Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 375H&H Handloader article

Just finished reading the new Handloader article on the 375H&H. In it there is a statement that brass life is limited because cases separate after 3 or so loadings just in front of the belt. For this reason he suggests only using new cases for hunting and discarding cases after 3-4 loadings.
IME if you treat the belted cases like any other case and don't set the shoulder back excessively, the brass will last as long as any other non belted case. Does Brian Pearce not know how to set up a resizing die?
Also to further pick nits, he didn't include data for the Barnes 250TTSX which would be nice to see.
Reading the article gives one the impression that the 375 is difficult to reload for. My experience is just the opposite.

+1 on the above. I have never noticed case separation more than any other belted magnum. Usually i get loose primer pockets before I get case separation.

Mike

Same here....no issues. I got quite a few firings with my H&H brass......in fact, never had one fail. With my AI, I go 10 firings before disposing the brass, no trimming, no annealing. I wonder how many firings I could get if I did those things that extend case life! memtb

What idiot wrote the story?

I have shot my 375H&H enough to erode the throat out of the 1st barrel, so much the gun would only do about 4" at 100 yards at the end of it's life so I re-barreled it. When I got it the groups were at about 1". I am into the 2nd barrel about 3000 rounds so far and it shoots REALLY well. Well under 1" at 100

I have shot about 60 factory 375H&H round in my life, and 100% of the others were all my hand loads. It's safe to say I know a few things about loading for the shell. No, it's not difficult at all. In fact it's quite easy to come up with very accurate loads that have long brass life and kill VERY well.

My brass life is as good as any other belted mag I have owned and I usually shoot 67-69 grains of 4064, Magnum primer and various 270 and 300 grain bullets, but my favorites made today are the 300 and 260 grain Nosler Partitions, and the 300 grain Accubond. In the days I could buy them, the 270 grain WW Power Points which were wonderful and did as well as any premium bullet I ever used, but Winchester screwed us and took them off the market. I have only about 250 left.

I shot a lot of the 270 grain Hornady RN for "softer game". It's now discontinued too. That bullet was a bit thin but seemed to hold together well enough for all the shots I used it for, and it did better then the 270 grain Spire Point.

But only 3 rounds of brass life means something is wrong with the way his sizer is set, or something is wrong with the way the rifle is chambered or head-spaced. Any good and well made 375 will do a LOT better then that.

I, too, own and shoot a .375 H&H. No, I don't shoot it a lot as the recoil can be pretty harsh from a sand bag rest. My reloading is now limited to the 250 grain TTSX. as I no longer hunt Africa but do use it on elk when the occasion arises.

Brass life has never been an issue for me.and I agree that reloading the .375 H&H is not at all difficult. I do agree, however ,with using new brass for hunting as iit is the least amount of shooting I do with the old cartridge.....it just reduces the chance that something might go wrong at the worst time. Actually I try to do this with all my hunting ammo. but to say that the .375 H&H is hard to reload ......well.....that's not the way I see it.

Same here - my brass dies when the neck splits. I did have one case that showed signs of incipient head separation but is not the norm - I think it was Highlander brand (PPU) brass. I also had 2 Highlander cases that didn't have enough headspace and were very tight to close the bolt on - fired once then ditched them. Always found Highlander very good in multiple cartridges - must've had a bad day at the factory when they made that 375H&H batch that I bought (or at least the QA inspector was off sick that day).

I am on my third and final 375 H&H. I have owned a Remington 700, CZ 550 and now a Model 70 classic.

I have never had an issue reloading for the cartridge either. Have shot various bullets from 250-300gr using Reloder 15, Varget and Big Game. Have usually been able to reach 2800 with 270's and 2600 with 300's and always back down to the next lower accuracy node.

On big hunts like Africa, Alaska etc, I prefer to use once fired brass from the individual rifle I am taking.

The most interesting experience I had was when a Hornady 270gr SP came apart on a mature whitetail doe. Shot bedded, quartering to. Broke shoulder, took out three ribs high towards the vertebrae and ended up in the hind quarter breaking the femur. Bullet had separated, but only took on 5 bones.

My goal for this current rifle is to shoot it enough to necessitate a new barrel. Something very satisfying about thumping a steel plate from 50 to 250 yards

Glad to know I'm not the only one who likes to reload for the old girl. My only brass life issue was that I was getting neck splits on the 2nd or 3rd reload. Turned out my RCBS sizer was sizing the necks WAY down. Sent the die and fired and sized cases back to RCBS and they fixed it.

