A friend has a Weatherby Mark V 375 H&H. A friend of his has been doing some reloads for him and last week we were just talking when the guy mentions that the 375 brass was a bugger to resize, with the guy having to strain quite a bit to get it resized. He also reloads 416 Rigby for my friend and he says that they were not a problem.
So yesterday my friend brings over a couple of his brass recently shot from his rifle. I compare those with brass shot in my Weatherby 375 H7H DGR rifle. We measured the brass with calipers. Brass from both rifles are more or less the same: Neck: 0.406" and 0.405", Body (just above the belt): 0.511" and 0.512" (The second set of measurements are from my rifle) The diameter of the case at 1.9" from the rim/base was 0.504" and 0.462". There is a difference of almost 0.041" here and is almost certainly the reason for the painful resizing efforts.

I suspect this because of a wider diameter of the chamber. Is this expected for rifles from the same manufacturer? Can anything be done about it. I did talk to the guy doing the reloading and asked him to just neck-size the brass as the bullets were only going to be fired from this one rifle, but he said as matter of principle he always resized the brass fully. The rifle shoots well and there has been no problems so far.

Thanks

Jas

The easiest answer is, Yes, just neck size. It will eliminate the sizing problem, and the brass will last MUCH longer.

This is not an unusual problem and is one I am having trying to FL resize some .308 brass that was probably shot thru a machine gun. I just make sure I properly lube the outside of the casings as well as the inside of the neck.

I suppose that if whomever made the decision to FL resize these cases has the option of having the die maker ream the inside of the sizing die a bit so it is closer to the chamber size. But this option seems unnecessary as it is far easier and makes more sense to neck resize cases that have already been shot thru that rifle.

quote:

I did talk to the guy doing the reloading and asked him to just neck-size the brass as the bullets were only going to be fired from this one rifle, but he said as matter of principle he always resized the brass fully.

Well at first thought is he is working his brass far more than he needs to. His choice.

In my factory chamberings I just use the FL die to bump the shoulder. On my wildcats and something he might consider I simply have custom dies made.

Last if he is using a good lube I have trouble understanding the "strain quite a bit" I REFORM cases all the time and never had to strain with a good lube.

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Originally posted

Last if he is using a good lub I have trouble understanding the "strain quite a bit" I REFORM cases all the time and never had to strain with a good lub.

Yeh, but you're not trying to FL size .375s in a Lyman 310!!

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Yeh, but you're not trying to FL size .375s in a Lyman 310!!

AC now that is a fact. I might have to switch to neck sizing if I was doing much with a 310.

I will alos admit to using a cheater when running 416 bullets through a 410 resizer using my Rockchucker.

quote:

Originally posted by Jas Madhavan:
A friend has a Weatherby Mark V 375 H&H....

If he is planning on using if for Dangerous Game, then he should ALWAYS Full Length Resize. If he is just going to use it in OH, then it doesn't matter.

You can’t hunt anything with it in OH except targets.

Sounds like he has a Weatherby rifle that has been chambered to .375 WEATHERBY not H&H....

.041 is not on oversize chamber
it is a different chamber.....

Tell him to get the proper set of dies.

Neck sizing is ok if he has a neck die large enough to clear the body - principles not withstanding.....

quote:

.041 is not on oversize chamber
it is a different chamber.....

Excellent catch. However if I can draw correctly and QL has the right numbers I measure the difference at 1.9 between the 375H&H and 375Wby as only .0336.

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
Sounds like he has a Weatherby rifle that has been chambered to .375 WEATHERBY not H&H....

.041 is not on oversize chamber
it is a different chamber.....

Tell him to get the proper set of dies.

Neck sizing is ok if he has a neck die large enough to clear the body - principles not withstanding.....

Actually, that's what we thought first, but it does say 375 H&H on the body of the rifle. Do you think the factory could have made a mistake?

