What do ya'll think about a 6.5-375 Ruger?

[MontanaRifleman]

I am thinking your be in the WC870 or VV570 range of powders, but suspect that the large kernal size of the 570 is not going to be good for that case.


What barrel length you thinking about using? Another thought, just because of the necking down issue, why not just a 6.5RUM, other than cool factor?

I'll initially work up RL17 and Retumbo. Something to remeber... My primary bullet will be on the light side and offer much less resiistance than standard bullets. The GS bullet is a different animal than a 140 Sierra or Berger. It will allow for a faster burnig powder (RL17 being very close to H4350) Now I'm not saying that I know RL17 will work, but I think there's a chance. And if it doesn't, oh well... it will still shine (albeit maybe not quite as brightly)

Why not a RUM? A couple of reasons... the 375 will fit in a Howa action and a RUM won't. This (and the 300-375) will be budget builds. I picked up a NIB 300 Weatherby Sub MOA SS Vanguard for $725. I'll sell the TO barel for about $150 and replace it with a match grade custom... and after some smithing and skim bedding, I should have a tack driving rig for about $1500 or so... another $250 to nitirde the barrel and action Also, I am certain that RL17 will not work in the 6.5-RUM, and if it does work in the 375, I think it will match any 6.5-RUM load with a lot less powder. With any case larger than the 375, I would build off of a larger custom action which would likley be a Defiance and I woud go with a Lapua based case.

The 375 is about as far as I want to take the 6.5 bullet and IMO, it is a very well designed case.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

RL17 in a 6.5 Ruger isn't happening. I have been extensively testing my 6.5-300 win mag and H-US869 is slightly fast with a 140 VLD.

A 110-120 GS HV is a totally differnt animal than a 140 VLD, as i said previously, time will tell

2000 rounds is also a very optimistic estimate.

Yup, it sure is

What makes you think almost doubling powder charge over a 6.5-284 will add 800+ rounds to life? I'll believe nitrating when BR matches start being won with 6BRs with round counts over 3000 through a nitrated barrel.
I mean it sounds cool, but I'm a lil hesitant that it is increasing barrel life 2-4 times and you don't have the whole shooting world flipping out to buy nitrated barrels.

What makes me think... well... my smith makes me think based on his experience with a number of rifles he has built... it's all new stuff, and again... time will tell

 

[MontanaRifleman]

I would try the coating on a barrel, but I am not letting them cook any of my actions. The manufacturer heat treated them where they need to be. Until someone can prove to me that hardening an action is not bad, I will let others guinea pig it.

I like my actions medium rare

 

[Oliveralan]

With a 110 grain bore rider your right, RL17 MAY work. However that's a real hot powder, I just toasted my .308win f-t/r barrel with it, 5000rnds in 11months and had it borescoped. Pretty sad looking!!

Your velocities are very conservative by the way! Not going to reveal what I'm running just yet, but look out for a post soon where I'll unveil the rifle and cartridge.

Well I hope this nitrating works, could definetely be useful in some of the rounds I've had floating around my head. .17 RUM anyone?

 

[jlamb]

Nice zero! I like that. My range only has metal at 300 yrds. Over the summer I'm headed to the desert to shoot at long distance paper. I'll problably zero further out.

 

[bigngreen]

That should be a good test for the Nitride! You should be able to burn down antelope with it!
I've been thinking that a GS Custom bullet and Nitriding would go together very nicely in one of my 270 WSM's. I'm still a little leery of heating up an action that hot though.

There is a good thread on Savage shooter on Nitriding barrels and actions. Snow is deep- I just had to shoot the Nitrided 300 RUM

 

[MontanaRifleman]

That should be a good test for the Nitride! You should be able to burn down antelope with it!
I've been thinking that a GS Custom bullet and Nitriding would go together very nicely in one of my 270 WSM's. I'm still a little leery of heating up an action that hot though.

There is a good thread on Savage shooter on Nitriding barrels and actions. Snow is deep- I just had to shoot the Nitrided 300 RUM

You betchya! Look out speed goats! And my ballistics charts are telling me that this might be a 1500 yd wolf slayer. I could probably get half a pack before they knew what was going on gun)

Thanks for the link... did some research and it looks very optimistic. I'm gonna do some more research on the action, but if my smith trusts it, that's a big vote of confidence. BTW, he was Kirby's smith before Kirby started building his own.

 

[bigngreen]

You betchya! Look out speed goats! And my ballistics charts are telling me that this might be a 1500 yd wolf slayer. I could probably get half a pack before they knew what was going on gun)

Thanks for the link... did some research and it looks very optimistic. I'm gonna do some more research on the action, but if my smith trusts it, that's a big vote of confidence. BTW, he was Kirby's smith before Kirby started building his own.

