I can handle a 300 & 338 Winchester reasonably well. There are piles of Accumarks in 30-378 practically giving them away. Thoughts?

hell on earth

I'd rather shoot a box of .458 Lott / 500gr @ 2300 in my Ruger #1 then a box of Remington Power Level 3 out of my old (sold) Savage in .300 RUM.

I couldn't see a .30-378 being enjoyable unbraked.

a cheap donor action, or get it braked.

Great choice if you got a lot of 5010 or 5020 to use up.How bout that from a recoil sissy? roger

Hey Bighorn breath where are they giving them away?
I personally hate brakes on rifles. My guess is it will jump around a bit while you are sighting in and doing load development, after that you won't feel it shooting at game.

Not a round I'd like, partly due to spendy brass.....

Might be worth getting for the action. Many of those are already braked, which has its pros and cons.

My 300 RUM is plenty of recoil for me.....worse than my 375 H&H....

Cheers,

Dan

quote:

Originally posted by Snellstrom:
Hey Bighorn breath where are they giving them away?
I personally hate brakes on rifles. My guess is it will jump around a bit while you are sighting in and doing load development, after that you won't feel it shooting at game.

Accumarks are about 1000 to 2000. I'm seeing 30-378's going for 700 or 800. Their nice rifles for the money. I've never used a brake and don't ever want to use. Just seeing what the experience was like. Lol

I have shot one, it was a factory Weatherby rifle. Truth be told, I'm not sure if it was the recoil I was anticipating or what, but I shot a group at 550 yards with it (metal ram target), all in the kill zone, didn't get scoped once, and I wasn't aching afterwards.

Would I want to shoot it a lot? No way, but as a hunting gun I think you would be fine.

quote:

Originally posted by BighornBreath:
I can handle a 300 & 338 Winchester reasonably well. There are piles of Accumarks in 30-378 practically giving them away. Thoughts?

Practically giving them away eh? I'll have to look into that.

I shoot an unbraked 378 Weatherby. I'd say the recoil is maybe 1.5 times heavier than my 300 Win. Mag. but after my experience with it, I would never want a brake on it or on a 30-378 Weatherby Mag.

I have a brake on my primary deer and elk rifle a 7mm Rem Mag and would never have added it (surprise gift from the wife)- but it really shoots better than before the brake was added and the recoil is significantly reduced. My 300 Weatheby doesn't have a brake and I find the recoil to be manageable and the accuracy is excellent, I bought it because the deal was too good to pass up on the rifle. If you are dying to have a bargain 30-378 then buy one. If you find the recoil to be a problem add the brake - you will then be into the rifle for what it's market value is so there doesn't seem to be a lot of risk.

I'm just wondering what the 30-378 will do that your 300 Winmag isn't doing for you?

I killed a bull on the same hill the same day as a guy using a 30-378 with a 4.5x14 Leupold a few years ago and he was able to put 3 rounds into a bedded bull on a sharp downhill angle at 511 yards. He had obviously prepared for those type of shots and bought the weapon and practiced extensively to take advantage of the long distance shots on elk in that part of Colorado. But I don't think that type of performance is beyond the 300 Winmag.

Thanks for the replies. Not really into the 30-378 part but more the opportunity to pick up an Accumark cheap. I'm pretty sure Accumarks come with the brake from the factory. Thanks again.

I have 4 Weatherby's in 30-378 and all have factory brakes. I have a problem disc in my lower back and could not shoot some of the high recoil velocity calibers without a brake. I don't have brakes on my 416's and up since the recoil velocity is lower. The newer brakes seem to throw the noise forward more than the older brakes. I had a Winchester with a Boss brake that just sent all of the blast back at the shooter and bystanders. I've used my 30-378's in Africa on a number of animals and it's impressive especially at longer range.

Anybody have a guess as to what's the barrel life of those Accumark's in 30-378? 800 rounds? 1000?

I have an unbraked 340 Weatherby Accurmark and I don't think it's to bad to shoot at all. I would suggest a 340 as opposed to a 30-378 because I think the 340 will do everything you need to do with a .338 bullet, especially a 225 grain TSX. According to Chuck Hawks "the .340 Weatherby is just about the biggest case that makes any sense for a bullet of .338" diameter." I do like the Accumark rifle.

After the first shot with an unbraked Roy in 30-378, you will screw the brake back on. If you use reduced loads, why have a 30-378 to begin with.

I've shot my 338-378 without the brake a few times. I know I wouldn't want to do an extended range session that way but for hunting it wouldn't be torture. I just call it "spirited" without the brake .

Ken....

The only person I have known that owned the 30-378 said he shot it once without the break and it felt like he had dislocated his shoulder. After that he kept the break on it at all times.
I was never interested in them as they are impractical for me. But to each their own.

I had a .340 Weatherby that was un-braked, and while it was not that pleasant to shoot off the bench, it was manageable when shooting at game.

As for the 30-378 I remember when Weatherby first started offering rifles in that caliber.

Several folks in this area bought them, and some of them may still be setting in the back of a few gun safes, because after sighting the things in, many folks decided that there were better ways of spending time trying to kill deer than anticipating getting the crap kicked out themselves.

Never fired one, but my 10.25lb 416 Rigby loaded up with 300gn Barnes at 3020fps is fine to shoot, so I can't imagine the 30/378 being all that bad unless it is in a lightweight 7 lb rifle. Or is it that different?

Half a dozen folks at our range bought Mk. Vs chambered for that round when W-bee's first brought them on market.

None of them got decent accuracy with their new guns. They were all pretty good shots and experienced handloaders with their other rifles, and the .30-.338 shouldn't be any more difficult to develop a load for than any other cartridge, so I have a couple of guesses as to what was going on (and they are just guesses)...

1. Their unbraked rifles (as all of theirs were) may have either scared them enough or kicked them enough to screw up their groups, or

2. Maybe their early rifles in that chambering had some inherent fault of chambering, rifling, or stocking, that produced the lousy shooting.

Anyway, within a year they had all sold theirs to guys who were NOT members of our range....meaning out-of-towners.

Recoil without a brake is not near as bad as shooting it with a brake in hunting conditions without hearing protection. With a brake on it will deafen a brass monkey without hearing protection. Biggest problem with a 30/378 is they stopped making H-870 powder.