The rifle Remington SHOULD have made, 30 Express .375 H&H

In late 2024 I won a Remington 30-S Express made in 1936 in a Gunbroker auction. I have long been a fan of the M1917 and P14 Enfields, and the Remington 30 which shares the same basic action. This particular 30 Express had the original barrel rechambered for 300 Win Mag with the bolt face opened up and magazine feed rails modified. It held 3 +1 in this configuration. It shot OK, but I had no real desire for a .300 Winchester. It was in really nice condition, other than a recoil pad that looked straight out of the 1960s complete with a lightning pattern spacer. Here is a pic as originally purchased. The more I handled the rifle, the more I thought it would make a dandy .375 H&H. I sent the barreled action to McGowen and requested they copy the factory contour to 7 inches in front of the receiver, then taper to a .700" muzzle at finished length of 24 inches, matching factory length. This kept the stock channel the same except for the last few inches, and allowed me to save the serial number stamped in the stock's barrel channel matching the receiver. I asked McGowan to minimize their markings on the barrel, so as not to detract from the "period" look of the rifle, my goal was to reasonably look like a rifle that came out of Ilion. Replicating the factory contour also allowed me to reuse the rear sight base and barrel mounted recoil lug from factory barrel.
I installed a NECG rear sight blank in the barrel band in place of the dovetail filler that the factory barrel had. After receiving the barreled action back from McGowan with the .375 barrel fitted, I went to work on the magazine. The H&H length cartridges require a longer "magnum" magazine box, and I found one designed for the slightly wider P14 well. Being the box is wider as well as longer, it held 4 down. After cutting the receiver to fit the wider and longer box, I function tested the rifle. I tried three different followers, the one that worked the best was a magnum Rem 700 follower. I widened the feed ramp to effortlessly feed CEB flat nose solids and polished it. It now is a SLICK feeding 4+1.I installed a red decellerator pad and a NECG banded front sight. The one piece base was replaced with two piece steel Weaver Grand Slam bases, which will utilize Warne or Leupold QD rings. I just finished regulating and bluing the rear sight. The rear sight received a white arrow cut from a bread bag clip that I find greatly speeds sight acquisition.
I also installed an Edwards recoil reducer in the buttstock. The action and forward barrel mounted lug were glass bedded into the stock. Finished weight without a scope is 8lbs 11 oz and balances nicely at the forward edge of the floorplate.

I am enjoying this rifle immensely, and I think it is destined to become my favorite .375 H&H. It's too bad Remington never produced these in .375 H&H to compete with Winchester's M70, as I believe it is a better rifle. I also think the "Express" moniker is well fitting to heavier chamberings. I am now considering building one in .404 Jeffery.

Wow! Quite impressed.

How does it shoot?

So far my shooting is from standing on sticks at 50 yards zeroing the iron sights. Once I mount a scope I will get a better picture of true accuracy.

I like the rear sight setup with it also being a second recoil lug. Was it a NECG that you modified or did you kake it from scratch?

Impressive! I bought a P17 years ago with the intent of building it out, but sat collecting dust. This is a great project.

AZDAVE said:

I like the rear sight setup with it also being a second recoil lug. Was it a NECG that you modified or did you kake it from scratch?

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Thanks, it was this sight from NECG :

https://www.newenglandcustomgun.com/proddetail.php?prod=4259

I cut the base down to fit the smaller dovetail of the Remington barrel band.

Had a model 30 express - collector grade in 30-06. Beautiful rifle. It had that crescent butt plate. I did not enjoy shooting it and did not want molest it. It went down the road and used the money to build a 264WM.

The early Remington 30s had very slender stocks with steel crescent buttplate, not a good combination for anything with recoil. Somewhere in the early 1930s they changed to the more substantial stock with flat "shotgun" style buttplate.

I may be caught up more in the romance than practicality, but I always thought it was a pity Remington didn't keep the model 30 in production. It would have been well suited to the African calibres, .300 H&H, 375 H&H and larger bore cartridges.

roklok said:

