Is there any real difference between the Hornaday .375 round nose soft point 270 grain bullet and the round nose 300 grain soft point bullet? The thirty grain difference seams insignificant so why do they offer both? My favorite is the 270 grain version. It has smacked the hell out of everything that I have shot with it so I just never bothered to try the 300 grain soft point bullet. I have used the old 300 grain steel jacketed round nosed bullet and was very impressed with the penetration.

MT,

My personal feeling why fix what is not broke...The bullet performs because of the shooter...you put is where is does the most good...

I like the 300 gr. bullets better in the 375, I suppose it depends on what your smaking with it...I always use 300 gr. softs and solids in Africa, and found them very effective...It doesn't make much difference on this side of the pond what weight you use...Bullets of the same weight seem to group together better in most guns, and most solids are in 300 gr. so the softs will more than likely come to the same POI...

I have heard it said that most 375 put all bullets to the same POI, but that is not correct, most don't as a matter of fact...A few do, my present gun does but I went through a lot of 375s to get this one..I think O'Connor started that rumor based on his one and only 375..

We have all probably read about the point of impact theory in all the old books. So the theory says that a they all strike to the same point of impact.

I was wondering why they offer both a 270 gr and a 300 gr round nose soft point. There is hardly any difference. Thirty grains is only about a drop of lead. Does one have a heavier jacket?

Now don't be badmouthing Jack.

God Bless Jack O'Connor and John Wayne

... and Marshall Matt Dillon

other than hornady .375's being software than anything i know of except hawks, these are great bullets...

the hornady 300 gr just flat explodes on game as small as hogs

jeffe

The original loadings for the .375 H&H was a 300, a 270, and a 235 grain load and I think Hornady is just following the original loads. Jackets are the sam for all their .375 H&H bullets except the FMJs which are much heavier. They used to be steel lined but the steel lined material was obsoleted years ago and today's FMJs are very heavy copper clad bullets.

I still have about three hundred of the old steel clad bullets.....a magnet will detect them real fast.

vapodog,
i beg to differ.. hornady's solids are still copper/steel/lead... at least the 416s are, and I think the 300's are.. at least the deisgn shows a MUCH longer bullet

the softs are SOFT..

jeffe

Jeffe.....set a magnet to them please.....at least in 2000 they wasn't.....they was heavy copper klad.....and that was the .375, the 416, and the .458.

BTW.....that don't make them lesser by any means.....just not steel jacketed.

I totally agree.. .200 of copper or .185 of steel... don't mater...

I bought some 416's less than 2 years ago, and cut them in half.. steel..

jeffe

You're living in the past Dude. The solids are now brass with a lead core.

I seem to remember reading a magazine article a few years ago saying, if I remember this correctly, how Hornady wasn't able to get the proper steel any longer for their FMJ bullets from their steel supplier. Or maybe it was the minimum size order stipulated by the supplier had become too large for Hornady to order. Something like that. Anyway, as a result, they were going to start making an "encapsualted" bullet in place of their original steel jackted FMJ bullets. I never have found, in books or magazine articles, a good explanation of exactly what the term "encapsulated" means in regards to the Hornady bullets. (i.e. How they are constructed.)



-Bob F.

Jeffo is right the 300 gr RN .375 expands readily on thin skinned stuff.

I think the 270 grainers could be a useful load for whitetails , black bear , or hogs .

I keep some 300 gr stuff loaded up in case the neighbor's bison get out and go on a rampage.....(grin)

Just got off the phone with Hornady...

the solids are NOT steel anymore (sorry, I was wrong) they are heavy brass jackets, not copper..

reason?
per hornady, the Clinton administration outlawed the manf of steel core or jacketed bullets, as AP, with "no sporting use"

weird, silly, and arbitrary

jeffe

500s right, Hornadys softs are soft and if I am hunting Africa then I won't be using Hornadys..I will be using a super premium of some kind in a soft, probably a North Fork, Nosler, GS Customs, Woodleigh or BarnesX along with a GS Customs Flat nose solid...I see littlel reason to use conventional bullet for hunting these days, I been that route when thats all we had and you could bank on a failure now and then, and that always ment a grusome tracking job.

I need to load up some slightly reduced 375 H&H loads for a couple of friends. One is for a Black Bear hunt over bait, shots will be close. The other is for a lady who will be going on a Brown Bear hunt.
I am thinking of loading either the Hornady 270 or 300 Round Nose at a velocity of around 2250fps.
I want to reduce their recoil but still give them good bullet performance.
Is there another bullet that would be better at this velocity?

.

Gents,



Here's a scan of a 300 gn 375 hornady solid that I cut in half a while back to see it's construction. I bought these about a year and a half ago (I think...).







The image isn't that good, but it is copper/steel/lead.



Maybe I got an older lot..?



-Steve

Ray, when you say that the Hornday "softs are soft", I agree with you. Most of the time, Hornady's will work very well, and I have quite a few recovered Hornady's in my collection, including .375/270 gr. Inter-Locts, that could be considered text-book mushrooms, and with good weight retention.

The trouble is, I've also had 'em come apart (.338s & 7mms only), and I've come to not trust them--as in 100% confident--like I would Nosler Partition, Trophy Bonded, Fail-Safe, etc.

