel if you want some good protection. I have several rifle so treated.

My 400 has been my all time favorite project and remains my favorite big game rifle.

They would be sending me a new barrel and paying what it cost me with the smith.

Mart, which wax do you prefer?

Thanks

I've never been worried about the exterior of a barrel rusting.

Johnson's paste wax is what I have on hand. Same can I've had for 20 years. It doesn't take a lot.

Thanks mart!

A little update...I decided to keep the Chrome Moly barrel and the rifle is complete enough to shoot. My 'smith tested it out today. He didn't have any H4895 or CFE 223 (I should have sent some with the gun) but he tested with H335 under the 360 grain north forks. Brass formed well but he was not impressed with the consistency in the primer pockets of the QC brass. Virgin cases varied from nice and firm to loose. 50 yard accuracy was acceptable for a fire form loading of various powder charges...basically a ragged hole (albeit .41 caliber bullets can make a BIG ragged hole).

He started at 55 grains and worked up to 63 grains. Max velocity was 2230. It was not showing any pressure signs as far as bolt lift or extraction. However, when he resized and reprimed the brass anything over 61.0 grains had loose pockets and the 63.0 grain load pretty well blew the pocket. He figures a max working load with that powder is around 2100 to 2150...a tad slow for a 360.

He described the recoil a substantial but slow...very similar to his .450 Marlin. Having owned a .450 before and familiar with its recoil impulse I am actually pretty excited to touch this off. Seems more then manageable.

I am not the least concerned about the velocities as that H335 was not even on my radar for a powder choice. I am however a little disappointed to here about the consistency, or lack thereof, in the QC brass. Having to cull a bunch when paying $2/case doesn't give a guy a lot of warm fuzzies. Luckily I also recently bought a bunch of virgin .35 Whelen brass so may just fireform a bunch of that for general shooting and then save a nice stash of properly headstamped .400 brass for if I ever travel internationally. I have 120 virgin .400 cases so should get 70-100 "tight" pockets I would hope...more then enough for a LOT of hunting.

The barreled action will be sent off to cerakote soon and I am picking up the stock and shipping it to HS precision to have it painted brown w/black webbing and have them install a red decelerator. Could be burning powder by the end of July!

Hell yeah! That's awesome stuff MR!

I am as excited as you to see this finished rifle!

Finally got the rifle back from cerakote and just waiting on the install of the irons. I went with a thin contour barrel so we are riding the ragged edge on having enough barrel thickness to drill for the screw holes on the front sight. The smith left the decision in my hands after explaining the risks. I am set on having sights so we are throwing caution to the wind and going for it. I guess if we have a major issue I may end up with a 19" .400

Hoping it will be 100% done next week so I can start shooting it. Would like to at least shoot a doe or two with it this season.

You could install a front sight like the Ruger 77's have

Sweat on a banded front sight?

I discussed that option but since this one was just coated and would need to be recoated I opted against that. He felt it was adequate so should know soon enough

'Smith texted to tell me that he ordered a different style drill bit with a blunt cutting face and a bottoming tap to get as close to the bottom of the hole as possible. With those he was able to successfully install the front site and felt it was solid. ***Big sigh of relief***

He went to mount the rear sight and it uses a goofy 8-36 screw which is about the only thread tap he didn't have. He is rounding one up and as soon as he has that in his hands the sights (and the total rifle) will be finished shortly thereafter.

With any luck I will be burning some CFE223 soon and then trying to punch a .411 hole through a whitetail doe.

^^^^^^^^^^^^Great!!!!! aaways nice to get a rifle finished and put to work, you're going to love the 400 Whelen.

Sweat on barrel band for front sight if you are worried about barrel thickness at the muzzle. While cerakote works for the exteriot of the metal I choose stainless more for the bore of the barrel. When remote the exterior can be wiped down but the bore is more difficult to prevent rust.

Agreed. Had ordered stainless but Pac-nor sent me a CM barrel...something we discovered way down the road in the process. Pac-nor has made it right but I have decided to keep the CM. Not ideal but it is something I can live with.

Was able to pick up my rifle on the way home from a successful elk hunt today. Makes for a pretty nice day all the way around.










Was very happy with the way it turned out and the weight and balance.

The only bummer is the feeding didn’t work out as smooth as hoped. The smith spent about 15 hours tweaking things and got it to where it will feed the 360 Northforks consistently but only with three down. Hopefully Barnes or Woodleighs will do better if I can ever get my hands on some.

Hoping to get it scoped this weekend and load up some CFE 223 loads to see what she will do.

Beautiful rifle.