Is There Much Future For The Belted Magnum

Is There Much Future For The Belted Magnum?

What Are The Pros And Cons Of Belted Magnums:

Generally speaking, they offer more case capacity, thus higher velocities than standard cartridges.
The belt allowed for proper headspacing, while smooth feeding from a box magazine.
Several cartridges can achieve magnum velocity, feeding and headspacing without the belt.
The belt is also credited for shorter case life.

Magnum. When I was a young man, that term — at least among the rifle cartridges — was equated with the Holland & Holland belted case, first seeing the light of day in 1912 in both the .375 H&H Magnum and the lesser-known .275 H&H Magnum. The .300 Holland & Holland (also known as Holland’s Super .30) came along in 1925, giving a velocity boost over the immensely popular .30-06 Springfield. For many years, the .300 Magnum — the .300 Weatherby Magnum was still a niche cartridge — was the basis for a wave of magnum cartridges throughout the 1950s and ‘60s.

The “magnum” name, in the context of a metallic cartridge, indicates a higher level of performance. And while most of the belted cases were actual magnums, not all magnums wore that belt. The .416 Rigby and its older brother, the .350 Rigby Magnum, certainly offer magnum velocities — yet neither wore a belt, and the .416 Rigby didn’t get the magnum name.

Of the large number of belted magnum cartridges, only a handful use the belt for headspacing.

Ironically, for almost all of the cartridges that were based on the Holland & Holland case, the belt served absolutely no purpose. It was originally used on the .375 H&H case to provide the positive headspacing of a rimmed case yet feed smoothly from the box magazine of a bolt-action rifle. The gently sloping 15-degree shoulder could, in theory, support the cartridge enough to give good headspacing (the .404 Jeffery uses an 8½-degree shoulder and poses no issues with headspace), but the belt keeps things rather uniform.

Why The Belt?

After the end of WWII, when the world settled down a bit and sportsmen began to travel abroad once again, a wave of new commercially developed magnums hit the shooting world. Ironically, the first would be one of the few belted cartridges that would truly need the belt. The .458 Winchester Magnum is a shortened, straight-walled cartridge based on the .375 H&H, opened up to hold .458-inch-diameter bullets and designed to replicate the ballistics of the .450 Nitro Express.

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Since it has no shoulder, the .458 Win. Mag. does rely on the belt for proper headspacing, but the two following cases — the .338 Winchester Magnum and the .264 Winchester Magnum — would not; both had an ample shoulder and would use that for headspacing. And they were just the beginning, with the .308 Norma Magnum following in 1960, the 7mm Remington Magnum (eerily similar to the 1912 .275 H&H design) in 1962, and the .300 Winchester Magnum arriving in 1963.

The Weatherby series of cartridges, of both 2.500- and 2.850-inch lengths, all used the H&H belt, though they had the signature radiused shoulder. And Remington took things even further in the mid ‘60s with the short-action 6.5mm Remington Magnum and .350 Remington Magnum, both based on the belted case. And for a while, life was good.

The late 20th century and early 21st century saw a new wave of cartridges — magnums, in fact — based primarily on the .404 Jeffery case. The Winchester Short Magnum family, the Remington Ultra Magnum family (and the subsequent Winchester Super Short Magnum and Remington Short Action Ultra Magnum), the Dakota cartridges and others showed the world that you could most definitely have magnum performance without that belt of brass. And, they pointed out one characteristic of the H&H belted case that’s very important to reloading: The belted cases show a tendency to stretch and eventually separate just ahead of the belt, diminishing case life in comparison to their non-belted counterparts.

I’ve seen this phenomenon after as few as five loadings, though that’s the exception and generally not the rule. I will say that I agree that a belted case has a shorter case life than a non-belted case, and that when they fail — they fail hard. If you shoot often, you’ll see that your cases will tend to either split at the neck or crack and/or separate just above the belt, and you should keep a very close eye on it.

Shortcomings Of The Belt

Why does it happen? Brass was chosen as the medium for our cartridges because it’s hard enough to hold its shape under the rigors of handling and cycling though a firearm, and yet malleable enough to be easily formed and reused. Brass, unlike steel, becomes softer when heated — hence the annealing process — but it becomes brittle when overworked. It also tends to “flow,” and in the case of our cartridge cases, it will flow forward toward the muzzle with each firing.

The .375 case on the right has failed and must be discarded. Belted magnum cases require careful inspection.

So, imagine this process in the belted magnum: You fire the rifle, the case expands and some small amount of brass flows forward. You then resize the case, moving the shoulder rearward a bit, and you will eventually need to trim the case back to the proper length because some of the brass has flowed forward. The belt will stay in the same position, but the stretching/resizing/trimming process will cause the case body to become thinner, and that happens just in front of the belt.

