I am pondering the idea of rebarreling a lever action 444 to a 375 JDJ. Which action should I use a Marlin or a Win 94 big bore?

winchester 1895, 71 or 1886 is my guess. the marlin is 2.55 overal length stock. I think the 375 jdj is too long for it and the winchester 94.

I would go with Buckeye on this as you can get the COL without too much fiddling. The new Win 71 would be a perfect platform.

If I had my druthers, I would pick a takedown Browning BLR in 325 WSM and call it good...but that's not what you asked...

As to which is the "stronger" action...the jury is still out on that one.

I have a Marlin 336 I turned into a "switch barrel"...I have 3 barrels for it...356 W, 444M and 45-70 I will rechamber to 458 American(including a bit of fiddling there also)...I "almost" did a 375 JDJ barrel for it as I have a set of hi-dollar 375 JDJ dies. I need to sell the dies or do a barrel as they are wasted just sitting.

FWIW...the steps I took to work out the details included fiddling the carrier so I can handle 2.65" COL(you can have Mic McPherson do the same for ~$250 clear out to ~2.73"), bobbed off the nose of a few Hornady 270 gr bullets for a meplat dia of 0.225", crunched some numbers for the now ~250 gr "FP" and just seated the bullet so it would feed reliably. I also looked at the Barnes 255 FP, and several cast bullets from Bearthooth, Oregon Trails and Cast Performance, all designed for the levergun.

You do loose a bit of case capacity but not enough to worry about and the velocity was high enough to make it interesting and MUCH higher than the 14" pistol version. You make up the loss in case capacity by longer barrels anyway...22" I think would be minimum, but 26" would put you up near 375 magnum velo..depending on case volume, etc.

After all the futzing around with the 444 case, I looked at the 350 RM. That case would work much better keeping the pressures down around 38-40 KPSI in a square threaded receiver, and has about 10 gr H2O more capacity than the JDJ.

For those with a 450 M V threaded rifle you could use the 450 M case necked down...the 375/450 M had already been done...the RCM case or the WSM case and get an additional ~10 gr plus H20, ~85 gr H2O. There is also the 375 Express at ~90gr H2O, basically a necked down and trimmed to 2.25" RUM case...that one would be very nice. The 376 Steyr would also work just seating a little deeper and keeping the pressures to Marlin limits.

The other snag I hit was "why do a 375 cal" when I have a perfectly good 444 I can shoot the same weight bullets plus go up to 400 gr...this being a "short range weapon" the extra higher BC from the smaller cal doesn't really help much.

You ask basically the same question before, haven't you...or was it someone else?

In any event it is a good conversion on either a Marlin or Win 94 BB, although if you can find a 94 BB I wouldn't mess it up by a conversion...they are just too scarce and have much more value stock. I lost out on a 375 W BB several years ago and I'm still kicking my backside...I had in mind to rechamber it to 375 JDJ...waited a day to long to go back and claim it.

Lots of ways to get a 375 cal or just do the 375 JDJ if that's what you want and work within all the limits...and you can't go wrong picking either rifle.

Luck

Thanks for the responses guys. I did a rebarrel of a Handirifle in 375 JDJ & just got to thinking about doing one in a lever gun. Great info. Lots to think about.

Look up the 400 Marlin.
The guy necked down a 450 marlin to .400.
Great looking cartridge, although I would have gone .411 my self.

Cheers, John

I talked to J.D. Jones about the 375 JDJ in a model 94 "Big Bore" about ten years ago. He said the action length was too short. The same is probably true for the Marlin action. The 1886's made by Chiappa might be your best bet. They offer it in 444 Marlin, and this is the rifle that you should probably consider as a starting point. J.D. Jones is the man to talk to.

The Winchester 94 action can be "lengthened" to handle a 2.73" cartridge length. I have done a 356W Big Bore and a pre-64 Model 64 30-30. The pre-64 actions are much easier to modify.

I have done some wildcatting with a Big Bore action and it isn't very suitable for pushing the envelope. I have not worked with a Marlin but the two actions are very similar strengthwise so I doubt if it is capable of much more than the Winchester 94.

As suggested the best idea is to use a Chiappa 86. Or Winchester 95-no strength or length issues and you could use pointy bullets in the 95.

I remembered this fellow offers some lever rifles in improbable cartridges, some that will kill a locomotive. www.reedercustomguns.com/custo...erguns/leverguns.htm