One gun battery

[grsjax]

Looking to build a custom rifle on a P-14 action I have had sitting around for awhile. I want it to be usable for as wide a range of hunting as possible so need to pick a round with a lot of flexibility in the loading department. Having looked at a lot of posts on this board and others it seems the .375 Taylor (aka 375-338, 375 CT) looks like a good candidate. It can be loaded to .375 H&H levels or down loaded to .308Win levels. Anybody have any real world experiance with this cartridge? Good/bad points?

 

[dmazur]

The only bad points I've read about are

1. Hard (impossible?) to get correct headstamp on brass, which will cause trouble if you hunt internationally.

2. No factory ammo available.

Other than that, the .375 Taylor really sounds interesting. Supposed to have .308 efficiency in a larger case. .375 H&H ballistics in a standard-length action (which most call "long action".)

The P-14 action is supposed to be a real bear to sporterize, which I imagine you are already aware of.

It sounds like a project with a lot of utility. If you don't mind throwing lots of time and money at the P-14, press on...

 

[grsjax]

You are correct about the P-14 being hard to sporterize. You have to do a fair amount of milling on the exterior to remove the sight ears. On the plus side it has a great safety and is about as strong an action as you could wish for. Nice thing about the P-14 is that the bolt face is already the correct size for a belted magnum.