Last time there were some Steyr Pro Hunters around, I couldn't afford to buy one. Now I see that some Pro Hunter Mountain rifles in 20" barrel length are around. Is this a usable length?? What kind of real world velocities will this give with both the lighter bullets and a 270 gr bullet? Is his proving to be a useful caliber??

It is a wonderful combination. With the 270 grain bullet you can get 2450-2500 fps without pushing the pressure. That will get the job done on anything in North America. That is what the 375 H&H got in its first glory days 90 years ago when the animals didn't know 5,000 foot pounds of energy were required for them to die.

The brass is cheap at Cabelas. The best powder is BL(C)-2; again it is cheap. My Pro-Hunter is very accurate. It likes FailSafe bullets (not cheap), and Hornady 270's, again, cheap.

Forget the iron sights. You can't get your face down on the stock far enough to use them. I have a Leupold 1.5-5x20 on mine. The fixed 2.5x or 4x would work just great also.

Yeee, hawww!

lawndart

57.5 H4895 under a 270 Hornady = 2345fps in my ProHunter. Ran out of these bullets, and haven't tried any heavier loads.

59.3 H4895 under a 260 Nosler Accubond = 2535fps in the same rifle. 50.5g = 2025fps fun loads(less than .6@100 yards)

Factory Hornady 270-grain ammo runs right around 2500 fps out of my 19" .376 Steyr Scout. My 300-grain handloads with Hornady RNs and Woodleigh PowerPoints get 2335 fps and great accuracy. Add about 20-50 fps to each of those for the extra inch of barrel in the ProHunter.

Factory Hornady 270gr Spire Point loads chronographed at 2495 fps out of my 20" Pro-Hunter.

Using 58 gr of CMR100 (lot # 500-10) and the Hornady 270gr Spire Point, I got an average of 2515 fps. (CMR100 is a surplus Canadian powder with a burn rate similar to IMR4895.)

Interestingly enough, 57 gr of the same powder but using Hornady 270gr Round Nose gave me velocities around 2350 fps. Apparently the shorter bearing surface of the Spire Point makes a big difference. (I was seeing about a 40 fps difference in velocity per grain of powder as I worked up to 57 gr.)

Washougal Chris

At some point on this forum someone was extolling the virtues of VvN550 with the 270gr Hornady Spire Points at 2700fps+. I shoot the Barnes 270 TSX in front of 68gr of VvN550 out of my ProHunter w/19" barrel and it clocks out at 2700fps+ with sub-MOA accuracy as measured by my ProChrono chronograph. I don't know how accurate my chronograph is, but the bullet drop, as indicated by targets set at known ranges, back up the figures expressed by the chronograph.

my steyr is a mexican mauser and a 25 inch barrel... with 300s, i can break 2500, but i generally load it to 2450... haven't tried 270s.. 225 hornadys, pushing max, break 2950, load them back to 2800ish...

in all of my max loads, the primers are not pretty... but FAR prettier than factory ammo, as factory SMASHES the primers in all the guns i've seen.

jeffe

I bought one two years ago and have been overjoyed with it. It shoots every powder and every load listed in the Hornady manual superbly! I usually shoot the lightest loads listed for 3031, h335 and also shoot full cases of surplus 860 powder with 235 speer, 270 hornady and the 300 hornady. If I shoot max loads it does just as well. The recoil is very manageable maybe due to the stock design. I shot a large buck last year jumping over a fence at a 150 yards and the 235 grain speer bullet stapled it to the ground! I was so amazed I just stood there staring with my mouth open! There was very little meat damage probably due to the lower velocity. If you want to have fun shoot the lightest h335 (mine is surplus) 270 grain load at dusk, it'll produce a tremendous boom and fireball. Guys I shoot with take movies of the flash. I can't say enough about this caliber and rifle!

Nelsonted1,

H335 carried the nickname "rocket fuel" when I was shooting benchrest in the 70s.

jim

I can't remember a load for my old Steyr but I do want to say how glad I am to see so many 376 fans. Its a great round that I hope retains a following.