Feeding issues
 

My 375 winchester cast bullets shoot great but the tip design is causing feeding issues in my Big Bore. I have to "double clutch" them to chamber them.
just for giggles i ground a bit off the edge of the flat point and they fed smoothly. I tried seating them a little deeper but same result. I may see if longer will help by having the tip further up the feed ramp.
Just have to watch i don't go into the rifling
any advice?

Solved my own issue. It was what I thought. The original OAL was too short. So I determined the max cartridge length for my rifle and seated a bullet to .050" less. First check and it chambered nicely. However when put into the tube it was too long and the tip was hanging up in the mag tube and the feed ramp couldn't elevate it. I shortened the OAL another .010" and presto. A smooth feed. No hang ups what so ever. The difference between the cast bullets and the Winchester jacketed bullet is the profile. The cast ones have a larger flat point and a shorter olgive which cause the tip to jam below the entrance to the chamber. Lengthening the OAL allowed the flatter tip to be in line with the chamber for a smooth feed. I wonder how many guys got rid of their 375s for feed issues like this.

I like to think that the type of folks who bought a 375win Big Bores are the same type of folks to have their poop in a group and be able to understand and power through reloading quibbles and quandaries like that.

But then again, I worked on a never fired Big Bore last year (two years now? Idk) which had passed through two collectors and had never - a day in its life - EVER - been able to feed and function properly. The third owner tried to cycle factory ammo through it, and it simply wouldn’t feed smoothly, and would not eject rounds. Upon inspection, the extractor was wedged so tightly into the bolt that it could not move. I had to polish out the channel and the extractor to remove the interference fit, fit the “flat” of the extractor to allow sufficient movement, as well as reprofile the bevel and face to actually land cases on the bevel instead of dead length on the face. Then reblue (which I absolutely, positively &@$#% hate doing) the extractor to the original deep factory black… fed and functioned like a singer sewing machine after that… on dummy rounds… just to go back into the safe… although I do think this owner might be the one to break the ice and finally fire it someday before he’s too old and can’t.

I thought I could find an answer to my problem by posting the thread on here. But as I was typing the original post my feeble old brain was churning and I thought "well just maybe its something simple like the overall length (OAL)." So I put a cartridge into my inertia puller and dumped the powder then after determining the max cartridge length for the rifle I reseated the bullet into the case and just played with the rifle/cartridge until it loaded and fed without issues. Fortunately it only took 2 tries to get it right. The first time, when the OAL was too long and it got stuck in the receiver my first thought was oh s**t I have to go to the gunsmith. But looking at it I just put a small screwdriver behind the rim and pushed it into the tube and with my other hand opened the loading gate, removed the screwdriver and it popped right out. Took a guess and seated the bullet deeper and all was well.
Its really funny because when I was young I never wanted to do any work on a gun for fear of damaging it. But now that I'm older I realize that a gun is just metal and wood (or polymer) pieces put together. and with that mindset it is much easier to try and fix it yourself. Its amazing what you can do then. I've been so bold as to even put in new dovetails in a barrel!! LOL
BTW: YOUR MESSAGE BOX IS FULL!!

Sorry Bronc, I just noticed that! Between the ER, doc, and deer camp, I’ve been a little out of it the last 2 weeks. But I cleared some room in my inbox today.