I heard that this Lazz cartridge can fit into a short (.308 length) action and it achieves 2550 fps with a 300 gr. bullet. Thats impressive! How many grains of powder are required to reach this velocity in a rifle of this caliber? Does anyone have experiences with this cartridge? In a Win. M70 action, how many rounds can you squeeze into the mag? Thanks.

Seamus.....I have the first 9.53 HellCat that Lazzeroni made..it has a 23" barrel and if I could take the recoil I can almost get to 2600 fps using Varget powder. I eventually settled on a load of about 2525 to 2540 fps with the 300gr Nosler bullet for two reasons. First it was easy on my shoulder and very accurate and second when sighted in to shoot 1" high at 100 yards I could get my solids to print dead-on a 50 yards. The velocity of the solids was, I believe, about 2475 fps. John Lazzeroni had suggested I use RL15 and while it was very accurate I couldn't get the velocities John had when he tested the rifle. It turned out that the lot of powder I had must have been off spec a bit as when I used an older lot of RL 15 I gained more than 100fps with the same amounts of powder. I recently bought some more RL15 but haven't had a chance to try it out as Varget has worked so well. I'm at work so I don't have my reloading log book but as I recall the RL15 load was 7 or 8 grains less than the Nosler manual showed for the .375 H&H.

The head size on the Lazzeroni is around 0.577" (about the same as the Rigby) so the case is a bit "fatter" than either the new WSM or SRUM so you will probably have some trouble getting them to work in your Model 70. Lazzeroni did begin making his rifles using the Rem 700 actions but changed over to one made by McMillan...the MCRT which holds 3 in the magazine. The McMillan is a beautiful action and although it isn't CRF it does have a dual extractor system and I've never had any trouble with it. There are two gunsmiths that have alot of experience with building rifles for the various Lazzeroni cartridges.....Mark Bansner in Pennsylvania and Ross Spaygud (?) at Prarie Gun Works in Canada.

Mike Delatorre who posts on this site has a short Lazzeroni .338 built on a Rem 700 action.

What about a Mark X action?

Seamus...the only real benefit you get using the Lazzeroni HellCat over the normal .375 H&H is the short action and while many will say "Big Deal" and talk about a small difference i bolt-throw etc. they are missing the point. I like short actions because they feel better to me. I am 5'8" tall and wear a 32" sleeve...if I were 6' and wore a 35" or so it woulnd't make any difference to me. If you play golf and want to be good you wouldn't use clubs made for someone that was 4 or 5 inches taller with much longer arms would you.

So if you get a Mauser action big enough for the Lazzeroni head size it will be a long one so what's the benefit? I would call either Mark or Ross and talk to them as they may feel comfortable opening the bolt-face of your Model 70 enough for the HellCat case.

But think of this....the cost of your action + the cost of getting it modified against the cost of the McMillan action. The McMillan will certainly be more but.........if your building a custom rifle the action is one area you don't want to scrimp.

Just thought of another option...Lazzeroni is selling the Patriot in one of the Savage rifles and the Hellcat is just the Patriot necked up to .375...you could buy the rifle and have it rebarreled and you would be good to go.

Thanks Bill.