My everything rifle build, Tikka 375 ruger all weather

[S.Crockett]

Switched to a Winchester LRM primer. 81.5gr H4350
View attachment 1142292

25- or 50-yd group?

 

[someguy2800]

25- or 50-yd group?

100

 

[someguy2800]

Shot 5 rounds over the chronograph tonight and averaged 2752 FPS

 

[LoonWulf]

Shot 5 rounds over the chronograph tonight and averaged 2752 FPS

Thats just about perfect for those 270s I think. Groups are looking really good too.

 

[someguy2800]

Groups are looking really good too.

I should be able to hit the buffalo now.

 

[someguy2800]

Update for today, I cut off the original pachmayer decelerator recoil pad from the McMillan stock and replaced it with a Kick-eez pad. I found a prefit pad that was a very close fit that just needed a tiny bit of sanding and epoxied it to the stock. Recoil is still quite stout but the Kick-eez pad does a better job of handling it. The old base from the original pad is laying on the table next to it and you can see it was hollow in the center of the base. Under recoil it would crush and you would only feel the perimeter which would bite into my shoulder unless you got behind the rifle just right. The kick-eez pad has a solid plastic base.





Also wanted to note that after shooting msybe 80 or 100 rounds I found that my scope had slide forward in the front ring, and that the rear ring slid forward on the receiver dovetail. This is quite a heavy scope for such a heavy recoiling rifle.



I took the scope off and added RingTrue tape from High Power Optics and so far I have not seen any movement of the scope in the rings. Going to be adding that to my scoped pistols from now on.

RingTrue™ Tape for Three Scopes - High Power Optics

Protects your scope tube from being scratched by the rings. Prevents the scope from slipping.

highpoweroptics.com

Here was a cold bore 3 shot group from today at 100. 4x6 inch shipping label. This fall when the brush starts to die down I’m going to start stretching out to 300 and 400

 

[LoonWulf]

Looks like you're all set to stretch it out!

Ive got the same kickeez on my .375.

 

[Roverguy]

I decided on 80 grs IMR 4350 with the Hornady 270 grs Interlock. MV 2643 and an SD of 12. I also have a very accurate load with the Barnes 270, but don’t have the numbers to hand. And a 375 Win level load with IMR 3031 and cast bullets that is ideal for deer. Very versatile is the 375 Ruger. Love your rifle!

 

[S.Crockett]

Update for today, I cut off the original pachmayer decelerator recoil pad from the McMillan stock and replaced it with a Kick-eez pad. I found a prefit pad that was a very close fit that just needed a tiny bit of sanding and epoxied it to the stock. Recoil is still quite stout but the Kick-eez pad does a better job of handling it. The old base from the original pad is laying on the table next to it and you can see it was hollow in the center of the base. Under recoil it would crush and you would only feel the perimeter which would bite into my shoulder unless you got behind the rifle just right. The kick-eez pad has a solid plastic base.

View attachment 1169290

View attachment 1169291

Also wanted to note that after shooting msybe 80 or 100 rounds I found that my scope had slide forward in the front ring, and that the rear ring slid forward on the receiver dovetail. This is quite a heavy scope for such a heavy recoiling rifle.

View attachment 1169296

I took the scope off and added RingTrue tape from High Power Optics and so far I have not seen any movement of the scope in the rings. Going to be adding that to my scoped pistols from now on.

RingTrue™ Tape for Three Scopes - High Power Optics

Protects your scope tube from being scratched by the rings. Prevents the scope from slipping.

highpoweroptics.com

View attachment 1169297

Here was a cold bore 3 shot group from today at 100. 4x6 inch shipping label. This fall when the brush starts to die down I’m going to start stretching out to 300 and 400

View attachment 1169292

A Kick-Ezzz pad was my first upgrade on an old but minty Remington M600 in .350 Rem.Mag.

Definitely a world of difference in felt-recoil when shooting factory loads or equivalent handloads.

