**.375 Bullet Test Results**(lots of pics!)

I took a couple of good close up pix of my recovered bullet but I’m not computer literate enough to post them here. If someone wants to post them for me I will be happy to email them.
 
I picked up a dead chest freezer at the dump, filled it full of sawdust and water, stirred and tamped it around till it was firm. Tested a variety of calibers and loads. Some surprising results, .308, .303 and 7mm rem mag all performed well, the 174g HPBT out of the 303 doing surprisingly well with its core and cup minus petals going the same distance, 24" as the 7mm slug albeit the 7mm retained most of its weight. The .308 with 150g spritzers went around 22" with about 70% retention, the .308 with 165g SSTs did 17" with 98% retention and a noticeable wound channel. 7.62x39 with a Barnaul HP did a respectable 15" with decent expansion but lost the petals. 12 Gauge 7/8 ounce lee slug did 14" with about a 1" hole drilled to depth through the sawdust, and lost about 1/3 of its length but had 100% retention, the slug had been powder coated for fun and the paint had not even been completely removed from the nose by its passage through the two layers of sheet metal that make up the side of the freezer. The real eye opener was the .375 H&H mag. 270g performed very well with 80% retention and good penetration to 27" but my pet load of lee FP378-250 (designed for the 375 Winchester) powder coated and loaded on top of 13.5 grains of red dot went through the freezer like a bear trap in a bunny box. We only recovered one of the slugs from the 375, it had hit the compressor, bounced through housing, deflected up into the freezer and out the back but was stopped by the plywood catch board that was behind the freezer to show us bullet orientation of pass throughs. That slug retained almost all its weight and had slightly expanded but was mostly just a cylinder. The other cast 375s raised dust 150m-200m or so behind the freezer but skipped up kept on trucking
 
Great article for those of who hunt with 375's.

4 years ago I was in Nambia with a 375 HH and 270 gr TSX hunting Cape buffalo. Tough critters!

When the herd spooked, the biggest bull was facing me and I shot to his right side lung into the brisket at about 150 yes
He turned and ran away and I spined him at about 200 yard and dropped.

When we got to where the first shot was taken, there was about 2 cups of lung jelly he coughed up.

When we got him to camp to butcher, we recovered both bullets. The front shot ruined a bunch of organs and the bullet was lodged in the hip bone. The spine shot from behind was lodged under the skin in the brisket.

1 weighed 270 gr and the other weighed 269 gr. Both looked just like the picture on the cover of the Barnes loading manual.

For me this just reconfirmed my love for the TSX family. The other thing I like is that they are lot fussy on seating depth. 30 thou off the lands has worked well in multiple calibers
 
bcsteve said:
Re-re-posted the images. They better stay up this time!! Enjoy.
Click to expand...

I love supercub's comment! Paul has a great sense of humour. I would add an addendum to it. I keep track of hunting costs and moose and elk have been running right around $86 a lb. if it was about saving money it would be cheaper to just go to Costco and buy prime rib!
 
25 years ago I shot a big black bear at 60 yards with a 375/338 mag. 270 gr hornady. Front quartering shot. Never recovered the bullet but while processing the bear we got a glimpse of how tough this bullet is. Broke the front shoulder small hole through lungs only slightly larger hole in diaphragm. Smallish hole into liver, large hole out of liver. Bullet ( big exit hole ) exited just ahead of back hip. Although it worked well in this case, it was clearly designed for larger game than something the size of a black bear. Never measured the actual distance the bullet travelled but certainly 30 inches or more.

Great post, thanks for sharing
 
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