470Evans,

Very nice rifles (and I include the M70 .375).

A year ago this month I picked up a nearly new Zastava M70 LH in .375 H&H. Matters have improved greatly since those ugly ones. Lots of 'em available a dozen years ago in 9.3 x 62, .375 H&H and my favorite in .458 Win Mag, which I almost bought. The .375 H&H has nice wood, and fit and finish is excellent. I've been working with loads since and it has gone bear hunting without success so far. It's not my first .375 H&H.

But the reason I have it is because I became bored with perfection. I've owned my Tikka T3 Lite in 9.3 x 62 since 2011. It, along with my Ruger No.1 in .45-70 LT, has done all hunting chores until about two years ago when the light No.1 was traded for a Ruger No.1 in .458 Win Mag and I bought a single-shot in .35 Whelen (my 3rd .35 Whelen). The problem with the Tikka in 9.3 x 62 was perfection. I developed several loads that I couldn't improve on in ballistics - bot in accuracy and MV. I killed three bears in a row with it - one shot each. The first was wounded by a young friend. I chased it down in tall grass and shot it in the short ribs on the right side as it was trying to escape through 30" tall grass with two wounded legs (left front and right rear). The 286gr Hornady SP-RP took out eight inches of back bone and went off into the trees in one piece. MV was ~2400 fps. 2nd bear on the same private property was shot frontally from my treestand at 68 yds by a 286 NP at +2600 fps. A nice 6' black bear. He made 20 yds and fell down an escarpment. That bullet was retrieved in skinning - just in front of the right hip. The bullet retained 73.8% of unfired weight. On the same property (different location) another 6' bear wouldn't come to the bait at 85 yds as long as I was in my stand. But when I left to return to my van around 6 pm he came to the bait and I caught him there when I returned. He was shot with a 250gr NAB at ~2700 fps. He too went 20 yds. No CNS hits on the last two. But a blood trail a blind man could follow on the 3rd.

RL-17 was the magic for the 250 AB, the 286 NP and the 320 Woodleigh at +2400 fps, all shooting sub MOA. The 250 AB into a consistent SUB- 1/2 MOA. I was using Hornady brass and WLRM primers. And about a year ago I had to purchase Lapua brass that due to being thicker limits the amount of powder that can be used. And it's at least 2x the cost of Hornady brass.

Perfection gets boring!

Bob
www.bigbores.ca