375 Winchester in a single shot

[curioushooter]

Has anyone pushed their 375 Win Ruger#3 or Contender/Encore (RIFLE) to the max? I mean seating heavies out far and stuffing as much powder as will fit in there? If you have, what kind of velocities were observed?

[Doughty]

cshooter,

Back in the day I played at this some with a Ruger #3 in .375 Win using the Lyman 375449. I tried several powders that I had. IMR 4891 worked pretty good. Then I tried AA2015. It shot better by a significant amount. At about 1900 fps it gave the best accuracy. It would go faster, just not accurately. In those days I was using straight wheel weights and sizing to .377 because that was "the" lead I had and "the" sizer I had and the best knowledge I had. This setup was good, dead on, to about 125 yards. I didn't have a practical range finder in those days. Even though this load would pop the lever open on my Marlin .375 I always wanted "more." I eventually reamed the chamber out with a .30-40 Krag reamer and then enlarged the neck. I then increased the bullet weight and velocity until it would really set my shoulder back and rattle my teeth. Nowadays, after shoulder surgeries, I'm back down to a 300 grain bullet and velocities below 1700 fps. I've been thinking about trying something with a 250 or 225 grain bullet.
Good luck if you decide to go down this road.

[rking22]

To answer the question, no I haven't. I would caution that factory pressure in the 375winchester is ALL a Contender can stand with that head size, a G2 might be different.In a Ruger or Encore, let your shoulder/cheekbone be your guide. I don't have anything to hunt that a 38-55 level load won't kill plumb dead! Ymmv

[Jeff Michel]

I shoot a Ruger #3 with a max load of RL7 and a 200 grain soft point Sierra. Plenty of power for anything you may be hunting and enough recoil to satisfy the most masochistic. I am curious as to why you would?

[Drm50]

I'm working with 375Wins right now. I had a Marlin 375Win but traded it off because I wanted to use
the flattest shooting loads possible. Now working with #3 Rugers and my brothers TC carbine. In #3
we are loading the Speer 235g semi spitzer / 34.5gr IMR-4198. I've worked to this point .5 gr at a
time. Worked from 4198 loads for 220 Hornady bullet. The book Max is 33.0g with the 220g bullet.
Not compressing the load yet. The Speer 235 has no cannulure and I'm only using a light crimp. No
signs of pressure yet. The Spitzer bullet improves groups at 100yds and other bullets (FNs) don't come close at 200yds. I'm getting right at 1.25" average at 100yds and 2.5" at 200yds. The longest
distance I have shot it. So far we have shot 200gr Sierra, 220gr Hornady, 255gr Win that are for the
38/55 & 375 W. Also the Speer 235gr , Win 270gr Silver tip and 300gr Hornady RN intended for the 375 H&H. So far we have used only IMR 3031 & 4198. I'm trying to crank flattest shooting load I can
that is accurate. I don't know velocity, got no chrony and don't really care what fps is. I'm thinking
about 2000-2100 fps from published velocities of the 220gr loads. We pushed the 220gr with book
Max of IMR-4198 which is a compressed load with no signs of pressure. I wouldn't bother to do this
with 375W except it's legal for Deer here in Ohio and looks to be best cartridge to work with. I wish
I had a longer barrel rifle, the #3 is not a target gun. The ideal 375W would be a 788 Rem 30/30
rebored to 375w. There are powders that are a little hotter, like RX7 and other shotgun powder. I
don't have any yet. The trouble with 375w bullets is by the time you get a efficient Spitzer it would
have to be a good bit longer making it heavier & slower.

[Tatume]

Has anyone pushed their 375 Win Ruger#3 or Contender/Encore (RIFLE) to the max? I mean seating heavies out far and stuffing as much powder as will fit in there? If you have, what kind of velocities were observed?

The limiting factor will be the thin cases. If you have it rechambered to 375 JDJ you'll have a much better cartridge for what you want to do. The Contender will handle the loads listed in the Hornady Handbook or Hodgdon website just fine. Note however, that the case is voluminous and will hold more of some powders than is wise. Stick with recommend loads.

http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/

[Drm50]

I believe 375 JDJ has a bottle neck. If we were allowed bottle neck cartridges we wouldn't be fooling
around with 375win. I wouldn't own a 375win if there was something better that was legal. You can
only do so much with straight wall cartridges reguardless of caliber. Then the added handicap of large
caliber forces most into short stubby bullets.

[Jedman]

I have a Marlin M 375 levergun and a H&R handi rifle I built in 375 Win. Neither is as strong as your Ruger but you have a slightly shorter barrel. I have played with 200 and 220 gr jacketed bullets and have stopped at book max loads. Unless you have the case capacity of the 375 H&H you really can't get a flat shooting load that's approximately comparable to a 30-06 with bullets you would use on big game so I no longer push it hard.
Now I use my Marlin with jacketed bullets and a 4 X scope the handi rifle I use with a Lee 250 gr. Cast at about 1450 fps with a red dot sight.
I think it is about our best choice in a strait walled deer cartridge here in OH.

Jedman

[John Taylor]

When the 375 Winchester came out the reamer companies were selling 38-55 chamber reamers marked 375.. There's only .065" difference in case length. While the 375 may not be as accurate if shot in a 38-55 chamber because of the extra length I think the 38-55 brass will take the pressure. This is where the designers mess up, making a high pressure cartridge that will fit in a black powder rifle, jumping from 30,000 to 50,000 psi.

[Tatume]

When restricted to straight walled cases, the 357 Maximum is hard to beat!

