I looked at a minty Sako rifle made on FN Mauser action with $850USD asking price. Nice piece with 100m standing and one 200m folding leaf, but the owner says it's .375 Magnum WINCHESTER. I'm not familiar with this chambering, what is it? A .338WM necked up to .375?

There is no such thing as a .375 Magnum Winchester unless:

1) It is a bizarrely named wildcat.

2) It is a .375 H&H and someone knows no better.

3) It is the .375 Epstein Magnum? This is essentially a .300 Winchester Magnum necked up to .375, by Mike Epstein a pro baseballer who discussed it with Curt Gowdy on live network TV color commentary, over 30 years ago, when doing such things was PC, or not un-PC, or PC hadn't reared its ugly head.

4)

Sounds fishy. The .375 H&H is closely associated with the Winchester M70 since the 1930's.

Sort of like a .375 Hoffman Magnum was just a .375 H&H chambering of a Hoffman Arms rifle, back when Kermit and Theodore Roosevelt Jr. were trekking east of the sun and west of the moon?

What does the barrel stamping or engraving say?

The barrel stamping is '375MAGNUM'. I asked the owner of this rifle (from In Site Firearms Co Jeffersonville, PA) if it was H&H, and he said no, it's Magnum Winchester. Thanks for your suggestions.

quote:

Originally posted by Paolo9,5x73:
I looked at a minty Sako rifle made on FN Mauser action with $850USD asking price. Nice piece with 100m standing and one 200m folding leaf, but the owner says it's .375 Magnum WINCHESTER. I'm not familiar with this chambering, what is it? A .338WM necked up to .375?

Well, there IS a .375 Winchester, but it is NOT a magnum, merely an up-dated .38/55. And I seriously doubt that anyone would waste a nice Mauser action this way, even if it was technically possible to do so..........

If it was made by SAKO, and it has a SAKO factory marking of 375 Magnum, I'd be willing to bet a free lunch that it is a .375 H&H Magnum........

Maybe it's a 375 Weatherby Magnum or 375 RUM?

The owner probably looked at the brass, and it happened to be Winchester, and was so stamped? If not as addicted to guns as we are, an easy mistake.
I'm quite sure this is a regular .375 H&H.

If possible get a pic of a fired case.

Like the others this doesn't ring a bell with me. Over the years my experience has taught me not to get involved in this kind of deal. It's apparent that the fellow trying to sell it knows nada about it or would have spelled it out in spades and given you all the details. Looking at the price $850USD their pretty proud of this rifle. It strikes me for this kind of money you can pick up another good used rifle in a more standard caliber that should make you happy. I would advise you to steer clear of this mystery gun.

The ejection port was too short for .375H&H round. The only way to stuff them in would be to insert part way into chamber and "pull back" into the magazine. What would happen when one had a dud and needed to eject loaded round quickly? Will the ejector angle the round enough to spit it out, or will it just get stuck in there? I passed on this one.
My fried had a Heym SR20 .375H&H sporter.
It would eject Federal 300gr SPs, Nosler Patitions, TBBC, but those 270gr and 300gr Remington SPs would just get stuck every time, since they were about .5-1mm to long.
It would eject all fired brass quite nicely.

A standard length (medium) M98 action that does not have the ejection port opened up properly, and a .375 H&H, eh?

One would not expect Heym to be so stingy with the millimeter also.

Strange things going on here. As far as I know, and can find in my books, Sako never made guns on M98's.
Anyway, does this gun chamber .375H&H rounds? Because that is what matters, as long as the ejection port is wide enough for the empty shells.

So M 98 and bogus stamping, not a Sako produkt, IMO. May be custom job done by someone close to the factory.

Edit: Heck, I never saw this rifle was for sale in a gunshop. Can they not be contacted and asked?

Sako did make rifles using a Mauser 98 style lock. A friend om mine has one rebarreled to 358 Norma mag. Its a 30-06 length lock.

The lock has long Mauser extractor and controlled feeding if this is what defines a M98... I´m no expert...

Bent,
didn't sako buy the mauser name for production of m98 actions, recently?

375 magnum - if it's a bolt gun, it's 90+% likely to be the 375 HH magnum, a chambercast or fired brass will let you know.

unless the boltface and feeding is WEIRD it's unlikely to be a 375WINCHESTER which is a lever gun round,,,, though, perhaps, not a bad idea on a SMLE


jeffe

Thomas,
That is not what defines a M98...... I would like to see picks with factorystamps before a buy that one......

Jeffe,
Beretta now owns Sako, so who knows what they will do? But I have not heard of what you are saying, but if they did, production has not started!

Anyway, the stamping on the barrel says .375Magnum, we only have the inn-keepers word for it to be a "winchester". I have met enough not very cunny gun-shop owners to believe that he is confusing the stamp on the brass with the name of the cartridge.

quote:

Originally posted by Paolo9,5x73:
I looked at a minty Sako rifle made on FN Mauser action with $850USD asking price. Nice piece with 100m standing and one 200m folding leaf, but the owner says it's .375 Magnum WINCHESTER. I'm not familiar with this chambering, what is it? A .338WM necked up to .375?

All you're going to get is guessing until someone can post some photos.

Something like this?


After the war Sako did make rifles on Mauser recievers and on FN-Mauser recievers (without the flag safety). There was one in .375 H&H for sale in Norway (Winge vapen) some years back. I almost bought it, after offending an old gunsmith at Sako´s by asking him if the Sakomade Mausers were any good; he was quiet for a while, and then said, "THEY ARE ALL GOOD."

Boha

Yes, that's what it looked like. The only difference was monte carlo stock and thin Sako pad with white spacer. I have seen couple of these late 50s vintage sporters before in caliber .30-06. Nice rifles, almost as "polished up" as Browning 'Safari Grade'.
If it's .375H&H then it's well worth $850 considering minty Brownie 'Safari Grade' in this chambering will set you back $1500, if you can find one. Winnie pre-64 prices are in $1800-$2000 range and they're not better rifles.
The last 'Safari Grade' big-bore I have seen was .458WM with signs corrosion around cross-bolts (Mr. Salty Wood ) and the guy wanted $1100 for it.

As I only work about 20 minutes from In Site and have dealt with them quite a bit over the years, I visited them today during lunch and took a look at the rifle in question. The rifle had been sold but was still in the shop.

The rifle is a Sako built on a FN Mauser action with a sporter weight barrel and sights as Paolo described. It is chambered in .375 H&H Magnum. I took a dummy .375 H&H with me just to make sure and it fed and ejected it perfectly. Bullet was a 300 grain Barrel is marked .375 Magnum. The rifle looks like the one in the picture boha posted except that it has a full Sako recoil pad installed.

Hope this helps to clarify things for everyone.

TreeFarmer

Almost forgot, if anyone is interested, In Site has a beautiful Zoli O/U rifle in 9.3X74R on consignment. Wish I had the coin to buy it but son's college tuition is coming due.

So I was right one the one and wrong on the other. I have never seen Sako's made on a FN/M98, nor read about one until now.