375 Ruger Reduced Loads and Powder are Here!

Posted on September 5, 2014 by Ed Hale

Here is great news for folks that have rifles for dangerous game or really big game rifles like my .375 Ruger. Now there is a reduced load powder is available from Accurate Powder called 5744 and it has been used in the .375 Ruger with excellent success. See this site for load data.. http://www.chuckhawks.com/reduced_big_bore_loads.htm

product

I had to wildcat my way starting very low with lots of research. Here you can use published data. I just love my finished low power loads in particular because they are very accurate and easy to shoot for deer and black bear size game. I have not tested 5744 powder but will purchase some and write about it in a future article. My reduced loads with two different powders that are 350 fps apart from one another are only 2.5 inches apart at 100 yards. I have stated in other articles, I have killed a 700 lb Bison and a New Hampshire bull Moose with my .375 Ruger in the Ruger African M77 with full power loads. The Bison fell “dead as a door-nail” with one shot that fully exited, taking out heart, lungs and the far shoulder. But full power is not needed for deer, accordingly, I began using reduced charges borrowing starting loads from the .375 H & H and .375 Dakota in several handloading books, again starting with very low charge weights of SR 4759 and working up. I have had no issues at all with my load work-ups grain by grain. Energies are excellent in my finished low power loads and are in the 1700 ft-lb range at 100 yards. When the 235 grain heads are loaded with other powders upwards of 2400 to 2500 fps accuracy at 100 yards for either powder given the 300-400 fps differences are within 2.5 inches of each other at 100 yards. Wow! Such versatility! Plenty for deer and bear at those ranges with Speer’s 235 grain .375 in semi-spitzer which will quickly mushroom and exit with much of its weight intact.

There is a company that makes reduced intermediate load cartridges for the .375 Ruger it is known as Nyati, Inc. and you can find them on the web. See Below.

https://nyatiinc.com/index.php?

route=product/product&manufacturer_id=12&product_id=50

Full Power Testing? The .375 Ruger when fully loaded with 260 grain spitzer’s like the Nosler AccuBond and it has a max point blank range of 300 yards when zeroed at 250 yards with a 4 inch kill zone radius delivering 2750 ft-lbs to big game like Brown Bear, 2000 lb Bison or a Moose. At 400 yards it still delivers over 2000 fps and 2340 ft lbs to your game. I have demonstrate its accuracy at 600 yards with 3 1/4 inch vertical height groups using 260 grain AccuBonds under full power shooting prone position from sand bags. At 100 yards on a good day it shoots 1/2 inch groups. © 2014

The .375 Ruger Cartridge – A Handloaders Dream Cartridge

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Ed Hale

Wouldn’t it be neat to own one rifle/cartridge that you can hunt large jack rabbits with a reduced load without blowing it to bits and the next day hunt deer with a more powerful load in the same rifle and the next day hunt the largest game on the Planet with a 300 grain Dangerous Game Load – All in the same Rifle? YES! You can only do this if you hand load your own ammo for the .375 Ruger.

Shown here is the Ruger® Hawkeye® African with a 23 inch barrel verses my 20 inch barrel. See the Ruger website below.http://ruger.com/products/HawkeyeAfrican/models.html

My Ruger is less embellished with the ebony cap and sling on the barrel. But it is very accurate indeed with the .375 Ruger Cartridge and so versatile for handloaders. The .375 Ruger Cartridge was a joint collaboration of Hornady and Ruger back in 2007. Wikipedia has a write-up at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.375_Ruger.

As I said, If you hand-load you can load to shoot varying bullet sizes and energies for small game all the way up to dangerous game.

It has been tried before on older .375’s like the H&H magnum, very successfully, I might add! Most African hunters shoot a .375 H & H for everything from the 15 pound Dik Dik Antelope up to and including Elephant. Africans don’t often change loads though, most all sizes are taken with big bullets. Hornady made 220 and 225 grain heads but has not made any for a while. The 235 grain Speer Hot Core is still available as are lead cast bullets with gas checks. Sorta like “Quigley Down Under” cast bullets at 260 grains.

Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia (Kirks Dik Dik)

and then shoot Impala (impala venison is fabulous)

(Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia – Impala)

Then Shoot Cape Buffalo with the same Rifle

Photo Courtesy Wikipedia – Cape Buffalo

Or Elephant Below

Photo Courtesy Wikipedia – African Elephant

Enter the newer 2007 Cartridge, the .375 Ruger that is stronger than the .375 H & H cartridge, Shorter, Has no belt to be concerned for head-space, and fits in a standard bolt action and holds 6 % more powder than the older .375 H & H.

375 ruger unprimed new cases

At left is the .375 Ruger Cartridge loaded with 235 grain Speer Hot Core bullets and the 243 Winchester at right for comparrison.

The problem for many .375 Ruger owners is that there has been little published data out there to aid the .375 Ruger Cartridge Owner to establish a cross section of bullet types and weights, powders and loading data that take you from small game, medium game. Most data is about really big game or African Game. So I went into student mode and gathered data over the years and worked up my own loads using available .375 Caliber published data for starting loads, small game loads and lower bullet weights with copper jackets. As with all load data work from low to higher very slowly, examine the spent round for primer and case indicators with a good Reloading manual as a Reference, like Hornady or Nosler. Pay attention to case length and Cartridge overall length COL making copious notes to refer back to.

I think that for medium and small game lead bullets can be cast and SR 4759 starter data can be found for reduced loads at 1200 fps and for 220 to 235 grain heads pushing a small game load at 1500 fps to a deer load at 2100 fps for 100 yard or less shots. The trick here is to shoot either a flat point to deliver more energy on impact or a bullet that is traveling at near to 1900 to 2000 fps at impact in a spire point to mushroom adequately. I have created a new lower power load of IMR ( ) from Hodgdon® that provides 235 grain Speer Bullets at 2400 fps for most North American Game at 200 yards and easier recoil like a 30-06. Yesterday I shot 3/4 inch 3 shot groups at 100 yards with that new load.

The data for starter loads can be extrapolated from published data by experienced wildcatters and reloaders. After that there is a plethora of published data for Elk, Big Bears, Moose, Bison, and larger African Species up to Elephant. The .375 Ruger with my M77 African Ruger Rifle 20 inch barrel can throw a 260 grain spitzer out of the muzzle at 2800 fps for Brown Bear or a 2000 pound Bison. Then Switch to 300 grain AccuBonds backed up by 300 grain Monolithic Solids for Africa’s Big Five. As Robert Ruark says: Use Enough Gun! I would choose a bigger rifle for close work on testy Bull elephants may be a 470 Nitro Express Double gun with 500 grain solids.

Bench Rest Best Practices to Determine Cartridge/Bullet Accuracy

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Ed Hale

We all want to shoot these tiny groups at the Bench Rest don’t we, especially at your local range where we often can earn bragging rights for such a fine group. Recently I struck up conversations at the range about “Best Practices” of accuracy basics at the Bench. What I got for feedback was seemingly all over the place! You can have a $5000 dollar rifle/scope combo and still shoot average without good rests and shooting techniques. Of course the cartridge/bullet and load must be tuned as well to your rifle barrels harmonics, another article.

SAND BAGS AND RESTS

Yea, said the shooter I bought this bag or that bag to place my rifle on at the bench and it works fine. So I query the shooter, so your rifle rests on the bag but how do you hold the stock of your gun still? Well, comes the answer, I put the butt firmly into my shoulder and shoot. My rifle shoots nearly one inch groups comes the further response. So I ask them to show me how they did that. Upon seeing the setup it is clear that the rifle is still moving as the shot is taken. Minor movement of course results in a combination of the shooter skill and the gun together. If you really want to see only what the rifles performance is then you must either take the shooter out of the equation or have a rifle that is already on target and all you have to do is pull the trigger. Shooters that listen to the logic of my recommendations have found greater accuracy inherent in the rifle they are shooting and more work on their part to keep the rifle steady.

