I finally got some ammo made for my GAP built 375 WSM, thanks Josh at Copper Creek!

It has a 16" Broughton barrel, trued up Remington 700 action, and a Manner's carbon fiber ultralight stock. Topped off with a Leupold VXIII 1-4x for quick shots.

You can see how compact it is in this picture. It's made primarily for shooting at moving game at close range.



Deer season starts in two weeks, so I figured it was time to get the gun all ready. Boresighted it, and the first shot at 100 yards was about a foot high and left, corrected for it and within three shots it was set perfectly just a bit high at 100 yards. Shot this quick group to verify the zero off a truck bed, it could do much better, but it's not very fun at all to shoot groups with.



The recoil was pretty stiff, very fast, but definitely manageable for a quick followup shot. The best part of all was the performance the gun was giving. A Hornady 225 grain bullet is being pushed by a good amount of H4895. Loads showed a bit of pressure, nothing terrible, and were going just over 2800 fps for about 4000 ft-lbs of energy!

Is your.375WSM is it like the .375 Ruger? And the largest
game you hunt with it.Also what other action can you used?

I'm not crazy about your rifle's cosmetics...too classic for my tastes ...but it sure sounds interesting. More details?

It's definitely got a bit less speed than the Ruger, especially with the short barrel. I think it could do 300 grain bullets around 2500 fps, so technically I suppose you could hunt just about anything with it. I'd be comfy with any American game. It's built on a short action too, you could use any magnum face action.

Pretty crazy looking gun, but it's school colors

Build specs:

Broughton 16" barrel, fluted with GAP brake
Trued and blueprinted Rem 700
Jewell trigger
Manners ultralight carbon fiber stock
Badger bottom metal to take AICS magazines
Leupold 1-4 scope, with Badger mount and rings to hold it tight (could go lighter weight with those items)

All cerakoted black and corvette yellow!

I would say that the project is a success. Congrats.
PS. Nice beard. Keep it.

Tyler,

Try the 235 gr. CEB bullets. I can get 3000 fps out my Ruger #1 375 H&H.

If you can get 2,400 ft/sec with 300 grainers then you are good to go for all heavy game.

The CEB bullets look great! Unfortunately they don't really fit well with my budget

I'll do some testing with heavier bullets in the future, I have some 300 grainers to try.

Tyler, what does your rifle weigh? just curious. Nice shooting. I have never seen yellow zebras, but if you find any, your ready for them!

Good group and cool rifle.

Mart

Hey guys, shot a deer with the 375 this weekend. Large exit wound with the 225 Hornady bullet, and it went nowhere disregarding the few cartwheels it did. (it was on the run)

The rifle weighs about 7lbs all scoped up. If you did a blind magazine and lightweight rings and bases you could get to about 6lbs ready to go I believe. I think I am definitely going to some lightweight integrated rings and bases, although the rings now seem like they could hold tight through about anything.

Tyler,

let me know when you want to move up. I have reamers coming for a .458/375 UltraMag (RUM).

How do you like your Magnetospeed crony? I got one and it is fantastic. Finally got the consistent numbers I figured I should have. My old chronograph was not reliable. The Magnetospeed is awesome.

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
Tyler,

let me know when you want to move up. I have reamers coming for a .458/375 UltraMag (RUM).

If I had the money I'd love to have a real deal powerhouse

I took a coyote at about 350 yards with the rifle on 1x during season. Held about a foot right for wind and elevation, was aiming about the top of the head, got a nice chest impact.

It's awesome. A bit finicky with some guns, fat barrels, suppressors, etc, but once you get the settings right it works fantastic.

quote:

Originally posted by A7Dave:
How do you like your Magnetospeed crony? I got one and it is fantastic. Finally got the consistent numbers I figured I should have. My old chronograph was not reliable. The Magnetospeed is awesome.

Do you dress in black/orange stripes when you hunt with it?

Glad you like it a interesting looking rifle to say.

How's the muzzle blast I really don't think I would shoot it with out very good earing protection.

I didn't have good experiences with lightweight scope rings, made out of aluminum in my case. I understand the desire for a lightweight package, but for scope rings I would stick with steel on a rifle that has some recoil.

A buddy and I built up lightweight .338 WSMs for each of us and each has a spare 6.5 WSM barrel. Both are High Tech lightweight stocked, and use #2 contour bbls.
I present this in comment to the lightweight rings. We used aluminum bases and rings initially to keep these rifles easy-to-carry for two overweight, over 60, guys. The rings and bases ended up showing recoil damage (slight) after awhile. We then went to steel bases with Leupold QRW rings. These have held up well, including on a 10-day safari to Namibia with lots of shooting using heavy .338 bullets.

Tyler, you are a recoil junkie!

I think you ought to call that gun the bumble bee...

if you load the 260gr nos ab you can have similar ballistics to a .308 shooting a 168gr Amax

The gun and concept look great. Congratulations.

On rings, I would only go with steel. Below is a picture of Tikka rings from a 338 WM that was shooting 225 grainers at 2800fps:



You can see that the anchor pin that was supposed to remain stable in the top of the action has ripped out of the back of the ring-base piece. I replaced these with Warne's Permanent steel rings. Nothing has moved since.

Here is a second view of the same failed ring:





You don't want to duplicate this as it would definitely ruin a nice hunt.

PS: unless you are loading single-shot, I would recommend a nice crimp on your bullets.

I think the 4895 is a tad too slow for this case... Look at the Hornady 376 loads...

Wow its been over a decade since I built my first 376... Tempus feugit