375hh to...something else tbd?

A lot of people have asked to turn their 06 or 7mag into a 375hh; I am asking the reverse.

I have a 375hh Alaskan Guide, controlled feed, top bolt release and blind mag. The 6.5lb rifle gets your attention, particularly muzzle rise and trigger guard destroying your finger. The recoil itself is fine though.

So I am keeping all options open but not sure what the options are, I am leaning towards a standard long action (since I already have a 111 7mag)

Let's say a 35 whelen: is it as easy as rebarrel, swapping to the standard bolthead, headspace, and use the existing 375hh magazine box? Any anticipated feeding problems or issues with the bolt since the original is controlled?

should be that easy or a good muzzle break.

You might also try a reduced load, H4895 gives fantastic accuracy in my gun and can be loaded down far enough to mitigate any punishment. I used it when I was learning to shoot my .375 H&H prior to my safari and I still use a starting load under the old style 270 grain Hornady for deer, hogs and general plinking. If I were converting the first one I would try would be the .300 H&H, everything should work.

You can swap, yes; if you wanted to go 35 Whelen. Barrel & Bolt head. You would need to remove the Fixed Ejector. And I’m not sure about the mag box. It’ll fit… and f that I’m sure. 375 H&H one BIG BOY next to a 30-06 case. But why the sudden interest to switch? Especially to what’s known as the Poor Man’s 375 H&H, in the 35 Whelen? Not that it’s a bad cartridge.. but if you already have the H&H? Is it recoil? You can always change it to a 300 H&H. Or better yet, 300 WinMag.

What is it you are after? I ask because you mention “keeping your options open”, and you mention quite a swing from 7mm Rem Mag to 30-06 to 35 Whelen… What is driving this thought that you need to change up? And especially, take on the added complexity of changing parent cases?

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Originally Posted by BobT

You might also try a reduced load, H4895 gives fantastic accuracy in my gun and can be loaded down far enough to mitigate any punishment. I used it when I was learning to shoot my .375 H&H prior to my safari and I still use a starting load under the old style 270 grain Hornady for deer, hogs and general plinking. If I were converting the first one I would try would be the .300 H&H, everything should work.

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I do not reload, although I did find one small scale commercial reloader online who will do reduced loads. I wonder what the penetration difference would be between a .375, 230gr speer bullet and a .350, 250gr? Likely a moose or elk would not know the difference

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Originally Posted by Dave Hoback

You can swap, yes; if you wanted to go 35 Whelen. Barrel & Bolt head. You would need to remove the Fixed Ejector. And I’m not sure about the mag box. It’ll fit… and f that I’m sure. 375 H&H one BIG BOY next to a 30-06 case. But why the sudden interest to switch? Especially to what’s known as the Poor Man’s 375 H&H, in the 35 Whelen? Not that it’s a bad cartridge.. but if you already have the H&H? Is it recoil? You can always change it to a 300 H&H. Or better yet, 300 WinMag.

What is it you are after? I ask because you mention “keeping your options open”, and you mention quite a swing from 7mm Rem Mag to 30-06 to 35 Whelen… What is driving this thought that you need to change up? And especially, take on the added complexity of changing parent cases?

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Longer background: I have always had a fascination with the 375 h&h; for 20 years i had a box of cartridges without the gun just bc they made me smile.

I have a model 70 375 and weighs 8.5 pounds bare rifle. I have neck and shoulder issues that keep me from adding another 1.5 pounds for a scope - just too heavy for me to carry for an extended period.

So to remedy that issue, I also picked up this Savage 375 a couple years ago hoping to be at 8.5 pounds scoped. It is lighter than expected and the muzzle rise always has me worried about a 3rd eyebrow.

Recognizing I now own 2 rifles that I can't really use, I feel the need to move on from 1 of them either by selling or converting. I like the reputation that the wider and heavier bullet the 35 cal has with larger game. The 300hh also came to mind, though factory ammo is expensive and hard to find.

So just thinking out loud

300 WinMag would be my choice.. ESPECIALLY because you don’t reload. 300WM is available everywhere, both stores & online. With many, MANY more options than 375 H&H. And regardless of what anyone might think, there is nothing in North America that can stand up against the 300WM.

That would be a win, win for you. Easy to find cartridges off the shelf & easy swap for you with just a barrel change.

If you reloaded I'd do an 8mm RM.

A 7mm STW, I have seen ammo for that.
New barrel and chamber, same brass and bolt face.

I'm thrifty... well cheap! I would work on reduced loads as already suggested and have the barrel threaded for a Harrell's brake. Don't care what you have, when you launch a 300+ grain bullet there is an opposite reaction!

Lol! May as well go muzzle loader at that point. Or maybe just throw a giant lead ball at the game?

So, what do you hunt that you need a .300WM or .375? I am another who avoids recoil when I can. A light gun with heavy recoil I'd rarely shoot. Then again, I don't hunt anymore either. The last hunt I went on I carried a Garand. :)

Except for moose or grizzly just about anything else can be hunted with a .30-06 or less. Elk certainly don't know the difference. I'd certainly rebarrel it, probably to a .30-06 if I were hunting elk. Especially when trying to find ammo. If you are set on larger dia bullets then the .35Whelen is certainly doable, but, can you get the ammo you want?

But....all this is what I would do, not what you should do.

I do understand having 'extra' guns as well as buying one cause I just wanted it. One of my 'dream' guns is a pre-war civilian Mauser in 7x57 with a mannlicher stock and receiver peep sight. I don't have any real use for one, I just love their looks, the action and cartridge.

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Originally Posted by Curtism1234

Any anticipated feeding problems or issues with the bolt since the original is controlled?

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I had a control feed magnum action that I had set up as a 375 Ruger and later a 458 win mag.
Savage control feeds only work on magnum rounds AFAIK.
Maybe you could get it to work with a .473 bolt face with some machine work.
I just swapped out to a push feed bolt head for .473 cartridges.
I ended up building a Mauser chambered in 9.3x62 for a control feed heavy hitter without all the recoil.

Thanks all

I think I will either rebarrel from 20" to 24" to help with recoil and blast OR just move on from it

I think if you are wanting to keep a magnum bolt face for simplicity (nothing wrong with that), how about a 257 Weatherby mag?

Factory ammo is expensive, because *Weatherby (I handload mine), but I'm trying to think of a more or less "common" cartridge with that bolt face, (as in not a complete wildcat, and possible to find ammo on a shelf) to change it to that is any smaller than that for recoil purposes, and I'm not coming up with one.