I now possess an example of the .375 Lapua and the .458 Lapua. This was done by simply necking up the .338 Lapua with a tapered neck expander in two steps, using a .30 to .375 expander for the first, then a .375 to .45 expander for the second.
Then using .378 Wby and .460 Wby seater dies to seat the bullets. It's a beautiful thing!

The .375 Lapua seems perfect as is.

The .458 Lapua might benefit from sharpening the shoulder a few degrees and blowing out the shoulder by a few thou.

I find a funny thing when looking in the otherwise excellent new Swift and Hornady manuals.
They show the .338 Lapua shoulder angle being "25 degrees and 67 minutes!" And I thought that after 60 minutes of angle one went on to the next degree!

The Clymer .338 Lapua Magnum reamer shows 20 degrees per side for the shoulder, as did an original German language web site with chamber and cartridge min's and max's.

20 degrees must be the standard .338 Lapua Magnum shoulder angle, eh?

With that broad shoulder and the gentle Lapua shoulder angle and Rigby case taper, it should be a slick feeder and extractor.

With the low pressures possible with hunting ammo in the .375 Lapua, case stretching should be minimal too.

With the thick and tough Lapua head, this has got to be the ultimate .375 hunting cartridge.

I may call it the ".375 BP," for ".375 Berry Picker" ... on second thought, ".375 Lapua Express Ordnance," or .375 LEO, and nickname it or flat out call it the .375 Lion.

The King of Beasts will make a good little brother to the King of Cartridges, the .416 Rigby, from whence it has permuted.

And then the .458 Lapua to flank the taller Rigby on the other side has got to be the .458 Rhino.

After all, we already have the 470 Mbogo.

What the heck, let's have a shorter version made from .416 Rigby Basic from BELL and call it the ".475 Mbogo Short," or ".475 Bull Short," or ".475 BS."

[ 02-05-2003, 09:18: Message edited by: DaggaRon ]

Nah! Forget the .475 BS. The 470 Mbogo will be accepted into the big five:

.338 Lapua Magnum: Leopard
.375 LEO: Lion
.416 Rigby: Elephant
.458 Lapua: Rhino
.470 Mbogo: Buffalo

This non-proprietary line of cartridges just needs the .375 Lapua and .458 Lapua to complete the Big Five.

No more BS tonight.