.375 Winchester

Looking for some load data for the .375 Winchester. This is the first rifle my father bought me when I was 10. I hadn’t shot the gun in 14 years until the other day. I only had 5 factory rounds left for it. I finally found a couple hundred pieces of brass and some Sierra Pro-Hunter Bullets .375 200 grain 2900’s.

H4198 works well. Hogdon has the DATA

For plinking loads, you can also use modern .38-55 data, as it's virtually the same case.

I got good results using Re7 in mine. I used Speer 235-grain with the exposed lead meplat cut off and filed flat and found that to be usable in a tube magazine. I have no doubt it will penetrate at 2100 fps, but expansion is still in question. My intended use is for walking through mesquite thickets and flushing hogs. Just haven't carried the rifle enough to find out. Yet!

Hunting loads mine gets Hawke 200gr bullets and near max Hodgdon listed load of H4198.

Thanks for the link okie, I appreciate the info guys. Pretty sure I have a pound of H4198

I'm a 375 Win guy, I have owned three of them. They are best loaded using 38-55 Win brass, because 38-55 Win brass:

• Will improve accuracy by moving the bullet up closer to the groove/bore, thus elimninating huge amount of freebore in the 375 Win chamber cut
• reduces chamber pressure
• is still in production
• is easy on your reloading expenditures

Buffalo Bore Ammunition does a great job of explaining this.

A dozen or more years ago, I was driving the north loop in SA and saw a outdoor business closing down. I want to say it was Sportsman's Warehouse or something of that nature. I went in and they had reloading components but most were gone. As I browsed the bins, one was labeled "375 Win" with three bags of 50 laying in it. I asked if they had any more in the back and sure enough they did. Walked out with 1K worth of 375 Win brass that I paid $15 for a bag of 50. Last year, I decided to move the brass as there is no way I would shoot anything but Starline long 38-55 with my rifle so I sold it all on an auction site for $140/bag within a couple of hours of listing it. Made $2500 over what I bought it for.

Here are my 375 Win load components with the Starline Long 38-55 brass using my 235-grain cast bullet. Velocity is 2045 FPS.



Here is a picture of my "long" 375 Win cartridge, on the left.

RD, thanks for that tip.

When I became aware that Starline was offering .38-55 brass, I used their message system to ask whether it is safe use the brass for full pressure .375 loads. Unfortunately I never got a response. It seems to me that they would anticipate folks using it to load .375 and would give it the strength necessary to hold up, but I would never operate on such an assumption. There's lots of difference in max pressure between the two rounds, as I am certain you know. What can you tell us in regards to that question?

I have pressure tested the Winchester factory ammunition and the Hodgdon and Hornady loads for the Hornady 220 FP and they get nowhere near what you would expect. The difference being the way CUP measurements are obtained, a pressure barrel, vs. the gauge on an actual barrel. Using the sources mentioned, I've actually not gotten anywhere near the velocities referenced which validates the lower pressures experienced. I use QuickLoad to estimate my loads and then the RSI equipment to verify them.

Hmmm... what I might suggest for a fellow wanting to use 38-55 Win brass is too duplicate the velocity of the 375 Win load that you have been or want to use. This will take a chronograph. In that a 375 Win case has a case capacity less than that of the 38-55 Win, you could start working with the max load used with your 375 Win load. If you don't like the idea of that, drop it the load. As a reference; a 375 Win case will hold 48 grains of water. The 38-55 Win spec case, 52-grain, and the Starline 38-55 Win long brass, 55-grains. These greater capacities insure a pressure drop with the 375 Win charges.

The stuff above is incomplete, got more to get you there with the 38-55 Win brass, but I promised momma we would watch a movie and will be back in the morning.

It's not an urgent situation, RD...far from it. I acquired 100 pieces of Jamison brass for my .375 over a year ago (pricey stuff, too, but reputed to be very good) and I'm still using some W-W Super brass that came with the rifle, so I probably won't ever need any more given the limited purposes I have in mind for my own .375 W. It's just one of those things I want to know. But then you never know about that kind of thing...the first time I pop a hog with that sweet little 94 there may be a "magic moment" after which I vow to sell off all my bolt guns. Ya never know.

