I was probably the first member of the general public to use the 260 NBT from a .375 JDJ on game, and experienced jacket separation. This occurred on shots in the 40 yards range or less at a muzzle velocity of 1950. I actually think these bullets would have been good performers at higher velocities. If the Accubond expands as well as its cousin, then it should be what I had originally expected of the NBT. Since Nosler basically designs its bullets to be interchangeable in its loading data for bullets of similar diameter and weights (as can be seen from their reloading manuals), I would expect that the 260 Accubond could be loaded to similar levels as the 260 BT or 260 Partition. I cannot recall the exact max for the bullet, but I generally load at between 50 and 51 grs. I believe the max on 270 Horn is 53.7 gr. of Varget according to JD Jones with his barrels (please do not take this verbatim, as it is only a recollection - my load is 52.0 grs and is very accurate and consisitent in velocity).

I have experienced jacket separation with the 270 horn on a moose at 25 yards, as well. But I have also taken several black bears with this bullet and had complete penetration and about 3" exit wounds. There has been a ton of game taken with this bullet out of the .375 JDJ, so I would not hesitate to use it for anything in NA except the large bears.

One thing is the Jones always said that he would not rechamber a TC .375 Win barrel to .375 JDJ because of pressure problems, so I would also have to caution anyone reloading for the TC barrel to be careful when approaching max loads. Ther will proabbly not be any signs of pressure at max.

Just my 2 cents.

Hey all, havent posted in a while, but I know your all the ones that can help me. Heres the deal, I just bought a new 375 JDJ 14" G2 to start using as my primary hunting pistol for everything here in Alaska. I plan on ordering a 4X Burris Posi-lock and the duo ring mounts for it soon. 1st question does that sound like a pretty solid hunting set-up? Next question. Ive done tons of reloading, but never for a wildcat. I already have 100 pcs of Hornady 444 brass the Hornady custom dies from J.D. Jones and all the other components. Im getting ready to try this necking down thing. I am assuming you have to take out the decapping rod during initial sizing so as not to expand on the way down. Then I was going to place it in the trimmer and ream the inside of the neck out to 375 so the brass on the neck was not so thick. After this I was going to resize one more time and carry on like normal. I assume for the initial sizing I need to full length size to get the right shoulder and neck. Sorry about the run on, but I want to double check myself before I go ruining all my brass. Also I have already purchased barnes X 210 and hornady 220 FP and 225 SP if anyone has some pet loads they would like to share. Oh yeah one more thing, do any of you crimp for the 375 JDJ from what I read most dont. Thanks Scott

Ok let's see here. I have been using CH4D dies and an SSK barrel for about the last year. I just take my brass, R-P, and first run it just slightly into a .44 mag die to make sure the case mouth is perfectly round (they will often have dents from bulk packaging). Then I just run them up into the form die after lubing. I try to get the brass so the shoulder and the rim both work together for head spacing. I've never pulled the decapping stem or anything like that. I've also never trimmed or reamed anything although I will probably trim them here soon as I am on about my 5th firing of this brass. I'm sure your method would work, just sounds like you are making things way too hard on yourself! JDJ designed this round to be super easy to make, please let it me for your sanity!

As to loads the recent Shoting times did a little feature on the round and had data for the 210X and the 220-225 Hornady. Accurate arms used to also let you print off their data from their web site. Hodgden and Hornady also have data, I have all these sources if you need any of them, just drop me a note.

I have just about settled on two loads, the 270gr. Hornady ahead of 52grs. of AA2520 and the 260gr. Nolser Accubond ahead of 52.5 grains of R15. (Be VERY careful with both these loads they are right at max). I've been considering giving the light bullets a try, especially the 225gr Hornady SP, but haven't heard much if anything about it's on game performance. Let me know how it works for you.

I dont have a 375 JDJ but I do have a 358JDJ. All I did was run them into a 44 mag die to make sure the mouths were round. Lube and run them threw the 358JDJ die. Thats it. You are ready to prime and load.

Jeff

Just a opinion here but I'd look into SSK's T'SOB mount and rings. If your not familiar with them they feature 6 screws instead of 4 and come standard with 3 rings. A very stong mount for your contender. I believe he'll install them for just under 90 bucks and if you feel you need it, a forth ring can be added for around $15. I have never had a duo-ring on anything so I dont know how well they hold up.

If the duo-mounts you are referring to are TCs, forget it. Some of the screws are so short that a small caliber such as a 6x45 will shoot it loose in no time. The .375 JDJ will simply eat its lunch, no matter how carefully you secure it.

There are a number of setups out there similar to (and cheaper than ) the T'SOB, and they work just as well. Just forget about the TC duomounts...

As to the brass, the .375 JDJ is one of the simplest wildcats to work with. The advice you received above was sound -- just keep it simple. And as to the X bullet, I must ask "why?"

At the velocity you will be shooting, a plain copper-jacketed projectile will give all the penetration you need on thin-skinned game, and the Hornady 270 grainer -- a "tough" bullet at this velocity -- can handle the larger stuff such as elk or wild hogs and do so with ease.

