Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only Anyone 375 Roy?

Please tell us about all your Leupie problems as you seem to be very unique.

I have 17 and NONE have ever had any problems.

"Buy Chink, Help Biden!"

jwp475,

Being superstitious about it, I spell it "LEUPOLD" and pronounce it "LOOPOLD" for better luck.
Out of 40 Leupold scopes I had to send 2 back, for repair at no charge.
Those two boogered ones were like the 6.5-20x40mm AO and such, on modest recoiling calibers.
Should do fine on .223-cals.
The two Leupold problems I had on higher power variables:
Windage adjust stopped working on one.
Power change ring got stuck on the other, I did not try Vise Grip plyers before I sent it back.

I am aware that Michael McCourry busted some of the more rugged models of Leupolds and then pronounced Nikon as more rugged.
So I have had about 20 Nikons and had to send one of them back.
It was a 3-9x40mm SlugHunter that survived over 400 rounds of .458 Winchester Magnum rounds on an 8-pound rifle
with LongCOL 500-grainers up to 2342 fps MV, shooting bugholes at 2250 fps, a bit over 1 MOA at 2342 fps.
That scope never showed any loss of function at all,
but the little O-ring in front of the objective lens started extruding from under the thin ring that screws into the inside of the objective bell.
That is a shock absorbing lock on the objective lens to keep it from exiting the front of the scope.
That lock ring must have started backing out due to recoil. A special spanner wrench is needed to keep that tight.
Nikon replaced the SlugHunter with the next version P3 Shotgun scope, no charge to me.

Nikon has quit the rifle scope business. Weaver too.

Leupold is still here, and my track record with them (2 out of 40) is as good as my record with Nikon (1 out of 20).
I will never get as much experience with other brands, I am sure.
Still trying to bust the other brands I have in lesser numbers.
My next most plentiful is Sightron.
I have one S&B that cost as much as a dozen Nikon P3 Shotgun.
I would rather have a dozen Nikon.

It is a sad sign of the times for Weaver and Nikon to quit rifle scope making.

What brand(s) is(are) next, or already gone ?

Same here, I’ve got a 375 Improved. I haven’t done a ton with it, mainly just shoot 250 TTSX’s with RL16 a bit over 2900. Kinda like a big 30-06. I’ve got some 300’s I need to monkey with one of these days.

I must concur. Everything I’ve learned from him just went out the window…. I will admit I generally go Burris these days however.

I've owned quite a few Leupolds. I've sent three back for repair. Two were fixed, one was not - the repair department couldn't find anything wrong with it. But groups with that scope were not good and changing scopes made all the difference in the world. I still own a lot of Leupolds. I wonder about they guy who couldn't find anything wrong with that scope... Was it one bad guy/tester? Was their testing the fault? I don't know.
What I do know, is I think that a scope that does not fail is many times more important than lifetime warranty, perfect lens, pretty much anything to do with a scope.
What's important to me:
does not fail, good lens, enough eye relief, once sighted in - always sighted in, crosshairs, focus, ease of adjusting POI, warranty

I took a 280 out for a prairie deer hunt. It shot 1/2 MOA groups with the load I was using. I had a standing broadside shot at a nice White Tail. The bullet landed between the legs of the deer. I had a spare rifle in the truck and finished the hunt successfully. When I got back to the range the bullets landed way way low and way to the right. That was over 30 years ago, I don't recall what scope I had on that rifle. But choosing a scope after that episode was quite a bit more important for me.

Mine will be a 700 and wear a leupold. That’ll bring out the whiners for sure!! Haha

best rifle on the market!

Agreed.👍

I shoot 300 gr. NAB in my 375 Bee using 85.0gr. RL-17 In a formed WW case lit by a CCI 250.
It spits out the 300 out at 2779 fps and delivers 5146 fp at the muzzle in the process.

I’m sure now that I won’t go to Africa again. I went there (Cameroon) on a mission trip in ‘98. I saw Hippos, hyenas, various types of deer/antelope, monkeys and there were croc’s there. I think I was the only one in the group who didn’t see the croc’s. The village we were in had elephants visiting now and then - missed that too.
So what to shoot with a 375 H&H AI here in the good old USA? Maybe a buffalo in a high fence ranch in Texas or a bison here in South Dakota. My freezers are full and I might need to buy another, so getting a lot of meat isn’t real important this year.

If you were to go to a Texas high fence ranch what bullets would you load?

I vote .404 Jeff.

As far as problems with extraction I have had a Mauser that failed and a pre-64 Winchester that failed. I never had a problem with a 700 for extraction. I own well over 20 700's, a couple Mausers and I am down to two pre-64 70's. The pre-64 70's are 375 H&H AI & 300 H&H. I'm not sure how many Mausers I've had - maybe a dozen??? But I have had a few classic 70's and one other pre-64 70.

