Well the other day, I had the opportunity to shoot an Encore chambered in a 375 JDJ....

NOT being a single shot hand gunner, I now have a new respect for you boys...

I pulled the trigger.... the firearm did a triple sommersalt in the air, and hit the ground, while I stood there with a blank stupid look on my face...

As an old commerical from the 60s use to say...
"its not nice to fool with Mother Nature..."

Welcome to the club but the 375 JDJ may be a little on the wimpy side. The SSK site notes that the 458 Win. Mag. may be suitable for "hardened" handgun shooters.

I have been seriously considering the purchase of a custom 375 H&H Mag. Encore handgun barrel but I hesitate; perhaps I'm a bit on the wimpy side.

I shoot an Encore in 378GNR, which is about 10%-15% or so over the 375JDJ and while its a handful, is manageable without dropping it. It has a full bull 12"+2" braked barrel and pushes 260 Accubonds at 2350 fps. Whether the 375JDJ or 378GNR, they do a fantastic job on African game. If you think the JDJ is bad, try an Encore with an 8" barrel in 500S&W. A loose grip with one of those and you will think you dislocated your thumb. A strong grip is mandatory with any of the heavy hitter Encore's, as is a muzzle brake.

Woody

quote:

If you think the JDJ is bad, try an Encore with an 8" barrel in 500S&W.

I have one of those with a 15 inch braked barrel. Maybe the 375 H&H Mag. wouldn't be so bad.

It is better to stay with a rimmed cartridge in the Encore, case extraction is much more reliable. I have had to fuss and "fit" the extractor on some of the belted cases I shoot, whereas I have never had the problem with a rimmed case. Besides, I doubt you will gain much, if anything with the slightly larger 375 H&H case over the 378GNR case. You can only burn so much powder in a short barrel. I get the same fps/inch from my 12" bbl. 378GNR Encore as I get in my 24" bbl 375 H&H model 70 Safari Classic, using less powder. JMHO.

Woody

SF,
The HG owner didn`t warn you to hold firm?
Man oh man...
My SSK .375JDJ 14" T/C was hoot with Hornady 220gr. bullets. The 250 and 270 grainers were a lesson in concentration and the eventual shooter`s fatigue. Ruined a grip bolt and a forend block early on before I learned to tighten things on a regular basis.

quote:

Originally posted by Grumulkin:
[QUOTE]If you think the JDJ is bad, try an Encore with an 8" barrel in 500S&W.

I have that exact BBL from Gary, and it is a handful. Great fun, though. Appropriately named "Mini Beast"

Hi Guys,

I have 375-06 JDJ and a 375 H&H with a 270 grain both 15 inch barrels the 375 H&H is about 200 + fps faster than I was getting in the 375-06.

I also have a 416 Taylor and 416 Remington 15 inch also the Remington is only about 160 fps faster shooting 400 grains.

I just recieved a 16 inch 470 Capstick waiting on the hawk bullets to see what it will do.

I've got a 458 Lott 16 inch on order.

All of these are SSK barrels.

If you are having extraction problems with the belted magnum Mike Bellm will cut your barrel slightly see the link below

http://www.bellmtcs.com/store/index.php?cid=174

Good Luck and just make sure you have a real effective muzzle brake nothing like SSK fish gill brake.

BTH

Yeah, I was told to hold onto it...

But the recoil was even more than I was expecting.. it wasn't ported...
and I was expecting a lot....

It just taught me to respect handgunners all the more!!!

quote:

I've got a 458 Lott 16 inch on order.

Once you get it, I would be very interested in how it shoots (accuracy, etc.). Since it's a straight walled case and shot in a handgun, it should be legal for Ohio deer.

Borntohunt

I have been shooting the .416 Taylor myself the past couple months, along with the .376 Steyer and the 35 Newton. Will say that with a load of 3031 and the Barnes 350TSX and the Vais Brake it is very pleasant to shoot and shoots into one hole. Both the Steyer and the Newton shoot the TSX very well also. Currently working with
the .225 grain Accubond in the Newton.

