My 375-338WinMag came today on the bus, after the smith finished it up. I won a Tikka M695 stainless synthetic 7mmRemMag last fall in a raffle, and decided I wanted a big bore. After doing the research, I found that the 375 Taylor was the animal I "needed".
It has a 25 inch stainless bead-blasted barrel, and I had the trigger done to 3 pounds. I recieved the dies from CH4D, and have all the brass, powder and bullets to start building some loads. Think I'll try and get at it tonight, as Moose and Elk Season opened today, and I want this gun rippin' before next weekend. Can't wait to pull the trigger on it......

[ 08-17-2003, 04:56: Message edited by: CampX ]

How about some pictures of it so we can drool? Hope it is ready in time for your hunting.

Red

Loaded up around 40 rounds for the new 375 Taylor last night, starting of course at the low end of the reload data. It was a pretty hefty pull on the Rockchucker handle to stretch the neck out from .338 to .375, and I damaged the case mouth on 9 out 0f 50 brass that I sized.
Pretty much just went with one size of load, the 270 grain Hornady's, which will be my primary load. At the range today, they chronied at 2740 fps with 70 grains of 4064....I like it! I will be tweaking this a little more, but after shooting around 25-30 rounds, my shoulder was starting to be a bit of a pussy.
I only shot 2-3 times in a row, with a lot of cooling time in between. Cleaned and brushed the bore with Shooter's Choice after every 5 shots...don't know much about breaking in a barrel, but know enough to keep it from getting red-hot and fouled up.
While she was cooling down, I ripped off some shots with the SKS, and it still surprises me to smack the 300 yard gong, 5 for 5, with the crappy dust-cover scope mount and a 20 year old Bushnell......
The 375 Taylor isn't unpleasant to shoot, though the recoil is definitely there, and the Tikka trigger is dead crisp. All in all, I would have to say I am pretty damn happy with what I saw today at the range. Should work wonders on moose and elk.....more to follow.

[ 08-17-2003, 05:03: Message edited by: CampX ]

Sounds sweet! A 270gr at 2740 should get the job done

CampX. It's a lot easier to neck down .458 Win. mag. brass and trim just enough to square the necks. Try it, you'll like it.
Paul B.

Hi CampX
20% of your brass is a pretty big loss. You can drop that to zero if you fireform your brass instead. Just load aprox 17 grains of bullseye pistol powder with a small amount of cotton swab to hold the powder against the primer, then fill the case up just shy of the neck with porridge or some fine cereal. Make up fifty cases like this and then take a bar of parafin wax and a torch with a very low flame and melt the wax to fill the balance of the case to the point of fload. Take any spilled wax of the exterior of the case load them into you 375, point it straight up and fire. You will have fireformed cases with no loss. Have fun with your new big bore.
Take care,
Dave

Thanks for the info! I had thought about fireforming, but was so damned anxious to shoot this gun which I waited 5 months for, I just had to load up some REAL loads to try it out. I do have 50 more rounds of brass to size, in 338, and I will just have to suck it up and take the loss. I don't have any pistol powder as I don't reload any handguns.
The loading data I have is showing up to 2800 fps with 270 grains, but I am not sold that I need to reach that speed. At 2740 fps, it is packing almost 4500 foot-pounds of energy, and is ballistically close to that of a 30-06 with 180 grain bullets. What more does a guy want?

CampX:
The guys have made some good points, but I feel compelled to add my experiences here. I neck up Winchester .338 cases to .416 Taylor in one pass, I've done perhaps 120 cases and not lost a single case. The secret is in the long tapered expander in my custom Davern dies. I prefer the necked-up .338 to the necked-down .458: that brass has got to go somewhere, and my experience has been that thin necks (within reason) are less likely to work-harden and crack. Many of my cases have been reloaded 6 or 8 times, and neck-annealed once after the 5th reload. Again, haven't yet lost a case (except in the long grass during a dust-up!).

Many years ago I fire-formed a handful of cases to see what would happen: in the .416 they produced wonky case-mouths and very uneven thickness brass around the neck. Also the lead .41-cal slugs I used leaded my barrel like hell! Gave it up as a bad joke. You might get away with it in the .375 however, especially if you follow 470 Mbogo's recipe.

If you are stuck for powder-space, the necked-down .458s might be worth considering as they gave about 2 grains more capacity than the necked-up .338s for some reason (in Winchester cases during my tests).

To conclude, I have always thought the .375 Taylor to be one of the most practical large-medium bores ever (not) produced!

I ordered my dies from CH4D....can't say as to the quality of the dies, but that they DO work to neck up the 338 case. Perhaps I need more taper on the expander? If so, I know of a good machinist who could turn it down on a lathe.

Also, a question on the case length...if after reloading the case say 5 times, and it has stretched, what length do you trim back to? 338 length?

Do you have any particular pet loads for the 375 Taylor? I want to stick with the 260-270 grain bullets, as they are a nice balance of weight and speed, and will be perfect for moose and elk. Any thoughts on the new 260 grain Accubond from Nosler?

Hi CampX,

Congrats on the new baby! Sounds like a winner.

I will be blowing the dust off of my 416 Taylor this weekend. I relocated to the Peace in January and have been so busy with work, etc, that my reloading equipment is still in boxes. Hopefully by Sunday I'll have some loads ready so I can take a quick site-in trip to the range. MOOSE BE WARNED! (actually, they have no reason to be scared with my track record on moose!).

