375 ruger velocity
- Thread starter notso
- Start date
I may like the idea of the 375 Ruger but sorry to say I have to disagree with you maybe for your needs the Ruger is King but I can down load my 375RUM to Ruger performance or load it up for what ever performance I want.
If your not a reloader Remington is even coming out with 3 levels of performance factory rounds Ruger's will never be able too do that...
If your not a reloader Remington is even coming out with 3 levels of performance factory rounds Ruger's will never be able too do that...
375 Ruger- The NEW KING of ALL 375's
Your Ruger may very well be King in your realm, but my old 375 H&H Browning has been King where I hang out since 1964 and always will be...
If you're half as happy with your 375 Ruger after 40+ years as I am with my Browning, and it fills the meat hooks as often, then you'll have all the more reason to call it King...
Seriously man, send the guy a PM, we are trying to be serious here...
Actually by many accounts; the king is dead
But the twee sebeny pive WOOGER is a nice distraction.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
The rifle hasn't arrived yet, neither have the dies, but I do have 100 pieces of brand spanking new .375 Ruger brass that I am in the process of prepping. I've got the flash holes, and primer pockets uniformed, the case mouths straightened by running the expander ball of the Ultra sizing die through them and chamfered the case mouths on my Giraud case trimmer. All that is left to do it to prime them then start loading. I can't crimp until the dies get here, but I can get the bullets seated with my Ultra die and have some ready for testing if the rifle beats the dies here.
I read a Terry Wieland article that says the Hornady brass has very thick case necks, but according to my caliper, the necks of the .375 Ruger brass are about the same as my .375 Ultra, about .014". The run out after straightening is .0025" which I think is pretty good. The Wieland article made reference to difficulty with crimping, but that has never been a problem with my Ultra brass, and might have more to do with the poor excuse for a cannular on the Hornady bullets he loaded for the article. I certainly prefer a crimping groove rather than a knurled cannular, and the 300 gr TSX's provide that with their banded shank.
I'm shooting for 2500 fps with the 300 gr TSX, and perhaps 2800 with the 260 gr Accubonds from the 20" barrel. My preference is not to load the AB's quite so fast, but the guy who owns the rifle says he wants them to shoot as flat as possible. We'll see how well he tolerates that I guess. My intention right now is to use Winchester 760, as it has a burning rate similar to 4350 without taking up so much powder space. The new Nosler Manual shows that IMR 4350 is a compressed load. If I can't make the velocities I want using 760 (although the 300 gr load shouldn't be a problem) I'll try Varget next.
I read a Terry Wieland article that says the Hornady brass has very thick case necks, but according to my caliper, the necks of the .375 Ruger brass are about the same as my .375 Ultra, about .014". The run out after straightening is .0025" which I think is pretty good. The Wieland article made reference to difficulty with crimping, but that has never been a problem with my Ultra brass, and might have more to do with the poor excuse for a cannular on the Hornady bullets he loaded for the article. I certainly prefer a crimping groove rather than a knurled cannular, and the 300 gr TSX's provide that with their banded shank.
I'm shooting for 2500 fps with the 300 gr TSX, and perhaps 2800 with the 260 gr Accubonds from the 20" barrel. My preference is not to load the AB's quite so fast, but the guy who owns the rifle says he wants them to shoot as flat as possible. We'll see how well he tolerates that I guess. My intention right now is to use Winchester 760, as it has a burning rate similar to 4350 without taking up so much powder space. The new Nosler Manual shows that IMR 4350 is a compressed load. If I can't make the velocities I want using 760 (although the 300 gr load shouldn't be a problem) I'll try Varget next.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
The new Ruger Stainless Alaskan arrived!
We stripped it down and give it a clean and took it out to check the zero of the irons. Nice day, flurries this morning and -12, but naturally as soon as you want to shoot the wind picks up to 70 and visibility drops to 25 yards, which worked OK for us.
Nothing had to be changed, the rifle shot to point of aim with the factory adjustment.