Once the rifle is proven itself, If the shooter wants to change to a different shooting style such as prone or kneeling they can do that knowing the rifle is not the problem when accuracy issues arise.

Leather or fabric sand bags can do that when place forward on the stock, never on the barrel and rear under the butt of the rifle. Also the rifle should be high enough above the bench so the shooter can ease into shooting position without undo squirming. I raise the front rest up about 1.5 inches higher with a 2×6 piece of wood (cheap and dirty) or better yet I bought an adjustable front rest from Caldwell. See below. Other manufacturers make them but this Caldwell rock Jr is mine and costs about $35 bucks. I can adjust the rifle vertically just by spinning the black star like nut on the threaded shaft. The rear rest should be a bag type.

Or a shooting bag combo.

TRIGGER PULL

Second problem is trigger pull weight. I own a digital scale and know the break point for my rifles. Poor grouping can also come from too heavy a trigger or a trigger that creeps unpredictably (replace or fix the trigger). Many rifles have a trigger pull of 5 plus pounds. This is too heavy, in my estimation. For Hunting it should be between 3 to 4.5 pounds. For target it can be less but needs a skilled shooter to handle a light trigger.

When shooting begins, all the shooter should be doing is squeezing the trigger once the cross hairs are on the bullseye. squeezing trigger evenly without jerking.

A while back I demonstrated a sub-moa rifle shooting a group of 3/4 inch was really a 1/4 minute of angle rifle with the right rests. For a target shooter that can mean the difference of winning a match verses placing in a match. For a long range shooter it can mean the difference of 7.5 inches at 1000 yards with a 3/4 group at 100 yards or 2.5 inches at 1000 with a 1/4 inch group sighted at 100 yards.

SCOPE-EYE ALIGNMENT

The next error comes in where the cheek touches the comb of the stock to align the eye into the sight or scope. Where there are so many scopes we will discuss scope picture.

It is best to raise the cheek so the eye is to be even with the scope. Some buy a device to raise the cheek. I believe it is not needed for normal hunting say out to 200 yards but will have value of LR shots.

At 100 yards a 3 x 9 scope for example should be all the way to 9x and the image of both the crosshairs and the image should be crystal clear. Some rifle scopes have parallax adjustments, please do not use this to focus the reticle or target. There should be another adjustment for target focus and another for crosshair focus for high power scopes. Or built into one adjustment for less magnification scopes. If you move your eye in the rear of the scope and the crosshairs shift around on you then you need to fine tune that movement with the parallax adjustment. Often they are marked like the Vortex brand. My Leupold scope has no parallax adjustment as it is pre-adjusted for say 100 yards. In addition, by keeping your eye centered in the scope where any outer shadow you see is centered then you also have minimized parallax and this is valuable for long range shooting.

BREATHING

If your are out of breath, or your heart is beating fast then wait on the shot till your composure is relaxed as if meditating and relaxing your core self a technique that helped me in Archery over many years. Once I am relaxed then I breath a few deep breaths and exhale half way and hold while I squeeze the shot off. At high magnification you can see your heart beat in the movement of your crosshairs if you are tightly connected to your rifle. Experts say shoot between heartbeats. Snipers teach the BRASS Method:Breath, Relax, Aim, Stop, Squeeze. It makes a lot of Sense…

An expert long range marksman also suggested letting your tongue hang loose in your mouth as you squeeze.

Christmas gift forever – Hand Loading Equipment

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Ed Hale

Do you shoot Pistol as well as Rifle?

Are you tired of buying what is on the shelf at the gun shop when you wanted something different.

I began loading rifle cartridges such as the .270 Winchester, .308 Winchester, 30-06 and Pistol cartridges such as 45 Long Colt and 45 ACP, 38 Special, 40 cal etc. Below is my reloading bench. It is great quiet time.

Want to shoot tighter groups and more ammo? If you shoot at Action Shooting competition, reloading is a must. Save money too? Yes!

