.375 H&H Mag for deer ... mule and whitetail?

Andrew,
Thanks for the excellent information. I'll measure a bunch of fired cases this evening to see what the average case capacity is. I downloaded and read (twice) Chris Long's paper on shock wave theory. I also downloaded his OBT Excel tool. Once I get an accurate case capacity I sure hope that N540 is still a good powder to use. I chose it based on Barnes' manual which has N540 loads for the 235gr and 270gr TSX bullets. Thanks again.

eastbank,
That's awesome!!

Just a brief update on load development using N540. I shot a couple of decent groups at 100 yards and 200 yards this past Saturday but have more to do. I'm hoping that the groups will shrink once I start neck sizing and also build a solid shooting bench for load development. The group on paper was shot at 100 yards prone and the group at 200 yards (same load) was shot the same way. It was fairly windy in NW MT this past weekend and to be honest I didn't have a really stable shooting position. Regardless, N540 seems to have potential but the pressure of this particular load exceeds SAAMI if QuickLOAD is accurate. My doubts come from the 0.25" of bullet movement before engraving which QL doesn't seem to account for but I could be wrong about that. Velocity is around 2,850 fps and the 2-1/2" drop at 200 yards is consistent with that. I now have the Zeiss Conquest RZ600 zeroed at 200 yards. I might try some Reloder 17 loads over the next few weeks since QL seems to think it's a really good choice with velocities up around 2,900 fps but at considerably lower pressure and close to 100% fill ratios.

H&Hhunter said:

Exactly. The .375 is the same on small game.

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There's good and bad in this. Now I'm starting to wonder if I need to keep a pair of .30 cal magnum hunting rifles. I don't have the skill to shoot a deer much beyond 400 yards (from typical field positions) so what do I need a flatter shooting, softer hitting cartridge for? I'm enjoying the .375 H&H Mag so much that I'm not particularly interested in downsizing at the moment. The only advantage of my .300 WSM and .300 Win Mag rifles is that they're lighter. I could care less about the cost differnence in components since I'm not going to shoot 5,000 rounds through any of them.

Andrew, thanks ... I hope to do better!

gamestalker said:

On a more serious note, a 375 is a bit over kill and sure wouldn't be a pleasant rifle to shoot,

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I shot 30 rounds prone wearing a t-shirt last weekend and could easily have shot 30 more without any issues. As I'm sure most know, when you shoot prone your body isn't free to move to reduce the impulse from recoil and yet I had no issues at all with MVs for 250gr bullets around 2,850 fps. I've shot 25 rounds of .45-70 Govt from my Marlin 1895 SBL prone and gone home feeling as though I'd been in the ring with Golovkin for 12 rounds. The .375 H&H isn't the recoiling beast that some make it out to be ... particularly if you're shooting a well designed rifle with a good stock and recoil pad. The Talkeetna is just that, as was a coworker's Biesen chambered .375 H&H Mag that I shot last year. That cartridge and rifles chambered for it really are the bee's knees.

Andrew, excellent group there and that's exactly what I'm chasing. I won't be happy until I've got consistent 1/2" groups at 100 yards and 1" groups at 200 yards.