Mudbug

My .375 H&H Mag is a Whitworth rifle with a Mark X Mauser action opened up to fit a .375 length cartridge. It holds 3 round sin the magazine and the barrel is only 22 or 23 inches long. Express rear sights with a couple of folding leaves and a standing V leaf. Front sight has a gold dot.

The mounts used for this safari were fixed mounts and a 1 1/2-6x Leupold vari III (?) scope with a thin post-cross hair reticle. I had A LOT of trouble with the set-up before this safari, which I can now go into.

When I first purchased the rifle from crooked John Saunders of Melbourne I purchased the rifle in the hope of converting it a take-down in 300 H&H and 375 H&H. It was second hand and looked OK. Getting it home several weeks later with the bureacratic BS of purchasing a rifle interstate, I ordered a 1 1/2-6 x Leupold with custom post-crosshair reticle whch I like. The importer gave me a lot of trouble before he would take the order but finally relented. I purchased Warne QD mounts for the rifle as well.

After a week or two Saunders telephoned me and mentioned they did not recommend a takedown in a calibre such a 375 H&H. Unusual as he thought it was a doable idea when selling me the rifle.

But I would learn the true reason in the future.

Finally all there. Bugger!, the compact version of the scope won't fit onto a Mauser action with QD mounts. Leupold no longer makes the compact version for this reason. A trip to the gunshop found a set of fixed mounts that fitted OK with the bases allowing the compact scope to be used.

Shooting the rifle. Set the scope into the centred position and started to sight-in with some factory ammo. Could not get the scope reticle to sight-in. Always to far to the left. Luckily the new bases had some windage screws so used the bases to centre the line of impact.

Worked up some reloads using 220 gr Taipans and various Woodleigh bullets - 300 gr RNSP and FMJ included. The rifle proved very accurate.

Ended up borrowing the scope from the .375 for a .308 Browning Lever action and used the .375 with the open sights for several years.

After a few years ordered a new Leupold 1 1/2-6x scope but this time with an extended tube. Tried to sight it in using the Warne QD mounts. No luck. Still hitting to the left and no windage in the warne mounts. For the first time I noticed properly the barrel was not in proper alignment with the action. DAMN !

So used the fixed mounts again. Still could not get it sighted in and now the groups were wandering all over the target.

OK - the Warne mounts have no windage to correct the barrel misalignment. No use. Use the fixed mounts.

The Extended tube Leupold is fucked. The reticle is moving under the recoil, believe it or not.

So a full circle back to the original compact model and fixed mounts. And that is what I used. Except I had burnt off most of my hand-loaded ammo made up for the safari so ended up reloading a new batch the night (and morning) before the flight to Jo'burg. In doing so I did not re-size new brass and the necks under recoil in the magazine were not tight enough for the RNSPs. I had older Woodleighs with no cannelure. The FMJs had a cannelure so I lightly crimped them and they stayed tight in the magazine. The RNSP's proved to be a problem with some rounds later on. New Woodleigh RNSPs all have cannelures.

Always use well tried and tested equipment. Yeah right, in your dreams!

***

Back home. What to do with this nice looking POS rifle?

Did not really want to sell it on to an unsuspecting buyer, so took it over and left it with De Vries - Kudu Services - a gunsmith in Melbourne. I am not so stupid. He too did not see the barrel misalignment until it was pointed out and when measured it was obvious. Whitworth had cut the barrel threads at an angle.

OK recut the barrel threads. No go. The stock had been made up for the angled barrel! New stock required as well.

Mmmmm. This is getting very expensive. Should I just start off with a new rifle?

A great solution. Bob De Vries made up custom bases for the Warne mounts. So now I have the scope mostly in alignment with the barrel axis. The open sights are fine and aligned on the barrel. It is still crooked but it works.

Currently it wears a spare 4x Leupold in Warne mounts and performed very well in the Big Bore Boar Hunt this year. Still need to get the extended tube Leupold "fixed" though.

***

The loads used in Africa were Woodleigh RNSP and FMJs in 300 gr at about 2450 fps. Slower than necessary but that load worked out well when I tested the loads. They would do the job so I never worked up new loads. Amazing accuracy with groups around 1/3 of an inch with 3 shots.

A long story on the saga of the rifle I now call "Stormbringer", it being a double edged sword and throughly evil.