I've been invited to go deer hunting in Ohio next fall, and Ohio is a "pistol cartridge only" proposition for centerfire rifles. One of the exemptions is that straight wall cartridges do not have a length limitation so a 45-70 is legal in a rifle but not a 30-30.

So, I do not have a rifle in a pistol caliber and both the 375 win and the 38/55 are legal cartridges. Sooo, the thought of a project Lee Enfield redone in the fashion of a Lee Speed sounds like an interesting project (just wondering if I'll be able to finish it by next Fall LOL).

Gibbs or Navy Arms or whoever converted a bunch to 45-70 but the lines are not that graceful, and the ballistics of the 375 winchester aren't that shabby either. Just wondering if there are some blatant "unknown unknowns" that I am not seeing in a project like this?

Also, I have no experience with either the 375 win or the 38/55. The 375 looks to be the more versatile cartridge on paper but I'd be interested if anyone thought otherwise.

My other idea is I have a somewhat tattered 1904 (IIRC) Mauser Oberndorf military action that I have occasionally entertained the thought of chambering to 41 magnum. The 41Mag and also 44Mag) cartridges fit and feed from a M1 carbine magazine. With a barrel from a 405 Winchester or most any other 40 cal I suspect would be also an interesting time waster and money sink but hey, what else is life about?

At any rate, all helpful advice and suggestions are appreciated!

I think if you look at a No 1 MKIII you'll find a much more graceful looking rifle. Compare it to the Lee Speed Rifle and you will get an idea of what it can look like.

The No 4 MKI can be improved considerably in the receiver area but it requires some machining to remove ears and continue the better lines.

I have a couple of both and like the lines of the No 1 MKIII much better.

The Ishapore 2A1 rifle is also a better looking action but then there is a bolt face issue.

I'll post rant towards the bottom.

let me test my understanding, you want to build a nifty rifle... which this does sound like... and then go hunt with it...

the 38/55 is the elder, and longer, case, with the 375 being shorter and higher pressure.. and the 375 dies are likely to be all set for .375 bullets...

today, the brass is also better, in terms of pressure -- i haven't done a search, though the ways things have been since, oh, 2008, i'd start looking for brass NOW -- and whichever one i could find, i'd likely make the caliber ...

let me revise -- i'd do a starline brass 38-55, as there isn't any 375 available as of 5 mins to 6 this morning.

this is a great article on choosing the version of the 38-55 .. i'd likly go with the longer version -- better fit in the mag

http://www.starlinebrass.com/a...Correct-38-55-Cases/


the good news? it just a rebarrel away... the 38-55 would be good fit... shorter, but not much, than the 303, and the rim is about .8mm smaller...

here's what*I* would do.. assuming i had the rifle...
order brass, dies, and start calling barrel makers (if you don't have one)..

run 3 pieces of brass though a 303 die.. remove expander, imperial sizing wax


and see how they feed through the lee

rant --
so? pistol caliber only, but not 30-30.. what happens if you show up with a TC PISTOL in 30/30? heh, or 12" competitor in 308?, or a 14" savage striker in 300wsm?

Texas deer hunting-- legal firearm - any LEGAL non-automatic, legal caliber - centerfire
(sigh)

midway has starline brass, redding dies, ptg reamers, and tons of bullets actually in stock, as of 607 this morning

Or you could do like I plan to and rebarrel or rebore to .375, then ream the chamber for the original .375 Express, a 270-grain bullet at 2,000.
It helps to be half a bubble off of plumb and have a Terry Thomas tooth gap when you do this though.

I'd recommend you say "Hey B 40,, sell me that No5 mk1 with the sporter stock on it and the 375 midway barrel you have sitting there cheap"
Then rebarrel and go hunting.

I started to build a Lee Speed in Ken Waters 375 Express, a 444 case necked to .375, on a #1 Mk 3 several years ago. Trying to make the bloody thing feed has been a real challenge. I need to finish it before I get too old to use it.

I think I made a mistake on the Ishapore 2A1 rifle. I don't think there is a bolt face issue, maybe just an extractor issue and that may be able to be handled with a file or replacement.

You can ONLY use straight wall cartridges here in the worthless nut state. Anything with any type of shoulder is illegal. Another option with the same rim diameter is the 444 Marlin.

