375 "Lite" loads

[Rusty S]

Was looking for 350 Rem or 35 Whelen rifle. Nominal stats = a bit short of 3500 ft lbs. in factory ammo. CZ chambers a 9.3x62 in same approx range with a bit heavier bullets.

Am sensitive to recoil due to neck probs. 30-06 in a light rifle hurts. 300 H&H shoves me around more. But it's shove is slow enough to give with it.

I'm wondering if the 375 being a relatively small case capacity fo a magnum would be a good candidate for reduced loads - in same range as the 35 cals at 3500 ft lbs.

What say you who own them? Load down for most part, save factory ammo for special occasions. No real hx of detonating on lighter loads you know of?

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[Hutch]

Ah, yes. A chance to tell my story. I bought, for reasons known only to the Almighty, a .375H&H from an acquaintance, w/ his dies, brass, a few bullets, and a box of "bear medicine" reloads. Being a little leery, I loaded some of the Speer 235 gr semi-spitzers on top of 72gr of H4895 (a couple grains shy of the recommended min, but I was feeling adventurous). Took it to the range, where, unfortunately, there were no witnesses. Shot round one, with some trepidation, at a Remington dark-green sight-in target, at the middle bull. Couldn't find a bullethole in the paper thru the spotter, and being unwilling to keep this up w/o some confirmation that the bullets were at least in the same zip code as the crosshairs, I walked downrange. At about 10 feet from the target, I quit admiring the gravel on the walkway to the butts, and glanced up at the target and stopped. I had clipped the X out of the center aiming point. I laughed uproariously, there being no others around. Went back to the bench, and triggered off shots 2 and 3, which produced a group of .8 inches, perfectly centerd at 100yds. I still have the target.

To your point, YES, if you're talking about the H&H. My cheapo Interarms Mark X Mauser shot like a dream, never shot worse than 2" at 100 (except w/ some wacko .375 Win FP bullets), never was off point of aim by more than a couple inches, and was manageable, even w/ warm 300gr loads. Why oh why did I sell it, and WHY won't the cad sell it back to me?

 

[Rusty S]

That settles it. CZ550, 375, and press and dies. Now if I could only find a companion 300 H&H - but can settle for 7x57 as that's what my SAFN shoots.

Thank you ( considering you'll cost me 7-8oo with dies/press ) I guess. Got a 458 Rem Safari grade. Cheapest rifle to shoot I ever owned. Even with muzzle brake never shot more than 3 rounds at one time. Usually two. And even one gave me a headache the rest of the day.

 

[416Rigby]

Hi Rusty,

If you reload, there is a plethora of good "reduced" loads for the good old H&H. You can go with cast bullets (get the data from the Lyman reloading manual) or with the reduced load for the light hollowpoint slug as described by Hornady in their reloading manual.

Let me know when you are ready to move up to the king of cartridges, the 416Rigby!!!!!!

 

[Rusty S]

Sure thing, 416Rigby. Soon as I get a trailer hitch on my truck to haul it's caisson.

If I recall, doesn't J. D. Jones rebarrel Ruger #1's to 577 Nitro?

If that ain't enough for you, there used to be 3 barrels just about a mile from my house in Hawthorne, Nevada at what used to be the Naval Ammunition Depot - but after the turret on that battleship blew a few years back they was up and gone.

Heck, even shootin' one of my 4 4" 41's makes the web of my hand bleed within a couple cylinders of full power loads.

As I get older, I'm still nuts, but I gets ta appreciatin' stuff like heavy kickin' guns kinda, well, vicariously if'n yuh unnerstand?
Rusty <sasquatchyeti@bigfoot.com>