My everything rifle build, Tikka 375 ruger all weather

[LoonWulf]

Why the over-kill? Bullet manufacturers design bullets that cut through a lot of meat before opening up when coming-up with heavy-game bullets. Many will sail through a white-tailed deer, even a mule deer, and not expand. Whoosh! ... and gone. If using a very powerful rifle and the bullet hits the bones of the near shoulder, sometimes the other shoulder and meat are blown away. This happened to a friend of mine while hunting white tail deer -- bunch of lost meat. I'll not describe the gory details.

I realize this wasn't directed at me, but figured id toss my .02 in as well lol.
Choosing the correct bullet for the expected launch and impact velocity as well as the game hunted are important.
The 270gr Speer BTSPs @someguy2800 is running are softish for their weight, as most Speer BTSP seem to be. They are also stupendously accurate for how much they cost, and generally work well on thin-skinned game at classic .375 H&H velocities (and slower) with pretty much any shot presentation. Once you start stepping them out at 2800+ (I've broken 2900 with those from my guns 23" tube) then you need to be selective about placement or deal with the aftermath.

Actually for those guys with .375s Ive got a few boxes of sierra 250btsp if anyone wants them to test, doubt ill ever get around to actually loading any. I still have to mess with the 260AB, 235 speer, and ive got a pile of 250GMX factory fodder.

As to the WHY? For me the answers easy....'cause I like!
Really thats all there is to it.
If I'm being 100% honest, I need a .223 and only because thats the legal minimum. I enjoy using different cartridges, big and small. Ive actually had no real use for a .22lr because, until recently, there hasn't been a legal place to shoot besides private land, and nothing they are legal to hunt with...
Still owned/own more than a few.
There's no reason anyone in their right mind would chose a 8.25lb .375 Ruger sporter for long range plinking.....cept its an absolute blast, and those .270s hitting steel at 900yds are pretty impressive. knocked down my buddies silhouette and snapped off the (albeit already shot up) 2x4 that held up my 10" gong.

 

[DustyGmt]

Respect the skills. I would like to tackle a project like this some day, but lack the experience and knowledge.

Also, I would be pretty cheesed about the fudged roll mark. Good on you for taking it in stride, I would honestly be going dizzite if I had to go backwards on that project because of their mistake and would probably be trying to negotiate for a portion of my money back of have a new bbl sent on the house and I'm surprised they didn't offer considering the liability of a mis-marked bbl

 

[someguy2800]

I’m impressed that those rings keep that scope in place on just dovetails considering the recoil the .375 can produce when pushed with 300 grain projectiles.

They don’t have anywhere to go, the front ring is slid as far forward as it will go in the slots. Tikka rings have a recoil lug on the front ring that fits in a recess in the top of the receiver, though I am not using it because it doesn’t position the ring quite where I want it.

In another post you said:

"...for my typical hunting which is deer at under 100 yards and often within bow range due to the terrain, I would much rather use my 358 yeti and 444 marlin."

Why the over-kill? Bullet manufacturers design bullets that cut through a lot of meat before opening up when coming-up with heavy-game bullets. Many will sail through a white-tailed deer, even a mule deer, and not expand. Whoosh! ... and gone. If using a very powerful rifle and the bullet hits the bones of the near shoulder, sometimes the other shoulder and meat are blown away. This happened to a friend of mine while hunting white tail deer -- bunch of lost meat. I'll not describe the gory details.

The .375 Ruger is for hunting heavy game and dangerous game. Are you going to load-down your .375 cartridges? Have you found bullets for this cartridge that will open-up more quickly / haven't a thick jacket?

Walter D.M. Bell, the noted elephant hunter, used his 7mm Mauser / .275 Rigby to take elephants (during the Ivory Trade days, he killed over 1,000 elephants).

https://www.chuckhawks.com/bell_elephants.htm

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".303 British"
by Christopher
(Alberta)
https://www.all-about-moose.com/303-british.html

"Out to lunch on your .30-30 as a moose killer north of the 49th! By far the Lee-Enfield No.4 in varied marks has killed more moose, deer and probably black bear than any other caliber rifle - probably all other calibers put together."

