The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Rifles Medium Bore Rifles H. Dumoulin .308 Norma MagnumGo | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
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I have stumbled upon a .308 Norma Magnum built on what appears to be a FN De Lux commercial mauser action. "H. Dumoulin" as well as "Liege" is engraved on the barrel. Interestingly, the rifle also has 'J Rosenthal' (A long established arms dealer in Windhoek, Namibia and Cape Town, South africa) engraved on the barrel, so it was probably imported by Rosenthal's. The rifle's condition is fair. It has clearly seen use but the barrel looks good and the action is like butter. The asking price is less than what the action alone is worth, and I am keen on buying but would like to know if anyone has experience with this cartridge. Norma brass is available here in SA at a 50% premium over e.g. Remington or Winchester. I will have tyo try and source a die set as well. Can anyone comment on the .308 Norma Magnum or Dumuolin. Is the rifle of collector's value? If not, I would like to re-finish the stock and re-blue the barrel once I have a license for it. Would it be sacriledge to re-chamber to .300 Win Mag? Cheers | ||
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If you reload I'd leave it as a .308 Norma. Simply size Winchester .300 Win Mag cases in the FL .308 Norma die (adjusted to headspace on shoulder of case in your rifles chamber) and trim to correct OAL ( a chamber cast of your rifles chamber will tell you how long the neck should be). Very simple to do and would give that fine rifle a new lease on life in original chambering. 338 Win Mag cases can also will be used but they will be a tudge short in OAL after fire forming. Larry Gibson | |||
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If the money is right bite his ruddy arm off. Dumoulin are one of the best builders of mauser actioned rifles in Belgium, if not Europe. http://www.dumoulin-herstal.com/index_en.htm | |||
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I have a 308 Norma. I love it. Like Larry said if you reload leave it alone. YOU only give up a few FPS. I happen to use 308Norma brass but like he said neck down 338 the neck will be a touch short but you probably will never need to trim.  As usual just my $.02 Paul K | |||
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The only advantage .308mag has over .300Winmag is ease of cartridge reloading assuming you are starting with .308mag brass. One of few collectible rifles in this caliber is FN-made Browning bolt rifle if found in very good condition. Griffin & Howe piece in this caliber would probably bring in good amount of cash. Couple scandinavian firms chambered this round in their rifles so perhaps they are collectible in say Sweden. I don't know. Henri Dumoulin & Fils is reputable maker and if rifle is in very good mechanical order you're likely going to get good reliable service out of that piece. | |||
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I have one, my stepfather and his brother both have them (rifles chambered in 308 norma I should say, not that makers). It is a great cartridge, as said, if you reload leave it alone. Actually my stepdad's brother's started as a 300 win mauser, and it just wouldn't give him published velocities when he was loading. He had it rechambered to the Norma and it performed great so he was happy. If you do buy it contact me, I have WAY too much 308 norma brass. I went a bit crazy, since it is normally so expensive, I saw a good deal and bought more. I have 220 unfired! 40 of those are too many and I'd give you a great deal. (sorry to add a sales pitch, they aren't actively for sale I just figured if I could help you out and thin my mess out a bit). Red | |||
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The .308 Norma is dimensionally almost identical to a .30/.338 Winchester. In terms of ballistics, it is insignificantly different from a .300 Winchester, being theoretically about halfway between it an a .300 H&H in terms of powder capacity and velocity. A .308 Norma with a "fast" barrel will be faster than a .300 Win with a "slow" barrel. The .308 Norma was extremely popular in the 1960's for rechambered/sporterized 1903 Springfields. Its cartridge length would fit in a Springfield magazine when no other maganum .30 cal would. If you can get some brass from someone like Dago, that's great. Otherwise, the best solution is to simply run .338 Win brass (or virtually any belted magnum brass) through a .308 Norma die. Even 7mm Rem will open up with no trouble. | |||
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Dumoulin rifles are very excellent goods. About the equivalent of original Niedner rifles here in the 'States. The .308 Norma Mag is an excellent .300 Magnum round...no better and no worse than any of the many others the world has seen. Right now I have a .300 H&H, a .300 Wby, a .308 Norma Mag, a .300 Win Mag, and a few wildcats. You could throw them all in a sack, shake it well, and draw out any one of them to do the exact same work and any one of them would do it just as well as the others. A top quality rifle, an excellent round, and a bargain price to boot? Don't just stand there boy, shell out some rand and take it home with you! | |||
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I can get the rifle for R5,000 (649 USD) marked down from R8,000 (1,039 USD) because no one here is familiar with the chambering. It is a steal. Norma brass is available locally for about the same price as Remington/Winchester .375 H&H brass. This seems like a no-brainer  Thanks for the help! | |||
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Thanks Red, I might just take you up on that offer! | |||
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The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Rifles Medium Bore Rifles H. Dumoulin .308 Norma Magnum
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