Ruger Guide Gun, .375 Ruger

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I brought my old target stand to work to dispose of it. The rebar frame was originally designed to support PVC pipes that I taped cardboard between. But I modified it to support the 12" steel gong. (I'm a fabricator, but I'm really lazy when it comes to making stuff for myself.)

Anyhow, the 300gr DGS pretty much finished it off. I'll build something more substantial whenever I can be bothered.

IMG_20210504_072858607.jpg

300gr .44 mag dented the angles on either side.
IMG_20210504_072850066.jpg

But the .375 just put a hole straight through the lower angle iron, even though it hit at about 45 degrees to the plane. And busted the tack welds.
IMG_20210504_072903470.jpg
IMG_20210504_072916352.jpg

I'm sure other rifle cartridges could do similar damage. But it's interesting to see the difference between two projectiles of the same weight, with different construction and very different velocities.
 
memtb said:
WrongHanded, You’ve received lots of High 5’s, and a few load suggestions.....and I’m going to stick my nose in your business!

We (wife and I) use one rifle/cartridge/load/zero (she a .338 WM & I a .375 AI) for all of our hunting! These are used on every NA big game animal that we’re subject to encounter....from deer/antelope to elk, moose, bear and the occasional varmint! We are faithful followers of the KISS system. Develop a good load, get comfortable with it’s characteristics from the muzzle to your farthest expected shot! This method has served us very well since the early ‘90’s.

This saves you reloading components, and you become “as one” with your rifle. However, if you simply enjoy shooting and using nearly non-existent components.....go enjoy the heck out of your new rifle!

Oh.....consider the Barnes 250 TTSX! Go out and slay everything from Prairie Dogs to Buffalo (Bison)! memtb
Click to expand...

You're welcome to stick you nose in on this one. :)

I understand and completely agree with you point of view. Having one good go-to, versatile load for any firearm is a great goal IMO. Though I can understand why some would say that's impractical.

Although currently I have no immediate plans to try hunting again, this will likely change when my wife and I have moved farther North. And though I have a thoroughly decent Tikka T3X in .30-06, this .375 Ruger may become my preferred choice (depending on terrain and game). So it would be nice to have one load that can take deer, elk and moose, but also handle those ornery bears if necessary. I was considering the Barnes 270gr TSX, but haven't made any decisions as I'm not likely to be reloading this cartridge for a while yet.

It's become clear that this rifle is going to require more of an investment in ammunition and handloading than I've previously experienced, or than I initially expected. But I'm okay with that.
 
WrongHanded said:
You're welcome to stick you nose in on this one. :)

I understand and completely agree with you point of view. Having one good go-to, versatile load for any firearm is a great goal IMO. Though I can understand why some would say that's impractical.

Although currently I have no immediate plans to try hunting again, this will likely change when my wife and I have moved farther North. And though I have a thoroughly decent Tikka T3X in .30-06, this .375 Ruger may become my preferred choice (depending on terrain and game). So it would be nice to have one load that can take deer, elk and moose, but also handle those ornery bears if necessary. I was considering the Barnes 270gr TSX, but haven't made any decisions as I'm not likely to be reloading this cartridge for a while yet.

It's become clear that this rifle is going to require more of an investment in ammunition and handloading than I've previously experienced, or than I initially expected. But I'm okay with that.
Click to expand...
My general purpose load is either 270 grain speer btsp (I would consider this too soft for any really heavy game) or a 260 grain accubond both over 84 grains of reloader 17. Same point of impact for both of them, and as a bonus they share trajectory with the 250 grain GMX superformance rounds I scored a bunch of cheap.
 
WrongHanded said:
You're welcome to stick you nose in on this one. :)

I understand and completely agree with you point of view. Having one good go-to, versatile load for any firearm is a great goal IMO. Though I can understand why some would say that's impractical.

Although currently I have no immediate plans to try hunting again, this will likely change when my wife and I have moved farther North. And though I have a thoroughly decent Tikka T3X in .30-06, this .375 Ruger may become my preferred choice (depending on terrain and game). So it would be nice to have one load that can take deer, elk and moose, but also handle those ornery bears if necessary. I was considering the Barnes 270gr TSX, but haven't made any decisions as I'm not likely to be reloading this cartridge for a while yet.

It's become clear that this rifle is going to require more of an investment in ammunition and handloading than I've previously experienced, or than I initially expected. But I'm okay with that.
Click to expand...

