378 Wby ai

rimfiremac

Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2013
Messages
13
Location
Northwest
Howdy all,

Feeling out a new build, looking to sling 390 atip @ 2700 or 350 smk @ 2800 out of brass semi-available north of 49;

The 378 wby looks pretty usable, and with fireform experience, the 378 wby ai, sounds slightly better- anyone out there using this and with what experience?

Will be building on a factory available action/ chassis setup and looking to run an oal under 3.8" (yep with some loss of performance noted)
 
Here's some food for thought, the double radius shoulder found on the weatherby case translates into 30%, most AI cases are 40%, that won't be much of a increase in capacity, the 378 has generously long neck, the brass thickness in the neck is quite thin compared to the case, moving the shoulder forward to much leaves the shoulder on The thin side creating a weak point, when running maximum pressure case life is going to suffer,
 
An AI version of a Weatherby case, ANY Weatherby case, is a futile exercise. I have several Improved cases, shoulder angles spanning 35°, 40° & 45° degree, Weatherby cases ranging from 300, 340, 375 & 41 all have about the same powder capacity. I have 264WM & 270Bee, the BEE holds MORE powder, even with the longer neck because the radius shoulder is higher on the case, the same holds true with my own 416 Rigby based wildcats when compared to the 378/416 Weatherby cases, mine hold more powder due to less body taper, that's all, and neck length is optimised.

Cheers.
 
There's a 375 based off the 300 or 338 Norma Mag case. "375 Pro" or something like that. There's probably more than one name it goes by. With your 3.8" limit mentioned, it might still be possible to magazine load.

The 375 Weatherby Mag AI would be a single shot rifle for sure. No way those big freedom seeds would fit in a repeater with the 375 Weatherby case. Those things would be taking up a boat load of powder space if they still fit in the magazine.

*Never done it but I can't see how it would give you want you're looking for. So, just being a keyboard ballistics ninja warrior…. but a confident one.
 
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