In late 2024 I won a Remington 30-S Express made in 1936 in a Gunbroker auction. I have long been a fan of the M1917 and P14 Enfields, and the Remington 30 which shares the same basic action. This particular 30 Express had the original barrel rechambered for 300 Win Mag with the bolt face opened up and magazine feed rails modified. It held 3 +1 in this configuration. It shot OK, but I had no real desire for a .300 Winchester. It was in really nice condition, other than a recoil pad that looked straight out of the 1960s complete with a lightning pattern spacer. Here is a pic as originally purchased. View attachment 741396 The more I handled the rifle, the more I thought it would make a dandy .375 H&H. I sent the barreled action to McGowen and requested they copy the factory contour to 7 inches in front of the receiver, then taper to a .700" muzzle at finished length of 24 inches, matching factory length. This kept the stock channel the same except for the last few inches, and allowed me to save the serial number stamped in the stock's barrel channel matching the receiver. I asked McGowan to minimize their markings on the barrel, so as not to detract from the "period" look of the rifle, my goal was to reasonably look like a rifle that came out of Ilion. Replicating the factory contour also allowed me to reuse the rear sight base and barrel mounted recoil lug from factory barrel.
View attachment 741399I installed a NECG rear sight blank in the barrel band in place of the dovetail filler that the factory barrel had. After receiving the barreled action back from McGowan with the .375 barrel fitted, I went to work on the magazine. The H&H length cartridges require a longer "magnum" magazine box, and I found one designed for the slightly wider P14 well. Being the box is wider as well as longer, it held 4 down. After cutting the receiver to fit the wider and longer box, I function tested the rifle. I tried three different followers, the one that worked the best was a magnum Rem 700 follower. I widened the feed ramp to effortlessly feed CEB flat nose solids and polished it. It now is a SLICK feeding 4+1.View attachment 741401I installed a red decellerator pad and a NECG banded front sight. The one piece base was replaced with two piece steel Weaver Grand Slam bases, which will utilize Warne or Leupold QD rings. I just finished regulating and bluing the rear sight. The rear sight received a white arrow cut from a bread bag clip that I find greatly speeds sight acquisition.
View attachment 741402 I also installed an Edwards recoil reducer in the buttstock. The action and forward barrel mounted lug were glass bedded into the stock. Finished weight without a scope is 8lbs 11 oz and balances nicely at the forward edge of the floorplate.

I am enjoying this rifle immensely, and I think it is destined to become my favorite .375 H&H. It's too bad Remington never produced these in .375 H&H to compete with Winchester's M70, as I believe it is a better rifle. I also think the "Express" moniker is well fitting to heavier chamberings. I am now considering building one in .404 Jeffery.
View attachment 741404View attachment 741405

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Great looking rifle well done i love old classic guns.

I installed a Vari-X III 1.75 - 6x in Warne rings. Spent some time shooting today zeroing the scope. Zeroed 300 grain A-Frames @ 2530 FPS from the bench at 200 yards, the 6x and heavy duplex made precision shooting a bit of a challenge, as the crosshair occluded the bullseye at 200 yards. A bit of a guessing game where the bull was behind the reticle. Still really happy with how it shot, I am sure I could have tightened group with more magnification and finer crosshair. Circled holes are the last three shots at 200 yards after walking the POI up. Then shot two shots from sticks at 60 yards, those two shots are at top tip of diamond. Followed up with two CEB 300 grain solids at 60 yards, which printed on top of A-Frames. Very happy with rifle, it will be accompanying me to Wuparo in July. Two shots from sticks at 60 yards, tip of diamond

Very nice build. Is there much occlusion of field of view by the rear sight?
And I think a matching build in 404 is a great idea
Gumpy

I only had two problems with my remongtom model 30 express. The curved metal butt plate and that it was not drilled and tapped. I had a very nice one in 30-06 in excellent shape and I did not want to molest such a nice rifle. I am sure it went into someone's collection. Took the proceeds and converted a model 50 JC Higgins into 264WM. Yes the Remington model 30s were some nice conversions.

Griffin & Howe used this action for a few rifles - at least one being a 404 Jeff.
I have a G&H on the same action in 333 G&H Super Magnum.
That is really a 350 G&H necked down which is of course a 375H&H necked down.
Years ago I inquired about the rifle but they weren’t in a position to look it up.
I should really get back with them to find out the history of that rifle.
They can really be built up as quite a proper express rifle as your build demonstrates.
The G&H… not so much…

Excellent build ...... Question is it cock on open or close ?

Grumpy gumpy said:

Very nice build. Is there much occlusion of field of view by the rear sight?
And I think a matching build in 404 is a great idea
Gumpy

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The rear sight is not visible in field of view of scope regardless of zoom. On the lower powers the front sight is visible. I have a 404 barrel on order from Pac-Nor, I should have it later this summer.

Odinsraven said:

Excellent build ...... Question is it cock on open or close ?

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It is cock on open. The early Remington 30s were cock on close, around 1930 they were changed to cock on open.

Pretty cool.

I have a p14 project, and am wondering if you could give me some guidance. I am considering doing one in 300HH if i can get a reamer, I have some p17 Mag boxes that i could modify to make the right length, Think the bolt stop might have to be shortened? Mag rails should be ok wuth the 300? start with a P14 action
Looks like a different follower would be a good idea also although i do have some P17 ones as well.
The remington follower is a great idea

I did not shorten or alter the bolt stop in any way. I also did not have to cut the feedramp forward of the cut for the factory magazine box feed ramp. I used a magnum length P14 box I found on Ebay, they are hard to come by now though. My receiver rails were already altered for the 300 Win Mag, I did not widen the rails, but did extend them, mostly to the rear. I believe you may have to tweak the rails even on the P14. I am planning on cutting the rivets out of a military magazine box, and tig welding in a new front and back to the box sides to fabricate a box for my 404 project. This way I can optimize the box width using Mausers formula for the 404 width.
Most of the receiver modifications were cutting the mag well rearward, but not so far that I had to modify bolt stop, and widening the feed throat at front of magazine opening. I will see if I can dig up some pictures.