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View attachment 1134233

"The best cartridges and bullets for toppling big moose"

https://www.outdoorcanada.ca/moosemunitions/

"Over the years, it’s safe to say that the .30-30, .303, .308 and .30-06 have accounted for the vast majority of downed moose, and they continue to be popular choices. They’re all middle-of-the-road calibres that, when pushing quality bullets at modest velocities, are more than adequate under most circumstances. Other effective calibres in the same class include the .270s (above), the .280 and the 7mm.

"For those who can handle more recoil, and are capable of accurately shooting larger cartridges at distances beyond 200 yards, a better selection would be the .300 magnum family. These cartridges offer the benefit of added horsepower if your only opportunity presents itself at extended ranges, or an animal offers only a quartering shot."
.......................

I explained why I chose to build this in the original post. I didn’t build this to shoot deer, though I will probably shoot a few just because I can. The notion that bullets will fail to expand on too small of an animal may or may not be true on some bullets like a DGX, but I can assure you that will not be the case with a soft cup and core bullet like a speer hot core. If I do choose to develop a lower velocity, lower recoil load, there are bullets designed for the 375 winchester or 38-55 that would work perfectly for that.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1010522583?pid=295266

Respect the skills. I would like to tackle a project like this some day, but lack the experience and knowledge.

Also, I would be pretty cheesed about the fudged roll mark. Good on you for taking it in stride, I would honestly be going dizzite if I had to go backwards on that project because of their mistake and would probably be trying to negotiate for a portion of my money back of have a new bbl sent on the house and I'm surprised they didn't offer considering the liability of a mis-marked bbl

It really only took like an hour to set the barrel back. They probably would have made me a new one if I had pushed for it but I really don’t want to wait another month or 2 to shoot my rifle.

 

[someguy2800]

Not that accurate. ... So when it's not, it best be reliable.

Is 1 moa not good enough for buffalo?

 

[kidneyboy]

Respect the skills. I would like to tackle a project like this some day, but lack the experience and knowledge.

Also, I would be pretty cheesed about the fudged roll mark. Good on you for taking it in stride, I would honestly be going dizzite if I had to go backwards on that project because of their mistake and would probably be trying to negotiate for a portion of my money back of have a new bbl sent on the house and I'm surprised they didn't offer considering the liability of a mis-marked bbl

Taking things like this in stride makes you a

Respect the skills. I would like to tackle a project like this some day, but lack the experience and knowledge.

Also, I would be pretty cheesed about the fudged roll mark. Good on you for taking it in stride, I would honestly be going dizzite if I had to go backwards on that project because of their mistake and would probably be trying to negotiate for a portion of my money back of have a new bbl sent on the house and I'm surprised they didn't offer considering the liability of a mis-marked bbl

Being reasonable as a customer is important, especially when dealing with custom products. The roll mark error has nothing to do with the one off custom barrels performance and is a relatively easy fix for them. Being decent about it, on both ends of the transaction, buys a lot of goodwill down the road. It's how you build lasting business relationships.

 

[Seamaster31]

I settled on the 250 grain Sierra Gameking for use in North America with my 375 Ruger. I do like the 260 Nosler bullets for African plains game, and a heavier mono-metal pill for the big game. I have tried quite a few powders and my 375 Ruger loads all seem to work best at a bit below the maximum powder charges. I stick to Federal 215 primers for hunting loads in my big game rifles, but the CCI 250 has worked well also.

 

[someguy2800]

Taking things like this in stride makes you a

Being reasonable as a customer is important, especially when dealing with custom products. The roll mark error has nothing to do with the one off custom barrels performance and is a relatively easy fix for them. Being decent about it, on both ends of the transaction, buys a lot of goodwill down the road. It's how you build lasting business relationships.

Its also not their fault that I'm slightly dyslexic and installed it without noticing the error.

 

[DustyGmt]

Taking things like this in stride makes you a

Being reasonable as a customer is important, especially when dealing with custom products. The roll mark error has nothing to do with the one off custom barrels performance and is a relatively easy fix for them. Being decent about it, on both ends of the transaction, buys a lot of goodwill down the road. It's how you build lasting business relationships.

Understood. Yeah I'm not a foot stomping kind of guy/customer and dont get all irate with people but I'm sure he paid a good deal of money for the custom bbl and put his time into it. A one off custom bbl is probably not likely to result in any kind of mishap on his end, was just pointing out the potential liability that could occur with something like a mislabeled barrel. But I agree. Being reasonable is always good policy, for everything....

