Swampman
Old Fart
I've been loading .338 Win Mag and .303 British to headspace off the shoulder for decades with no problems and greatly increased case life even though they were "designed" to headspace off of the belt/rim respectively.
I acquired an old SAKO Finbear in .375 H&H a while back and I'm starting to load for it. I have a couple molds including a beautiful 270 grain Mihec HP and 99% of my shooting will be with cast bullets, mostly velocities at or below @ 2000 fps.
The rifle will be mainly used as a range toy, with some use against deer or hogs while stand hunting (unless anyone here wants to volunteer for an unpaid gun bearer position; special consideration given to those that can say "Bwana" or "Sahib" in a convincing accent while carrying what feels like a very well balanced 20 pound rock bar ).
While studying up on the cartridge I've read several times that it's one of the very few belted magnums that really "needs" the belt for setting headspace.
Other than the shallow, easily moved shoulder, is there any real reason to entirely leave headspace regulation to the belt?
I've been partial length resizing (without touching the shoulder) and it seems to be doing fine, but I haven't shot it enough to get a handle on case life expectancy or how it'll work when the shoulders require "bumping". With the price I had to pay for Norma cases, I'd really like to make sure they last as long as possible.
Anyone out there with .375 experience that can tell me of any problems, or if they've had success in increasing case life by using the shoulder to headspace?
Also, any experience with powders for mid level cast bullet loads outside of the usual 4759, 5744 and 4895 suspects?
Thanks,
Swampman
I acquired an old SAKO Finbear in .375 H&H a while back and I'm starting to load for it. I have a couple molds including a beautiful 270 grain Mihec HP and 99% of my shooting will be with cast bullets, mostly velocities at or below @ 2000 fps.
The rifle will be mainly used as a range toy, with some use against deer or hogs while stand hunting (unless anyone here wants to volunteer for an unpaid gun bearer position; special consideration given to those that can say "Bwana" or "Sahib" in a convincing accent while carrying what feels like a very well balanced 20 pound rock bar ).
While studying up on the cartridge I've read several times that it's one of the very few belted magnums that really "needs" the belt for setting headspace.
Other than the shallow, easily moved shoulder, is there any real reason to entirely leave headspace regulation to the belt?
I've been partial length resizing (without touching the shoulder) and it seems to be doing fine, but I haven't shot it enough to get a handle on case life expectancy or how it'll work when the shoulders require "bumping". With the price I had to pay for Norma cases, I'd really like to make sure they last as long as possible.
Anyone out there with .375 experience that can tell me of any problems, or if they've had success in increasing case life by using the shoulder to headspace?
Also, any experience with powders for mid level cast bullet loads outside of the usual 4759, 5744 and 4895 suspects?
Thanks,
Swampman