375 weatherby loads

[rosseickhoff]

I just purchased a project of sorts. It is a ruger no 1 rebarreled with a shilen 1-12 sendero barrel 28" plus brake. The base is a Thompson pattern which will be nice if I want to add a 20moa rail to it. The stock needs fitted and I'm sure this will take me some time. I'm looking for any long range loads. Thinking of using cutting edge 300gn. All the loads I have found so far use faster burning powders like h4350 and are for 300gn soft or Barnes bullets with 24" barrels. I am curious if anybody has used slower r22 or r25 or similar for high bc bullets such as the ce's? I would be happy with a 300gn bullet to 2800fps. I thought about rechambering to 375 rum in the future for more speed but don't know if it would matter as much until past 1200 yards.

 

[Rich Coyle]

I used RL22 when Norma MRP disappeared. I ran 100 grains of MRP. I had to drop back to 98 grians of RL22. This was with Sierra 300 grainers. The Klienguenther K14 has a Douglas barrel 28" long with brake. You probably won't believe the groups any more than you believe the velocities. Lots of 3/8" three shot groups at 100 yards. Once I got 3/4" at 300 yards.

My best ever was 1/16" with GSCustom HV265 bullets. After measuring it I fired one more an it opened up to 5/16". The velocity averaged 3,055 feet per second. I used IMR4320 for the GSCustum bullets.

When I used IMR4350 and the Sierra it used 87 grains. Their velocity was about 2,800 feet per second.

 

[rosseickhoff]

Do you think a starting load of 95gn of r-22 with 300gn CE would be a good place? Thanks

 

[Rich Coyle]

rosseickhoff,

I think starting with 93 is better. As long as the bolt works easily it is good to go for me. You might want to get several loads from your brass and a little lighter load allows a lot more loads.

On the IMR4350 load if I went to 88.0 grains instead of 87.0 the bolt was a little sticky at times. That is running on the edge. The Rl22 was the same way with 99 grains.

In addition to the big brake I have a "butt-ugly" recoil reducing system on the other end of the rifle. I cut off enough of the stock to install 1/2" travel shock absorber and the necessary fixture. Attached to that is a 1.26" kick pad. I can fire a couple boxes of full throttle loads with nary a mark on my shoulder. It still pushes back, but pain free.

 

[rosseickhoff]

Thank you for info.
I agree working up is a much safer plan. Especially when no loads are to be found.

Rifle has muzzle brake installed. May swap it for a tank style brake.
Going to add curved adjustable recoil pad and possibly mercy tube if there is room in stock.

Going to be a fun project I believe.

 

[MagnumManiac]

I run a 375 Weatherby, I honestly feel you are being optimistic thinking that a slower powder will give you more velocity or better performance.
I found my highest velocity with a 300gr pill with Win 760, H4350 was a close second and Varget wasn't even in the running.

The reason these faster powders work is due to the almost straight walled case causing these powders to behave slower burning.
I also tried RE15 and RE19, neither worked well, I really don't see RE22 working either to be honest.
I was able to achieve 2850fps with a 300gr bullet and 760 max load, I settled on 2830fps as my 'go-to' load.
I can give you my recipe's through PM if you wish. I don't normally publish these loads in the public forum.

Cheers.
gun)

 

[rosseickhoff]

Very may be just hoping as I've found no published data to state otherwise. Have you ever tried h1000 as it is a little faster I believe?

 

[Rich Coyle]

H1000 came out after I quit playing with the .375. My go to powder is IMR4320 since I switched to Barnes TTSX 250 grainers. Their group run about 1/8" larger than the Sierra 300 grainers. That is if I were to use in in hunting.

 

[WildRose]

Thank you for info.
I agree working up is a much safer plan. Especially when no loads are to be found.

Rifle has muzzle brake installed. May swap it for a tank style brake.
Going to add curved adjustable recoil pad and possibly mercy tube if there is room in stock.

Going to be a fun project I believe.

Those "tank style brakes" are the most unpleasant things have ever shot. The blast and noise are coming right back at you.

There are much better side discharge brakes on the market. I put a Northwest Precision on my .375 Ruger and it's a blast to shoot now even with 300gr loads. It in fact became one of my absolute favorites to shoot period.

 

[rosseickhoff]

I may have misspoke bye "tank" brake. I simply meant a large slab sided brake with 4-5 ports per side.






QUOTE=WildRose;1289163]Those "tank style brakes" are the most unpleasant things have ever shot. The blast and noise are coming right back at you.

There are much better side discharge brakes on the market. I put a Northwest Precision on my .375 Ruger and it's a blast to shoot now even with 300gr loads. It in fact became one of my absolute favorites to shoot period.[/QUOTE]

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

H1000 came out after I quit playing with the .375. My go to powder is IMR4320 since I switched to Barnes TTSX 250 grainers. Their group run about 1/8" larger than the Sierra 300 grainers. That is if I were to use in in hunting.

Yup, 4320 is my go to powder in my 375 h@h too... good accuracy with both barnes 300 tsx and 285 speer gs pills... good speed too; 2550 fps for the 300tsx... haven't chrono'd the gs pills yet

 

[WildRose]

I may have misspoke bye "tank" brake. I simply meant a large slab sided brake with 4-5 ports per side.

Just avoid those that have the ports angled back towards the shooter. They are absolutely brutal.

I've been through more kinds of brakes than I can list over the last thirty years and the Northwest Precision Slotted brake is what I'm running on everything now.

 

[Rich Coyle]

For awhile back I made a recoil slide and started making brakes. I discovered the angled back are definitely better at recoil reduction than those angled perpendicular to the bore. I also discovered the ones angled forward are not as good as those angled back.

One time my 'smith asked me to make one threaded on both ends with angled ports. I heard that only the first couple ports do any work so I made four ports. Of course the angled back reduced free recoil travel more than the forward angle did. After running that test three time in both directions I cut off the brake through the ports farthest from the muzzle. Following is the note from that day.

Today, 12/13/14, I took the Savage with a Midway fluted 24" barrel chambered in .257 Weatherby. With no scope it weighs 6 lbs 5.5 oz. The load was Barnes TTSX 80 grain bullets pushed by 73.0 grains of IMR7828. The primer was a Federal 215 Magnum. The temperature was about 45 degrees. I fired three shots of each test. I decided to fired each subsequent shot where it stopped to get a total distance for the three shots fired.

I used the new brake which has four .800" slots .100" apart that were cut with a 5/16" endmill angled 20 degrees to see if it was noticeably better than the one with four .750" slots .125" apart cut with a 1/4" endmill and angled 15 degrees.

With no brake the total travel in the free recoil slide for three shots was 39 5/16".

With the slots facing forward the total for the three shots was 11 1/2".

With the slots facing rearward the rifle moved a total of 4 9/16".

Conclusion: Rearward facing slots are way better than forward facing slots.

The shark gill brake allowed the rifle to move a total of 5 7/16".

 

[sodakota]

I put a suppressor on my 375 H&H AI, which chambers the 375 Weatherby cartridge. It had a break when I bought it.