Rad

Once you open up the door to 44 caliber, you're into a much easier wildcat. Use a mauser action and build it in .429 express (Ken Howell called it the 444 marlin rimless. Chamber with a 444 marlin reamer, headspace it on the mouth, and use 30-06 brass blown out straight. Mine gets better than 2500 fps with 300 grain bullets. I made it on a 1917 Amberg GEW mauser, and it's one of my favorite projects of all time. I made mine 2.333" long; I lengthened the chamber from the 444 marlin length using a chucking reamer. I have a long throat reamer that I use to start with, so it works out perfectly.

Fed from the magazine flawlessly without any modifications, except I had to put in a different follower to make it feed the last round.

That is true; no need for a rimmed case any more. Why don't you go with a .405 Winchester?

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
That is true; no need for a rimmed case any more. Why don't you go with a .405 Winchester?

A couple of reasons, to directly answer your question is whenever I happen across a 405 Win barrel I will use it for a 41 magnum mauser project that I mentioned above in my post.

But the main issue to me is when you get over 375 the barrels all get thicker and I'm afraid of losing the graceful lines of what I'd like to have. As an example, an initial thought I had when the subject of an Ohio hunt came up would be to simply get one of the Navy Arms 45-70 conversions and just rework that how I'd like it, but here's what they look like in real life:


Here's what I want it to look like:


And I just don't think I can do that with a 40+ caliber.

Like I suspect pretty much darn near everyone reading this, I have an armful of Ohio legal guns already but I think this would be pretty cool when finished.

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
I'd recommend you say "Hey B 40,, sell me that No5 mk1 with the sporter stock on it and the 375 midway barrel you have sitting there cheap"
Then rebarrel and go hunting.

B40, I'll send you a PM later on sometime tonight.

For Michigan pistol cartridge rifle there is a case length limit of 1.8". I made a 30-06 cut down and a 44 bullet. It functions through a Remington short action without modification.
I called it 44 MLC, if other people came names cartridge after themselves so can I.
I took two hogs in Texas in 2015, have not made it to Michigan to hunt with it yet(a friend has a farm there)
We have the reamer so it would just be a simple rebarrel. I use 444 Marlin dies to load.

Mark
Dvhcustomguns.com

Mark my phobia with that is I have run in to too many conservation officers out to fill a quota. ( do have to say all my experiences have been on the water but I was fishing with a guy, we got stopped and he actually got a ticket because his fire extinguisher gauge needle was out of the green zone). Anyway, not to hijack my thread into a rant but for this reason I want to have a gun in a traditional caliber especially when I am planning to hunt with it out of state. The way my luck runs I'd be charged with hunting with a 30-06 as that's what my headstamp would probably say.

Now your cartridge does sound pretty interesting, sort of like a 44 AMP Magnum ++ in that it is half an inch longer, pretty cool!

The rifle in your lower picture would be very easy to build in 38-55.

I made a wildcat a few years ago to rechamber a 357 max Encore pistol barrel that wouldn't group at all. I took a 356 win case and removed the shoulder to make a some what straight wall case. I got two deer with it in 2014. I need to get a 20" barrel as the smith got the chamber too deep in the 15" TC barrel.

Rad

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
The rifle in your lower picture would be very easy to build in 38-55.

That was what I was hoping, never having fiddled with a Lee Enfield ever.

Can you talk a little more about your one piece stock? It does look nice, at least in the close up pic but for me the whole Lee Speed cachet has to include the 2 piece stock most likely.

Hope this input isn't too late. In a .303 chambered Enfield then I'd select .444 Marlin as the "go to" cartridge. Why? As a common conversion here in UK (and an official variant made by the ordnance factory in India) was .410" Musket...which is a .410" shot shell.

So .444 Marlin wold be the easiest "go to" conversion.

If using an Ishapore 7.62mm Enfield then I'd look at .44 Auto Mag. Now if the need isn't for an officially SAAMI listed cartridge I'd go, in the Ishapore, to a .308 Winchester case necked up to make a "rimless" .444 Marlin as it were. Although it might be easier just to cut down .30-06 cases to make them.

Like SSDAVE has already posted!

If you want a classic British straight wall cartridge then I think that there is some sort of .400 Express (or whatsover) that might work or the .375 2 1/2" Rimmed that is a lot better feeder, I'd guess, than Winchester's same calibre lever action version as BSA offered a bolt action in that calibre. So it is "authentic" and "designed as it were for a Lee action.

http://www.kynochammunition.co.uk/375%202.5.html

Good Luck! Do please come back with your final choice!