 

[GooseGestapo]

My load for my Ruger Hawkeye African in .375Ruger is 82.5gr of IMR4350 in Hornady brass and a magnum rifle primer and some pre-Interlock 270gr RN Hornady’s. Iirc with my 23”bbl, it gets 2,750fps.

My whitetail load is a Speer 235gr Semi Spitzer or Hornady 225gr SSP over 75gr of RL15. These run 2,800 and are tack drivers,

 

[Gtscotty]

Switched to a Winchester LRM primer. 81.5gr H4350

View attachment 1142292

I didn't see it in the thread, but what primers were you originally using before switching to the WLRM?

 

[someguy2800]

I didn't see it in the thread, but what primers were you originally using before switching to the WLRM?

I believe I was using a regular WLR

 

[Riomouse911]

That is quite a thumper you assembled, very nice work!

Stay safe.

 

[someguy2800]

Well I decided the 375 ruger is going deer hunting in a couple weeks. I am going to use it as a bullet test bed for my next deer rifle build.

I have two AR15 setups from MDWS with their oversize bolt and barrel extension built for deer hunting. One is a 358 Yeti which is basically a 35 Remington +P, and the other is a 45 Raptor, which is basically a 450 Bushmaster +P. I intended the Raptor to replace my Yeti as a 150 yard deer thumper but eventually decided to keep both. The 45 Raptor will excel at 50-150 yards, but the yeti is quite a bit flatter shooting and less wind drift at 200+. I would really like to have something that does the best of both though. Ever since the newer small frame 308 AR’s like the POF Revolution and the Ruger SFAR came on the market I’ve had the idea in the back of my head to buy one and make a 338 fed or 358 win, but neither of them are that much more powerful or have a great bullet selection to really be a substantial improvement over my 358 yeti. This weekend I really got to thinking about a 375 Raptor.

Meet the 375 Raptor: a Heavy-Hitting, Short Action Cartridge - The Truth About Guns

&#9664Previous Post Next Post▶ Arne Brennan, creator of 6.5 Grendel and other cartridges, designed 375 Raptor in a quest to do for 308 Winchester what 300 Blackout did for .223 Remington. Namely, neck it up to run larger, heavier bullets that deliver both supersonic and subsonic performance in a...

www.thetruthaboutguns.com

I think I am going to buy a ruger SFAR and scavenge the barrel extension off of it to build a 375 raptor barrel in my lathe. The bullet I’m most interested in trying is the same 270 grain speer soft point I shoot in my tikka. According to other people’s results and my calculations in quickload, I should expect to see 2300 fps with that 270 grain speer from a 16” barrel, which will give the results below. This is similar muzzle energy to the 45 raptor, and better long range performance than my 358 Yeti due to the much better ballistic coefficient.



I’ve seen a few first hand accounts of people taking large animals with this bullet in 375 raptor but before I go forward with this I’d like to see for myself how well this bullet performs at these low velocities. I decided to work up a reduced power load for my Tikka with a target of 2200 fps. Last night I did some chronograph testing just shooting into the dirt berm behind my shed after dark and worked up loads with both IMR 4198 and H4895. With both of these I was getting huge extreme spreads in velocity of like 2050-2250 fps because their is a lot of air space in the case. To try to tighten this up I experimented with using a filler to push the powder back against the flash hole. I settled on stuffing one square of toilet paper in before the bullet.



This worked great at bringing the extreme spread down. I was getting about 40 fps spread with the TP wad. Unfortunately though this did not translate to accuracy. This morning I shot 15 of them and it was the worst groups I’ve ever seen any rifle produce in my life and I got covered in toilet paper chunks to boot. I would have thought the toilet paper would burn up in the hot plasma and basically vaporize coming out the muzzle, but in fact it does not burn at all. It flys ou the muzzle mostly intact.

Back to the drawing board I loaded some more with H4895 and no filler. Surprisingly they shot just fine despite what the chronograph thinks. This was 56 grains of H4895 with a CCI magnum primer at 50 yards.



