Is it in the realms of reality and safety to open up the boltface of a Ruger M-77 (with mag bolt face) to handle a shortened (2.55") .404 Jeffery case. What I am thinking of is a .375 Dakota built on the Ruger M-77 action.

Thanks

WyoJoe
Yes I think there is enough meat there to leave a small rim.
Or you could take 300 RUM brase and cut to the Dakota length and reneck to 375.
This could be done in about three steps.
Now you have your on wildcat you can call the
"375 WyoJoe Medium Magnum". Or the .375 WJMM for short.

Hey Joe,

Seems I remember reading in shooting times about Rick Jamison doing this very thing to a Ruger 77 when he was developing his own short fat cartridges. He started with the .425WR case which has a rebated rim but then switched to the .404 case and opened the bolt face on up. As I recall he reported it to be a very straight forward modification that worked very well. I don't know how long ago these articles were running for sure, 3 or 4 years anyhow. Hope this helps.

Brian

Probably, since Ruger at least planned to chamber their Express rifle in .404, and do make a .416 Rigby!!