375 H&H Mold

[Pirate69]

Well, I bought the Ruger #1-H, a set of dies and have some brass coming. Now I need some advice on a mold. Lee has a 379-250-RF. Is anyone using this mold for a 375 H&H? Lee listed it for a 375 Win. and a 38-55. Any issues I need to be aware of? Looks like finding a mold is going to be a little bit of a problem since all I see are "out of stock".

[btroj]

The Lee mould is fine for low end work.

I got a mould from Accurate for his 265d and it shoots great in my CZ550.

[Pirate69]

Thanks

[Nobade]

Yep, it works fine in the 1000 - 1300 fps range if used normally. Or I sometimes paper patch them and shoot them at full whack. 9.3mm boolits work better for that since they don't have to be sized so much but the Lee one will work. A hint - for low power loads in the 375, AA#2 up to a max of 30% case capacity works very well. Red Dot does too but #2 leaves less carbon in the throat.

-Nobade

[Pirate69]

Thanks Noblade. Can you provide a nominal range of powder weights for the AA#2 and Red Dot? Thanks again.

[Nobade]

Thanks Noblade. Can you provide a nominal range of powder weights for the AA#2 and Red Dot? Thanks again.

I wouldn't go over 14gr. Red Dot or 16gr. AA#2. At this level, you are under 25,000 psi and 1400 fps - right where you want to be with a plain base boolit. Don't use any filler with either of these powders.

-Nobade

[Pirate69]

Thanks Noblade

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Pirate62,

Seems to me that the answer to your question depends on the end result your seeking.

Are you hunting game animals or just shoot'in for fun?

I am not a person that likes to have many molds for a given firearm, rather preferring to have one mold and bullet design that is an effective projectile for the taking of game.

That is the bullet I'll use for all shooting with a given firearm.

My thoughts run that .35 & .375 calibers are about where we begin to see really good cast bullet performance on deer and larger game animals, the picture only getting better as we move to the .40 & .45 caliber firearms.

No offense to those who shoot smaller calibers, but there can be no question that bigger is better in this case. It just simply is and has been proven so for many years.

Yes, there are those who experiment with soft nose or Hollow Point cast bullets, but they are always and will be forever have a trade off as to range and impact velocity. The bullet which does great at 75 yds and 1600fps, expanding into picture perfect mushroom, is likely blowing up with excess meat loss at 30 yards or passing through with little to no effect at 150yds.

The Wide Flat Nose cast bullet design is not burdened with those issues, and has been proven to be a great game bullet at cast bullet velocities.

For that reason the larger the meplat, or said another way, the larger the Wide Flat Nose (WFN) of the bullet, the better the results in the hunting fields.

If I was in your situation with a .375, I'd check out Accurate Bullet Molds, or Lead Bullet Technology (LBT) offerings or one of the other good mold makers and buy one mold for all my shooting with your rifle.

By the way, with proper bullet design, you will not need warp speeds for the .375 to be highly effective, but bullet design is critical to that success.

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[Pirate69]

I know why you are known as Crusty. You speak of wise advice and experience. Advice duly noted. I will be killing a many of target; but I will also be preparing to harvest the whitetail deer on my farm.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Pirate,

I have thought that a .375 should make a right fine Cast boolit cartridge.

Now, of course that doesn't mean as fine as the 45/70, but fine :bigsmyl2: never the less.

Being the Crusty Ol'Coot that I am, I was working through the mental process a few years back of just what could I do as a shooter, reloader, that I hadn't done over the years.

I have shot wildcats, formed brass both with sizing and fire forming processes and loaded for a fair number of cartridges from the 22 centerfires to the belted mags, so just what could I do within reasonable limits?

Hmmmmmmmmm?

Well I have cast boolits for handguns for years, with a very few rifle boolits thrown in and the forums I was visiting had these "nuts" talking about just how good a non-expanding cast WFN bullet was on game.

Of course this just couldn't be true as everyone knows a bullet must expand to put a critter down, unless of course we are talking some of the "BIG 5" where we might need a big solid.

Read some of Veral Smith's writings, and although he seemed a lot like Elmer Keith, both being rather crusty and cootish although they both have been there and done that, and Vearl's info did seemed to have a bit of truth in it.

So, I bought into a 310gr .44 bullet mold from Veral and then 6 years ago or so started to read all the favorable reports on the cast WFN in rifles.

So, bigger at times being better and the 45/70 just having that Something Special about it and of course those being available in the RUGER #1 which I really like, I plunged into the world of casting my own hunting boolits and hunting with same.

Possibly what was a real eye opener as to the effectiveness of the WFN cast was my first cast boolit critter, a whitetail taken with a 355gr WFN LBT boolit (sorry Veral) at a muzzle velocity of just over 2300fps.

Talk about over kill!!!!!! I truly had no idea a non-expanding boolit could create such huge wound channel. WOW! The bone and tissue was not minced, it was simply gone out the other side of the critter. AWESOME!! Huge hole. Way too much of a good thing!

Well that boolit just didn't groups as well as I desired, so with some good council from a couple guys here on the forum (Bruce of BABore and Lloyd Smale), I bought into a heavier boolit, 465gr in weight and of course a WFN.

This boolit does so very well at just over 1650fps and is fantastic on deer and elk.

So yep, a bit crusty. Well maybe more then a bit crusty around the edges, but after what I have seen, I am now one of those singing the praises of the basically non-expanding WFN cast fired in the 1500 - 1700fps velocity range.

:razz::razz: Of course in "real guns" of 45 caliber. :bigsmyl2:

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[rockrat]

I use the BRP 310gr in my H&H. I am sure the Accurate mould near that weight would work fine. I size mine to .379" over a dose of 4759 to give about 2000fps and 1.5" groups@100yds.

Many that have shot it at our range during sight in days loved it.

[elginrunner]

I'm shooting that lee bullet at 1500fps using reloader 22 (46 grains). I'm shooting a old mauser 375, and consitantly hitting 1" circles at 50 yards. I hope to be off in the morn' to see how it does at 100 yds.

[TCTex]

FWIW, I have had REALLY good luck with the Lyman 264 GC over 4198. I tried it because the Lyman manual list it as the accuracy load. I shot 3 rounds you could have covered with a dime... ... ...

[kens]

I also have a #1H Tropical. Lyman mold #375449 works good for me. good results with Re7.