And just 2 shots at 100. I’ll load some more of these and zero the scope and should be good to go for this deer season.

 

[LoonWulf]

Well I decided the 375 ruger is going deer hunting in a couple weeks. I am going to use it as a bullet test bed for my next deer rifle build.

I have two AR15 setups from MDWS with their oversize bolt and barrel extension built for deer hunting. One is a 358 Yeti which is basically a 35 Remington +P, and the other is a 45 Raptor, which is basically a 450 Bushmaster +P. I intended the Raptor to replace my Yeti as a 150 yard deer thumper but eventually decided to keep both. The 45 Raptor will excel at 50-150 yards, but the yeti is quite a bit flatter shooting and less wind drift at 200+. I would really like to have something that does the best of both though. Ever since the newer small frame 308 AR’s like the POF Revolution and the Ruger SFAR came on the market I’ve had the idea in the back of my head to buy one and make a 338 fed or 358 win, but neither of them are that much more powerful or have a great bullet selection to really be a substantial improvement over my 358 yeti. This weekend I really got to thinking about a 375 Raptor.

Meet the 375 Raptor: a Heavy-Hitting, Short Action Cartridge - The Truth About Guns

&#9664Previous Post Next Post▶ Arne Brennan, creator of 6.5 Grendel and other cartridges, designed 375 Raptor in a quest to do for 308 Winchester what 300 Blackout did for .223 Remington. Namely, neck it up to run larger, heavier bullets that deliver both supersonic and subsonic performance in a...

www.thetruthaboutguns.com

I think I am going to buy a ruger SFAR and scavenge the barrel extension off of it to build a 375 raptor barrel in my lathe. The bullet I’m most interested in trying is the same 270 grain speer soft point I shoot in my tikka. According to other people’s results and my calculations in quickload, I should expect to see 2300 fps with that 270 grain speer from a 16” barrel, which will give the results below. This is similar muzzle energy to the 45 raptor, and better long range performance than my 358 Yeti due to the much better ballistic coefficient.

View attachment 1177202

I’ve seen a few first hand accounts of people taking large animals with this bullet in 375 raptor but before I go forward with this I’d like to see for myself how well this bullet performs at these low velocities. I decided to work up a reduced power load for my Tikka with a target of 2200 fps. Last night I did some chronograph testing just shooting into the dirt berm behind my shed after dark and worked up loads with both IMR 4198 and H4895. With both of these I was getting huge extreme spreads in velocity of like 2050-2250 fps because their is a lot of air space in the case. To try to tighten this up I experimented with using a filler to push the powder back against the flash hole. I settled on stuffing one square of toilet paper in before the bullet.

View attachment 1177204

This worked great at bringing the extreme spread down. I was getting about 40 fps spread with the TP wad. Unfortunately though this did not translate to accuracy. This morning I shot 15 of them and it was the worst groups I’ve ever seen any rifle produce in my life and I got covered in toilet paper chunks to boot. I would have thought the toilet paper would burn up in the hot plasma and basically vaporize coming out the muzzle, but in fact it does not burn at all. It flys ou the muzzle mostly intact.

Back to the drawing board I loaded some more with H4895 and no filler. Surprisingly they shot just fine despite what the chronograph thinks. This was 56 grains of H4895 with a CCI magnum primer at 50 yards.

View attachment 1177205

And just 2 shots at 100. I’ll load some more of these and zero the scope and should be good to go for this deer season.

View attachment 1177206

Im as interested in your Raptor build as I am in your Ruger!

I started a Raptor build a few years ago, but the shop insent the rifle to on the mainland never sent it back so I haven't gotten to tinker with one yet.

The specs looked pretty solid, i was also considering the .375 Socom which would be similar.

 

[someguy2800]

After a very slow week of hunting I was finally able to get a shot on a young 9 pt yesterday. The wolves really have the deer on their toes and the population has been way down.