You are working way to hard on this round.On my .375JDJ I check the case mouth for round, lube, put in press and run through sizing die. I also try to get the case head and shoulder to touch about the same time but any slack will be taken up when fired and you will have a fire formed case. Don't trim the necks as this will case splits on the second or third firing. I have some brass that the guy that did this said he wish he hadn't. The die will put the case mouth right on the money.
As for the X bullet, I was told by JDJones himself to stay away from it due to it causing excess pressures.
My favorite load is the 220 grn Hornady flat point, 49 grns of IMR 4895 w/a Fed 210 primer. This is pushing 1976fps and will destroy a deer or hog. I have purchased some 260grn Accubonds but haven't shot them yet. I did shoot the Hornady 260grn SP w/Varget but didn't get the fps and it is a hand full.
On the mounts, I went with the TSOB just to save having the scope come off on a hunt or at the range and busting my scope.
I have a .309JDJ and I'm using the Leupold 2 ring mount but it's not the monster the .375 is. I put a TSOB on my 45-70 also after I sheared two screws. I was told the third ring goes in the back but it fit better in the front due to the location of the scope.
Enjoy the round, it is fun and a head turner.

Mike

I have a 4X Burris on my 375JDJ 12" SSK barrel.. For here in the east it's ok. But if I were in Alaska(lucky dog) I'd put on a 1.5x4 Burris for close up work. I have one on my 357 Max and on my 14" barrel it's a perfect match for up close work in the thick stuff here in Ohio. I was afraid of loosing FOV with the 20mm bell, and was really suprised when I looked thru the scope.On 1.5x it's like having open-sight crosshairs and you can find everything in the scope. Do yourself a favor and get a TSOB mount. I have a full-lenght vent-rib model in TSOB that looks awesome on my barrel. Not to mention the xtra strenght it'll give you. A fellow at our sportsman club got a 450 Marlin(15") with factory screws(4) and had a scope and cheap mount hit him right between the eye's when the screws stripped out of barrel on the recoil! Knocked him out cold for several seconds. I warned him about it and seen humor in it when it happened.Don't go cheap on mounting big kickers!!!. My barrel loves AA2520 and Hornady 225SP's

Wow thanks for all the help. I think Im going to take your advice and stay away from the Barnes X. Thanks for all the help and post some more if ya all have anything you want to share. I sure am glad I didnt purchase those duo rings yet. Thanks again for the time saving advice on brass prep.

Just some other thoughts I have on bullets and bullet selection...

I just started working with cartridge about a year ago. Bullet selection has been the one subject with this cartridge that I have fret about the most. So far I have only looked at the 260-270gr. bullets in this cartridge. The ballistic profile of the lighter bullets was just awful until Hornady just came out with the 225 SP. With the flat point 220 and the 235 semi point, the 270 would shoot just as flat and carry with it a lot more energy. And through all my asking most folks simply recommend that I load AA2520 behind the 270gr. Hornady and be done with it, but then when I dug deeper I found that the Hornady 270 probably wasn't the best bullet for the job. Several individuals on this site pointed out that velocity had to be close to 2000 fps to get full expansion and the JDJ cartridge just couldn't achieve that anywhere close to 200 yards or beyond. The bullets tend to just pencil though (probably not really a bad thing though when you are starting at .375 ). JJHack mentioned that he had terrific success with the 260gr. Nosler Partition as the front wil expand down to much lower then the Hornady. At first the .375 Ballistic tip was out and it was cursed becuase of core jacket seperation, but now I think we have the best of both worlds with the 260gr. Accubond.

The Nosler folks say it will fully expand down to 1700 fps and with the bonded core should keep close to 70% of its original weight. For my uses this looks like the perfect bullet as it is very flat shooting, should expand, and price wise is very close to the Hornady bullets.

As to powder I have tried AA2520, H4895, and Reloader 15. All of them shoot very accurately, with Reloader 15 having the velocity edge. I still shoot quite a bit of AA2520 behind the 270gr. Hornady, but once my supply is gone I probably won't buy anymore. For me it will be R15 and the 260gr. Accubond. I would also like to try Varget, but so far finding data for R15 or Varget is nearly impossible.

Would still like to give the 225 SP a try, but I have been waiting to see some reports back about how this bullet performs at the lower velocities, so far I haven't seen any.

Unless Nosler has done the low velocity testing since Feb 14 they haven't done it on the 375 Accubond. I discussed this very subject with John Nosler at the shot show. Also be careful using this bullet with loads based on Hornady or Speer 270's. The 260 Accubond is considerably longer and you may run into load density issues with certain powders and/or higher than expected pressures - so work up slowly from a reduced load.

Well Ive started forming the brass and have already run into a problem. The hornady brass get a small flange at the end when its coming out of the resizing die. I have to take a deburring tool to get the swell down enough to get the case to fit. JD Jones said hes never had that problem with remington and doesnt have any experience with the hornady. Have any of you had this happen?

Never seen that either, but I to am working with remington brass.

try chamfering and de-burring the virgin 444 brass before the initial sizing. This happened a few times to me and I think it was on nickle plated brass, but not sure.

I run my 444 Rem brass thru a 444 sizing die 1st to straighten out the deformed brass before running it thru the 375JDJ die. The mouths of new bulk brass are really messed up. I've never lost a case yet making the brass this way.

Off the immediate subject, but have any of you that have a G2 done your own trigger job yet?

I just did my own, stoned all the contact surfaces and improved it quite a bit. BUT one question, and I'm hoping one of you guys can tell me, relates to the little feeble spring in the trigger assembly itself. Tiny little thing that seems to fit under the screw-in pin and provide a bit of resistance to forward motion of the trigger. Am I reading that thing's purpose right or what?? Trigger dangles loose unless that little spring end is under the pin but that sure isn't much for the purpose.

Thanks for any help.