First, a careful visual examination of your fired cases is very important. Remember, these are magnum cases that generally run at a higher pressure. Any cracked cases should be crushed with pliers and discarded. You can also check the inside of the case with a “feeler” made from a paper clip, bent at a right angle and used to feel the area just ahead of the belt; if you feel a dip or depression in the case wall, that indicates the case is stretching. Discard that case immediately.

Belted magnum cases are also a perfect candidate for the Redding Instant Indicator, which will quickly show you how much the shoulder is moving with each firing. Minimizing the shoulder bump will also minimize the brass flow and help extend the life of your brass. Using the Competition Shellholders will allow the body diameter to be resized without moving the shoulder unnecessarily.

An inspection tool can easily be made by bending a right angle in a straightened paper clip, and then using it as a feeler.

Time To Toss The Belt?

Is the heyday of the belted magnum case over? Well, I can say that you probably won’t see a huge number of new cartridges wearing the belt of brass, nor will you see the .375 Holland & Holland, .300 Winchester Magnum or 7mm Remington Magnum fade away anytime soon. I do enjoy hunting with them, and while I do a fair amount of practicing with my rifles, I don’t shoot the magnums enough that the shortened brass life has become an issue.

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If you have a belted magnum cartridge, I don’t think you need to panic and retire the rifle. However, knowledge is power, and if you understand the pitfalls of the design, you can reload your ammunition safely.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the April 2019 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.

.375 Holland & Holland Magnum Review

By David Tong
.375 Holland & Holland Magnum history and review.

USA – -(Ammoland.com)- In 1912, British arms maker Holland & Holland introduced the world to the belted magnum rifle case.

In so doing, and by design, they also created the world’s most versatile rifle cartridge.

From its introduction it harvested all types of game from thin-skinned small deer all the way to elephants, with three bullet weights.

.375 Holland & Holland Magnum

The 235gr version of the .375 Holland & Holland Magnum, was intended for open plains game, and at 2,900fps, it shoots as flat as a 180gr .30-06. My own pet load in a Remington 700 Safari used Winchester cases, Federal 215 Primer igniting 80.0gr of IMR-4350 capped with the Speer semi-spitzer bullet. Using a Williams aperture sight, three shot groups land at 1 1/8 inches at 100 yards.

.375 Holland & Holland Magnum Round Types

The .375 Holland & Holland Magnum in a 270gr bullet was used for heavy-skinned non-dangerous game, though of course it would work splendidly on the large bears. It would be suited for elk and moose in North America but “pleasantly over-powered,” while in Africa they would be used on lions. These can be had in both round-nosed or spitzer forms, and my notes indicated the same components but with a lower powder charge of 77.0 grains.

The .375 Holland & Holland Magnum in a 300gr. Bullets were designed for the largest and toughest African animals. These include the elephant and its pachyderm cousin, the rhinoceros. Designed for very deep penetration, 300gr bullets are nearly invariably found in round nose form, although Sierra does make a spitzer boat-tail for longer range shooting.

. 375 Holland & Holland Magnum Popularity

There are a few reasons why the .375 has remained so popular.

First, Holland & Holland did not make the round “proprietary.” Thus, many rifle builders chambered it.

Second, most African countries mandate the use of a .375 as the minimum caliber if one seeks dangerous game, namely Cape buffalo, elephant, lion, and rhino. These hunts are increasingly expensive and rarer due to a variety of factors, including, sadly, poaching and loss of habitat range.

Third, the round strikes that balance of “all the rifle most people can shoot comfortably,” recoil-wise. In my experience, a nine pound to nine-and-a-half pound rifle means that it can be carried with relative ease, and the slight muzzle heavy weight of the long-actioned bolt gun allows for steady aim when the adrenaline starts flowing.

Fourth, it is an old saying that it shoots all three .375 bullets to the same relative point-of-aim out to one-hundred yards, and this is also borne out by my own experience. Sure, there is roughly a three-inch vertical spread between the three main weights, but usually these are right on, windage-wise. This greatly simplifies your life using either sights or a telescope.

Finally, the .375 huge case with its long tapered form and minimal shoulder is a sure feeder in all bolt-action rifles. It is a problem for reloaders like myself, because it headspaces on the belt rather than the shoulder, and case stretch will limit reloads to three or four cycles before incipient head separation occurs if one is full-length resizing. If one backs of the loads about five percent of what is stated above, or uses a neck-sizing die instead, case life will dramatically improve. No matter – lovely accuracy is the benefit of using the round.

I once took my .375 Holland & Holland Magnum rifle to deer camp in NW Pennsylvania for use on whitetails. A couple of guys scoffed saying that “that cannon will beat you up.” I said it would probably kick less than their .300 Winchesters did, and that caused two of them to try my 235gr loads. They agreed, the lower-pressure .375 Holland WAS softer shooting than the snappy kick of their lightweight sporters.

We were all over-gunned. That’s the price I paid for the romance of using the 375 Holland & Holland Magnum round that has proven itself over more than a century!

Author’s note: All loading information above were for my personal rifle and components, and you should absolutely consult a current reloading manual to ensure your safety!