Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only .375 H&H pet loads

Did you ever notice any temp sensitivity in Africa?

No chronograph in Africa, of course, but the ammo fed and functioned perfectly. As a rule, I work up my loads in the heat of our Texas summers, so if there are pressure issues, it should be revealed here. I'm guessing that the velocities were similar in Africa, because the temps are similar.

Waited until I got home to my records to respond. Of course every rifle is a different story. Mine is a Whitworth that Jim Kobe modified for me, including shortening the barrel to 22".

I worked on load development with the 270 grain Barnes and RL15 last summer. The max load according to Barnes is 77 grains. On one of my trips to the range, I loaded 3 at 72 grains and shot them over the chronograph just to get a sense of velocity. That yielded 2574 at 10' from the muzzle.

The next time out, I took 7 loaded with 75 grains. Three shots over the chronograph gave 2641 fps which would be a muzzle velocity of about 2650 fps. I shot the remaining rounds at 100 yards. The first 3 went into 0.57" and the 4th opened the group to 1.28".

On the next trip, I took 10 rounds loaded with the max of 77 grains. Three over the chronograph gave 2702 fps, and the other 7 shots at 100 yards (with barrel cooling) gave a group of 1.53". It may have been my imagination, but I felt like there was a slight stickiness to bolt lift with these max book loads.

I decided to be happy with the 75 grain load. Don't think anything I would shoot would notice the slight velocity difference. And if both loads are zeroed at 200 yards, there is only 0.1" difference in drop at 300.

BTW, these groups were shot with a Leupold 3X with HD reticle.

I'd have stayed with your 75 gr load as well.

Nothing's going to notice 50 fps difference. At least I don't think so!

Keeping my .375 sighted in at 200 yards, but have had no problem hitting the gong at 300 time after time, and no problem hitting bear at 300, or a bit farther either. Using a 2620 fps load with the 260 gr Accubond.

Practicing with some old 270 gr Hornady bullets at the same velocity works real well too.

The doggone .375 is a wonderful cartridge!

Guy

Agreed! I have been most sincerely impressed with it!

Loaded up the following and will be heading out to the range tomorrow.

260gr Nosler AB
W760
74.5-76.5-78.5
R-P brass
9 1/5 primers

260gr Nosler AB
RL15
69-71-73
R-P brass
9 1/5 primers

It's a good bullet, I'd lay odds on seeing at least a couple of "keeper" loads.

I have killed half a dozen deer with 200 gr. Sierra FN and 41 grs. Imr 4759.

These are the best loads Ive found

Against all logic rifle likes 66.5 grains of R-15 under any .375 diameter bullet I have ever stuffed in it from 235 grains up to 350 grains.

The only improvement to that caliber I would make is reduce MV by about 200fps. Lets face it it's not a long range hunting caliber where one needs to worry about bullet drop. Alternative way to do that is to sell the .375H&H and buy 9,3x62 or .35 Whelen with a fast twist barrel.

That makes absolutely zero sense to me.

Scratching my head over that one, too.

I have 9.3x62 and .375 H&H.

I would like to hear the reasoning that went into that statement.

It's gotta make sense to someone...

DF

Yep, I don't believe in hotrodding a given cartridge, but why not realize at least most of its ballistic potential?

?

Seems to me a lot of the tid bits of "wisdom" we read on line and for sure, here on the Fire, is more rooted in Urban Myth, hearsay and what intuitively would seem to be fact, than from actual hands on experience.

I always appreciate hearing from those who've actually "been there, done that", producing info one can "take to the bank".

There's definitely an art to sorting it all out, ending up with a meaningful summary of workable, proven facts.

IMO,

DF

DF,

It's certainly important to hone the skill of separting wheat from chaff on the internet! I get a lot of valuable information, but ....

My .375s are my go-to rifles for just about every hunting application. Outside of Africa the following load has proven to be sub-moa and as deadly as needed.

.375 Holland and Holland Magnum
235 GRAIN SPEER – 83 GRAINS - IMR 4350 – CCI Standard Primer

By "standard" primer, do you mean CCI 200???? That is a standard rifle primer. I'd think you'd want to use a magnum primer (CCI 250) to ignite that much powder.

That Slavek is a looney SOB sometimes. Having both myself, it doesn't make much sense to me either. The 9.3x62mm is not a 375 H&H...