I will be going to the 270 LRX as soon as I burn up all of these 250 TTSX’s , I didn’t really want....a long story.The 270 LRX is a good weight for the .375, has good BC’s for longish shots, and opens at a bit lower velocity than the TTX.

The only reason I mentioned the 250 TTSX is I thought at your velocities it may be a slightly better option for an “all around” bullet! That said the 270 is a great bullet weight for the .375!

Good Luck with whatever you choose.....you’ve got a great platform to work from! memtb
 
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I have exactly the same rifle. I mostly shoot cast bullets in it. I took it hunting one morning just as a goof and managed to take a good-sized whitetail with it. My cast bullet reloads are only about 1900 fps so recoil isn’t any worse than a “normal” deer rifle.

I did load up a box of full-power 300 grain jacketed loads just in case there’s a velociraptor invasion.
 
Finally. A scope!

After some rather unfortunate back and forth with Ruger regarding exchanging the medium rings for low ones, I finally got the Leupold FX-II 2.5X 20mm scope mounted. The rifle now weights just over 9lbs empty.
IMG_20210619_200520540_HDR.jpg

And then I went to the indoor range to get a 25 yard working zero. After 12 shots I'd had enough of a beating. After 18 shots I was absolutely done!
IMG_20210620_152423017.jpg

I was using 3 different loads. The Hornady 300gr Dangerous Game Solid and 270gr Spire Point. And also the Buffalo Bore 270gr Lehigh copper solid. But I figured at 25 yards the POI couldn't be all that far off.

I used 3 rounds of the 300gr DG to establish the POI, then adjusted up. 3 more found that a little high, but I switched to the 270gr SP before adjusting again, and found similar results. At which point I adjusted once more.

3 shots with the 270gr solid got me the tightest group though not quite at POA. But I left it and shot a horrible 3 shot group with the 270 SP, which was atleast centered around the bullseye. I followed that with another horrible 3 shot group with the 300gr DG before admitting I was done.

All those various group sizes averaged out to around 11/16". And whilst that's pretty poor, looking back at some of my notes, it seems I have similar performance at the indoor range with other rifles. Which could be due to only using a front bag and having no rear support but my body, or perhaps it's a parallax thing. But my shooting with those other rifles has tightened up once I get out to a more stable position at farther ranges such as 200 yards. So I'll cross my fingers and hope for the same with this one. 2 MOA at greater distances would make me happy.

Either way, the scope is producing better results than I got with the express iron sights, and it comes up just as fast. So overall, I think it's an improvement.

As far as the Leupold scope goes, the clarity isn't that great, and getting the dark ring around the edge of the field of view to disappear entirely is all but impossible. However, that's overshadowed by the blur of the front sight, which is quite obvious below the cross hair. Still, the clicks are positive in both sound and feel. And the dials are resettable to zero. It's also light weight and low profile, so it'll do.
 
Last edited:
WrongHanded said:
Finally. A scope!

After some rather unfortunate back and forth with Ruger regarding exchanging the medium rings for low ones, I finally got the Leupold FX-II 2.5X 20mm scope mounted. The rifle now weights just over 9lbs empty.
View attachment 1006318

And then I went to the indoor range to get a 25 yard working zero. After 12 shots I'd had enough of a beating. After 18 shots I was absolutely done!
View attachment 1006321

I was using 3 different loads. The Hornady 300gr Dangerous Game Solid and 270gr Spire Point. And also the Buffalo Bore 270gr Lehigh copper solid. But I figured at 25 yards the POI couldn't be all that far off.

I used 3 rounds of the 300gr DG to establish the POI, then adjusted up. 3 more found that a little high, but I switched to the 270gr SP before adjusting again, and found similar results. At which point I adjusted once more.

3 shots with the 270gr solid got me the tightest group though not quite at POA. But I left it and shot a horrible 3 shot group with the 270 SP, which was atleast centered around the bullseye. I followed that with another horrible 3 shot group with the 300gr DG before admitting I was done.

All those various group sizes averaged out to around 11/16". And whilst that's pretty poor, looking back at some of my notes, it seems I have similar performance at the indoor range with other rifles. Which could be due to only using a front bag and having no rear support but my body, or perhaps it's a parallax thing. But my shooting with those other rifles has tightened up once I get out to a more stable position at farther ranges such as 200 yards. So I'll cross my fingers and hope for the same with this one. 2 MOA at greatest distances would make me happy.

