375 Winchester Plinker Load?

[TXGunNut]

Next project involves a minty Winchester Big Bore in 375 Winchester. Had it over 30 years now, hasn't seen the light of day in probably 25. It's my first levergun and second centerfire rifle so I suspect it will be part of my estate some year, preferably not anytime soon. ;-) It helped me kill at least one deer and one huge coydog but it's hunting days are over because I simply have more hunting rifles than I'll ever be able to use and I'm not going to scope it or install receiver or tang sights to make it a viable hunting rifle.
It's too nice a rifle to let languish on the back row of a safe and I happen to have a nice stash of brass and a set of dies. A Lyman 375449 die and sizer showed up several months ago and yesterday I cast 100 ACWW boolits to play with.
I'm thinking 18-20 grs of 2400 or maybe 10 grs of Unique or Universal would be a good place to start, any suggestions? I'm thinking more 38-55 performance, not 375 Winchester.

[.22-10-45]

In my original Winchester High-Wall .38-55, I am using the Lyman 375248 over 18.5gr. IMR 4227..this groups under 1" at 100yds. and holds accuracy out to 200.

[longranger]

I have had a devil of a time using 38-55 load data in .375 Win(Win.BB .375 Win). from Lymans Cast Bullet book.Loads have been excellent accuracy but not regulated to the barrel sights. 250gr GC and IMR4759 have been very accurate just 8-10"low. So to keep the sights usable going to have up the powder charge to get it near the barrel sights.I don't want to change sights either. I have considered the "Skinner barrel sight but requires removing the factory sight or drilling two holes.

[cat223]

I have no experience with the .375 Win, but I've loaded some .308 Win with a 120 gr boolit over 5gr of IMR Trail Boss. I found it to be very accurate at 20 yards and sub-sonic. My son calls them his .308 squirrel rounds. I have no doubt that they'll knock a squirrel for quite a loop.

[garandsrus]

I put a Lyman peep sight on my Win 375 BB. No drilling is required. There is a model for the BB. Mine is a top eject.

Your Unique load should be a good place to start.

John

[TXGunNut]

I put a Lyman peep sight on my Win 375 BB. No drilling is required. There is a model for the BB. Mine is a top eject.

Your Unique load should be a good place to start.

John

I've seen them, John. Been resisting shelling out the purchase price for years but I'll probably end up buying one. For some reason I would rather not put one on this rifle. I have a Williams sight that has served me well on a few top eject 94's. Midway hasn't sent me my birthday discount code yet, was hoping to order one then along with another mould and a few other things.

[TXGunNut]

I have had a devil of a time using 38-55 load data in .375 Win(Win.BB .375 Win). from Lymans Cast Bullet book.Loads have been excellent accuracy but not regulated to the barrel sights. 250gr GC and IMR4759 have been very accurate just 8-10"low. So to keep the sights usable going to have up the powder charge to get it near the barrel sights.-longranger

Good point, had a similar experience with Universal loads in 30-30.

[fryboy]

i have a round ball i use in both my contenders ( long and short barrels ) prolly wouldnt do as well cycling thru a lever action , i pulled it from lyman's #46 manual , of note best group for the pistol barrel isnt for the rifle barrel , lyman list 8.5 - 10 unique with the 79 grain round ball with the lower load as the most possible accurate one ( it wasnt for me altho real close in the 14" bbl )
while the above is perhaps the lightest plinking load i have it is by no means the only one ( sometimes we want a lil more ummm " thump" ) so the lee 250 grainer gets a charge of 8. grains unique , this load does better accuracy wise in both bbl's than the round ball ,you may have to load it up or down a bit for your best accuracy [shrugz] i use it in reformed 30-30 cases (of note - never ever use such cases for max loads !! )

[Outpost75]

The 10 grain Unique load will work well. You can get similar results with 8 grains of Bullseye, 700-X or Red Dot. In the. 375 H&H #375449 works well with 12 grains of Bullseye or 16 grs. of Unique.

[rintinglen]

The longranger and I had identical experiences. I did manage to get to point of aim by using a higher sight slide that came out of my parts box. 17.5 grains of 2400 and a 375-449 went together well. I regret selling that rifle, but at the time I wasn't using it and greener pastures beckoned.

[JFE]

I use 6.5 gr of Red Dot behind a Lyman 250 gr PB and it is accurate enough for small game. Velocity is just under the speed of sound, so its easy on the ears as well.

Regarding a peep site for the 94BB (top eject), I just use an aluminum alloy Lyman's and then contour the rear of the base to fit around the hump on the receiver. Just go easy and check often so you don't take too much off. What I like about these sights is that you can have a couple of them sighted in for a couple of different loads and not have to re-sight in the rifle.