Hello, I have never owned a 375HH but always wanted one. I have always been drawn to the FN Brownings, and wondering about them?

Its my understanding that the 375 was made on a Mauser 98 action? Also, how do you check for the salt stock issue. Any thoughts or experience?

Most of the .375’s were Mauser actions and push feed. Be careful if you’re looking for CRF.

If you can locate one 1965 or earlier, serial L5-xxxx, you will be fine. Salt afterwards. The push feeds, your decision.

I had a push feed in .458 win mag with salt wood. The metal wasn't affected as bad as I was thinking it would be...and the rifle was very accurate. Sold it because the Salt Wood was on my mind every day. Was able to get a hog with the 510gr Winchester load.

Mine is 5L 3XXXX 375 H&H
CRF no salt wood

If I had a saltwood-stocked rifle I would set it aside, for use as a doorstop curio or seasoning of the campfire,
and put a Bell & Carlson Medalist stock on it.
FN Mauser.

Will not the use of 0000 steel wool with BreakFree CLP or a complete refinishing job, one or the other,
make the saltwood rifle serviceable ?
I have not seen such ravages myself, but suspect the latter would be required.
A bead-blasting and and a matte finish.
Not much collector value to worry about.
A lot of shooter value in a refinishing and re-stocking, however.

Rip ...

If you want to check for salt wood rust first take off the stock and look for rust below the wood line. Next step is to remove the screws holding the recoil pad to see if there is any rust on them.

I have a 375 Browning push-feed as described above but seldom use it. Excuse my ignorance, but what is the "salt wood" under discussion?

Possible salt wood stock production dates are reasonably well known, from the late 1960s to the mid 1970s.
Having had serious rusting problems with a salt wood Superposed, you don't want one.
Production dates for Browning rifle serial numbers may be available.

I believe browning tried using salt to speed up the drying processing for their wood stock. It impregnated the wood and then made a lot of people mad by rusting the metal where no one could see.

At least that’s what I hear...

I bought a Browning T-Bolt 22LR with salt wood for about $50.00 a long time ago. It was pitted pretty bad below the chamber.
I sanded it out pretty good and glassed in the action. Not an issue since. That was probably 30 years ago.

Browning wasn't the only one that got burned, Winchester, Remington and I think even Ruger.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Kobe:
Browning wasn't the only one that got burned, Winchester, Remington and I think even Ruger.

Really? I at least had never heard that before. Was it in the same timeframe as Browning?

I believe so, there was a shortage of wood for all gunmakers

I don't think I've seen a push-feed Mauser; how does it work? Is the standard extractor modified to snap over rims or did they use something like Sako's? Does the bolt face allow cartridges to slide up beneath the extractor or did they enclose it somehow?

Neither have I, Brownings I have seen were all or mostly FN actions..and that's a good action, I much prefer a 98 Mauser or a win pre 64 action for a DG rifle..

I have never seen or heard of salt wood in any gun but Brownings...