Hey everyone,
So I was thinking today (always a bad thing), and came up with this crazy idea. The catch is I think it might actually work. That being said, I figured I would run it by the bunch of you all here, just to make sure I don't die.
I've been toying with the idea of making a "saddle bag" reloading set for my 375 chatfield taylor. I already have standard dies, but was wanting a set that I could take to the field with me at hunting camp or the range or whatever. So basically I came up with the idea of adapting a classic lee loader (yes, the one with the hammer and dipper) to 375 chatfield taylor specs.
I figured a guy would take a standard 7mm Rem Mag lee loader, and just bore it out to 375 dimensions. As both the 7mm RM and the 338 Win Mag both have 25 degree shoulders, and the 375 Chatfield Taylor has the 338 win mag as a parent case (you can use 7mm brass too, but need to anneal the crap out of it), the 375 would also have a 25 degree shoulder too, would it not? So other than the diameter of the neck (7mm vs .375), everything else is exactly the same dimensionally for the 7mm Rem Mag and the 375 Chatfield taylor.
As for the "boring out", that's where this gets complicated. The 375 Chatfield Taylor is described as having a .375" inside diameter neck, and a .402 outside diameter. I looked at a few other 375 calibres, and while all their inside diameters are 375, the outside diameters are from .400-.404". Yet they ALL hold standard .375" bullets. This is where I get a little confused, as it would seem to me that the only way the outside diameters of the necks could vary would be due to non-uniform brass thickness, wouldn't it? Or am I way off there?
That being said, for drilling, there is a range of drill bits a guy can use, from (in sequence) .390625 (25/64"), .3937 (10mm), .397 (Letter "x" bit), .4016 (10.2mm), .404 (letter "Y" bit), and .40625 (13/32"). Most all of these bits are easy to find, except for that 10.2mm. That is proving more of a "european" bit, and I don't really want to order it in from Britain or Czechoslovakia .
So my main question to you guys is how big a deal would it be to use either a .397" bit, or the .404" bit? Apparently a .404" outside diameter will hold a 375 bullet, as those are the dimensions for a 375 RUM. As for the .397", my thoughts are that the bullet would just wind up seated more snuggly, and thusly would require more effort to seat, but nonetheless would still work.
Does any of this sound reasonable, or is my farmer-logic way out to lunch here? Cheers -Cameron
So I was thinking today (always a bad thing), and came up with this crazy idea. The catch is I think it might actually work. That being said, I figured I would run it by the bunch of you all here, just to make sure I don't die.
I've been toying with the idea of making a "saddle bag" reloading set for my 375 chatfield taylor. I already have standard dies, but was wanting a set that I could take to the field with me at hunting camp or the range or whatever. So basically I came up with the idea of adapting a classic lee loader (yes, the one with the hammer and dipper) to 375 chatfield taylor specs.
I figured a guy would take a standard 7mm Rem Mag lee loader, and just bore it out to 375 dimensions. As both the 7mm RM and the 338 Win Mag both have 25 degree shoulders, and the 375 Chatfield Taylor has the 338 win mag as a parent case (you can use 7mm brass too, but need to anneal the crap out of it), the 375 would also have a 25 degree shoulder too, would it not? So other than the diameter of the neck (7mm vs .375), everything else is exactly the same dimensionally for the 7mm Rem Mag and the 375 Chatfield taylor.
As for the "boring out", that's where this gets complicated. The 375 Chatfield Taylor is described as having a .375" inside diameter neck, and a .402 outside diameter. I looked at a few other 375 calibres, and while all their inside diameters are 375, the outside diameters are from .400-.404". Yet they ALL hold standard .375" bullets. This is where I get a little confused, as it would seem to me that the only way the outside diameters of the necks could vary would be due to non-uniform brass thickness, wouldn't it? Or am I way off there?
That being said, for drilling, there is a range of drill bits a guy can use, from (in sequence) .390625 (25/64"), .3937 (10mm), .397 (Letter "x" bit), .4016 (10.2mm), .404 (letter "Y" bit), and .40625 (13/32"). Most all of these bits are easy to find, except for that 10.2mm. That is proving more of a "european" bit, and I don't really want to order it in from Britain or Czechoslovakia .
So my main question to you guys is how big a deal would it be to use either a .397" bit, or the .404" bit? Apparently a .404" outside diameter will hold a 375 bullet, as those are the dimensions for a 375 RUM. As for the .397", my thoughts are that the bullet would just wind up seated more snuggly, and thusly would require more effort to seat, but nonetheless would still work.
Does any of this sound reasonable, or is my farmer-logic way out to lunch here? Cheers -Cameron
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