Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Is this an adequate load for deer?

ringing he barrel risk with wad vs improper ignition and possible detonation without wad? What do you think?

OP,
I use SR4759 in my 375 H&H with 220 HFP. Basically you have a 375 Win. I've killed WTs and it's a hoot to shoot. There are book reduced loads for the H&H so you don't need to guess

I was wondering about that myself. I haven't dug out the load manual to look yet but imagine there is some good reduced loads with an appropriate powder so you don't have to use cotton balls as wadding. With a cartridge that's been around as long as the 375 H&H I can't imagine you're the first owner of one that wanted to use it as a deer rifle with some reduced loads.

I wouldn't expect much reaction to the hit, other than running.
My prediction is a caliber sized hole through and through.
Keeping in mind the a 36 caliber muzzleloader is used on squirrel.

Since the powder load is a tiny fraction of the case capacity my reasoning is that the powder should be held tight to the primer. It works but I have recently read about he chance of "ringing" the barrel using a wad - so now I am wondering I I should just insert the cotton ball as filler instead of compressing it as a wad.... Or not use a filler or wad at all? Any thoughts on this?

Use trailboss.

If you run a flat point with a wide meplat (flat nose surface dia.) you might be surprised by the reaction and wound channel. If you check out some sites on hard cast bullets they have all sorts of info on the subject. I ran hard cast out of my Ruger No.1 45-70 almost exclusively and had better results from wide meplat hard casts than even the Hornady lever evolution loads. And I knew that with a hard cast there was no question about penetration.

36 caliber round ball - 71 grains

OP cast bullet - 255 grains

No comparison.

Or 4759. Tiny volume charges in big cases are just begging for a double charge.

Tiny amounts of powder are exactly WHY I am using Red Dot. This load (15 grains) gives me 466 shots per pound of powder. As opposed to 100 loads per pound of R-15 for example.

Get a nice double or triple charge of the Red Dot in there and then you can see just how "cheap" it is.

I'd opt for Trail Boss as well, but according to Hodgdon, you top out at less than 1200 with a 235gr jacketed. Maybe a 60% H4895 would be workable, if not quite so cheap.

I cannot recall reading about using cotton for a wad anywhere. Kapok, Dacron, Grex, and maybe Puff-lon, but cotton sounds risky to me. Dacron supposedly burns up, and I believe kapok may as well. Was this something you dreamed up, or do you have a credible source? None of my business, of course, but I'd hate to see a nice rifle damaged, or even your lovely face.

I've punched .458 cast through many a deer at sedate black powder up to HV speeds and the vast majority of the time they react to the sound more than the hit. I've had them startle jump and go back to feeding.

I have a 375 Winchester 94 Big Bore and like to play around with basically the same load as you described. I have shot it through a bunch of water soaked newspapers,scrap wood and into dirt banks. It penetrated deep and strait.
I have shot exactly one, not very impressive pig through the shoulders with it. The pig fell down kicking and the bullet kicked up dirt as it headed toward parts unknown. I freely admit I have nowhere the experience of others on this site, but I think it would be a lot of fun to hunt deer with your setup.