 

[jmr40]

It's more rifle than I want, but I can appreciate the versatility. Either of the 375 magnums will take the largest game on the planet. Yet with the right loads are still reasonable for game as small as deer. Trajectory is very similar to 30-06 out to 300 yards or so. If someone truly wants a single rifle for every big game animal on the planet 375 is the way to go.

I have no argument with someone wanting one. But the practical side of me says that any game animal that truly needs the power of a 375 will cost me at least $20,000 for the hunt. If I can afford to pay $20,000 to $40,000 for a hunt, I can afford 2 rifles. One in a more reasonable 28 to 30 caliber cartridge for general big game and a 2nd one 375 or bigger.

But I do like that rifle. I've come to appreciate Tikka rifles and that looks good.

 

[.308 Norma]

Very happy with the end result so far.

I would be too! Well done! And IMO, chambered for a great, "everything" big game cartridge.

 

[someguy2800]

I have no argument with someone wanting one. But the practical side of me says that any game animal that truly needs the power of a 375 will cost me at least $20,000 for the hunt. If I can afford to pay $20,000 to $40,000 for a hunt, I can afford 2 rifles. One in a more reasonable 28 to 30 caliber cartridge for general big game and a 2nd one 375 or bigger.

But I do like that rifle. I've come to appreciate Tikka rifles and that looks good.

Right, and I already have my bases covered and recovered and covered again in 30 and smaller caliber rifles that will see more use than this will. I freely admit I don’t need a rifle for Cape buffalo, but it’s fun to know you have one.

 

[Legionnaire]

... I freely admit I don’t need a rifle for Cape buffalo, but it’s fun to know you have one.

Ditto! This past weekend some buddies shot my .375 Ruger for the first time. I bought some factory ammo just for the occasion. The 300 grain solid Dangerous Game loads "rocked their world." I generally load 235 and 270 grain soft points to milder pressure levels.

 

[someguy2800]

Did some more shooting a week or 2 ago. First I figured out why the recoil pad was so uncomfortable for me the last time I had been shooting. The bruise on my shoulder proved I was only using the top half of the recoil pad because I had the rifle too low on the bench and I was crouching down to it. This time I raised my front rest about 3 inches and used a much taller rear bag so I could get full contact with the recoil pad and no discomfort at all this time.

I started at 83 grains H4350 and still the same 270 grain speer. 4 shot groups today.



next up to 84 grains, 3 shots in a nice group and a flyer breaking the group high right.



And finally 85 grains. I was seeing the beginning of the primers starting to fill out the pocket and as you can see the group opened up considerably so no need to keep going to speer’s listed max of 87.3 grains.

 

[someguy2800]

Tonight I shot again but went back down to 80 grains. 3 round groups.



81 grains, I did not replace the target but I marked the old holes with a sharpie



and 82 grains



The sticky target is 4x6 So 9 holes in about 1.5 inch group center to center or so. So I can’t claim with a straight face that it’s a sub moa rifle but have only tried 1 bullet and 1 powder. It’s not a prairie dog rifle so that will be more than sufficient accuracy for the intended purspose. I can’t tell the difference between 1 moa and 1.5 moa shooting from field positions. I’m more concerned about finding a load that shoots to the same POA when it -20 deg and +60 deg F so it’s promising to me that the group center doesn’t change with different charge weights. I am going to settle on the 81 grains which nets right at 2700 fps and is well within the accuracy node. I might experiment with some other powders later but this will probably be the hunting load.

 

[H&Hhunter]

They still penetrate far enough to be lethal on soft skin game. I shot an axis buck butt cheek to chest. Itll go clean thru pigs sheep and goats no problem. Makes a huge mess tho.
2700 is where i got the best combination of rapid expansion and not blowing the crap out of things.

That’s my sweet spot too. A .270 Gr TSX LR at about 2700 FPS does everything I need it to do here, in Alaska and Africa. It’ll punch through both shoulders of a gnarly old buffalo bull in the Zambezi at 30 yards, and it’ll kill a bull elk at 400 yards in the Rockies without any issues.

