Due to Ohio's new rifle season, rifles in legal calibres are scarce
and priced out of reason. On a Ohio Outdoor forum a guy just
posted a rebarreled project of this Savage pump 30/30 to 375
Win. These were made back when Savage was having a lot of
financial problems. Rumor has it they were based on their 410
pump shotgun. This is one gun I never had the pleasure of
working on. I hade a couple I took on trade, but never shot one.
They seemed cheaply made, I don't think this is safe conversion.
Anyone had one of these rifles. I have rebarreled 94s to 38/55
but pressures are the same as 30/30. You can do this just by
swapping barrels, cartridge guides, minimum of fitting forearm.
I would not put a 375Win on 94, and I believe it's stronger than
the Savage pump.

I've got one in .35 Remington:



Its a good, basic gun. I think it is based on their pump shotgun.



I've never heard of converting one to 375 Winchester, but I don't see why not. Isn't it just a blown out 30/30 case?



I like this gun, though I've only used it once to kill a deer. I'd probably buy one in 30/30 if I came across one.

__________________
“What you got, ain’t new.”

The why not is it would loose part of the safety margin it has containing pressure. I do not know how strong the design is but we agree it is based on a shotgun receiver and shotgun shells only generate low pressure. SAAMI has not established pressure maximums for .375 Winchester in PSI. IIRC the old CUP pressures were 36,000 for .30-30 and 50,000 for .375 Win.

Friends and acquaintances used to fire their .30-30 Model 170s at the local range. I remember them getting great accuracy from those affordable rifles. The only problem I heard about was one friend broke his firing pin dry firing. The gunsmith who replaced it said that was not surprising and 170s should not be dry fired.

So, I guess straight cased rounds are legal in Ohio, and bottlenecked ones aren't? If the .38-55 would fit that would seem like a better choice, or just load the .375 down to .38-55 levels.

It does seem like a lot of trouble for what is basically a second-tier gun.

__________________
“What you got, ain’t new.”

that would be what I'd do if this conversion gets him an otherwise unaffordable solution to their new laws.

A few more expensive solutions come to mind. Picking from classic rifles a Savage 1899 in .38-55 or for a modern rifle a Browning lever action firing loaded down .450 Marlin. His situation could also be used as an excuse to have a Siamese '98 Mauser action built into a .45-70 sporter.