Does anyone know if the 375 Winchester has ever been necked down to 35 caliber?

I'm looking for a 35 caliber cartridge that will fire reliably (read rimmed) in the T/C Contender.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Ken

Ken,
Is the .357 Remington Maximum too short? I have a friend that has an extra deep throat and loads his bullets way out inorder to utilize more case volume. If you would consider a wildcat the 35-348 is unbeatable-jmo.

Andy

not exactly, but close enough, 356 winchester

Or the 35-30?

357 Herrett. And you probably won't have to pay for custom dies.

I would do the 35rem rimmed. Buy a barrel in 35 rem and have a rim recess cut in your barrel. Use standard 35rem dies and form your brass from 303brit cases rather than 30-40 krag. 303 was designed to run slightly higher pressures than 30-40 krag. Its been done before ,check it out over at specialty pistols site. 356 in factory ammo is too hot for the older contender frame. You may get away with it on the G2. 356 handloaded is perfect
cheers

I have had a .358 Bullberry for over 25 years on a contender..just exactly what you describe..I can make casses from 30-30..375 win or 38-55 win..I also have it in a 20 inch carbine. Does anything a 35 Rem will do and works well in single shots..I to prefer rimmed cases in the contender.
My barrel is 12 inches and runs 180 Hornady SSPs at 2200 and 200 RNs at 2050..slays beasts pronto.



shortgun

Ken Waters designed two similar .35s, one the .30-30 necked up and the other the .38-55 necked down. The brass for the .38 is longer, resulting in a slightly larger case. They were called the Maine Guide cartridges. I imagine RCBS did the dies and might still be able to cut you one.

The .35-30 wildcat is more common. It is the .30-30 necked up with no other changes, I believe. CH-4D has dies. The Waters' cartridges had a shorter neck for a bit more case capacity. Compared to the .35 Rem., the slightly smaller case diameter would allow for slightly higher operating pressure in the Contender, and so the .35-30 would have about the same performance. A rimmed .35 Rem is a good idea, but I suspect forming brass for the .35-30 would be simpler.

The .375 brass would be a bit stronger and might allow a bit more pressure safely.

CH-4D does have dies for 35-30, 35-30IMP, 35 Bulberry. They are listed at $78

35 rem uses stock dies available from several manufacturers and sell for about $30

Handball to you Ken

quote:

Originally posted by asdf:
The .375 brass would be a bit stronger and might allow a bit more pressure safely.

asdf,
Have you had a look at the CIP specs for the 375Win? They list a PTmax (Max average pressure) of 4400bar ... higher than the 307Win and 356Win.

Any thoughts on why?
Cheers...
Con

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
not exactly, but close enough, 356 winchester

GUys, really reinventing the wheel here... chamber for 356 and load it down to anything you want .. factory chamber, brass, and dies...

just get a 358 winchester.

quote:

Originally posted by Lamar:
just get a 358 winchester.

"can't" put a 358 in a TC due to bolt thrust.

Just posted this response on another thread but,"I recently purchased a 35/30-30 Improved 40° Contender barrel from MGM. It shoots extremely well with fireforming loads and I believe that it will become one of my favorite barrels. I've acheived 2147 fps with 180 gr. Speer FP. In addition, i have my very first "Mickey Mouse face" with this setup. I believe that i can get 35 Rem. performance out of this cartridge using reformed 375 Win. brass."

Shortgun was very helpful in guidance with the original loads and I really like this barrel. MGM, and I'm sure Bullberry, will make you a version of this barrel and Ch4D will make the dies. I believe that the only chamberings for the Contender that are more powerful (and still safe) are the 375 JDJ,the 444 Marlin or the 45-70

quote:

CIP specs for the 375Win? They list a PTmax (Max average pressure) of 4400bar ... higher than the 307Win and 356Win. Any thoughts on why?

Con, I certainly can't answer the why, but I can guess. SAAMI lists the same 52,000 CUP limit for the three, which is no particular surprise. Perhaps they had hot load of of .375 when they first tested it at CIP, but they came up with a crusher rating (more or less CUP) of 55,000 for it. For the other two, they seem to have copied the (lower) SAAMI rating.

Although I've seen knowledgeable people claim it's otherwise, there is strong evidence that at one time CIP simply converted crusher ratings to PSI ratings through a straight-line formula. This produced the 64,000 PSI rating for the .375 you mention. It is indeed surprisingly hot.