The search for dead caliber .375 win

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HirschCreek

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Hey folks,
A while back my neighbour came too me with two rifles for sale, a bolt-action remy 788 in .222 rem. and a lever action winny big bore in .375 win. I bought Both beautiful rifles for a fair price. The 222 ammo is easy enough to track down but I cannot find bullets or pre rolled for the .375 win. Every avenue has come up dry. Dead calibre. I have brass, dyes, powder, primers that I have accumulates over the course of a year and half but bullets are the 'golden goose'. I just want to shoot this gun so bad and am almost there V:I:
Anyone have any clue where I could look next??? Any help appreciated thanks fellow gunnutters!
 
Crap, saw the title and thought I found a needy soul for a set of dies!! I don't own one so I can't help with bullets though.
 
You'd have to watch the speed a bit but Bullet Barn has .376 size gas checked cast which are 265gns. And at that weight you don't need to push them all that fast to punch through a fair number of animals if hunting is your bag. The gas check should make them suitable for up around 1800 to 2000 fps without leading.
 
Back about a year ago i had a 350 mag. Looked and looked for ammo, dies, projectile. When on the island i talked with a very knowledgeable man in Nanaimo WSS. He explained that major ammo makers typically ran oddball calibers for one day every 4 years. So 10K or 20K boxes of 350 mag or 375 Win...whatever. They produce what they produce, it lasts till the next 4 years....or it doesnt.

Now with the best gun salesman the world has ever known Barry Obama. The major manufacturers are struggling to keep up with supply for major calibers like 223. Why would they bother.

If you want ammo, haunt the EE, check gun shows. It would seem that reloading is the only solution.
 
I've run those BB 265 GC through my 375 Weatherby magnum at 2150 with no leading. They are good bullets IMO.
Could you not run a 'Good' brand of 38-55 brass loaded stoutly in it? Some trimming might be required, but it'd get you shooting, would it not?
 
tokguy said:
I've run those BB 265 GC through my 375 Weatherby magnum at 2150 with no leading. They are good bullets IMO.
Could you not run a 'Good' brand of 38-55 brass loaded stoutly in it? Some trimming might be required, but it'd get you shooting, would it not?
Click to expand...

He posted that he already has brass.
 
You can use .375 win dies or 38-55 to load either cartridge...gunshows are your best bet for components....Harold
 
If you take the carrot we're offering here and get into reloading your own, which you'll likely have to do to ensure a reliable supply, then watch out for sizing differences between .38-55 and .375Win. .38-55 comes in a couple of different "flavors" for bullet size with a tighter early single shot rifle chamber and a more open later lever rifle chamber. The difference is that the early chambering is going to be a bit tight for the thicker .375Win brass cases. But the bullet expander needs to be the early size instead of the later .379 size.

All this produces some confusion with the variables if you are using .38-55 dies. So watch out.

I know with the Lee die set I've got the full length sizing die is too tight for a full length sizing even if I'm using the thinner wall .38-55 Starline brass with the smaller .376 cast bullets and I quickly stopped full length sizing. Inserting the cases about 2/3's of the way with the thin wall brass worked out to provide the right neck tension. The cases are very slightly tapered so they respond well to a partial sizing. But this means that the thicker walled .375Win will need even LESS insertion to get the neck to the right size.

In the Lee dies the expander/flaring core of the powder die is also too short for most of the longer bullets. They seem to have a one length rule or something. I ended up making my own powder funnel/expander/flaring insert which so far seems to be working well. The issue being that the insert Lee provides is set for the later lever rifle chamber .379 size to take .380 to .381 size bullets. And that won't work for your .375Win bullets. And it's too short for a proper swaging out of the neck anyway.

But that was with the .38-55 die set. You SHOULD be buying a proper .375Win set which should come with the right size expander insert. And HOPEFULLY it's long enough to correctly size the whole neck length If it doesn't contact me and I could be talked into making another insert with the longer plug length. I haven't used my own enough yet to know if it'll stand up so I'm reluctant to say for sure that I can offer something that will stand up. But the first 50 or so rounds I did a couple of months back didn't show any signs of wear on the expander.

You've got yourself into a bit of a red headed step child of a caliber size. But once you line up all the goodies I suspect you'll be very happy with the rifle and the caliber. It's a big heavy bullet zipping along at a good 2000'ish fps. It's going to do a nice job on most game that I can think of if you can put it where it can go to work correctly.
 
Thanks to everyone for their input and help for my issue regarding not being able to track down bullets.
I have ordered 5 boxes of Sierra 200 gr. FN pro hunter bullets from X reload in Quebec. Looking foreword to begin my reloading now and getting out there to try that ol' lever gun!
Special thnx to stubblejumper for the Quebec lead!
 
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