.375 H&H Longer Range Load - Help

[dig]

Got my second .375 H&H up and running. Weatherby action, 26 inch barrel. Looking for a longer range load. Purchased some Sierra 300 Grn Game Kings, anyone with a pet load. I have had great luck with the 270 Grn Barnes X in my "Africa" .375 but want to stretch this one with a higher BC load. Help please

[comfisherman]

Id look at noslers website and use the 300 grain accubond load data. Would assume that they have similar baring surfaces and with similar weights starting with 10% down and working up would be a safe bet.

[Bart B]

Rhino Bullets, a London, England company, makes a 380-gr. bullet available from a place in Salem, Oregon:

Safari Bullets | Specifications

I don't know how it would work for longer ranges, but it's the heaviest one I could find.

Note the recoil with such a bullet using maximum loads will make accurate shooting very difficult. I know of a person who used 350-gr. custom made boattail bullets in his .375 H&H for 1000-yard matches back in the 1960's. The 14-pound rifle's recoil was brutal. But accuracy was very good only when he was able to hold the rifle repeatably from shot to shot as it moved quite a bit while the bullet was going down the barrel, just like large bore double rifles. He finally gave up on the project and went back to 30 caliber magnums.

[dig]

I find the recoil on my Winchester 70 .375 H&H with 300 Grn Barnes X to be moderate at best. the rifle weighs just over 10 lbs with the S&B 1.5x6. I put 80 rounds down range yesterday and another 60 with a .300 Weatherby that weighs about the same and bucks a bit more. Again, certainly dont find the recoil to be hard to manage in a .375, I HATE muzzle breaks, dont feel the have a place on a hunting rifle. If you cant handle the recoil buy a smaller caliber. Sorry thats my soap box. Now back to the load, thanks I will look up that bullet and BC, I am thinking 300 Grn Sierra is heavy enough, just looking for anyones pet load data.

[royinidaho]

dig,

For stretching shooting distance the single most important item, besides the cartridge and rifle, is being able to shot consistently. The greatest innovation for increased consistency, for me, is the muzzle brake.

Pushing 300s as hard as I could in a Ruger #1 was only comfortable for off hand shooting. I had no nifty stuff hanging on it. Even had that thin red Ruger butt pad.

Right off the bat I'd suggest a brake such as the Muscle Brake by Jim See on this forum. With Kirby's PK brake on my 375 AM results in not much more than a twitch when she ignites.

Your barrel is of a good length for stretching things a bit.

The key to stretching it is "bc" and velocity. A balance between bc and velocity may well be key to success.

Do some computer runs with JBM Ballistics or some such program to see what turns out best.

Here are some bullet selection suggestions:

Hornady 300 gr - 0.460 G1 bc
Nosler 300 gr - 0.485 G1 bc
Rocky Mtn 370 gr - 0.926 G1 bc - Most probably too heavy to get adequate MV.
Sierra Game King - 300 gr - 0.475 G1 bc
Speer #2472 - 270 gr - 0.429 G1 bc

I'm thinkin' 1800 fps would be about max range to ensure expansion. But with the amount of FPE remaining I think I'd go for bone with the large 375 bullets.

Keep us posted

[benchracer]

From what I can tell, the Barnes Triple Shock X bullets are the best of the bunch in terms of G1 BC's for .375 bullets that will stabilize in a factory twist barrel.

The 300 gr. SGK is notably inferior to the 270gr Barnes TSX in the BC department and even more so to the 300gr TSX.

The 260 gr Nosler Accubond has about the same BC as the SGK and could be launched quite a bit faster. It would still be inferior to either of the Barnes TSX's.

Unless you intend to re-barrel to a custom twist, your best bet would be to go with the highest BC you can find in a bullet in the 270 gr weight class and push it as fast as you can.

IMO, that spells Barnes TSX or Nosler Accubond.

Depending on what kind of velocity you are able to achieve, the 235 gr TSX may also be worth a look. It has a .400 G1 BC. If it has enough of a velocity advantage vs a 270 gr bullet, it might be worthwhile. Running the numbers through a ballistic program would likely tell the tale.

[Bart B]

Originally Posted by benchracer

Running the numbers through a ballistic program would likely tell the tale.

Good idea. Just be sure the ballistic coefficients and software used are based on actual time of flight data testing the bullets between two screens. Data calculated from any other method is too often wrong. And the "wronger" it gets, the greater the error in bullet drop as range increases.