Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 375-06 Imp ?

Is anyone out there playing with a 375-06 Imp ?
Mine is one of several rifles from my late Brother's estate, probably his last build before he left us.
Stock and metalwork are finished but it needs bluing and it came with a set of custom C-H dies.
The chambering and dies are stamped 375-06 IMP - CP the last letters being his initials so presumably the reamer was his own design as the fired cases seem to be shorter than '06 length and slightly more blown out than other improved cases.
Now I'm looking for starting load info, managed to find some in the Big Bore Rifles & Ctgs.book but would like to find more.

Any help will be most appreciated..

Mule Deer wrote about his 35 Whelen improved a while back in an article about improved cartridges. (NICE STOCK on your rifle!)

Wow nice rifle....
Look at 375 hawk scoville...should be pretty close....if the length is shorter reduce the load accordingly...

Crobar: I believe you're referring to an article I wrote for HANDLOADER about thirty years ago. They later published it in the book you mentioned, but for some reason, left out the load data page. It was also re-published in their big book on wildcat cartridges. That one has data.

While there are several similar cartridges, work up loads cautiously. I haven't compared any of these different models in a long time, but I believe (from memory only), the Dave Scoville .375 may have a greater capacity and use heavier charges.

Good luck with your new handloading venture.

I have been off the Campfire for some time now, funny how this thread is here now.

This weekend I received a Ruger Number 3 chambered in 375 Express. Last night I fell asleep reading "Big Bore Rifles and Cartridges"

Ken Waters designed the round for an older rifle. Case capacity of the 375 Express duplicates that of the 375-06, and of course the Ruger is plenty strong. 444 Marlin Brass, the parent case for the 375 Express is pretty strong.

His 375 Revisited article in the July 1998(?) issue of Handloader is not available to me yet, but I am looking for it, or I will by the back issue.

Ken got 2200 fps with of 275 grain Hornady bullets and IMR 3031. My Ruger has a 29 inch barrel. I wonder if 2400 is possible, or if I wanting that extra is really just silly. Sighted for 200 yards an extra 200 fps only gains 2.5 inches. Minute of Elk?

I have one, mine is marked ".375-06 RCBS" which uses a 30 degree shoulder rather than a 40 degree shoulder of the Ackley Improved version.

The .375 Hawk comes the closest to your and my rifles in case capacity and overall dimensions.

Here's the link to the Z-Hat website for more info; LINK

I have not fired mine, I still need to have C-H make a set of dies for me. I did jump on the Midway deal on .375 bullets before they disappeared, so I'm set.

Ed

I have a T/C TCR with a 23" SSK .375-06 JDJ barrel. It has a sharp shoulder and very short neck. They don't call it "Improved" but it surely is....

I had a 375-350 Remington Mag (or 375 Joker) barreled on a SA M77 a few years ago. I tried many different powders using the 350 Mag data as a guide... charges for the 250 grain 35 caliber bullets for the the 270s in the 375 caliber, and so on. The 4895s seemed to be ideal powders for getting the most from it, the 270s getting around 2400 fps, while the 300s get around 2300 in my 20" barrel. More recently I have played with TAC and 250s/260s getting 2600 and more from them.

I think those powders will get you in the ballpark. There might be a few others which will do better in your longer case perhaps. Lots of fun playing with a wildcat!

First, sorry about your loss. I just inherited a few guns from my brother passing as well, a few weeks ago.

Second, like mentioned above send an email off to Z-Hat Customs. They should be able to give you some starting points if its close in capacity to the 375 Hawk/Scoville.

Cro. Waited a few days to see what came up. Mine is a 375-06 Ack. 40 deg. w/a 20.5" bbl on a Sav 110. It was originally a 338-06 24" Midway bbl. that I had Jim Dubell rebore/rechamber to the 375-06 Ack. (Jim has passed now and is chambering w/God himself!). Anyway I started w/ loads from Handloader and Rifle Mags. as well as anywhere I could find data. What I learned is that BE CAREFUL AND START LOW WITH ANY PUBLISHED DATA!!!!! I have used everything from the RCBS cast 250 to the Horn 300 gr RN as well as the 235 Speer (probably my fav), 250 Barnes, 225 Horn (another good one), 260 Nosler (another good one), 270 Horn RN and spitzer (Too Hard for the vel.) 250 Sierra BT as well as home made bullets on a 223 case weighing 315 gr. (deadly). I would very well recommend getting the RCBS 375-250 mold and a push through sizing die and use them as that is the cheapest thing going and you can load them to 2200 fps w/water dropped wheel weights. Few thing will stand up to those! As to your rifle, its a beaut! but be careful and start low. 3031 is good as is 4320, 4895 and others of that speed. My RCBS 375-250 load is generally 40 gr. 3031 (1800 FPS). Also look at 9.5x56 Mannlicher loads. There is an article in the S/O 1992 Rifle or Handloader on the 375-06. I have tried some of the published loads but many are VERY optomistic in my rifle! The Hawk and the Scovill have more case capicity than mine so I shied away from those loads. In mine I have run out of recoil tolerence w/heavy bullets before I ran out of case strength though! Be careful.- Muddy

I can say with a bit of experience that the Hornady 270s (in both shapes) as well as the Hornady RN SP and Interbond have not behaved as "too hard" at the speeds you can get with the case size in question.

That's good to hear since I bought 500 of the Hornady RN version from Midway last month.

Ed

Sorry, I ment only the Horn 270 Spitzer, the RN works just fine.-Muddy

It shot very well yesterday with 270 Hornady over 54.0 gr, 4064.
No indication of pressure, comfortable load to shoot, probably way down on the pressure scale.
Cases form nicely with wrinkles where they belong, thus far all is good.

Thanks for the input and tips fellas, most appreciated.

I have a .375 Hawk and I really like the 235 Speer. I get about 2850 with IMR/H4895. Have also developed a 300 gr. load at 2400 and can't remember which powder.

Doc, what was your starting load for that 235gr Speer?

I have a couple hundred of them, too.

300gr @ 2400? That sounds mighty close to a .375 H&H...

Ed

APD:

I bought a CD of load data from Zhat and used it to start. There is also used to be free load data for the .375 Hawk on Zhats web site. You might check and see if it is still there. I'll check my notes and get back to you on my specific data. It was developed for/in a rebarreled Rem 760 pump gun. A .375 H&H pump gun .

Boy this sounds instelling, might have to order a 375 snout....

I haven't logged in for a couple days but I first want to say a huge Thanks to you guys for all the input, its humbly appreciated.
Weather has been too hot in this part of BC to do range work but cooler air will show up soon.
The rifle pictured seems to have good potential to be accurate however my Dear Brother built another Mauser , this one a 9.3X62 that is more difficult to to make good loads for so considering that this is a wildcat forum, I had better post a query on the hunting rifle section concerning i
However, let's keep kicking around this old 375-06 creation on here, I 'm getting some good info.
Again, Thanks.