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50target
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400 Whelen and 375 Winchester
Apr 14th, 2026 at 1:48pm
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A friend of mine bought out an estate and has some 400 Whelen brass (new) and 375 Winchester brass (new) and I am curious if it might be of use  for some of these old calibers that can be made from it. If so I will post on the FS section. I am not familiar with the 400 Whelen but some with the 375 Winchester. Appears the 375 didn't get much traction and I know the 35 Whelen appears to be more known.
Thanks and for any questions send PM to keep the traffic down on this thread.

Thanks

Bob
  
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RBKenn
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Re: 400 Whelen and 375 Winchester
Reply #1 - Apr 14th, 2026 at 8:54pm
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The .400 Whelen was a problematic cartridge from the beginning.  It is a rimless case with no shoulder.  Rimless cases typically headspace on the shoulder and there is none.   The rim on this cartridge is only .003 larger diameter than the case head.  In those early days of reloading the cartridge developed a bad reputation quickly. It was never adopted as a standard by a firearms manufacturer.  I am surprised that you were able to find new brass with that head stamp.
  
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1Hawkeye
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Re: 400 Whelen and 375 Winchester
Reply #2 - Apr 15th, 2026 at 4:16pm
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Wanna hear a good one. Starline is making .400 Whelen brass and calling it .30-06 basic
  
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ssdave
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Re: 400 Whelen and 375 Winchester
Reply #3 - Apr 15th, 2026 at 4:58pm
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I've got a friend just got a 375, I would love to get brass for it so I can load for him without cutting down 38-55.

400 whelen was only problematic because of trying to make it headspace on a non-existent shoulder.  I did a cartridge similar, as did Ken Waters.  We later compared notes and had an interesting and parallel process/reason for making it. 

Mine is the .429 express, which is a 30-06 case blown out straight.  It headspaces on the mouth.  Kens is the 444 marlin rimless, also 30-06 blown out straight and headspacing on the mouth.  Difference is length of the case, mine is longer, his is identical to 444 marlin.  We both use 444 marlin dies to size the cases and load.  

Mine is 2.333 inches long, and can push a 300 grain bullet at upwards of 2600 fps.  It headspaces flawlessly, and case life is 10 or more loadings.  

I'll check out starlines 30-06 basic.  If it's long enough, it'd save my scarce 30-06 basic (2.65" long) Jamison I had Marc make specially for me for wildcat cartridge forming.

P.S.  I went and looked at Starlines site, at 75 cents apiece and 2.5 inches long, the basic brass looks perfect.  Thanks for the heads up here on it. 

I'd be interested in both the 375 and the 400 whelen brass OP has, depending on price.
  
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GT
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Re: 400 Whelen and 375 Winchester
Reply #4 - Apr 15th, 2026 at 7:29pm
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I have a 400 Whelen among the rest of the Whelen family of rifles.  If you alter the specs slightly you get a .020" shoulder and nearly .020" worth of body taper for the rest of the case. As Kenn said though there isn't much to headspace off of and they can be problematic but a thumper when they work.  The 375 and 338 make a much better solution.  What brand is the 400 case?
GT
  

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50target
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Re: 400 Whelen and 375 Winchester
Reply #5 - Apr 15th, 2026 at 10:32pm
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The 400 Whelen  brass is Quality Cartridge and the 375 is Starline.
  
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Cat_Whisperer
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Re: 400 Whelen and 375 Winchester
Reply #6 - Apr 16th, 2026 at 8:20am
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ssdave wrote on Apr 15th, 2026 at 4:58pm:
I've got a friend just got a 375, I would love to get brass for it so I can load for him without cutting down 38-55.

....


30-30 brass blows out to the correct length.
  

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plumloco
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Re: 400 Whelen and 375 Winchester
Reply #7 - Apr 17th, 2026 at 7:50am
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Hello, Is the 400W marked as so? I have a buddy building one. He would love to have them. If selling? How many and what's the price? Plumloco
  
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50target
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Re: 400 Whelen and 375 Winchester
Reply #8 - Apr 18th, 2026 at 6:33am
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PM sent to Plumbloco.
  
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Re: 400 Whelen and 375 Winchester
Reply #9 - Today at 11:36am
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The late Michael Petrov used the 400 Whelen and wrote a few articles on it. He concluded most 400s had been made with an incorrect chamber reamer, one which left too small a shoulder. There should be .018 for the shoulder, which is about what the 45 Auto has to headspace on. With correctly formed brass, he had no trouble with it.
  

Karl
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