Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only .378 Weatherby

A friend from law school's father was/is a Weatherby nut.

At the time we were visiting, his Dad had one in every Weatherby caliber except the .416.

We, of course, shot them all. The .460 knocked me backwards and was incredible, but manageable with it's weight and the recoil being just slow enough to be handled.

The .378 (not scoped, straight factory rifle) hit me so hard I couldn't see straight. It had nearly the recoil energy of the .460, just MUCH faster.

I decided then that unless one of those was vehicle mounted, and/or they resurrected sauro-lizards, I'd never again find ANY reason to shoot one of those cannons.

I've no doubt that they can be, and are, devastating on game; but wow....

The 378 Wby is beast!

I have a friend from UAI and he has shot a ton of buffalo with a the 375/404, the same thing as the .378 Wby balistically and he does a great job of killing them..I have seen him kill at least 40 buffalo with it and monolithic bullets of his own making. He is one hell of a good shot and a excellent hunter.

Saeed's 375/404?
It is more of a 375 Rum not a 378

According to Barnes manual #4, the difference between the .375 RUM and the .378 WBY is minimal at best...

Bob

www.bigbores.ca

I'm kind of liking this load.

I got my Mark V not too long ago. It's certainly the prettiest rifle I've ever owned and was lighter than I expected; certainly lighter than my CZ 550 Safari Magnum. I have to say, I like it quite a bit.

Very nice shooting Grumulkin!

I can tell you that it is about 150 fps in real life. I have worked on quite of few of each for a long time. For some that is minimal for others not.

Great shooting. Any idea on velocity?

I haven't chronographed the load yet so purely from educated conjecture, I would say about 2,900 fps.

Hi!

Had a WBY MK-V in .378 WM for years. Shot a couple of moose with it. 270 grs bullet load: 115 grs Rel 22,Fed 215 primers, cronographed 3100 fts.
300 grs Swift/Nosler part. load: 112 grs Rel 22,Fed 215,chronographed 2935 fts. All loads very deadly!!

By the way..made it a .460 Wby.

Great shooting but the holes are so small ...

Now THAT makes sense!!

Bob

www.bigbores.ca

Right on Jorge. I use the 300TSX with 114 grains of 7828 SC Fed 215 and clocking them at 3065-3090 fps. 0 at 100yds and 1 3/4 MOA at 300yds. Hang on tight to the wooden part. Haven't clocked the 250 grainers with 116 grains but they are humming along L'll bet. What was that about the RUM?

When I think of ballistic differences, I find it most useful to think in terms of percentages. A 5% difference is - to me - always a "minimal" difference. In most things in life, I think we'd be hard pressed to actually observe 5% differences.

A 5% difference on velocity is 10% on energy.

300 Savage, 308, 30-06, 300 WSM, 300 Win, 300 Wby, 300 RUM and 30-378. If we start at the 300 Savage and work our way up will there be some point where see a difference?

Obviously - eventually a person notices differences.

I'd suggest ACTUAL differences seen in trajectory (in field conditions) and in killing power would be unnoticeable - unless one could compare thousands of animals deaths, side by side, under identical conditions - with a 150 fps difference in muzzle velocity. I doubt even a lab could even quantify the differences we're talking about here - with an extra 150 fps. And - even that difference only exists at the muzzle - it's quite a bit less at distance.

Would you be able to tell if the car that hit you was going 27 miles an hour - or 28.5 miles per hour? Or even a full thirty miles per hour? Would anyone?

That's the percentage difference were talking about here.

One gets huge recoil differences - for very little velocity difference - at the high powder capacity end of the shooting spectrum. When a rifle recoils 50% harder - we humans note that it feels far worse for us - and we therefore expect the game to feel a huge difference too! But the laws of diminishing returns have already kicked in.

The huge recoil differences WE feel, doesn't equate to huge differences in killing power - or trajectory - or bullet speed - for any animal getting hit. Many shooters have noted how small the actual, measurable, differences are when noting what happens at the other end.

In fact, I'd suggest that after a lifetime of shooting the rifles you mentioned - one would be hard pressed to ever notice a quantifiable difference in killing power, between any two of the cartridges you listed, that are side-by-side in your example. You might well be able to notice recoil differences though.

You are probably right Brian. But since Weatherby brought their Mark V action in 1958 and Remington brought their RUM in 2002 it would seem that one would have more customers than the other.
Believe me I'm not goin out and getting a copy cat come late Rem that is trying to take business away from already a saturated market. The Mark V is said to be one of the strongest actions in the world so why go for second best or third best.

Brian

You correctly mention recoil and recoil illustrates thresholds. Anyone who has shot 375 and bigger a real lot will of course have noticed the gap from 375 to 458 is much bigger than 30-06 to 375. Yet the 375 is twice the recoil of a 30-06 and the 458 only a 1/3rd great than the 458. Increase the 458 by another 1/3rd to stuff like 416 Wby without the brake and the recoil felt seems like about 10 times as much And it is not just in the mind but sore neck, headache and so on.

If a rifle has .25" of freebore and we double it to .5" we might have increased the distance from ogive to lands by 11 times, that is, we might go from from .025" from the lands to .275"

I think similar happens with both bullet weight and velocity with animals. Of course I ma not saying it specifically happens at the 375 RUM and 378 level. A friend of mine, who posts here, has been to Africa many times and shot many buffalo. He has several Echol Legend rifles one of which is in 375 Wby. He chose 375 Wby over the H&H because of couple of trips with buffala and seeing his 375 H&H being used side by side with his mates 375 Ackley Improved.

Lastly, there is the "its in your mind" aspect and that is important. We tend to do better with calibre/rifle combinations we like. We see the good and not the bad etc.

Besides I like the cartridge box better. This one has been to Africa and back. LOL