Levergun loads: a look at Winchester's ill-fated Big Bores, the .375 and .356

Guns Magazine, August, 2003 by John Taffin

I have a question. This question is only slightly more difficult than those found on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? However, if you are a real shooter you should be able to answer it. What is the most popular rifle cartridge, and also what is the number one selling reloading die set according to RCBS sales?

The answer is the same for both and it shouldn't take much gray matter to come up with it - the .30-'06 Springfield. Long, long ago, Col. Townsend Whelen said, "The 30-'06 is never a mistake." Our other Colonel, Jeff Cooper has sald basically the same thing except for its use on a few highly dangerous game animals.

Better Mousetrap Not Required

The .30-'06, or as it's often referred to, the "ought-six," is just about to celebrate its 100th anniversary. It began as the .30-'03 in 1903, and was slightly changed three years later to become our reining champion rifle cartridge. Now consider what this means. In this highly technological world with seemingly everything changing overnight, rifle shooters for the most part go along with what worked for their father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and even possibly great great-grandfather.

This is the reality firearms and ammunition manufacturers must face. Do we dare introduce a new rifle cartridge? Of course, there have been many successes such as the .270 Winchester, the 7mm Remington Magnum, and the .338 Winchester, however, the jury, that is to say the buying public, is still out on the new Short Magnum cartridges recently introduced. For now at least, the .30-'06 still reigns.

The .30-'06 has been offered in bolt actions, semi-automatics, pump actions, lever guns, and single-shots, including the relatively new Thompson/Center Encore handgun. However it's the bolt action .30-'06 that is first in the hearts of American hunters. Now there is that stubborn bunch that prefers leverguns, but the reality for this latter group is leverguns for hunting are normally chambered either for .30-30 or .45-70.

Supercharging The M94

The former is rarely talked about, it just keeps getting the job done, while .45-70 users always want to talk about their choice and how potent it is. Put all of this together, and what should have been welcomed as a great new cartridge for hunting leverguns should also have sold faster than they could be made. But it was not to be.

Someone at Winchester came up with the idea of modernizing the ancient Winchester Model 94 on the inside, while keeping the basic configuration on the outside. By beefing up the Model 94, the grand old design would be able to accommodate pressures in the range of 37,000 to 52,000 CUP (Copper Units of Pressure). That puts it in the same range as .308 and .30-'06 bolt actions. A Model 94 chambered in .308? Now that should be a winner!

Three new cartridges would be introduced. The rimmed version of the .308 Win. became the .307 Winchester, the .358 Winchester's rimmed counterpart was the .356 Winchester, while the 100 year-old .38-55 was modernized into the .375 Winchester.

The .375 Winchester came first in 1978 in the then new Model 94 Big Bore. Meanwhile Winchester became USRAC, and in 1983 the Model 94 Big Bore became the Model 94 XTR Angle Eject. This signaled an interior change that would cause the spent cartridge cases to be ejected at an angle to the right instead of straight up -- facilitating the use of a scope. The other two new chamberings, the .307 and .356 Winchester, would be introduced with the Angle Eject Model.

Marlin also jumped on the bandwagon, but not for long. The .375 Winchester would be produced from 1980 to 1983 with a total of 16,315 Model .375s being offered with 20- inch barrels. Marlin announced the .307, but it's generally Left believed they never let any out of the plant, while the .356 Winchester was found in the Marlin 336ER (Extra Range). The latter is relatively rare with only 2,441 manufactured for. the three years of 1983 through 1986.

Marlin got out very quickly, while Winchester/USRAC tried to hold on to all three chamberings for a while longer. Regardless, they did not make it into the 1990s. The .375 Big Bore Model 94 was dropped in 1988.

Cold Reception

Winchester's bold experiment of the Model 94 Big Bore fell flat. Shooters took to these three new modem lever gun cartridges like a duck takes to cement. Instead of setting sales records, they were quietly removed from production, and are still easy to find in gun shops and gun shows in new or nearly new condition at extremely attractive prices.

The .375 Winchester, which was nothing more than Winchester's attempt to modernize the .38-55, had died. Strangely enough, the .38-55, a black powder cartridge dating back to the 1880s, is still available in current production leverguns. For a time, the .375 was also a standard offering in the TIC Contender. Alas, even this one is gone. This is especially regrettable, as it was the most effective factory chambering ever offered in the Contender except for the .45-70.

So what went wrong? Winchester had tried to modernize lever actions before with the Model 88. That didn't last, so this time they maintained the traditional look of the Model 94 and it still didn't work. Shooters will accept the Model 94 in .30-30, even in sixgun cartridges such as the .45 Colt, .44 Magnum and .357 Magnum. Perhaps it has been ingrained in levergun shooter's minds that the Model 94 is basically a short-range, brush and woods rifle, and they simply would not accept three new cartridges that greatly expanded the effective range of the traditional saddle gun.