 

[gbflyer]

New guy here. A search yielded this thread. I was wondering how the Tikka magazine is working out feeding the 375 Ruger cartridge? I was thinking about this or 416 Taylor. The availability of ammo, as slim as it is, makes the Ruger more attractive.

Appreciate your sharing of the project. I really like the T3X. I am a lefty and barreled one in .338 Federal. It’s my pick.

 

[someguy2800]

New guy here. A search yielded this thread. I was wondering how the Tikka magazine is working out feeding the 375 Ruger cartridge? I was thinking about this or 416 Taylor. The availability of ammo, as slim as it is, makes the Ruger more attractive.

Appreciate your sharing of the project. I really like the T3X. I am a lefty and barreled one in .338 Federal. It’s my pick.

You could also do 416 Ruger but I imagine ammo availability is not great for that either. The magazine fits 3 rounds and feeds perfectly but I did find one issue. If you have 3 round in the mag it won't quite seat in the rifle with the bolt closed. It just needs like 1mm more room in the magazine. So currently you have to insert the mag with the bolt open and push the top round into the chamber. If you take the mag back out and try to top it up it will not fit back in, so the capacity is 2+1 instead of 3+1. At some point I will mess with the magazine and see if I can make enough room to allow the mag to seat against the closed bolt with 3 rounds in it. I work for a 3d printing company so maybe I will just 3d print a magazine body and swap the follower and spring into it.

 

[gbflyer]

Thanks. I wonder if you’d get three in the short Mountain Tactical? I don’t know about you but I don’t like mags that stick down.

 

[someguy2800]

Thanks. I wonder if you’d get three in the short Mountain Tactical? I don’t know about you but I don’t like mags that stick down.

Do you happen to have one?

The mag doesn’t need to be any deeper, just need to straighten out a little bit of the taper in the front. It’s the shoulder of the cartridge that’s too big. So only needs to be about 1/8” deeper in the front.might be able to get it by just modifying the follower a bit or making a thinner metal follower.

 

[someguy2800]

Today I tried some different powders. These 4 shots were 75 grains of N150. A single shot over the chrono was 2695 fps. Grouping was slightly worse than H4350. I might try another couple groups at 74 and 73. This was hotter than I was expecting.



These 3 rounds were 80 grains of N160. Velocity was a disappointing 2460 fps which is not what I was looking for.



I did shoot 3 shots of the 81 grain H4350 load over the chrono and got 2740, 2721, and 2696, which isn’t horrible, but I’ve seen better for extreme spread. I suspect the extreme spread is where my inconsistency and slight diagonal stringing is coming from. I might need to aneal my cases and try some different primers. Normally at this point I would be trying different bullets but I would really like to find a load that this bullet is happy with since they are one of the cheaper and better BC .375 bullets and I have a couple hundred more of them.

Tomorrow I’m going to see if I can get a pound of Varget to try. My focus for a rifle like this is not really to get the best possible group size but to make it shoot to a consistent point of aim at all different temperatures because where I live it ranges from -40 to 100 degrees. I’ve done a lot of shooting at -20 to -30 degrees and it not uncommon for a rifle to loose 200 fps of velocity or more at those temps and change point of impact 4-6 inches at 250 yards. You are way better off with a 2 moa rifle that shoots to the same point of aim in the cold than a 1 moa rifle that won’t shoot to the same place in the cold. If I can have both though I’ll take it.

 

[NuclearMeltdown]

Man, even at 2460 fps that still packs a wallop with a bullet that heavy.

I made a plinker load for .375 H&H (if such a thing exists, haha) with 60 grains of H4895 and the 235 grain Speer. I wish I had a chronograph to see how fast it's going.

 

[someguy2800]

Man, even at 2460 fps that still packs a wallop with a bullet that heavy.

I made a plinker load for .375 H&H (if such a thing exists, haha) with 60 grains of H4895 and the 235 grain Speer. I wish I had a chronograph to see how fast it's going.

It sure does. I couldn’t tell any difference in recoil between the N160 and H4350 loads even with a 250ish FPS difference in muzzle velocity.

 

[gbflyer]

I only have short action Mountain Tactical mags, for .308 size cartridges.

 

[someguy2800]

Switched to a Winchester LRM primer. 81.5gr H4350

 

[someguy2800]

Same load as above. The primers made all the difference.