Do any forum members have any practical experience with either or both cases? Other then Harry Mcgowen what other gunsmiths are chambering barrels for these cases?
yipikiyo

I've got a 411 Hawk, nearly identical to the 400 Brown-Whelen.

If you do search for the phrase "411 Hawk" it should give you several threads.

Likewise the 375 Scovill-Hawk is nearly identical to the B-W. The Hawk version was originally developed using 9.3x62mm brass, but believe that the '06 case can be used, and is used exclusively now.

Both the BW and Hawk variants of the original Whelen idea are cases blown out (Hawk version is .454" at the shoulder). Also, the Hawk version has the shoulder moved forward just a bit, while I think the BW keeps the shoulder in the '06 position, though the angle changes.

As far as I know, anyone with access to the reamer could chamber the barrels. Z-Hat has their own reamers for the Hawks, I think Pacific has reamers for the BW versions.

McGowen is the only one I've seen written up for the BW versions though. Several barrel manufacturers offer the appropriate caliber barrels (ie .411" for the grooves of the 400). The one I have has a Douglas Premium XX barrel on it.

Alyeska338, I am familiar with the Hawk line of proprietary cartridges. There have been several writeups in Handloader magazine. Imo Z Hat has just taken the Brown case and made a few minor changes in shoulder and neck dimensions and hung the Hawk name on it. There was a writeup in the last issue of Handloader on the 411 hawk. The author used cast bullets exclusively. From that data it would appear that 405 Win ballistics can be exceeded in any jacketed bullet weight by about 200 fps. I will probably stick with McGowen. He has the knowledge and experience to do the job right. The Brown 375 and 400 cases should slick right through the Springfield action. About 20 or so years ago I had the Raton Gun Shop make up some chambering reamers for me. One was an Ackleyized 284 in 375 calibre. While waiting for the reamers I ran some numbers through the Powley computer a came to the conclusion that the 284 case just did not have enough capacity to give me ~2500 fps with a 300 gr solid. That project sort of died on the vine. One day I came accross some dimensions fot the 376 Steyr. The bells went off and I dug up the reamer drawing for my 284/375 and lo and behold a streched 284 case with the exact capacity I needed. My reamer is basically a short 376 Steyr Ackley improved. Sharp shoulder, minimum body taper. Now I have a source of commercial American brass. I will not have to mess around with high priced European 9.3X64 brass. I think a good gunsmith can take my reamer and make up a 376 Steyr improved. That case should slick right through a standard Mauser action with just a little mag lip work.
Thats it for now
yipikiyo

I agree with you. I very nearly had my rifle chambered for the 400 Brown-Whelen. Problem was that, at that time, I didn't know any other shop that would do the work except McGowen. And they hadn't performed that work on the 1895 Winchester. The Hawk version is so close to the BW that they are ballistically identical. The upside was that I know one of the Master Guides up here that uses the 411 Hawk in a Winchester 1895, made by Zeglin.

Mr. Brown (Arthur?) was a gunsmith here in Anchorage and did the "improving" of the Whelen cartridges that bears his name. I just couldn't find any info on them, other than the work John Kronfeld did and published several years ago.

I would suspect with the original drawings, any gunsmith could make the Whelen cartridges work fine in the Springfield. The first rifles produced for Col Whelen had no problems with headspacing, but when other companies started just opening the '06 case up to accept the .411 bullets without changing the slope of the case, problems arose and the 400 got a black eye. With the specs of the 454 shoulder as specified by Col Whelen, no one has reported those headspace problems.