Also, why FL resize for dangerous game? Just for my curiosity. Is it because of the chance of a stuck case or non-feeding of the cartridge? Would make a lot of sense :-)

Thanks for all the suggestions

Jas

quote:

Originally posted by Jas Madhavan:
...why FL resize for dangerous game? Just for my curiosity. Is it because of the chance of a stuck case or non-feeding of the cartridge? Would make a lot of sense :-)...

quote:

Originally posted by Jas Madhavan:

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
Sounds like he has a Weatherby rifle that has been chambered to .375 WEATHERBY not H&H....

.041 is not on oversize chamber
it is a different chamber.....

Tell him to get the proper set of dies.

Neck sizing is ok if he has a neck die large enough to clear the body - principles not withstanding.....

Actually, that's what we thought first, but it does say 375 H&H on the body of the rifle. Do you think the factory could have made a mistake?

Also, why FL resize for dangerous game? Just for my curiosity. Is it because of the chance of a stuck case or non-feeding of the cartridge? Would make a lot of sense :-)

Thanks for all the suggestions

Jas

After firing a round you should very easily be able to see if the chamber is a 375 Weatherby by looking at the fired case. The shoulder areas and neck are different. The Weatherby has the radius shoulder and the H&H does not. Have you done that?

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
Sounds like he has a Weatherby rifle that has been chambered to .375 WEATHERBY not H&H....

.041 is not on oversize chamber
it is a different chamber.....


.....

You are so absolutely right. This weekend I took a picture of fired brass from both the rifles today. The one from his rifle has straight walls and a shoulder whereas the one from my rifle is a regular tapered 375 H&H shape. I checked the rifle and it says "375 H&H" on it.



Now, is this a manufacturing error or do you think a previous owner had some work done on it and rechambered it for the Weatherby caliber? The rifle shoots 375 H&H well. So does anything have to be done? I talked to Weatherby but all they said was to take a cast of the chamber, but you can clearly tell from the pictures that its bullet fired from a 375 Weatherby chamber.

Thanks

Jas

quote:

Originally posted by Jas Madhavan:

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
Sounds like he has a Weatherby rifle that has been chambered to .375 WEATHERBY not H&H....

.041 is not on oversize chamber
it is a different chamber.....


.....

You are so absolutely right. This weekend I took a picture of fired brass from both the rifles today. The one from his rifle has straight walls and a shoulder whereas the one from my rifle is a regular tapered 375 H&H shape. I checked the rifle and it says "375 H&H" on it.



Now, is this a manufacturing error or do you think a previous owner had some work done on it and rechambered it for the Weatherby caliber? The rifle shoots 375 H&H well. So does anything have to be done? I talked to Weatherby but all they said was to take a cast of the chamber, but you can clearly tell from the pictures that its bullet fired from a 375 Weatherby chamber.

Thanks

Jas

Sounds like they mismarked the rifle at the factory. If your friend bought the rifle new it is for sure a factory goof. He might want to get Weatherby to document it. Get the serial number of the rifle and call Weatherby. Ask them what caliber was manufactured for the serial number.

You might also get either the SAAMI or Weatherby factory dimensions for a .375 Wby chamber, and compare his fired brass with those figures. (Sure looks like a .375 Wby to me.)

By comparing those figures with his brass, you can pretty safely determine if the .375 Weatherby round will easily go in his chamber.

It if will, get a .375 Weatherby die set from some reliable manufucturer such a RCBS or Redding and go to town.

If that's what it turn out to be, I sure would NOT return the rifle to Wby. If it is a factory mis-mark, it may someday be worth some additional bucks to a collector, and he can still safely use it in the meantime once he knows.

If your friends reloader buddy could not simply look at those two cases and know it wasn't a 375H&H then I sure wouldn't pull the trigger on any reload he put together.

+1 on that ramrod!

quote:

Also, why FL resize for dangerous game? Just for my curiosity. Is it because of the chance of a stuck case or non-feeding of the cartridge? Would make a lot of sense :-)

I would have no problem using NS brass that had been fired in the same rifle. However, prior to leaving for the hunt, I'd also cycle all my ammo thru the rifle to make sure they would chamber. And yes, I'd do that w/ ANY hunting ammo I planned to take w/ me.