Well tell Santa you want a Progressive Reloading Kit. Below is the RCBS 2000 Auto Index Progressive Press. There are other manufacturers that you can look for on your own such as Dillon,Hornady, Lee etc. See my reloading menu at the home page.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9v6xWbpZfE

Cost to get started is around 600 dollars or so for a Progressive Press or a single stage for less money. What can a kit with a Progressive press really do?

Once you have mastered the use of the Progressive press you can crank out your 45 ACP rounds or your 40 cal. at about 500 rounds an hour. It costs a few pennies per case and they will last for dozens of reloads. Reloads tailored for you and your specific pistol.

Can you just imagine creating 1000 rounds in a couple hours. Holy Mackerel! You can even mold your own bullets and save more per shot and shoot more. More on that at another time.

Bullet heads for pistol are bought in bulk by 100 or by 500. Pistol Primers are bought in bulk too by 100 or by 1000. Powder is purchased by the pound. Store primers and powder in a cool safe area.

I own the Rockchucker Single Stage Press and have loaded pistol and rifle Cartridges for 30 years. It is not super fast but it is super quality. See the utube below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VswkcBDNTUU

You will need a clean workbench to do your reloading. Reloading my own ammo gives me tremendous satisfaction because I did it myself. I have hunted Plains Game in Africa and loaded all my ammo for that trip in .338 Win Mag and .270 Winchester using Nosler Partition Ammo.

Here are some examples why I reload.

45 ACP Case cost over the life of the case is a fraction of a penny.

Powder for 45 ACP is around 5 grains. In a pound of powder you get 1400 rounds at a cost of .6 cents per round.

Primers cost $2.50 per 100 or 2.5 cents per round.

Jacketed Bullets for 45 cal are 100 dollars per 1000 rounds or 10 cents per shot or less.

All totaled it cost 13 cents per shot or 13 dollars per 100 rounds and your time. But I get to choose the powder and the weight and shape of the bullet. The cost per shot can change rapidly as you change from lead to jacketed or to hollow points of various brands.

I load up .375 Ruger for deer hunting. There is no commercial cartridge that exists for it. So reloading is a must. I can load it down so that it is a bit faster and hotter than a typical Muzzleloader. You can tune your loads to your rifle and instead of 1.5 inch groups you can shoot 1/2 inch groups if you experiment with a reloading book in hand.

My .375 Ruger shoots 5/8 inch groups at 100 yards with my hand loads at full power with 260 grain Nosler AccuBonds. My .270 Winchester, the same with a particular bullet, seating depth, powder volume and brand. You must be willing to read and follow directions.

Rifle cartridge tuning to your rifle ensures far better accuracy than store bought ammo especially if you shoot long range rifle competition such as F Class 600 or 1000 yards competition. I have shot documented 3 inch vertical groups at 600 yards with the .375 Ruger with my hand loads. Do that with any ammo off the shelf!

I hold a SCI Gold Record Book Eastern Cape Kudu with one of my .338 Win Mag hand-loads with a 250 grain Nosler Partition. The Kudu was somewhere in the 150 to 200 yard range. My son Jason shown with me shot Record Book quality Impala with my .270 Winchester hand loads. One shot kills! Talk about satisfaction! Wow! Jason is a hand-loader for pistol and rifle as well. He is simply wild about reloading! Get with it!

Hand Loading the .375 Ruger for Deer, Bear, Moose and Cape Buffalo

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Ed Hale

The .375 Ruger cartridge is at home in the Ruger M77 African or the M77 Alaskan rifle. I wrote about this cartridge/rifle combo in my African Safari Book “African Safari – Rifle and Bow and Arrow” you can get in eBook format on my home page. And I am still writing about this great rifle and cartridge combination, in particular because it is so versatile when hand loaded with a plethora of powder and bullet styles and shapes.

Honestly, I am like a kid in a candy store when it comes to loading up this cartridge.

My .375 cases have been loaded multiple times, course I am shooting them with much less power than the case is capable of.

