I have a box of Hornady .375 220 gr fp bullets that I want to use for deer. I have IMR 4350 powder and I'm thinking of about 2300 fps. Any thoughts about how many grains of powder to use?

I have looked through all of my references and can't find any suggested loads using IMR 4350 and that light a bullet. The closest I have found is for a 235 grain bullet and the starting load of 81 grains was a compressed load. So this powder may not be suitable - you might want to contact Hodgdon for suggestions.

Unless you just need to use up the bullets or need the reduced recoil, I'd skip lighter bullets in this cartridge. Most are so unaerodynamic that the velocity gains are lost within a couple of hundred yards at most.

LWD

Check the Speer manual for the 235 grain bullet using SR4759.

The lightest loads that Hodgon list for IMR 4350 are:

250 GR. SFT SP 71.0 grains for 2422 fps @ 44,000 CUP up to 79.0C for 2604 fps @ 48,600 CUP

260 GR. NOS PART 70.0 grns for 2416 fps @ 42,600 CUP up to 78.6C for 2624 fps @ 50,600 CUP

I checked the 2009 Hodgdon magazine manual for the Barnes 210 XFB and the Speer 235 gr sp.
Your 225 Hornady using BL-C(2) puts your bullet is in the middle of that weight range.

I have used BL-C(2) powder with the above Speer bullet, this powder will that Hornady 225 zip along like a 270 Winchester 130 gr which has been a proven deer load for decades.

80.0grs of BL-C(2) is the start load for the 235 speer bullet and the max load is 85.0grs

Some time ago I had really good results with this very thing, 220gr Hornady FN in a .375 H&H using AA5744. I got a good accurate load at 2300fps which pretty much duplicates a .375 Winchester load, which is an ideal velocity for deer with that bullet. I was very impressed with the accuracy and the close velocity spreads I got with AA5744.
If I recall, I started out with 40.0gr and worked up from there.
Anyway, might be worth a try.

thanks rdub. will have to try the plinking load.

I wouldn't even THINK of using 4350 this reduced load application.

SR-4759 is designed for this type of application.

I also tried these bullets with 5744 using data directly from the Hornady book. If I recall accuracy was good.

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
Check the Speer manual for the 235 grain bullet using SR4759.

I've had excellent results with this combination.