[Drm50]

I had the Marlin 375w, fine shooting rifle. The only reason I got rid of it was because I wanted to
shoot Spitzer bullets. The #3 did outshoot it with 220gr, but just by average of .5" at 100yds. When
we first got into 375w we had only 30 brass. We blew out 30/30 cases but we only shot heavy 38/55
loads in them. The 30/30 & 38/55 are the same case and I wouldn't use jacketed bullets and full power 375w loads in them. With the #3 I think about 2200fps is going to be the top with accuracy.
With 200g Sierra you may squeeze out more but accuracy will be terrible. They aren't much good
past 100yds when loaded hot. I shot the 235g Speer for years in a Sako 375H&H at 2850fps will good accuracy. I shot several deer with it. I have a large stash of 375 bullets from the 375H&H to
experiment with. The #3 with short barrel has its limitations but is good enough for Ohio deer. If I
was going out of state were I could use bottle necks I wouldn't be using 375w.

[hpdrifter]

I believe 375 JDJ has a bottle neck. If we were allowed bottle neck cartridges we wouldn't be fooling
around with 375win. I wouldn't own a 375win if there was something better that was legal. You can
only do so much with straight wall cartridges reguardless of caliber. Then the added handicap of large
caliber forces most into short stubby bullets.

I do believe that is the reasoning behind straight wall calibers being legal.....so there won't be Howitzers lobbing cannon over hill and dell.

[Drm50]

I do believe that is the reasoning behind straight wall calibers being legal.....so there won't be Howitzers lobbing cannon over hill and dell.

We got the Howitzers and Morters covered with straight cases. We would like to have some legal guns. Gun is defined as direct fire weapon. I know what you mean though. Ohio is mostly flat and
that is where all the cities are. I know they have to draw the line some where. You just wonder how
they came up with regs. Many of the legal weapons are higher velocity than most of classic deer cartridges.

[curioushooter]

Some of Ohio is flat--the northern half. The Southern half can be nearly as rugged as WV or KY, where pretty much any cartridge goes.

[EDG]

A friend of mine bought a .375 Win in a Ruger #3 carbine.
He loaded maximum pressure loads of Reloder 7 and the 220 gr Hornady. He also tried some other loads with 300 grn Sierra spitzers.
Due to the small case the ballistics were not anything special.

He then bought a Ruger #1 in .375 H&H. I think it produced the power he wanted but with more recoil than he expected. He then traded off the #1.

[outsidebear]

Back in the 1980's, in Alaska, knew of 2 miners who had their Ruger No. 3's re-chambered to .375 H&H magnum! Why? They kept them on their mining claims and would only fire them if 'had to' shoot a large grizzly on their mining claim. Otherwise they did not fire them. ouch!!!!

Many years ago came up with a No. 3 that had it's .375 Win barrel re-chambered to .378 GNR (Gary Nelson Reeder).Too good of a price to pass it up. Then explored as to what a .378 GNR was? I called Mr. Reeder and he explained it was a .405 Winchester case necked down to .375 bullet use. Similar to the .375 JDJ, only different! I had that No. 3 re-barreled with a heavy 6mmBR barrel - later a friend traded me out of it. Still have .378 GNR brass and dies.

The No. 3 in .375 Win will do the job, heavy bullet moving at a medium velocity, it's just that you may have to 'hunt' closer...
Then again, such tinkering with loads and cartridges is part of what we here like to do...

[MT Gianni]

If I were looking at this I would have MGM make me an Encore bbl.

[Drm50]

Some of Ohio is flat--the northern half. The Southern half can be nearly as rugged as WV or KY, where pretty much any cartridge goes.

I live in SE Ohio, the Appalacian Region. It is rough as WVa & Ky. The other 3/4 of the state is fairly
flat and was part of the plains. Some states have zones for rifle, shotgun, ect. I have hunted in rifle
states since I was a kid. I have a rack full of classic deer rifles in LV calibres that I would love to use.
They have smokeless Muzzel Loders and rifled shotguns with sabot ammo that equals or exceeds the
ballistics of the old classics, not to mention hot loads in the legal straight case cartridges. The caliber
minimum doesn't help. 38 cal or larger. There was a lot of Varmit hunting in Ohio and small game too
There is no restrictions on them. You can hunt squirrels with a 300 mg if you want to. Varmit cals tend to fragment when they hit something solid. Large slow moving bullets have more tendency to
richocet. I had a talk with a warden over this subject and he told me zoning would be possible. He
also said be careful what you wish for because the other 3/4 of the state would be coming here to be
able to use rifles.

[Good Cheer]

Using Lyman #375296, started out with the Winchester lever action and soon changed to the No.3.
Didn't have the powder capacity to bore ratio I wanted so had it rechambered to 375H&H.
And boy howdy was it awesome accurate. Uh, but the barrel was kinda short.
(Is this starting to sound like a three bears story?)
So I got an in-between chamber size and a longer barrel and shot happily ever after.

[JFE]

The 375Win has quite a long throat which allows you to seat pills out in a single shot. Trouble is you need quite a heavy cast bullet to take advantage of that. Using cast generally limits the useable velocity to around 2000fps (from a accuracy viewpoint). In my 94BB I load a 300gr cast at 1850fps.

If you must stick to a straight wall case then consider rechambering to the 375 Flanged Nitro Express. This cartridge is based on a lengthened 303 case with straight walls and is 2.50" long. This should provide enough case capacity to allow you to get decent velocities from 225/235 jacketed pills. Bertram makes the cases and CH-4D will likely make the dies.