I picked one up almost if not new. Never shot it can't find any 375 win ammo. Seems like a good idea anyone have personal experience with these rifles? Reloading only option it seems looks like there is some custom ammo around. I think its an early 80's rifle as far as I can tell still has tag on it

I feed mine with Winchester 38/55 brass. Trim to 2.080. it's a wonderful cartridge and rifle.a cast 230 gas check at 2200 is easy to attain.

starline makes excellent brass also.
I use a lyman 375449 mold sized to .379, it's gas checked and slightly heavy but feeds 100% and is accurate from 38-55 black powder speeds up to 'that's enough recoil' levels.

Winchester just done a short run of factory ammo not too long ago there might still be traces of it on someone's site.
I wouldn't try holding my breath waiting for the next run to come along.

I recently sold a pristine Big Bore 94 in .375 -- I really hated to sell it! It was very accurate, as long as I tested from a cool barrel. The "magic powder" for these is RL-7, which very frequently gives outstanding accuracy. The rifle was very easy to develop an accurate hunting load for -- one afternoon working with a chronograph and increasing loads with RL-7, 1 grain at a time. 1 grain below published maximum was the magic load in my case.


Winchester .375 brass is made for higher pressures than .38-55 brass. These rifles can operate at significantly higher pressures than .30-30's or .38-55's. With a scope on the rifle (side mount) for load development only, the rifle averaged 1.5" at 100 yards for 5 consecutive 3-shot groups.

The groups were larger if I didn't let the barrel cool completely (say, 20-30 minutes) between groups. However, this is the standard condition one would be in when shooting at a deer or hog. After working up my accuracy load, I removed the scope and added a Williams Foolproof receiver sight and a Marble's Sourdough front sight, and this combination shot very well also.

I used the now-discontinued Hornady 220 gr. Flat Point bullets made for the .375 Winchester. This is an outstanding bullet for this cartridge. If you find these for sale, I highly recommend your buying them.


The Sierra 200 gr. FP is a good bullet, but not as tough as the Hornady for shooting hogs and bigger critters, from what I can gather. I shot one hog at about 40 yards (about 100 lbs), quartering to me, with the Hornady 220 gr., and he only traveled about 10" -- straight down.

The .375's holes in the ribcage were definitely more impressive than with another, similar hog that I shot the next day. The second hog was shot with a .30-30 16" barreled Trapper, using 170 gr. Hornady bullets. Bullet placement was virtually identical to the one shot with the .375. The hog shot with the .30-30 also hit the ground immediately and never moved.

I was the only person at the hunting camp shooting iron sights (which I love for hunting), and my not having scoped rifle seemed to boggle the other hunter's minds! Of interest, a fellow with a .300 WSM (scoped) made a poor shot on a hog that had to be trailed a considerable distance. The lever actions worked just fine!!

I found that this cartridge seems to respond well to heavy neck tension, at least with jacketed bullets. After working with some machine-cast bullets and a neck expander die, I used some of the sized and neck-expanded brass for jacketed bullet testing, and accuracy was poor. I then quit using the expander die, full-length sized, and also applied a strong crimp using a Lee Factory Crimp die. Accuracy with this approach was excellent.

If you want any original Winchester .375 brass, I still have a supply of new-in-bag brass. If interested, please PM me on this site. These are great rifles -- light, handy, very smooth to operate, accurate and powerful. As I say, I really hated selling it! I think you have a fine rifle, and that you will really enjoy using it. I never found the recoil objectionable, and it is a joy to carry and hunt with.

I hope this helps!

Sincerely,
John

Gunslinger55,

FYI, more information in this thread further down this page:

375 Winchester ammunition available again-at least for a short time

Gunslinger
I have a 6 cav mold Ranchdog had made up to fit the 375 win throat and leade. It works beautifully in my marlin .375. You are welcome to borrow it to make up a batch.

The quality of those early 1894BB's was the best Winchester had made since the pre '64 days. Plus none of the extra safety & rebounding hammer additions of later models.

The cartridge is well suited to the 94 Winchester and it makes for a light and powerful package. Finding 375 brass is an issue these days but you can use 38/55 brass (not sure about the extra long brass though) or reform 30/30 brass. If you do a google search you'll find posts on how to do this. I prefer using 30/30 brass for higher pressure loads as its more heavily constructed in the head area. Just buy a Lee FCD and you're in business.

It's really cheap to load if cast you own. Reloader 7 and AR2207 (H4198) are good powders. For roughly about the same powder burnt in a 223 you can launch a 250-300 cast slug at around 1800-2100 fps.

Basically a 30-30 in a different pair of boots..Good killer on deer and bear, OK for elk up to 150 yards IMO..Id just as soon have a 30-30 myself...Ive never seen much difference in the 375 Win, 38-55 or even the 35 rem on deer, they all resulted in the same results on game..

John, great reply. Isn't it fun to "boggle minds" with iron-sighted rifles.

I've got one in .375 Win. Too bad Hornady discontinued their 220 gr FP bullet. I'm ordering up some cast 250's to try in their place.

I also have a Ruger #3 in .375 Win.

I feel bad for you, z1r (if not me) - 200 of those Hornady 220-grain bullets came with my BB when I got it more than 30 years ago, and I've still got about 160 of them.

With a new .45-70 to play with, I guess I should leave those .375 bullets to the kids for when no factory ammo can be bought at all.