Either way, the scope is producing better results than I got with the express iron sights, and it comes up just as fast. So overall, I think it's an improvement.

As far as the Leupold scope goes, the clarity isn't that great, and getting the dark ring around the edge of the field of view to disappear entirely is all but impossible. However, that's overshadowed by the blur of the front sight, which is quite obvious below the cross hair. Still, the clicks are positive in both sound and feel. And the dials are resettable to zero. It's also light weight and low profile, so it'll do.
Click to expand...
How interesting, that usually my final assessment on leupolds, but for the opposite reasons lol.
Normally i feel they are optically pretty good, with sucky turrets.....i agree the light, compact form factor, and long eye relief makes up for the short comings on a hunting rig.

I have a Vx-3i 3.5-10x40 on my .375 ruger.


Thats good shooting with a dangerous game rifle!
 
WrongHanded said:
Finally. A scope!

After some rather unfortunate back and forth with Ruger regarding exchanging the medium rings for low ones, I finally got the Leupold FX-II 2.5X 20mm scope mounted. The rifle now weights just over 9lbs empty.
View attachment 1006318

And then I went to the indoor range to get a 25 yard working zero. After 12 shots I'd had enough of a beating. After 18 shots I was absolutely done!
View attachment 1006321

I was using 3 different loads. The Hornady 300gr Dangerous Game Solid and 270gr Spire Point. And also the Buffalo Bore 270gr Lehigh copper solid. But I figured at 25 yards the POI couldn't be all that far off.

I used 3 rounds of the 300gr DG to establish the POI, then adjusted up. 3 more found that a little high, but I switched to the 270gr SP before adjusting again, and found similar results. At which point I adjusted once more.

3 shots with the 270gr solid got me the tightest group though not quite at POA. But I left it and shot a horrible 3 shot group with the 270 SP, which was atleast centered around the bullseye. I followed that with another horrible 3 shot group with the 300gr DG before admitting I was done.

All those various group sizes averaged out to around 11/16". And whilst that's pretty poor, looking back at some of my notes, it seems I have similar performance at the indoor range with other rifles. Which could be due to only using a front bag and having no rear support but my body, or perhaps it's a parallax thing. But my shooting with those other rifles has tightened up once I get out to a more stable position at farther ranges such as 200 yards. So I'll cross my fingers and hope for the same with this one. 2 MOA at greater distances would make me happy.

Either way, the scope is producing better results than I got with the express iron sights, and it comes up just as fast. So overall, I think it's an improvement.

As far as the Leupold scope goes, the clarity isn't that great, and getting the dark ring around the edge of the field of view to disappear entirely is all but impossible. However, that's overshadowed by the blur of the front sight, which is quite obvious below the cross hair. Still, the clicks are positive in both sound and feel. And the dials are resettable to zero. It's also light weight and low profile, so it'll do.
Click to expand...
I'd throw in the sightmark m1a
 
horsey300 said:
It's a 2.5x "scout" scope with an illuminated reticle, the reticle and the fact that it's sightmark and weighs just under 12 oz is why I recommend it for this application, I really think it would be a good fit for this application.
Click to expand...
How would you get a far enough forward though, The IERs I've used were all pretty picky about where you ended up with eye relief?
 
Zeroing Day:

IMG_20210704_104708848_HDR.jpg

So I finally got to the rifle range, on a day where the weather wasn't too bad and I wasn't too tired. It got up to around 85 degrees, and also became fairly windy. I waited for lulls in the wind but it didn't seem to effect the 270gr and 300gr bullets from this rifle much. It did have some effect on my .30-06 shooting 180gr, but that's a different story.

It really didn't start that well. With the initial 25 yard zero I already had, I went straight to 200 yards, where I made a mess of the target (green circles) with 5 rounds of 270gr Hornady SPs. But on the bright side, that gigantic 9" group did all hit the target from that 25 yard zero.

I then adjusted the scope 1 MOA left and made slightly less of a mess with 5 more of the same (blue triangles). A 7.5" group. But at least it's improving....a bit.
IMG_20210704_145016570.jpg

Then I shot 3 more (orange squares), concentrating harder. 3 shots with the same load, but down to 4-3/8" of a group. (Fewer rounds is clearly better :p).