Neal

I thought I would like the 375 jdj but I dont like it.Its not that much of a gain over the 375 winchester.It is a pain in the but to form brass.They killed with no factory brass and ammo coming out a year after the guns.I shot mine in the carbine barrel.It was a new but older contender action.It bent the scope mount for too much recoil.I said this aint worth it.I am sending my contender back in to be repaired .I do like the 375 winchester alot better which you can get brass and ammo for and it kicks alot less.

I'm not a big guy, and I've never had any real problem shooting the 375JDJ. Forming brass from 444 Marlin, is easy. One pass through the die and you're ready to go.

As far as recoil, it's just a tad more than a fully loaded 44mag with 315gr bullets. Mine is topped with a 6-hole weaver base with 3 burris zee rings. They haven't failed yet and it's been 21 years since it was mounted on my 14" barrel.

It's not a caliber that you can just go to the range and enjoy hours of shooting. For that I'll stay with my 22 and 6mm calibers.

Have fun,

HL

dgr416, if the 375JDJ bent your scope mount there was something wrong with either the brand of mounts or the way it was mounted. There is no way this would happen if a quality scope set-up was used and properly mounted, at least not with the power level of the 375JDJ. The 378GNR has at least 15-20% more power/recoil than the JDJ and the 500 Smith even more than that..and I have had no problems. I use the Leupold Dual dovetail mount system on the heavy hitters and the Leupold quick detachables on the lighter kickers. Both use 4 holes, but I never had an issue.

Woody

I am setup exactly like Woodrow with the same results. I do understand that recoil is relevant to experience and other factors though.

Neal

Woodrow,

Never say never when it comes to mounts failing . I have a 375 Van Horn (basically a JDJ) in a 14" hunter bbl. First scope setup was with a Weaver base, 4 screw, each screw fitted to the depth of the bbl hole, red locktited on. 20 rounds and I had the scope, rings, and base in my lap. Sent it off to have it drilled and tapped for 2 more base holes, fit a new base to it and switched to Warne QR verticle split rings because of their excellent key setup that reall fits the slot in the weaver bases very well. 15 shots later I pulled the scope off the base to see how things were doing and found that the weaver base had started to peen fwd and had actually bent one of the keys in the Warne rings. Loads were mid to top range. Was shooing 260 B-tips at around 2000 fps. The Weaver/Warne is the lightest combination that I could come up with that I wasn't afraid would peen the bases like a round cross screw ring does.
I have a couple of the Leup. DD setups but have never liked the short distance between the rings, no support for the scope.

Thanks,
Tim
I did not have the front ring on the unsupported portion of the base because I have seen them bend with relatively mild kickers, IE 30/30 AI and 308 Bellm (JDJ).

To all,

The one thing I forgot to mention...and this matters a whole lot.....I use a 2 part medium strength epoxy under the Leupold base. This has been a tried/true method to secure the base to the barrel and takes the stresses off of the mounting screws. Like I said, I know many guys that have used this method and it works...very well.

Woody

I shot a 12" bl encore in 460 weatherby 3 times and that was enough. Recoil with the factory loads was absolutely horrendous.It pushed a 500 grain bullet 2088 ft/sec. My gun weigh 4 1/2 lbs.

How do you guys prevent the grip screw from bending or breaking. I've had one break and have bent two. Today I took my forend of and that screw was bent. That one may be because I used a bi-pod for a shot to take my mulie but the screw that holds the grip on concerns me.
Mike

Without exception I use Millett base and rings. Not had a problem with rings or bases, nor have I had a scope rotate.
Mike HJD would you be able to send a picture
of your gun setup. ncooper@alaska.com.
coyoteguns.com has a forend to eliminate the bent forend screw. We are shooting through .458 Win Mag out of the hand cannons without ever experiencing this problem.