Z-Hat, Winchester           
  Model 95 Takedown

by Dave Scovill

reprinted here by permission, Wolfe Publishing .  
Originally published in issue 197 Rifle Magazine.  

It has been quite some time since the subject of takedown rifles was first discussed with Fred Zeglin, owner of Z-Hat Custom Dies and a custom rifle builder. I called to find out if he had the time and inclination to rebore my Winchester (USRAC) Model 95.30-06 to .375 Hawk/Scovill.

Ironically, since Bob Fulton first worked out the details of the cartridge in 1993, I had a couple of rifles made up but they were on loan to Ed Stevenson and Phil Shoemaker, both Master Guides in Alaska. A third rifle was being used for pressure and velocity tests by Barnes Bullets.

My intent was to build another Model 95 .375 Hawk/Scovill - one that wasn't leaving my possession period.

Fred thought he could find time for the rebore and rechambering job but he had an idea for a takedown Model 95 that may be of interest. He figured I could end up with as many barrels as I wanted.

After some discussion, it was decided to give the takedown idea a try. For the time being, there would be two barrels, a .375 H/S and a .411 Hawk the latter being based on the former, but necked up to .411.

Ballistically, at least, the two cartridges had some overlap, but the .375 could hustle a 210-grain Barnes X-Bullet out the muzzle at 2800 fps, a 250-grain Hawk at 2700 fps, or a 285-grain Speer Grand Slam at 2400 fps. The .411 Hawk was for the big stuff, generating 2550 fps with a 300-grain Hawk roundnose 2400, fps with a 325-grain North Fork, and 2150 with a 400-grain Hawk slug.

Of course, field tests over the last few years in Alaska, Canada, the Lower 48, and Africa had proven beyond a doubt that both cartridges could kill most anything that walked on four legs, assuming proper placement with the right bullet. The list included moose, elk, brown bear, mule deer, black bear, and a variety of African plains game. In essence I could have one rifle with two barrels and hunt anywhere on earth. At least it seemed like a neat idea.

One of the finer details that required some forethought was sights. In due course, Fred and I decided the .411 Hawk barrel would be rebored from the USRAC .30-06 barrel and use a single standing rear adjustable blade (Ruger) with a sourdough up front on a PME (Precise Metalsmithing Enterprises Inc., 146 Curtis Hill Rd., Chehalis WA 98532) ramp with hood. The .375 Hawk barrel would use the same hooded ramp with an ivory-colored bead. There would be no rear barrel sight, but a Lyman Model 66 receiver sight would be mounted on the receiver.

With the sight arrangement, I could work out a 150-yard, point-blank sight setting for the standing leaf on the .411 Hawk barrel or lay the leaf down mid use the receiver sight. The sights on the .375 H/S would also work for a point-blank 175- or 200-yard zero with the receiver sight, or I could use reference marks on the Lyman 66 to work with different bullet weights. The latter of course, also applied to the .411 barrel when using the receiver sight. The versatility of the sights would allow me to hunt anything from antelope or mule deer with a 210-grain bullet in the .375 H/S to brown bear with the 325-grain North Fork in the .411 Hawk.

When the rifle was finished but not yet blued, it was forwarded to Michael Brady at North Fork Technologies Inc. (PO Box 1689, Glenrock, WY 82637) for pressure tests using the .411 Hawk barrel and the Oehler Model 43 system. We already had pressure tests on the .375 H/S from Barnes, so the guesswork would be eliminated from load development in both barrels.

In due course, the Model 95 made its way back to Prescott in a Bear Track takedown rifle case, specially designed for Z-Hat (Bear Tracks has since been sold to Freedom Arms.) The simplicity of the takedown system was readily apparent. Fred attached a plate to the breech end of the barrel, which accommodated a hex-head bolt that passed into the rear of the forearm into a steel reinforcing block. The original forearm screw was also retained. Unlike the original Winchester Model 95 takedown rifles with interrupted threads, Fred used a fully threaded barrel shank for additional support.

The simplicity is in the locking system, after the barrel is screwed in by hand. On the face of the receiver Fred mounted a stud that protrudes about the same height as the distance between two threads on the barrel. On the last full turn, the face plate that is attached to the barrel and forestock passes over the top of the stud. But one more turn finds the two plates touching as the stud provides a positive stop. The barrel and receiver are then secured with a single screw on the left side of the receiver. One-third of the screwhead is removed so the plate can pass on the last turn, then the screw is rotated one-half turn securing the plate against the stud on the other side.

When installing or removing either of the two barrels, the action must be open, to prevent bending or breaking the extractor on the face of the bolt. Total time to remove or swap barrels is probably less time than it took to read the last paragraph. While it would be preferred to secure the setscrew on the left side of the receiver with a properly fitting screwdriver, a knife blade or screwdriver bit on a Leatherman4ype tool works fine. It would probably serve to simply toss a screwdriver into the rifle case or backpack and leave it at that.

Both barrels are 24 inches with the same profile found on factory Winchester (USRAC) .30-06, .30-40 Krag, or .270 WCF barrels. Original Model 95 barrels had a straight taper from the receiver to the muzzle, but to duplicate that shape on the USRAC rifle would require two new barrels and forearms which is a lot of extra work - not to mention matching wood color and grain - for a working big game rifle. I told Fred he shouldn't go to any extra trouble to match the second forearm with the USRAC wood.