I decided to shoot the last 3 rounds of a box of Hornady 300gr DGS, just to see how it compared. These are the blue circles (Ignore the pink triangles, they're from my Tikka).
IMG_20210704_145030940.jpg
2 touching and about where I want them. The other one is obviously not. But the whole group is 5.75" regardless.

And to finish off, I shot 4 rounds of Buffalo Bore 270gr Lehigh Solids. Which resulted in a group that made me feel much better. 3-5/8" at 200 yards.
IMG_20210704_145151891.jpg

20 rounds of .375 Ruger in total, @ 200 yards with a 2.5x scope, the cross hair of which obscured totally the orange cross hair of the target. 14 of which hit within 4" of the center of the bullseye (or rather, within an 8" circle). Sure, it's not great, but it could have been worse. Probably not consistent enough to hunt with yet, but I'm sure my performance with improve....when I pony up the cash for more ammo.:eek:

What do you guys think of the elevation (which I didn't adjust at all)? Think I should bring it down a smidge for the 270gr loads? It's hard to tell from that mess. But once the last box of 300 grainers are gone, it'll be 270s only moving forwards.
 
WrongHanded said:
Zeroing Day:

View attachment 1009395

So I finally got to the rifle range, on a day where the weather wasn't too bad and I wasn't too tired. It got up to around 85 degrees, and also became fairly windy. I waited for lulls in the wind but it didn't seem to effect the 270gr and 300gr bullets from this rifle much. It did have some effect on my .30-06 shooting 180gr, but that's a different story.

It really didn't start that well. With the initial 25 yard zero I already had, I went straight to 200 yards, where I made a mess of the target (green circles) with 5 rounds of 270gr Hornady SPs. But on the bright side, that gigantic 9" group did all hit the target from that 25 yard zero.

I then adjusted the scope 1 MOA left and made slightly less of a mess with 5 more of the same (blue triangles). A 7.5" group. But at least it's improving....a bit.
View attachment 1009391

Then I shot 3 more (orange squares), concentrating harder. 3 shots with the same load, but down to 4-3/8" of a group. (Fewer rounds is clearly better :p).

I decided to shoot the last 3 rounds of a box of Hornady 300gr DGS, just to see how it compared. These are the blue circles (Ignore the pink triangles, they're from my Tikka).
View attachment 1009392
2 touching and about where I want them. The other one is obviously not. But the whole group is 5.75" regardless.

And to finish off, I shot 4 rounds of Buffalo Bore 270gr Lehigh Solids. Which resulted in a group that made me feel much better. 3-5/8" at 200 yards.
View attachment 1009394

20 rounds of .375 Ruger in total, @ 200 yards with a 2.5x scope, the cross hair of which obscured totally the orange cross hair of the target. 14 of which hit within 4" of the center of the bullseye (or rather, within an 8" circle). Sure, it's not great, but it could have been worse. Probably not consistent enough to hunt with yet, but I'm sure my performance with improve....when I pony up the cash for more ammo.:eek:

What do you guys think of the elevation (which I didn't adjust at all)? Think I should bring it down a smidge for the 270gr loads? It's hard to tell from that mess. But once the last box of 300 grainers are gone, it'll be 270s only moving forwards.
Click to expand...

I zero 2” high at 100 with my 375 H&H. It’s on the reticle at 200, 7” low at 300 and about 22” low at 400 with a 270 Gr LRX at an MV of 2700 ish.
 
H&Hhunter said:
I zero 2” high at 100 with my 375 H&H. It’s on the reticle at 200, 7” low at 300 and about 22” low at 400 with a 270 Gr LRX at an MV of 2700 ish.
Click to expand...

I've started using a 200 yard zero on three rifles. A .308 shooting 150gr, .30-06 shooting 180gr, and this .375 shooting 270gr. The reason being that based on the various barrel length for those rifle, they all should be running about 2700fps from the muzzle. According to the results of ballistic calculators, this gives them all a similar trajectory out to 300 yards or so. Which just seems like it makes things easier for me.

Of course when my groups are more like shot patterns, it's hard to tell where zero actually is. Though to be fair, I've never claimed to be an above average shooter (if even that good).
 
Dead on a 200 is what I zeroed my 375 @ also.
I don't think the spear boat tail soft points are quite as aerodynamic is the LRX, But I'm running them a bit faster.

I need to get back to working on the 375 with the 260 grain accubonds, I might actually load some of those today.
 
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