I don't understand the idea that having a high pressure round causing a failure is the Manufacturer/model's problem. I know that the failure on the Mauser was my fault. I was a bit younger and didn't know that WW760 and WW760-BR were way different powders.

Yeah, other than taking a Cape buffalo with one, have had the vanilla H&H and a 375 Mashburn. The latter is just one of a handful of improved 375 H&H’s. All variations on a theme.

The 375 H&H is an excellent, manageable, medium bore cartridge by itself. Took ten plains game with the H&H. I always thought that when the 250-gr TTSX was introduced, it was now perfect for elk too. Most rifles rifles so-chambered are too heavy though IMO. 8 1/2 lbs all up would be my huckleberry. 👍.

Edit: apologies for forgetting I posted on this previously.

FWIW, with the Wby factory-loaded 300-gr NP, I got 2,752 fps at the muzzle out of the 24” bbl of my .375 Wby DGR. With the Nosler factory-loaded 260-gr AB, I got 2,975 fps at the muzzle.


This is not correct. To double-check, I just reloaded 4 down with one in the chamber in my .375 Wby DGR. I tested many times before my bear hunt and it fed all four following rounds without issue.

This is four down and one loosely in the chamber just now with the drop plate I got back in 2009 I think.



Only shot one thing with it, but it worked with one double-lung shot.

MarineHawk,

I like your 4 down and one in the chamber; just like my Winchester 1895 .405 WCF which shoots 210, 300, 400 grain bullets depending on what you want to hunt.
I jumped from .338 Win to .405 Win to .458 Win and skipped all in between. Saved time and BS.
Took water buff with 300 grain NF and Cape Buff with 400 grain Woodie.


BTW, very nice bear!

Nice Buff CRS!

I've thought about getting a .400+, but I'm getting fairly confident that I'll never shoot at anything my .375 Wby won't handle superbly, and my .340 Wby will do anything it will do as well, I firmly believe.

MarineHawk,
I see you have the Wby DGR with the
Winchester African rear sight.
More desirable, contracted part from Wisner.
They cheapened the rear sight since then.
They advertise 3+1 for mag capacity, even with the drop box.
That is indeed ridiculous since my .416 WBY is 3+1, with same box.
It does take some screwing with a thick follower
and/or hump-bottomed spring to limit it to a very easy 3+1 mag capacity in .375 WBY,
but it can be done, and is claimed by the factory.

Riflecrank:
Perhaps something has changed in recent decades.
My 2009 comment above was a year off now that I’ve thought about it.
I bought it used in 2010 from an older guy whose plan had been to go to African and hunt big things, but he gave up on that. It had less than 2 boxes of ammo through it. I think it was manufactured around 10 years earlier IIRC.
It was stock without the drop box at the time.
At the time, I called Wby, and they told me I could get one more down if I bought and installed the drop box. That’s exactly what happened.
I bought and installed the drop box with no further mods myself back then, and it went from 3 down to 4 down.
It most definitively and easily does 4+1 since then.

It is all true then.
The original Wby DGR .375 Wby without the drop floorplate was 3+1.
They used the drop floorplate on the .378 Wby, .416 Wby and .460 Wby for also 3+1.

Lately they have replaced the Wisner rear sight with one by NECG,
and they are using a drop floorplate on the H&H-based chamberings,
but limiting the capacity to 3+1 with the follower and springs used.
That is silly, that's my point.

I have a circa 1985-1986 Fibermark Wby Mark V .340 Wby.
That was the first factory rifle for big game with a synthetic stock.
McMillan did it with black wrinkle paint back then, before they learned to do the McSwirly finish.
I have tried that drop floorplate, ordered from Weatherby Custom Shop on the .340 Wby.
Yes indeed, easy 4+1,
just like on your .375 Wby DGR.
Just need the original follower and spring and add the drop floorplate, which is a pocket plate or coffin plate.

That drop floor plate also converted my .30/.378 Mark V Synthetic from 2+1 to 3+1 when I re-barreled it to .510/.338 Lapua Improved.
I understand.

That "then new" old .340 Wby Fibermark accompanied me on my first trip to Kodiak in August 1986,
then on a solo caribou hunt for a week on the Alaska Peninsula in November 1986.
Second trip to Kodiak in 1987, I had a .375 WBY.
I should've had a Four Five Eight,
luckily I lived to tell of it anyway.

Thanks for the explanation Riflecrank!

My .340 Accumark also does 4+1 with the drop plate, but it also is from the late ‘90s.

This lazy moose likes to sleep with it.