I shot him quartering away at about 50 yards, and was trying to thread the shot behind the right shoulder and out the front without hitting the left shoulder. I have to say this is the most perplexing wound I’ve ever examined. The deer dropped in his tracks but when I examined him I looked for 10 minutes poking around in the fir and could not find either the entrance or exit wound. Not what I expected from a .375! I did find he had a broken front leg halfway up from the knee.

After skinning him I found the entrance in the torso was well behind the shoulder, but somehow still managed to break its leg. I think he must have been stepping forward as I shot him so the leg I hit was extended back. I really don’t know. The bullet went through the chest cavity cutting the right lung in half and exited high on the other side in front of the offside shoulder. I shot him at a downward angle from my stand though so I think the bullet deflected upward off the leg bone before traveling through the chest cavity.

So I have a hole going into the rib cage exactly where I was trying to shoot him, somehow the leg seams to have gotten in the way of that, and I have an exit hole going at an angle like 20 degrees up from the angle I shot him from. After having butchered over 100 deer I’m very confused by this.

The inside of the right side shoulder was utterly destroyed and the blood shot extended all the way up into the neck. Keep in mind the impact velocity here was only about 2150 fps. My 444 marlin is more energy than that. Now keep in mind the bullet went inside the rib cage. I know that because it severed the right side lung and I have the exit wound. I really don’t understand what caused all this damage up through the shoulder and neck meat. I would almost think someone else had shot it before it got to me, but I didn’t see it limping or carrying that leg. Perhaps the bullet fragmented and went in 2 different directions or it was bullet fragments going up through the shoulder meat? Again I’m perplexed.



In any case I learned what I wanted to learn here. I do not see anything desirable here in the terminal performance of this bullet at this speed. I will not be pursuing the 375 raptor SFAR project, and I think if this 375 ruger ever goes hunting again it will be with a different bullet than this 270 gr speer. Hoping to fill one more tag tomorrow but I’m taking my 444.

 

[someguy2800]

 

[someguy2800]

Found something interesting when I unpacked the rifle after deer hunting. These were the 2 rounds that were in the magazine. Both flattened from recoil in the magazine



Today I loaded some 250 grain Barnes TTSX. Past experience with the barnes bullets in another caliber was that they produce very little tissue damage which I thought would make it a great deer hunting bullet and they have the same BC as the speer bullets so they would work with my custom elevation knob I got for the Speer’s. The rifle thought otherwise of that plan.



I have some 250 grain Maker REX bullet to load up, and I think I’m going to order some 260 grain nosler accubonds to try. At the moment I’m kind of souring on 375 caliber and thinking about going back to 338 win mag.

 

[LoonWulf]

Found something interesting when I unpacked the rifle after deer hunting. These were the 2 rounds that were in the magazine. Both flattened from recoil in the magazine

View attachment 1182454

Today I loaded some 250 grain Barnes TTSX. Past experience with the barnes bullets in another caliber was that they produce very little tissue damage which I thought would make it a great deer hunting bullet and they have the same BC as the speer bullets so they would work with my custom elevation knob I got for the Speer’s. The rifle thought otherwise of that plan.

View attachment 1182456

I have some 250 grain Maker REX bullet to load up, and I think I’m going to order some 260 grain nosler accubonds to try. At the moment I’m kind of souring on 375 caliber and thinking about going back to 338 win mag.

Mine smashes up tips, and thats about the experience ive had with ALL the speer btsp launched @2800+
The 270 .375 is the only bt speer I continue to use, Ive found them to be real squirty. In light for cal bullets on heavier game they don't penetrate enough. In heavy for cal on lighter game they blow the crap out of them.

You might also look at the GMX (or the new one) i shot 3 axis with those this year from the factory superformance stuff ive got, and they performed very, very well......i actually havent loaded .375 in about 3 years because this stuff was so cheap and worked so well (shot targets to 900 with it)...... guy who had it is finally out tho, and im gonna share 1/2 my stash with my buddy who just bought a .375 ruger.....so back to loading.

