Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 375 Ruger necked to 30 caliber

I am considering having my Broughton barrel set back and rechambered from 300 Win Mag to the 375 Ruger necked down to 30 caliber. I have about 1000 rounds through the barrel at present and it still shoots great so I am in no hurry to do this but it is something I have been thinking about. I sure wish Ruger had come out with a 300 Ruger on the 375 Ruger case. That would certainly have simplified things. I also realize that I will not really accomplish any gains in velocity, maybe a little but not likely enough to make any real difference. Still I like the idea of a 2.5� (or so) beltless case of fatter diameter.

I have necked the 284 Winchester case down to 6mm before (I think I did it in 2 passes by utilizing a 264 Win Mag die that had been ground shorter). I wonder if I could get away with necking the 375 Ruger down to 30 caliber in one pass or would I need to go to 338 first? Also any thoughts on how thick the neck would be after necking down? Would I need to turn the necks or could I just have the gunsmith use a reamer with a fatter neck area?

Or is there a commercial cartridge already available that would be similar? I know about the 300 Dakota and am not interested in that due to the high cost and limited availability of brass (also the possible need to open the bolt face). I require high quality brass in order to get the kind of accuracy I am looking for.

You would have, essentially, a 30 Newton. Great round. Some one you know, close by, has one of these.....

One thing I really want to do before I retire for real is build some 30 and 35 Newtons. Getting properly headstamped brass would be nice. Wonder how much I would have to buy? GD

What are the case dimensions of the 30 Newton?

OK, I have a factory marked 30 Newton cartridge case and dial caliper in hand. Empty case OAL is exactlt 2.540, rim is .525, case web is .525 as well, diameter at shoulder is .510 so only .15 case taper, case body i.e. back of rim to shoulder joint is 2.20, neck length is .330 so only slightly longer than one caliber in lenght. Shoulder looks to be about 30 degree or thereabouts. All in all, a VERY modern case design, by any standard one woulod want to apply, and for a case designed almost 100 years ago? WOW! If only Charles newton had available to him even plain 'ol 4831 in those days, or even 4350 let alone R-22, etc. etc. his cartridges and rifles might have ruled the hunting world.

Come on by and check out these factory Newton cases for yourself if you care to, or even borrow one if you wish.

If the rifle I just traded off for a 250/3000 take down had been an original C NEwton gun, I probably would not have traded it off. Thise things are just plain AMAZING works of the machinists art, by any world standard as well. I had one once, but it had sadly been re-barreled to 30-06...... sigh...... Still wish I could have kept it, cool factor was off the freakin charts.

Not that any of us need a reason to do anything we do with guns but what would you gain in this wildcat over just setting the barrel back and chambering it for 300 WIn Mag again? I'm assuming you will be keeping it on the same action so you won't be gaining any loss of weight or length. What difference in velocity do you think you will get?

Except for the belted case, the dimensions of the 308 and 358 Norma cartridges are so close to the Newtons it's easy to think the folks at Norma did a little copying.
The Newton cartridges are such nice designs, I would think a modern company (like Ruger) might think about re-introducing them. I have always maintained, had Charles Newton been able to get along with the folks at Winchester, we would never have seen the 300 H&H as a factory cartridge in North America. We would have also never seen the 300 Winchester Mag or, of course, the 308 Norma. GD

Sounds like an expensive journey.

Not so much. Correctly headstamed brass is again available. Necking down Ruger CM brass gets you to the same place. Some prefer an unbelted case, but want full 300 WIN or 300WBY speeds that the short mags do not achieve and also want slick feeding which the short mags are horrible at. 30/375 Ruger or 30 Newton makes a lot of sense for thos folks. IF it were me, I would go 300 H&H or 300 WBY and call it good, but some have different preferences/tastes and we live in an age where those preferences can easily be accomodated.

tipmover, who is that in the avatar pic? Horrible stance and fist/arm positioning for an actual fight.

Go 300 ultra and be done with it and with out the hassle of special dies and brass. And more Jam to boot.

He shot one of my 300 Ultras quite a bit (we live in the same town and he is the guy who got me hooked up with this place) and did not care for it. Neither did I and sold it, even though I found it to be uber effective on African and american game animals. For rufous it was the recoil speed and for me it was the awful noise level.

Where can one buy 30 Newton cases, what do they cost and who actually makes them? I am out of town right now, doing a Winemaker Dinner at a ritzy place north of Seattle tonight but would love to borrow a case. Thanks for the offer.

A 300 RUM would be too flat for my Leupold Boone and Crockett reticle.

A "300 Ruger" makes some sense. Fits into a 3.35 action/mag box and its external ballistics should be closer to a .300 Wby than the .300 Win Mag. In fact, performance should mimic the .300 Dakota and cases are readily available and less expensive than the Dakota. If you must have 3200+ fps with a 180 grain bullet in a standard length action the 30-375 Ruger fills that small niche and that is all a wildcat must do to justify its existence.

I never understood the standard length action thing. Other than Ruger all the companies have no problem fitting a 300H&H, Weatherby, Ultra, etc. into a standard length action. Even the much talked about M70 H&H action is the same overall length as the 30/06 action with a longer ejector cut in it. Maybe Ruger should have just modified their action to fit a long cartridge instead of coming out with another cartridge that duplicates 4 or 5 existing cartridges.

Whether it makes any sense or not is one thing, that standard actions (3.35) exist is another. I'm not jumping on the bandwagon for any new .30 caliber, but there is a small reason for the development of a 30-375 Ruger and a small reason is all that's necessary.

Go 30-338 Ultra then.

One Can't buy .30 Newton cases! One buys .375 Ruger and necks them down.

At least that's what I do for my .35 Newton...

GH

Thats Jonas.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/485220/quality-cartridge-reloading-brass-30-newton-box-of-20

Better hurry.....

Kaiser Norton