Would a LH 300 Win Mag action work? Who knows a gunsmith that can do this for me?

I am in the process of rebaarreling a pre-war M70 to 458 Lott. Don't know about the feeding though on the Ruger,it might take some work and then again it might not.

Jim

Read an article in Rifle magazine several years ago where Dave Scoville had 338 Win rebarreled to 375 H&H. New follower, moved bolt stop back. Worked great if I recall Phil Shoemaker made off with it for a time. Perhaps he could comment on it.

quote:

Originally posted by ColoradoMatt:
Read an article in Rifle magazine several years ago where Dave Scoville had 338 Win rebarreled to 375 H&H. New follower, moved bolt stop back. Worked great if I recall Phil Shoemaker made off with it for a time. Perhaps he could comment on it.

That is a old internet rumor. You can not convert a "standard" length Ruger to a 375 length unless you remove metal from the action to install the larger magazine box as well as altering the bolt stop and doing stock work. It can be done and is not difficult to do, but it is not a simple parts switch.
Just find a magazine box from a 375 H&H Ruger and hold it up next to a standard size action and you will know what I am talking about.

I have the article I mentioned above somewhere. I will see what else was done to make it work.

quote:

Originally posted by Snowwolfe:

quote:

Originally posted by ColoradoMatt:
Read an article in Rifle magazine several years ago where Dave Scoville had 338 Win rebarreled to 375 H&H. New follower, moved bolt stop back. Worked great if I recall Phil Shoemaker made off with it for a time. Perhaps he could comment on it.

That is a old internet rumor. You can not convert a "standard" length Ruger to a 375 length unless you remove metal from the action to install the larger magazine box as well as altering the bolt stop and doing stock work. It can be done and is not difficult to do, but it is not a simple parts switch.
Just find a magazine box from a 375 H&H Ruger and hold it up next to a standard size action and you will know what I am talking about.

Who the hell is talking about a Rugeer?

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Kobe:

quote:

Originally posted by Snowwolfe:

quote:

Originally posted by ColoradoMatt:
Read an article in Rifle magazine several years ago where Dave Scoville had 338 Win rebarreled to 375 H&H. New follower, moved bolt stop back. Worked great if I recall Phil Shoemaker made off with it for a time. Perhaps he could comment on it.

That is a old internet rumor. You can not convert a "standard" length Ruger to a 375 length unless you remove metal from the action to install the larger magazine box as well as altering the bolt stop and doing stock work. It can be done and is not difficult to do, but it is not a simple parts switch.
Just find a magazine box from a 375 H&H Ruger and hold it up next to a standard size action and you will know what I am talking about.

Who the hell is talking about a Rugeer?

The person who started the thread. Read the title. It is about converting a Ruger, not a Win 70 as you commented about.

My Bad

The late Bill Atkinson built me a left-hand 458 Lott on a Ruger 77 stainless-steel action which started life as a 7mm Rem Mag.

I know of three others Atkinson built.

As mentioned earlier, Atkinson moved the bolt stop back and put in a longer magazine. Cannot say what metal might have been removed from the action, but whatever was done the gun functioned flawlessly with either 458 Win Mag or 458 Lott ammo interchangeably and looked great.


We used a...

Shilen stainless-steel 26-inch long barrel
New England front sight and action mounted peep sight
Ruger #1 scope base rib on the barrel for a Scout-scope setup


The stock was the original laminated wood appropriately reinforced.

There was an article in one of the Wolfe Publications concerning Atkinson converting the Ruger 77 to 375 H&H which is what prompted me to have him do mine.

Again, there might have been metal removed from the action in order to make it all work. And stock wood might have been removed. I don't know. But the action and stock modification work was of minimal expense.

Unfortunately, Bill Atkinson has since passed away.












.

I found my "Rifle Magazine" article. It is from January 2004, #211. Dave Scoville had Bill Atkinson build a 375 H&H on a Ruger Model 77RS 338Mag. Here is what is needed:
-Long Mag box and follower.
-Mag well in action cut for and aft to fit long box.
-Ejector and bolt stop moved back about 3/8" to the rear of the new long magazine. The barrel for this gun was profiled just like the 338 barrel and factory sites attached. Ended up with a 7 pound 4 ounce 375 with identical external dimentions of a 338mag RS model 77 Mark II. At the time the rifle was put together, you could get the long mag box and follower from Brownells, but you would have to check to see if they still offer these parts. Jim Kobe seems to be correct, you do have to remove some metal from the action, but it doesn't sound like a big deal. Then again, I am not a gunsmith, just an avid shooter/hunter and reader of gun magazines.
I believe in a later report on this rifle, the stock cracked and Phil Shoemaker made off with the rifle in a new synthetic stock of some sort.