Great info, I have followed buffalo bore for a while, keeping them in mind. I shot two boxes of 38-55 through mine back in the day. Well I was 19-20, 16 years ago. I never liked it bc it ain’t .375, I still don’t. Would I again if I had to, yes.

But I bought 200 pieces of .375 from a guy I didn’t know on armslist. I probably won’t use that up in my life time, but I hope my kid will.

OK, it sounds like you are good then. What it came down to for me was I was not satisfied with accuracy with jacketed or cast, probably due to the 375 Win brass was way too short to get the bullet up into the throat for near ogive contact. With either the Hornady or my cast, 1/2" too short. The standard length 38-55 brass worked well with the Hornady and the long with my cast. Accuracy went from marginal to exceptional.

I've always felt, and only speculation on my part, that the bullet jump in the 375 Win was designed on purpose to dump the pressure. I feel that is why I did not see anywhere near what the spec CUP would relate to when pressure testing.

The 375 Wins I've own/owned are Marlins. One I never shot, it was new in the box. I sold it when the JM stamp increased the Marlins value. I took another Marlin in trade on something and turned it around in another trade for a Guide Gun, should have kept it as it was a good rifle (the GG not so). I just have too much hunting history with my original rifle to use another in the field and I should not be allowed near a NIB rifle.

One year, I took mine out to Brewster County as the mule deer would not come out of the whitebrush. All the long distance hunters laughed at the cartridge, but I shot this dude at about 30 yards.



There had been some late rains and a clover species was growing in the whitebrush flats, deer (both mule and WT) and javelina were thick in the brush. I saw him wade into a flat following some does and went in. I didn't expect him to wander up on me as close as he did and thank goodness for the 1.5X variable. The 375 Win dropped him like a sack of rocks. Another hunter borrowed the rifle and killed a big muley as well, at about 15 yards in the thick brush. Crazy!

I'm willing to bet that those are the only two mule deer killed in Brewster County with a 375 Win. Never seen another while hunting anywhere in our State.

About two years ago, I was watching a series about people that live in remote areas of Alaska. A fellow had been given a key to a hidden lock box in a remote cabin that had been abandoned. The owner was not returning. The fellow that hiked back in was disappointed that there was only a small amount of ammuntion in the box for his 30-06. There was a pretty good amount of 375 Win. I doubt he realized how valuable that find was.

I seen that show too, I was amazed to see it as well! I shot my first buck with mine when I was 15 it was only a fork horn. That’s a great muley! Shot a few neighborhood dogs killing my goats back in high school with it. I am super excited to get it back out.

It’s a model 94. It says legendary lawman on it. Like some one professionally engraved it in cursive. It also had a silver coin in the stock. It does not look like any of the other legendary lawmen rifles I had seen. My dad bought it at elk castle 26 years ago for $400.

Sounds like a nice rifle and the history will make shooting and hunting with it even better.

This is what I shoot 375s from, Little Sharps Rifle Company Lil Reliable

I haven't took this one to the woods yet. Winchester 94AE XTR. Someday soon!

Nice rifles guys! Okie, I don't know if I've seen an XTR with a raised comb. Are all the AEs the same?

I like that Little Sharps, gonna have to keep an eye out for one!

Ranch Dog, I have a 94AE XTR in 356 with the raised comb and uncheckered. I really don't know the answer.

Oddly enough, I found out about this only today. I have no idea how long Starline has been offering .375 brass:

https://www.starlinebrass.com/brass-cases/375-Win/

Y’all guys are great! I had to post mine too. I only have few guns that have a sentimental attachment, and this is one of them. Like I had said, I got this gun when I was ten. The pic is gun oil, the discoloration. However; it does have some surface rust. I have never had a gun reblued, but this one will be done. For your model 94 buff’s, see what I mean about the “legendary laweman”? Turns out I have 6 factory rounds left from 18 years ago.

Short story about the stock. One day I went back to my parents house and my mut jumped out of my truck, my dads Anatolian almost killed my dog. Like I had stated before we raised goats. I jumped back to my truck and grabbed my .375! I didn’t have time to do anything so.... my butt stock got broke in half. Both were great dogs mine lived to 16, his(Harrison) along while too, even after the incident.

This is an after market stock, but I kept the original.

Nice looking rifle sowhuntr!

A bit of info on the BIG BORE rifles.