Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only What's wrong with the 376 Steyr....

What happened to this caliber? Steyr introduced it in the Scout and Pro Hunter SBS models. The good colonel, Jeff Cooper, even endorsed it. Hornady made excellent ammo for it in a well designed case. Steyr sold two or three rifles then into the toilet it went. It is so dead that Redding doesn't even make dies for it. It's ballistics are on the heels of the H&H, it is superior to the 350 Remington mag, the original short mag touted by so many here lately as the greatest thing since the sliced bread. It is beltless, apparently a must for any new cartridge now days. It isn't a "short mag' but it isn't an "ultra mag" either. Is that the problem, we don't have a convenient category to put it in. It's parent case is even more popular than this offspring. It is ballistically superior to many well proven oldies such as the 9.3x62 and the 35 Whelen and fits so well in a Mauser action. It has an endless array of good bullets available for it, albeit factory ammo is limited, probably because no guns were sold. What is it that pushes a cartridge into obscurity so quickly?

Simple, folks are not purchasing much rifles. Those that want this level of power already have the H&H, and those looking for such, buy the H&H.
Related, I wonder how much better the success the Ruger 375 will obtain. Its tough to topple the king of 375 bores.

Lack of effective marketing is a killer.

I took one to Zim in '01, hunted with it an wrote a feature article for African Hunter. The factory was not interested in making the cartridge go -- they did compliment me on the article.

Contrast that to Ruger who I understand sold 8,000 .375 Rugers in its first year.

Now even Steyr-Mannlicher is selling a rifle in .375 Ruger (I handled one at SHOT).

jim

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the 376 Steyr!
Lack of appreciation for a useful cartridge that doesn't have a big, fat case, or is chambered in all of the latest high tech rifles, killed this cartridge pretty quickly.
Since it was first introduced, the cartridge has really appealed to me.

Last year I finally had one built on a left handed Ruger action. Plan was for a 20" barrel and a laminated full length stock from Wenig.
As it is right now, the barrel is 21" (gunsmith talked me into leaving the barrel at that length, since the balance is great).
It is currently in the Ruger factory stock, but the Wenig full length stock has now been ordered.
So far, it is shooting the 260 gr AccuBond into half inch groups at over 2600 fps.
It wears a Deceleerator pad, and recoil is very manageable, and even comfortable to shoot off the bench while doing load development.
Performance on a bison bull at 100 yards was great. Double lung hit, 5 steps, and one feable attempt to get up, and it was all over. Did a little elk hunting with it, but passed up on a less than ideal presentation at 300 yards.
The 270 gr Hornady is shooting 5/8" groups at 2500 fps.
Both loaded with H-335.

Have you guys tried the 270 gr TSX or Banded Solid in this cartridge yet? Or the 250 gr Swift A-Frame?
Looking for some loading data.
Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

I see that Nosler is also making a 300 gr AccuBond for 2008. Should be a great bullet to try too.

Probably has to due with that fact that the round is based around a butt ugly rifle (Steyr, puke). Horrible design.

Gotta go with Rusty-Gunn, Most who want a 375 want an DG� there are several but the H&H is the standard. From what I heard the 376 was just a tad underpowered for DG.
If I�m wrong� then I blame lack of marketing and solid info. On it�s demise.

No, it is not under-powered for dangerous game. The factory original loads were realtively soft bullets though, and the newer Hornady DGS and DGX would do well in the .376 Steyr.

I got tired swimming up stream and sold my rifle and bought a .375 Ruger African.

jim

375 H&H has been around for over 100 years and probably go strong for another 100 years. I don't think we will see the other 375's around including my 378 in a hundred years.

I like the 376 Steyr a lot. I have shot several Zebras with mine. While the stock is not my idea of what a sporting stock should be I can live with it. I have been looking for the new Hornady bullets but have been unsuccessful so far. I will use my Steyr on my next African hunt for Eland & possibly Kudu with a 270G. bullet. I tried to hand load some Barnes bullets a few years ago & the factory die wouldn't work. It could be modified but I decided to leave as is. I have a 416 Rigby as my DGR so the 376 fits nicely as a large plains game rifle. Would also be good for moose & brown bear. Its to bad the caliber died.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the .376 Steyr and a good deal right - but what's right is pretty much equally right with many other cartridges so not much follows.

However the only advantage the .376 Steyr offers over any one of many other cartridges is that the Steyr is offered in the Dragoon. The Pro Hunter is a equally a fine but somewhat undistinguished rifle for most people. I'm a firm believer that folks should buy any gun that speaks to them and I suppose there are people in the world who would be best served by a Pro Hunter in .376 Steyr - and that would be true whether they ever discovered it or not.

If the Steyr rifle suits then the Steyr cartridge is the choice
as it is for me - to repeat myself from another thread I liked the Scout so I bought the Dragoon - but if I had been buying a another rifle I would have bought another cartridge -

If I had the money I might have had a pseudo Scout built by Yost-Bonitz or someone else and if I had done that I would have had more cartridges to choose from and I would almost certainly have chosen something else. With lots of money maybe a 9.3x74 double and a .470 double and a .30-40 double and a .338 from the necked 9.3x74 case double and so it goes but the Scout and the Dragoon together fill all my real needs at a reasonable price.

As it is I find the Steyr rifles are great bargains when they are being footballed around the market place and mostly not otherwise.

Hypothetically if someone had changed the labels I might never have known the difference between any of several cartridges around the same bore size.

Nothing I choose to do with the .376 Steyr that I couldn't do with the 9.3x62 my best hunting bud likes or with a 9.3x74 if I'd ever had the double I sort of wanted for a long time or with any one of a myriad of other 9.3 or .375 cartridges in a myriad of other rifles.

I like the Dragoon as a carbine for an aging man with eyes that aren't as good as they once were so I like the cartridge - because again there is nothing I want to do that another cartridge in a similar rifle would do better.

I'd have no problem with the .376 Steyr in another rifle if that were the only choice but I see no advantage over the native chamberings offered in another rifle. Offered a Ruger in .375 something else I wouldn't waste a minute wishing it were a .376 Steyr.

Reminds me of the choice in .30 belted cartridges a long time ago. Nothing wrong with .308 Norma or .30-338 or .300 Win or any of the others - I wouldn't pay to buy a Weatheby Mark V in any of the short cartridges though - might as well get at least a .300 Weatherby to match the rifle and again in a Ruger standard length action I wouldn't be upset for a nanosecond at whatever the only factory choice might be, in this case a .300 Win, and I'd never waste a minute wishing I'd been able to have a .30 Newton nor equally vice versa.

Sort of like an Apple computer versus a white box the limited selection and higher price combine to make sure that the .376 brass is a known quality and the factory loads are what they are it all works but it isn't so convenient nor so versatile as it might be in exchange for being a known thing.