Could you PM me the info on the smith your using? I would like to find someone to send in some Nitriding work through.
I think having the whole shooting match Nitrided would be ideal but there just isn't that much good info out there on the actions. I've seen some manufactures go of the deep end over it but others are all good. I was thinking about sending in my Savage bolts since I can take the bolt head of and see what that does for the feel of the action.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Could you PM me the info on the smith your using? I would like to find someone to send in some Nitriding work through.
I think having the whole shooting match Nitrided would be ideal but there just isn't that much good info out there on the actions. I've seen some manufactures go of the deep end over it but others are all good. I was thinking about sending in my Savage bolts since I can take the bolt head of and see what that does for the feel of the action.

PM sent... you probably don't want to do this with a well used barrel and if you get the bolt done, you want to remove any springs or other parts that might be harmed by the heat. As I mentioned in the PM, I'm still researching all the options.

 

[bigngreen]

Thanks, got the PM! The bolt on a Savage is just a basic strait tube, no springs or solder, after you pop the back of and the bolt head of and I can have a custom PTG replacement for under a 100 dollars if things go bad, kinda a possible win win either way

 

[GCarlton53]

i think it will be good, i hope it will anyway. i just orderd my reamer for a 7-375 ruger last week. what length action did you say you were using?

 

[Kingfisher]

I've been a lurker of this board for years but never registered an account (thought I had but apparently not). A friend of mine mentioned this thread so I thought I'd finally sign up and weigh in.

I've been plotting a 6.5/375 Ruger for a couple of years now. I'm finally going to kick off the project in the next month. Fortunately for me I was able to connect with another fellow who had already built one and the gentlemen was so nice that he even loaned me the reamer. Aside from being throated a bit short, which my gunsmith can rectify the reamer is cut exactly to the dimensions I was looking for. The accuracy out of his rig has been very good, with velocities around 3300 fps. for 140's. That's exactly the kind of performance I'm looking for.

Now here's the downsides. The dies are going to be custom. Redding has a few of them in stock, but the full kit for everything you need is going to run you $200+ for the dies and that doesn't even include the case forming component. I'm going to use 338 RCM and 300 RCM dies to size the 375 case down progressively before the final pass through a 6.5/375 Redding die. The next problem with taking the case down this far is that the necks end up pretty darn thick. You're going to have to neck turn and/or neck ream. A lot of work. You could have the reamer cut to account for the thick necks, but IMHO you're going to end up with less than desirable results. I've sized 378 Wby cases down to 30/378 before, so I think if you were just going down to 300/375 Ruger you wouldn't have this problem, but if you're going on down to 264 you can probably bank on it. With the IRS savings account aka tax refund now in hand, I'll be ordering a Lilja barrel tomorrow. Next up is the Stiller action, and so on.

Anyway, I hope some of that is helpful. I think the performance will ultimately worth it, but it's going to be a PITA. I'm under no illusions about that part. For the OP, good luck with your project. I'll try to throw down some updates as my own project progresses.

 

[Boss Hoss]

Well Eddy, here's what I'm scheming .... I had a chat with my gunsmith yesterday about a 300 WSM build I've contracted him to do and I asked him about nitride treating the barrel for better velocity and extended barrel life and he told me that it would greatly extend the barrel life, about 2-4 times.

Well this morning I had an epiphany about going with a 300-375 Ruger instead of a WSMlightbulb. I have also been wanting a 6.5-something and figure with a nitride treatment, I might get 2000 rounds or more from a 6.5-375 Ruger.

What velocity? I have had great results with RL17 and my 300 WSM and 25-06... 200 fps increases in velocity over other loads. And I think the 375 case is a good candidate for RL17. I plan to develop two loads for it, one with GS bullets (which are very spendy) and another plinking/fun load with maybe E-Tips or something. GS will develop a custom bullet to my specs, so I'm guessing about a 120 gr, high BC (.55-.6 ish) monometal pill. And GS bullets get about 100 fps (give or take) better velocity than other bullets because of driving bands and molly coating.

Sooo... If we look at Hodgdon's data for a 120 gr bullet in a 264 mag, they show 3300 with Retumbo. Conservatively add...

100 fps, RL17
50 fps, GS bullet
100 fps, increase powder capacity
50 fps, 5C rifling and nitride treatment

... which gets us to 3600 fps... and just maybe 3700-3800 fps.

All speculation of course, but I have little doubt that this will be a sizzzzling combo

Sounds like you need a new Smith---this ones a whack! Extending the tube life by 2 to 4 times-----he is smoking some good weed that is for sure.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

i think it will be good, i hope it will anyway. i just orderd my reamer for a 7-375 ruger last week. what length action did you say you were using?

Sorry for the late reply... I'm using the Vanguard (Howa 1500) long action. It's about 1/2" shorter than the 700 LA.