Anyhoo, I just thought I'd mention that I think your problem might be with your expander ball. I have 416 Taylor dies from RCBS and I have necked up fifty 338WM brass in one pass (each, of course ), and did not lose a single case. I did make sure to have a decent amount of lube on the necks, but other than that I wasn't particularly cautious.

I have some CH4D dies for my 470 Mbogo, and although I haven't had a chance to put them to use yet either, I did notice they were a little rough. I'd take a quick look at your expander ball. It could either be a case of the taper not being gradual enough, or excessive gripping of the case neck due to roughness that could be causing your problems. A little emery would fix up the latter in a jiff.

If that doesn't work, Dave's fireforming suggestion is just as easy. I do it a little differently, but Dave's method is a little more professional and less likely to malfunction. I just put Cream of Wheat directly over the powder (I use Unique) and fill the case up to the base of the neck, then roll up some toilet paper and stuff it in the neck to hold everything in.

Cheers,
Canuck

[ 08-22-2003, 00:42: Message edited by: Canuck ]

CampX. My .375 Taylor is built on a Ruger 77 tang safety model with a 22" top of the line Douglas barrel (at least the guy I bought it from said it was. ) Scope is an old Weaver steel tube K-4 with a post reticle. Original Ruger stock split upon firing so I replaced it with a Ramline which is working out just fine, so far.
Rifle is quite light for caliber at 7.5 pounds with scope, sling and full magazine, but I figure I'll carry it a lot more than shoot it.
My load goals for the rifle are, 235 gr. bullet, 2800 FPS, 270 gr. bullet, 2650 FPS and 300 gr. bullet, 2500 FPS, thus duplicating the original .375 H&H specs which I consider suffient for my purposes. (elk)
I have not done anything with the 235 gr. bullet yet. For the 270 gr. Hornady spire point, 68.0 gr. of IMR-4064 give an average of 2675 FPS with no apparent pressure signs. Accuracy is quite good at 1.1" and an extreme spread of 34 FPS The 300 gr. Hornady spire point with 64.0 gr. of IMR- 4064 delevers 2470 FPS with 1,25" groups and an E/S of 35 FPS. The 300 gr. Sierra spitzer boattail gives 2518 FPS with 65.0 gr. of IMR-4320 and an E/S of33 FPS. groups are in the 1.25" range. The same bullet with 74.0 gr. of IMR-4350 gave 2558 FPS average, 1.5" groups and an E/S of 65 FPS.
Brass has been made from .458 Win. mag., .338 Win. Mag. (I dropped those because of the chance of mixing them up with brass for my .338 Win. mag.)and as an experiment, from 7mm Rem. Mag. brass. Yep. It'll work. I anneal the necks first, then run them through my RCBS die slowly and don't lose too many cases. I have a tapered expander ball in my die set.
At 7.5 pounds, recoil is noticable, but with a good recoil pad and that synthetic stock, it's not all that bad. I'll probably be carrying it this year for my elk hunt with either my .300 Win. Mag. or .338 Win. Mag. for a backup.
I probably could get away with a grain or two more powder, but it gets quite hot here in Southern Arizona when I work up hunting loads, so prefer to keep the loads abit on the conservative side till I learn the rifles likes and dislikes better.
Paul B.

For all of you that like to tinker, Hornady expanders (football-shaped) fit the stem in a RCBS universal decapping die. I ordered 6 extra stems from RCBS and a .308 .338 .358 .375 .416 and,.458 Hornady expanders. Screwed the expanders on each of the stems with loc-tite without a decapping pin. When I want to step the necks up in size, I use various combinations of the stem-mounted expanders screwed up into the universal die as far as possible. The necks turn out a bit off-center sometimes but the first firing straightens them out. Accuacy isn't as bad as you'd imagine.

What works for me is to expand to one size bigger than needed then run the brass through the FL resize die screwed out just enough to have a slight crush fit on the resulting false shoulder. A cream-of-wheat fire form or a standard load with a bullet then anneal, resize, trim to minimum length. If using a bullet, you don't need to seat it into the rifling as the false shoulder will take care of any excess headspacing.

[ 08-22-2003, 06:20: Message edited by: cgdavid ]

Hey Canuck, nice to hear from a fellow Northerner! I actually had my rifle done at Corlane's in Dawson Creek, and the barrel is a Bevan King (local from Pouce Coupe I think?) Anyways, I'm gonna do some more tweaking on the 270 grain load possibly this weekend, play with bullet seating lengths and see if I can find the "sweet spot" for it. The elk around here are supposedly starting to bugle, or at least come to calls, so I'd better get at 'er......
The CH4D dies are somewhat rough, and I like the idea of giving it a bit of a polish. I think I will just stick to the regular loaded bullet way of forming, and not the cream of wheat/pistol powder way. I like to see big holes in paper....

[ 08-22-2003, 11:10: Message edited by: CampX ]

CampX,

Good luck with your loads and with the elk.

FWIW, my new favorite bullet for my 375 H&H is the 270 Swift A-frame. JJHACK got me on to them when I borrowed his rifle in RSA. I used them on 7 plains game, ranging from steenbok to eland and they performed perfectly IMHO. I was a confirmed 300 grain user in my 375 until that experience. Anyway, if you get the urge to try them, I know that Corlane stocks them or you can mail-order them from Russells Sports in Cowtown. They are a little steep ($80 for 50), but I think they are worth it, especially on elk and moose. You might even be able to get them at Backcountry in FSJ.

Next time Dave (470 Mbogo) comes up for a "Northern BC Big Bore Shoot", we'll have to make sure you get an invite (if your interested, of course).

Cheers,
Canuck