Im also considering some of these to supplement my 250Sierras and 260Abs

375 Cal 260gr Expansion Tip Lead Free (50ct) (BLEM)

375 Cal 260gr Expansion Tip Lead Free (50ct) (BLEM)

www.shootersproshop.com

 

[someguy2800]

Mine smashes up tips, and thats about the experience ive had with ALL the speer btsp launched @2800+
The 270 .375 is the only bt speer I continue to use, Ive found them to be real squirty. In light for cal bullets on heavier game they don't penetrate enough. In heavy for cal on lighter game they blow the crap out of them.

You might also look at the GMX (or the new one) i shot 3 axis with those this year from the factory superformance stuff ive got, and they performed very, very well......i actually havent loaded .375 in about 3 years because this stuff was so cheap and worked so well (shot targets to 900 with it)...... guy who had it is finally out tho, and im gonna share 1/2 my stash with my buddy who just bought a .375 ruger.....so back to loading.

Im also considering some of these to supplement my 250Sierras and 260Abs

375 Cal 260gr Expansion Tip Lead Free (50ct) (BLEM)

375 Cal 260gr Expansion Tip Lead Free (50ct) (BLEM)

www.shootersproshop.com

Thanks for the link, I’ll order a box of those to try. If they don’t work well I’ll send the rest too you. You want the rest of the TTSX’s? I have 33 of them. I was just going to put them in the pay it forward thread.

Was just looking at the other calibers of E-tips. The 225 grain 338 has a BC of .611.

I’ve been thinking again about doing the ruger SFAR in 375 raptor. I’m really interested in trying this 220 grain flat point bonded from Fury custom bullets. If I rebarreled the tikka to 338 I would use this barrel as the blank to make my 375 raptor barrel.

.375 Caliber – Fury Custom Bullets

www.furycustombullets.com

 

[LoonWulf]

Thanks for the link, I’ll order a box of those to try. If they don’t work well I’ll send the rest too you. You want the rest of the TTSX’s? I have 33 of them. I was just going to put them in the pay it forward thread.

Was just looking at the other calibers of E-tips. The 225 grain 338 has a BC of .611.

I’ve been thinking again about doing the ruger SFAR in 375 raptor. I’m really interested in trying this 220 grain flat point bonded from Fury custom bullets. If I rebarreled the tikka to 338 I would use this barrel as the blank to make my 375 raptor barrel.

.375 Caliber – Fury Custom Bullets

www.furycustombullets.com

Sure, I can send you some of rhe 260ABs and 250Sierras if youd like to try them. I have some 235 speer semi points i was given that im going to try in a .375 Raptor or maybe a .375 SOCOM build...thats a ways down the pike tho if youd like a box of those.

 

[someguy2800]

Sure, I can send you some of rhe 260ABs and 250Sierras if youd like to try them. I have some 235 speer semi points i was given that im going to try in a .375 Raptor or maybe a .375 SOCOM build...thats a ways down the pike tho if youd like a box of those.

I havn't decided if I want to do the 375 raptor build or just keep my 45 raptor AR15 barrel I have waiting to put together. I am trying to simplify my life a bit and trim down on all the stuff. The 375 raptor would replace 2 guns, my 358 yeti and 45 raptor. If were able to sell both of those and use this 375 ruger barrel as the barrel blank that would be a really convenient sideways move.

 

[TexasPatriot.308]

I guess you can rule out small game like rabbits and squirrels.

 

[horsey300]

I guess you can rule out small game like rabbits and squirrels.

How come?

 

[someguy2800]

Sure, I can send you some of rhe 260ABs and 250Sierras if youd like to try them. I have some 235 speer semi points i was given that im going to try in a .375 Raptor or maybe a .375 SOCOM build...thats a ways down the pike tho if youd like a box of those.

Any experience with the 260 accubonds on game?