So if I have a rifle that will only shoot Hornady bullets well, then that's what I've gone with, or at least I have in the past. But if I can get any rifle to shoot Nosler Partitions, Trophy-Bonded, etc. about as well, then I'll choose that premium bullet every time. Most good rifles will especially shoot (of the premiums) Nosler Partitions well, and in fact there are so many really good and generally accurate premium bullets available now, especially to U.S. hunters, that I see little reason to select Hornady's for expensive hunts, especially in Africa.

If it's a matter of price, the cost-savings simply isn't worth it............

AD

Due to the concerns voiced in the posts above, I suggest selling your .375 and getting a .458 Lott.

Not only in this particular post, but in general, I see no reason to use anything other than Noslers for non-dangerous game and anything sub-buffalo in size with .375 bullets.

They generally are very accurate and always beform well, and are sudden death on the smaller stuff.

Steve,
Someone sold you the old style of 300 grain solids. They are obsolete. As stated above the new and improved version is encapsulated.
I would be glad to buy the old steel jacketed ones from you at half of what you paid for them.

450 NE, I've shot 2 camp cooley eland with Hornady 270 sp's at about 2350. Both instant kills, the 1st went through a big cow at 165 yards, golf ball sized exit on far side, the other a spine shot on a young bull. It plowed through the spine ane ended up under the hide on far side, about 55% retained weight, and the core was loose in the cup, but stayed together. I think it'll do the job. That said, I'm loading up nosler accubond 260's for Namibia in July. Bob

That's what I thought. I use them for practice.

-Steve

I shot a big eland with the .375"/270 Hornady Interlock bullet, this was factory ammo for the .376 Steyr. The bullet didn't make it through the shoulder and into the lung, so Mr. Eland got two more shots.

The recovered bullet had reasonable weight retention, but it was pretty torn up. I rate them as soft as compared to the premium bullets out there. I like the Nosler Partition a lot, but I want to try the North Fork in the Steyr.

jim dodd

Jim,
I've taken hogs with the .358 250 h rn, the 300gr 375, and the 400gr 416...

the first two were SOFT SOFT SOFT.. the 225 SP .375 seemed to be tougher, btw..

the 416 is "fairly" tough, but 2 ~110# pigs, lined up, showed me that it's expanding pretty fast on the second hog.. shoulders more or less touching...


Jeffe

As you can see from all the posts, the Hornadys work most of the time, but fail on ocassions, mostly they fail on buffalo, and that is because they work so well on plainsgame up to and perhaps including Eland...Thats the same old story that we lived with in the early years of handloading, the bullets of that day worked most of the time and failed ocassionally, but all we had was Sierra and later Hornady and a fews others...

Today I cannot live with an ocassional failure. A Safari is costly and saving 25 cents on the cost of a bullet rates right up there with being a democrat!

I suspect that the Horndays do work a whole lot better at 2200 to 2300 FPS, most bullets do as a matter of fact...

I think I will stay with the super premiums like North Fork, Nosler, Swift, Barnes X, Woodleigh and let someone else fool with those ocassional failures..I did my time...

BTW there is no such thing as 300 grs. of failure on a Impala, deer or light game, it will kill them whatever it does..So all these successes on smaller stuff means little to me....

Ray,

I would say it ranks right up there shooting like a democrat.

jim

BTW this will be posted again in 10 days or less.

I just want to see my name in lights.

And it is Hornady not Hornaday for Christ's sake.

I just got back from hunting in Namibia with 375 300gr Hornady I took Springbok, Kudu, and Hartman's Mountain Zebra. The bullet went clean threw the springbok at 75yds, lodged in the oppsite shoulder of a kudu after breaking the other shoulder at 300yds, and the zebra was quartered away from me at 80yds I shoot it in the ribs and got both lungs and broke the shoulder and was under the skin it weighed in at 137gr but the hornaday will get the job done thats for sure, all of mine were one shoot kills.

Slightly off post, regarding slowing down the 375, if you do make sure you stick with a soft bullet like the Hornady 270 and 300 grain softs. I just shot a bunch of plains game with Sierra 235 gr softs at 2300 fps and unless they hit bone, they behaved like solids. Fantastic penetration (eg impala stem to stern), no meat damage at all, but NO BLOOD TRAIL in several cases. Even with mortal shots. That meant two animals lost, which I am sure would have been recovered if velocity was higher, or if a controlled expansion like the Nosler Accubond or a soft bullet like the Hornady had been used.

Anyone used the 220 grain flat points at reduced velocity? I think they are Hornadys. Say 2350 fps or so? I am looking for an alternative to Speer 235 grainers...they behave like military solids at 2300 unless you hit bone. If not, which bullet is most likely to expand at lower velocity, assuming only organs are encountered?

Russ,
the 225 SP hornady is designed for the 376 at 2600 and up... i have only had great results with them... in fact, of all the hornady bullets, I like these even more than 139 gr sp .284 or 100gr .284s (in my wifes rifle)

jeffe

Reducing velocity seems a bit off base to me..I would think the use of a lesser caliber would be a better route, I mean today its not much trouble to take a couple of guns to a cull hunt, keeps the barrel from getting hot!!

Also the 375 works fine on all plainsgame with the standard loads IMO...the 250 gr. Sierra is one heck of a bullet at 2700 or so FPS on about everything I have seen shot with it and that is deer and plainsgame..It works wonders on elk or so the boys around here tell me, and they all have these perfectly expanded bullets they show around the coffee shop, just after elk season ...