Nickudu-
Yes, it was an interesting session! My load development time is already finished and I was just playing around with the best grouping bullets to see where they would all impact for a given point of aim. Might try it again with some solids thrown in and then who knows...Need to go and shoot something as paper punching is boring!

John, I agree the 300 mags are tough to beat on a plains game hunt. The huge majority of my hunters over the years have broght with them 300 mags.

I Guess I did not see a significant difference in recoil between the 300 and the 375 while hunting. The 300 Weatherby mag I had was a pretty stout recoiling rifle. The 375HH has a big push but the 300 weatherby was like a spear into my shoulder. Granted the "formula" shows the 375HH to be much higher but to my well trained recoil measuring shoulder the 300 mag was no slouch in the recoil dept!

JJHACK,

270 grainers shooting 2.5" to 3" above 300 grainersis undoubtedly suitable for yopur use.

However that is typical 375 performance from a good barrel.

On the hand a caliber like a 270 with a godd barrel will shoot composite groups of an inch awith 130s and 150s and quite often 100s and 110s will cut the group.

A 300 Winchester will is far more likely to put 150s and 180s together thanis the case for the 308 and 30/06.

I suspect that a 378 Wby with conventional freebore and agood qualty number 5 barrel would group different weight bullets and powders much closer to together than does the 375 H&H.

I have had both the 35 Whelen and 358 STAs with number 5 barrels fitted to a bench gun and again the bigger case 358 STA puts the loads much closer together than the 35 Whelen.

While using different loads in the field might be a separate issue, the ability to shoot different loads close together also frequently goes together with putting a shot from cold clean barrel or a barrel with cold hard fouling close to or into the group.

Mike

Nick,

The last time I used 4320 was about 20 years ago.

When we use to get Dupont the one I used most in the 375 was 4064. 68 grains with 300s and 71 grains with 270 grainers.

The powder out hee that seems to give the best accurayc across a wide range of 375s is what Hodgdon sells as H4350 (AR2209). I suspect that one reasonj for that is the loads are low pressure and in my expericne rifles with crappy bedding are most likely to shoot their best with low pressure loads.

Mike

JJ-
A 300Wby will "spear" you with a poorly designed stock, no question. My 300 and 375s have the exact same stock and weigh within 1/2 pound of each other. The 375 comes back much quicker and with more authority. Even with that, it's still a pussycat comapred to my 450!

I think the 300 Weatherby is a fantastic caliber. In my view, it rivals the 375 as "the" all around gun and arguably the best caliber out there for plains game. Having said that, I was damned glad I had my 375 H&H when I shot my eland. It was a longish shot, about 175 yards and what made it even more difficult, I had to "weave" the shot between a bunch of trees and shrubs along the way. We had been tracking this pair for about 3hours. The animal was half hidden and I aimed for what I thought was the shoulder: It wasn't. It was his right rear ham! BUT thanks to the 375, the shot broke his pelvic bone and he collapsed on his haunches. I was able to quickly put a follow up shot at the juncture of his neck ( off hand to I might add, I was proud of that one!) and put him down for good. Would a 300 been able to do that? I don't know but I was sure glad for my 375. With it, I'm good to 300 yards. jorge

jorge-
My first eland was taken after a 2 hr. on again off again stalk. When we caught up with himthe last time he was walking through a small clearing. I had a good rest and made one of my best shots ever on a safari. The bullet took out both front shoulders and he fell on his nose! 200gr Bear Claw from my 300Win mag.

Yes, you are likely correct. but then many things such as this are highly subjective. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have seen how effective a 375Ackley is on a number of large species and it appeared TO ME that it did virtually as well as my 416 Rigby on the same animals. YMMV.

As some of you know, I have shot the 375 improved since 1978. Pre-64 action, stainless 22 1/2 inch barrel with a 1-8 twist. Propbably only barrel like this around as I like a quick twist.

I have shot large critters such as american bison and feedlot cattle, plus 5 x 5 and 6 x 6 elk and mule deer. Overkill for everything.

Bullets used on game are; 250 Bitteroot, swift, 270 nosler old style, woodleigh, ww powerpoint, hornady spire point, 275 Bitteroot, 285 grand slam, 300 Bitteroot, nosler old and new style, new ww silvertip, swift and barnes x. Only hornady disapointed me. the old silvertip was junk and I never hunted with it, but the new ST is quite good. I have tested most of the other available 375 bullets in 5 gallon water cans which is a bit tougher on a bullet than a cape buffalo based on George Hoffmans supply of recovered 416 swifts to ones recoverd from 4 water jugs.

My load for 300 gr Bitterroot is 90 gr IMR 4831. This gives me 2825 fps using WW brass. The Improved case is Bill Steigers blown out case which predates the JRS by about 15 years. It was necked up to 416 several years prior to the Hoffman by Beisen for Bill but no one knew about it and George can lay claim to popularizing the 416 caliber with both his 416 x 375 weatherby and the later hofffman. The 375 improved case has slightly more powder capacity than either the Ackley, Weatherby, or JRS.

What I like about the various improved cases are that with IMR 4831 you cant get into trouble with pressure. you cant stuff enough powder in there to exceed normal operating pressures! I like single base powders!!

down side to using IMR 4831 is that you need a fire formed case or a drop tube to fill up the case. It is a compressed load.

I get 2975 fps with a 275 BBC and 92 gr 4831, and 3050 fps with a 250 using light load of 4064.

Rememebr this is from a 22 1/2 inch barrel.

this is all the gun I can shoot prone. My longest range miss was about 700 yds (hit a frozen tree limb above a 6 x 6 elk which fell on the elks butt), and longest hit at 500 yds using the 270 ww power point with standard factory 375 ammo which the rifle shoots well but about 6 inches high and right.

I normally shoot the 300 gr BBC which retains 95% weight and expands to an inch diameter.

Depsite Saeeds tremendous success with the Barnes X I like large expanded frontal area and this sort of bonded bullet or well made coventional bullet (like the power point) likes the extra velocity offered by the imporved case.

I use a military sling to shoot prone which helps soak up recoil. I have never been hit by my plain jane 4 X Luepold scope.

Its not for everyone but I like it.

Most of us here would prefer a 30-06 to a 308 winchester (a 180 gr bullet at 2600 fps vs 2800 fps), and I have always wondered why we would not feel the same way about a 375 vs a 375 weatherby or improved. I guess the mistrust of those old tinfoil bullets has just made us all gun shy. As long as you hunt with a premium bullet it has never been a problem for me, and I was often shooting at almost point blank range.

One other observation. Saeed may have had better luck with the barnes x at 2600 fps than at higher velocity because it "tumbled" (pitched and yawed) at the lower velocity. From his incredible display of photos you can see alot of them are bent as if they did tumble. this increases frontal area of the bullet alot and will increase its killing power. Since most of the banres x bullets end up kind of a square diameter wide bullet when they blow off their front end, tumbling is an adventageous way to increase frontal area.

Also Saeed appears to be an unflappable, confident game shot.

I had to back off 4 gr powder to use a 300 barnes x in my rifle which was equal to about 120 fps loss of velocity and at higher pressure than the other bullets. I had similar experience with them in my 300 weatherby.

Ive got enough 300 Bitteroots to last my lifetime and I feel about the 375 improved with 300 bbc like Saeed does about his magnificent combo.

PS I learned to handle the rifle using factory 375 ammo. By the time I was ready to handle the increased recoil, I had a good supply of once fired brass.

Sorry for long post but I love the 375.

Andy