As it turned out Fred had forwarded the .30-06 barrel to Dick Nickel for reboring to .411 Hawk.  Only a month or so after the rifle was returned to Prescott, Dick passed on. He was a good friend and a master rebore technician. He will be missed.

For those who are not familiar with the .375 Hawk/Scovill, or .411 Hawk, I probably should explain that both are based on the .30-06 case. The .375 was the result of experiments by Bob Fulton, who at the time owned Hawk Bullets in Glenrock, Wyoming. Bob was convinced he should be able to get more clout out of a .375-06 wildcat if he moved the shoulder forward and worked out a proper chamber and throat design. The final chamber Bob worked with was actually finished with a 9.3x62 reamer using a .375-inch pilot. But since the 9.3 case was about .006 inch larger at the base than the .30-06-based case, fired brass has a somewhat unsightly bulge just in front of the extractor groove.

To make the .375 Hawk work a bit better with readily available .30-06, .270 WCF, or 
.35 Whelen brass another reamer was made from scratch reducing the case to .470 inch just in front of the extractor groove, expanding shoulder diameter to .454 inch and establishing a throat diameter of .376 inch with a one-degree 30-minute taper into the lands. As a result a case that was fired in a .375 Hawk chamber wouldn't fit in the revised chamber, otherwise, they are ballistic twins. I called it the .375 Hawk/Scovill or H/S.

A couple years after the .375 H/S arrived, Bob Fulton decided he wanted something with even more clout - and necked the .375 up to .411.

One of the first .411 Hawk rifles went to Bob Fulton, and the first Model 95 Browning went to Ed Stevenson. Ed found the .411 Hawk was all he wanted for stopping dangerous game, namely 1500-pound wounded brown bears, and he carried the .375 H/S and .411 Hawk alternately while guiding down on the coast or bumming around the cabin on Sheep River.

If there were any reservations regarding the .411 Hawk, it was headspace. Even with the shoulder diameter blown out to .454 inch, I was a bit cautious about using that design in the Model 95, which has a very stout spring-loaded ejector mounted in the bolt face. With that sort of pressure on the base of the case, I didn't want any chance that a loaded round might be moved forward in the chamber under the impact of the firing pin, creating a misfire, hangfire, or no fire. In Alaska, any could be fatal.

Dozens of experiments to determine if the scant shoulder surface on the .411 Hawk was sufficient for establishing proper headspace proved that it worked just fine. With properly formed cases using a healthy dose of moderate-burning powder like H-4895 with a 300-, 325-, or 400-grain bullet seated out to touch the lands, the shoulder formed perfectly. Of course, Ed Stevenson already knew that and had several dead moose and bear to prove it.

The irony of all this regarding case forming for the .375 or .411 wildcats is that a week or so before I was supposed to finish this column and send it down the hall to production, Fred Zeglin called to say he had a supply of formed brass on the way. It was headstamped "Z-Hat/Qual-Cart .375 Hawk-Scovill" and the same logo for the .411 Hawk. Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather.

The advantage served by the preformed and properly headstamped brass is there isn't any bugaboo about taking the wildcat rifles to Africa where some countries frown on rifles, and cartridge headstamps that don't match. The other benefit is the rough part of dealing with wildcats - case forming to improve shape is eliminated. Just load and shoot. Fred has .338, .358, and other formed brass on the way as well rounding out the complete lineup of Hawk cartridges.

The tables list selected loads from pressure tests done by Barnes and North Fork on the .375 and .411, respectively. Optimum pressures in both cartridges are the same as the .30-06, upwards of 60,000 psi, although tests utilized the Oehler Model 43 strain gauge system, which used factory .30-06 loads as a base for the wildcat pressures. You cannot indiscriminately substitute other bullets of different designs for the Barnes X-Bullet or North Fork. This particularly applies to the 260-grain .375 Nosler Partition or the Swift A-Frame. If you swap bullets, simply reduce the powder charge by 4 to 5 grains and work up accordingly.

I've stated this before, but if I were limited to one powder in the .375 H/S it would be H-4895. I haven't used it with the Barnes XLC (coated) bullet, but it has been used extensively with 235-, 250-, and 270-grain X-Bullets to kill antelope, mule deer, moose, black bear, and brown bear.

H-4895 may lag behind the top velocities produced by other powders, but accuracy has always been very good averaging in the 1.5 MOA range consistently with a variety of bullets in the Model 95 rifles with iron sights.

The same could be said of H-4895 in the .411 Hawk, although Michael Brady at North Fork has produced excellent velocity/pressure results with Hodgdon's BL-C(2) and Federal's 215 Large Rifle Magnum primers. (Editors note: Mike pointed out to me that the one disadvantage to BL-C(2) was that it had a huge muzzle flash, not ideal for hunting conditions)

For those who might be interested, optimum muzzle energy with the .375 H/S is about 3700 foot-pounds (ft-lbs). The .411 Hawk bumps that up to 4200 ft-lbs. The former is about equal to the .338 Winchester Magnum; the latter is 700 ft-lbs short of the .458 Winchester Magnum.

Reloading dies for the .375 H/S are available from Z-Hat and RCBS. Z-Hat stocks .411 Hawk dies, they even carry a stock of RCBS dies in the rest of the Hawk line of calibers.

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