I was quite impressed with the rifle overall. The soft finish of the stock makes it a dog hair magnet, but it has a good feel, and recoil was not an issue with the 270 gr factory ammo. The white dot front sight might have to go - not so good for a sight picture on a polar bear.
Some handloads are made up, but we'll have to wait for a day when we can chronograph. When we got back we mounted my wife's 1.75-6X Leupold on it, but he has a 1.5-6X VX-7 on their way for it. Should be able to post picks in a few days.
We stripped it down and give it a clean and took it out to check the zero of the irons. Nice day, flurries this morning and -12, but naturally as soon as you want to shoot the wind picks up to 70 and visibility drops to 25 yards, which worked OK for us.
Nothing had to be changed, the rifle shot to point of aim with the factory adjustment.
I was quite impressed with the rifle overall. The soft finish of the stock makes it a dog hair magnet, but it has a good feel, and recoil was not an issue with the 270 gr factory ammo. The white dot front sight might have to go - not so good for a sight picture on a polar bear.
Some handloads are made up, but we'll have to wait for a day when we can chronograph. When we got back we mounted my wife's 1.75-6X Leupold on it, but he has a 1.5-6X VX-7 on their way for it. Should be able to post picks in a few days.
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Today seemed like a nicer day to set up the chronograph, -24 light wind.
The factory 270 gr .375 Ruger clocked at 2656 from the 20" barrel. I pulled one and discovered that Hornady is using ball powder and a load of 81.5 grs.
I used Winchester 760 for both the Barnes TSX and the Nosler 260 gr AB loading in 1 grain increments from 75.0 up to 81.0. Hodgdon lists 79.5 as the maximum load of 760 for both bullets.
Starting with the 300 gr TSX, 79.0 grs got us bang on 2500 fps, and there seemed to little point in trying to improve on this. My pal is satisfied with that load for bear protection.
The 260 gr Accubond didn't get us to where we wanted to be. The velocity topped out at 2618 with 81.0 grs of 760. This was only 7 fps ahead of the 80.0 charge of 2611. The 79.0 gr charge gave us 2567, so the top load for this powder appears to be 80.0 grs in this rifle.
Considering the heavier bullet in the factory load got more velocity, I think a change in powder is in order. I would like to get a solid 2700, but we'll see what slower powder will do. I'm afraid that with slower powder I'll run out of powder capacity before I see the velocity we want, but then that's the fun!
Gate, you'll be happy to hear that he's had the rifle for 24 hours and the white dot is still on the front sight.
The factory 270 gr .375 Ruger clocked at 2656 from the 20" barrel. I pulled one and discovered that Hornady is using ball powder and a load of 81.5 grs.
I used Winchester 760 for both the Barnes TSX and the Nosler 260 gr AB loading in 1 grain increments from 75.0 up to 81.0. Hodgdon lists 79.5 as the maximum load of 760 for both bullets.
Starting with the 300 gr TSX, 79.0 grs got us bang on 2500 fps, and there seemed to little point in trying to improve on this. My pal is satisfied with that load for bear protection.
The 260 gr Accubond didn't get us to where we wanted to be. The velocity topped out at 2618 with 81.0 grs of 760. This was only 7 fps ahead of the 80.0 charge of 2611. The 79.0 gr charge gave us 2567, so the top load for this powder appears to be 80.0 grs in this rifle.
Considering the heavier bullet in the factory load got more velocity, I think a change in powder is in order. I would like to get a solid 2700, but we'll see what slower powder will do. I'm afraid that with slower powder I'll run out of powder capacity before I see the velocity we want, but then that's the fun!
Gate, you'll be happy to hear that he's had the rifle for 24 hours and the white dot is still on the front sight.
Read the article in the Feb. 2008 of Shooting Times mag. about the .375 H&H, then give some though as to brass availability for the .375 Ruger. Then consider brass availibility for the H&H. I wish I could have linked that article for you, but it isn't up yet, just go buy the mag. I recently travelled to Montana, plenty of H&H brass, no Ruger brass to be found....just a thought.