The .375 Ruger shines no matter where it is loaded, down for deer, antelope and black bear, African Plains game such as Impala, Gemsbok, Blesbok, loaded a bit more for Elk and African Kudu. When needed it can be loaded up to take Cape Buffalo where it really shines, even Elephant are commonly taken with this cartridge though would opt for the .416 Rigby or 458 Lott if I was so inclined. I am just waiting for the invitation for a free hunt. Think I might wait a while for that hunt to percolate.

When you shoot a .375 in a standing position with a state-of-the-art recoil pad such as the Pachmayr Decelerator, you do not get a kick, you get a push instead.

Why the .375 Ruger anyway? The .375 bullet maintains its momentum for penetration and perfect bullet mushrooming. Yes you can load the .375 to shoot fast bullets like the 225 grain and approach 3000 fps but when hand loaded to 2600 fps it is great deer, bear, elk and moose medicine. I load mine down even more to around 2100 fps for the 225 grain Hornady or the Speer 235 grain “Hot Core” round point and shoot it in my t-shirt.(Below.)

The Hornady and Speer bullets are my deer/bear round delivering nearly 1700 ft lbs at 100 yards. Accurate? Wow! This rifle/cartridge combo is not finicky at all. It shoots well no matter the bullet.

For Moose I shoot full power 260 grain Nosler AccuBonds of around 4000 ft lbs at the muzzle.

My first encounter with the rifle/cartridge years ago was when I tested the M77 rifle and .375 Ruger was with 300 grain round nose bullets at 50 yards designed for Cape Buffalo. My friend spotted for me as I shot. The first bullet was near the bull as I adjusted the scope earlier. Ok, he said I’m ready for your next shot he shouted with his ear protection on.

I squeezed the trigger.

“You missed the target clean” he said, just that one hole there!

Ok, I shouted back with my “ears on”, let me put a third shot and see where it goes, I said.

I fired a third shot.

“Hmm only that one hole but the hole looks bigger”, he said.

“Wow!” I replied realizing what had happened

Sure enough, there was a cloverleaf of holes 1/4 inch apart.

My friend said matter of factly; “Your gonna keep that gun right?”

I grinned! “Ayuh, shoots mighty good!”

First and foremost, I give credit and homage to its predecessor, the .375 Holland & Holland Magnum. A cartridge that debuted more than 100 years ago and still has a strong following in Alaska, Africa and as long range Elk medicine. The H & H requires a longer action and bolt throw than the .375 Ruger yet the Ruger has a 6% larger case capacity and is a non belted case like an oversize 30-06 case.

When coupled with its Parent rifle the .375 Ruger means business as the Ruger M77 utilizes a Mauser style bolt that grabs and holds the cartridge as it feeds from the magazine ensuring reliability. In only a 20 inch barrel it beats or exceeds its .375 H & H ancestor and is a much stronger modernized case.

So this round is for short range work you say on really big game? Nope!

The .375 Ruger when loaded with Nosler 260 grain AccuBonds can take down an Elk at 600 yards or a 2000 pound Bison or Cape Buffalo at 100 yards. Bullets for the .375 start at 200 grains and go up to 300 grains and include dangerous game solids and monolithic bullets (below right) that can “chug-along” through bone and look non-the-less for wear. I have taken Moose and Bison with this cartridge. The 800 lb buffalo traveled 20 feet and piled up on the first shot. The Bull Moose took 2 shots. One from me and a one from my partner’s 308. I took an insurance shot. Big Moose can be tough.

As a rifleman, I believe that a well-rounded shooter that has shot big bore as well as small bore, really understands both sides of the shooting spectrum. Do you ever want to hunt Brown Bear? Do you ever want to hunt Africa? If you say yes to either question and want to hunt deer too, the .375 Ruger and its M77 Rifle is a Cartridge/Rifle combination worth investigating especially if you hand load. © 2013

March 2025

Category Archives: Cartridge Reloading

375 Ruger Reduced Loads and Powder are Here!

The .375 Ruger Cartridge – A Handloaders Dream Cartridge

Bench Rest Best Practices to Determine Cartridge/Bullet Accuracy

Christmas gift forever – Hand Loading Equipment

Hand Loading the .375 Ruger for Deer, Bear, Moose and Cape Buffalo