Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 375 Chatfield-Taylor

I have a interarms mark-x in 300 win mag. I have always dreamed of having something in 375 cal. What I was thinking of doing was to take the barrel off the mark-x and slap a 375 barrel in 375 Chat-Taylor on it. I am a reloader with a few thousand rounds under my belt, so rolling my own is not a problem. I Know it is a potent round rubbing on the heels of the 375h&h. The intended use of this rifle is maybe a trip to Africa. I know the ammo needs to be headstamped along with the rifle to be legal. But if I can afford to go to Africa, I can afford some cases with the proper headstamp. My questions are is this a good enough round to take on such a trip, and what are some problems I might find with this round? Is it an easy switch barrel deal that would require little alteration work on the action? I was hopeing someone on here had already done one of these and has some insight into the process and some tips on how they got it all to work. Thanks in advance. M8x57

I owned a Rem 700 in this caliber and loved it. It was everything and more than the 375 H&H. 300 grain Nosler's were clocked at 2,600 fps. These were the old style bullets that were individualy turned on the lathe one at a time. Used it for a one shot kill on a 8 foot interior grizzly which dropped in his tracks.
Reloading didnt present any issues at all. I used about 12 grains of Unique and filled the case with cream of wheat and capped it with toilet paper. Held the muzzle up and fired off the cases to fireform them. Then they were trimmed and ready to load. I do not remember what powder I used.
This rifle was originally a 7mm mag and nothing was required to make it feed or eject.
But.....in todays world I would just opt to take a 375 Ruger. With two loads it will do everything the 375 CT and 300 WM will.

Duplicating .375 H&H specs is no problem with the .375 Chatfield- Taylor, AKA .375 Taylor AKA .375/338 magnum, the latter being the way my Ruger tang safety is stamped. I've found that the simplest way to make brass is just run .458 Win. mag. brass through the sizing die and load up a full power load and go shooting, hunting or whatever floats your boat. I've just loaded up my ammo to duplicate the H&H values and let it go at that. Accuracy is superb in my rifle, and recoil surprisingly mild in that 7.5 pound rifle. It does have a good recoil pad and sits in a Ramline stock. The scope is an original all steel El Paso Weaver K-4 with post and crosshair reticle.
Now with all this good advertising on how well I like mine, I have to agree on the suggestion of going with either that new .375 Ruger or better yet, go with the original .375 H&H. Why? If you go to Africa and your ammo gets lost, where are you going to find .375 Ruger or .375 Taylor ammo laying around? Just something to consider.
Paul B.

375 Ruger is the way to go, IMHo.

I'm on my second 375/338, the second of which should be here next week and is on a 700 action. I plan on taking it on a moose hunt next year in the Yukon. Ballistically, I don't think there is much if any diff between the 375/338 and the H&H.

The big advantage of the 375/338 is that it will fit in a M98 action w/o major renovations to fit it to the action, whereas the the H&H would require the action and mag box to be opened up.

As good as the Ruger is, I'm not sure how easy it is to get it to feed through a 98 action.

I have a Mark X in a McMillan stock chambered the 375 Chatfield-Taylor. It sports a 1-4 Vari X II in Talley lightweight alum rings and has a 21" barrel. The stock is a bit shorter than normal designed so heavy winter clothes take up the difference. It weighs 7 3/4 lb. It is a wonderful package and has taken two cow elk in the woods. The Nosler Accubond does a wonderful job at 2775 fps.


It will be a bit costly as you will need a special order FL and sizing die set. I got mine from Redding and it was over $100. The reamer will cost extra too, unless you have a gunsmith willing to make the body with a 338 win mag reamer and the neck and throat with a 375 H and H reamer as mine did.

This case is easy to form from 338 win mag brass. It also is amenable to reduced loads. While varget works, I ended up using RL-15 exclusively.

2775fps .... That's pretty much right there with the FABULOUS 375Ruger. dig dig

I have a 375/338 custom rifle that i have never fired. Sad to say huh? its based on a pre 63 with a Kreiger barrel and exhibition grade french. I might even be willing to sell it since I can't shoot large calibers any longer due to health reasons. Its a beautiful thing. write me at finetime25 at hotmail and I will send pictures since i don't know how to put them on here.

If you want to start a thread for your rifle in the Classified section and forward the pics to me, I'll post them for you..... or post them on this thread if you just want to show it off. I'd like to see it.

bushmailnbnet.nb.ca

I really like this wildcat. I would rather have seen Ruger legitimize it than come out with their own 375 but they didn't ask me!
Given that it is now a standard cartridge, I guess the 375 Ruger has to have the edge. I still like the Chatfield-Taylor though. Sounds classy too although it's a bit tedious to stamp on the barrel! GD

Great minds think alike. Yeah, they didn't ask me either, but when I heard, I sure was hoping. Oh well, we know what's good.
Paul B.

The 375 CT is a great cartridge, but I no longer see the point now that we have a 375 Ruger...am I missing something?....

The smartest thing you could possibly do is simply trade your rifle in on a real 375 H&H...........

AD

Here's Jerry's rifle, and it is a beautiful thing!

I just want to go on record saying that if he wants to send it to me, I would be more than happy to drag it to the Yukon next year for a fly-in moose hunt. It is way nicer than the 700 I am getting done in 375/338 right now.

Allen: Truer words were never spoken.....

From Allen's viewpoint, the 375 H&H is the only thing that makes sense. He's always thinking of that scenario where you travel to Buffalo Butt NWT and forget your ammo. You can get the H&H ammo right there in the Buffalo Butt Merchantile. Just don't travel to the NWT on a grizzly hunt without taking your ammo and it won't be a problem!
The shorter cartridges do have their place; they fit in standard length actions like that nice looking M70 (a bit out of place on the stainless/synthetic website)seen above. I'm not a real wildcat fan as a rule but I do like both the 375/338 and the 416 Taylor. GD

That IS a beauty! Who did the stock and metal?

The info in the email with the pics stated ..... "Built by Jim Cloward in Seattle on a pre-64."

Thanks, Super Cub. Cloward always made a handsome stock....

If you can find a Ruger #1 take-off bbl in 375H&H, you can have the threads cut off and rethreaded and chambered to fit you Mark-X. I had the same thing done to a military 98 action a few years back. The Ruger bbl comes with nice sights and the take-offs are usually found at a good price.