I suspect Brian Pearce, the guy who wrote the story, might be having case-stretching problems because he owns several .375 H&Hs, with slightly varying chambers. The article includes one photo of five of his .375s, and the caption states they are: "A few of his rifles so chambered." It would be something of a hassle to keep ammo for so many rifles separated.

While I am a fan of the .375, having used it considerably both in North America and Africa, I've only owned two, a Whitworth Mark X Mauser and a Ruger No. 1. Due to differences in throat length (which Brian also mentions) I did work up different loads for each rifle, but with only two .375s that wasn't a problem. When loading for each of those rifles separately, case life has never been a problem.

The multiple rifles explains the comment, I was ready to discount all of it due to the headspace statement. The 375 seems easy to load for and seems to be one of those inherently accurate cartridges. The only thing different is that with some chambers you can get more case stretching due to the shoulder angle.

With trimming and annealing it is easy to get a dozen or more loads from a case.

That explains it. Since it headspaces on the belt I don't imagine manufacturers are overly concerned with base to shoulder dimensions as they would be with more conventional cartridges. Would have been better if he had qualified the statement as he made it seem that brass life was much more limited than other cartridges.

I would be surprised if Brian Pearce did not know how to set up a die for a Three Seven Five. I have owned four .375 H&H rifles. Two were Pre-64's, one the Sako's with the two piece Mannlicher style stock and a Mod. 70 "Classic Stainless" I fixed up and gifted to my wonderful son-in-law. As usual I prefer the Winchester action and the wonderful hunting trigger on old Mod. 70 rifles. I also felt like Winchester put to heavy of a barrel on their .375's, Ruger got it right on the .375 Ruger. I only loaded 270 grain Barnes X bullets in Winchester brass and only for one rifle with the re-sizing die set to that rifle. I doubt I ever loaded any of the brass over five times. Had no problems with the brass.

I never shot a critter with any .375 and I finally gave up on the .375 as I prefer my custom Mod. 70 .338 for my Alaska hunting. If I was hunting across the pond or dealing with brown bears in the alders on a regular basis I would go bigger then my .338.

I have two 375's a Pre64 M70 and a #1 Never had a problem with case life. I have several rifles in the same caliber and at one time had 5 7X57's and always kept the ammunition for each rifle separate and labeled as to what it was and what rifle it was intended for.

It can become a hassle keeping ammo separate for like chambered rifles, one reason why I don't have many duplicates.

If one does have more than one, keeping dedicated brass separate is never a bad idea.

DF

The best way I have found to keep ammo separate for like chambered guns is to acquire some Nickle plated brass and load them for one rifle and non-nickel for the other.

That'll work for two.

Do you find nickle brass not lasting as long?

DF

I had 2 375 H&H with different sized chambers had several case failures because I did not keep brass separate. The long sloping case leads to stretching.

Sold them both when Ruger came out with LH SS 375 Ruger prefer it for Alaska. And the case life is long. But the 375 H&H recoil was easier to shoot not as quick and harsh and I was younger!

I read that article. I'm under the impression that the new cases reference was specific to ammunition loaded for hunting. And that it is extra insurance at a critical time. I have no doubt that Brian Pearce knows exactly what he's doing.

I don't have a 375 H&H mag, nor have I ever had one. I am however well acquainted with Mr Murphy. I see it as safe advice for a readership that's sure to contain some people of unknown experience and knowledge.

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DF


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Do you find nickle brass not lasting as long?

DF
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I have had nickle cases last as long as brass, but the only ones I loaded 15-20 times were straight wall pistol brass. In rifle brass I am only up to six loadings and it is time to anneal again, cases are fine. The only precaution I took was to either lightly neck ream or run a stainless steel brush with steel wool wrapped on it to remove any loose plating inside the case mouth. I don't think this hurts the bore either way but it does improve the bullet tension uniformity. Also the myth about nickle scratching dies is just that, anytime you have sand or grit in the die it will scratch the die regardless of the cases.

Just shot some Winchester 375 Fail Safes in nickle cases. I only have 40 empties but am trying to decide what specialty load I should use them for. Maybe Raptors or Woodleigh hydrostaticaly stabilized bullets?