Might add that today it may not be worth the effort to modify the Ruger action for the longer cartridges.

Have since built left-hand Ruger 77 rifles in 375 Ruger and 416 Ruger and wildcat cousins which work in the unmodified action.


.

quote:

Originally posted by Hammer:
Might add that today it may not be worth the effort to modify the Ruger action for the longer cartridges.

Have since built left-hand Ruger 77 rifles in 375 Ruger and 416 Ruger and wildcat cousins which work in the unmodified action.
.

The 375 H&H is still the THREE-SEVEN-FIVE (i.e. the eubiquitous "One Caliber for All the World) that it has been for the last 100 years. The shorter Ruger Cartridges are great, but I doubt that either will dethrone their competitors anytime in the future. They've been trying to dethrone the 06' and the 30-30 for 100 years. They'll still be trying to dethrone the 375 H&H a hundred years from now. It's hard to beat intrenched tradition, no matter how good your new cartridge is. I think the H&H conversion is definately worth it, especially in stainless.

Looking at the Dave Scoville article again, he says that the magazine well needs to be opened up for and aft. He doesn't mention the action needing to be opened up. Perhaps someone who really knows Rugers could comment here.
Matt

quote:

Originally posted by ColoradoMatt:
Looking at the Dave Scoville article again, he says that the magazine well needs to be opened up for and aft. He doesn't mention the action needing to be opened up. Perhaps someone who really knows Rugers could comment here.
Matt

I believe by "magazine well" he is referring to the opening in the action itself.

Just hold the longer box next to the action and you can see where metal has to be removed.

Not rocket science, but not a simple parts swap either.
I wouldnt be afraid to tackle it with a dremel if I wanted to do it.

Jason:

Perhaps you are correct. However, there is picture of the rifle taken from the bottom with the floorplate removed showing before and after where wood was removed from the stock's "magazine well". Perhaps Dave Scoville was referring to both the bottom of the action and the stock?

Here's a link to the article:

http://www.riflemagazine.com/m...?magid=84&tocid=1186

Haven't read the article in a while, but I thought the mag box from the magnum had to be inletted into the stock.

I've considered having a 300WM redone to 300 H&H but other projects always seem to take priority.

Here are some photos from my own project, turning a 300W into a 375H&H. The rifle is rebarreled and shoot fine, but the fixed sights still have to be remounted. I'll post a picture of the completed gun tonight. It has a 22" pacnor and is .62 at the muzzle to keep weight down.







I added a thin piece of nylon at the back of the mag box to keep the rounds from sliding too far rearward. That probably isn't needed if the bolt stop is relocated, but in reality the stop screw can only move about .15" or .2" (I'll have to look up my notes) before you run out of meat for a hole.

Bob

Thank you for posting this info. This is a cool way to make a utilitarian big bore. Rugers are bullet proof!

Here's the above rifle. I dropped it off at the smith today to have the fixed sights mounted, but ultimately I decided to put a 2.5x fixed Leupold on it.

It would have been much easier to just buy a 375 Ruger, but as Matt said above there is only one 375 . I wanted to build an all weather 375H&H that was as convienent as my 30-06. I haven't weighed it, but is its definitely light and handly and is easy to shoot despite the crappy factory pad.

I'm completely at a loss as to why Ruger doesn't make'em like this at the factory!?




Bob

quote:

Originally posted by BigBoreCore:
Who knows a gunsmith that can do this for me?

I would be willing to bet Dennis Olson would be able to do the work for you. And if you call him don't be put off by his price, his prices are always extremely low.

The stainless model 70's in 375 are no longer available, and used ones command ridiculous prices. Kimber Talkeetna's are priced well into the stratisphere as well. At the moment, this seems like a truly affordable way to build a stainless CRF 375 H&H. I see stainless Ruger 77MKII's in pawn shops for $350-400 on a regular basis.

You guys are sure going to a lot of trouble just to chamber an old, too-long cartridge. Ruger made a short run of .375 Ruger stainless laminated rifles in 2008. They are short, light and handy and will do anything the .375 H&H will, except be unwieldy and hidebound in tradition. I have had three of them switched to left hand .416 Ruger by swapping barrels with right hand .416 guns. If you want more juice, the left hand .416 Ruger is all most thoughtful hunters could ever wish for..... Now I'll duck and watch the arrows fly!!

Thanks for all the info guys, but I think Vol717 is right. I sent my LH Ruger 375 African barrel out to be rebored to the 416 Ruger. I'll let you all know how it turns out, but I got to wait awhile before I get it back.