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338-375 Ruger build ballistics

ZombieSlayer

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Mar 28, 2013
130
0
The Land Down Under
Firstly a big hello from Australia, The home of repressive gun laws, the country where the antis run free and seem to control the media, twisting reality and fact to the masses in a completely fraudulent manner. :( . . . . . . . Anywho,

I've been piecing together parts to put some life back into a 375Ruger (Howa 1500) rifle that I don't have a great deal of use for (not a lot of dangerous game where I live) with the goals of this build being to have an effective 600-800 yard game (goats/deer) rifle while maintaining magazine feed as well as something I can use at longer ranges (1200 yards) on gongs/plinking and this particular round fits the bill.

I ordered a standard 375 Ruger reemer from Manson as a custom reemer from anywhere was not going to happen anytime in the next 6 months and I have custom ground it to suit my needs with 190 thou freebore and 4thou of neck clearance. Which will allow magazine feeding with 200, 225, 250gr Accubonds 20 thou off the lands at full magazine depth of about 89mm and 225gr Hornady SST again 20thou off just over the 88mm mark. Keep in mind magazine feed for hunting with this rifle is essential.

I've inletted a Choate Tactical Adjustable stock to suit my action (previously for a savage I think), barrel contour and integral magazine. I now have a 3 + 1 integral magazine which should suit me well for its purpose. Picked this stock up for $200 from a LGS a while ago not sure what I was going to do with it until now. Just need to machine up a little fill piece for around the bolt handle as these didn't line up that well and I'm left with a little bit of a gap there that should be fixed up.

I've got 20moa Weaver low profile rail that will be permantly glued to the action before cerakoting to give that custom integral rail look to it.

I've ordered a set of DNZ Beast Reaper 30mm 20moa mounts to hold the Bushnell 6500 Tactical 4.5-30x50 scope in place. I don't know about anyone elses experience with this scope but mine is nice and clear, tracks well, isn't overly eye relief critical like some of the similarly priced scopes seem to be and its another piece I picked up at a good price, about $800 from my LGS on sale about a year ago. It was (and still is) on my 308 target rifle but will be replacing it with something else once this rifle is built more suited to punching paper.

I've ordered a 28" SS match barrel 1:10 twist from a local barrel manufacturer here in Australia. Its slightly heavier than a Heavy Palma profile but will be aggressively fluted to reduce weight a little bit. I'm not after an ultra light weight rifle more a sit and weight setup so recoil management and stability is important.

I machined up a custom brake a couple months ago for this rifle from 32mm SS Hex bar stock. Definitely looks the part, hopefully it performs well, tho not essential as the recoil isn't really that extreme for the 375R and this wildcat should be a little less anyway, More just to be able to see impact myself easier.

Can anyone provide any info on this particular wildcat on anything?

Does anyone have experience with this cartridge or 340 WBY as their fairly similar? and can provide any information especially on real world achievable velocities with particular handloads.

Can anyone provide feedback for any of the lighter 200-250gr .338 projectiles terminal performance in particular or anything about them really that might be beneficial as this is my first step into the .338 field.

As said before magazine feed is essential for the hunting side of this tho not essential for lobbing shots at steel so I'm also interested in 250gr match type pill recommendations or experience.

So far I've only got some quickload data for 200gr accubonds. the milder load using VV N560 runs at about 3130 and 55000psi and the hotter load @ 3290 and 65000 psi. Hoping I'll have some more predicted data in the next couple days but times are busy and I haven't got around to that yet. Initial barrel run in will be combined with chrony data tp see if the higher nodes will be achievable or not before pressure becomes a problem. Probably looking at the 225gr-250gr projectiles. Maybe the 225gr SST or similar. Really depends what I can find on the shelves of the gun shops here as they are very few and their selections very limited.

Any information anyone is will to share will be appreciated.

ZS.
 
I've run some more quickload predictions. And im at 61k psi with 225gr pills @ approx 3080 and 250gr pills at 53k psi @ 2830 estimated velocity.

The next predicted loads are up near 68k psi and im not keen on trying my luck with 85gr of 560 next to my face.
 
I have been using 250 gr Hornady hpbt bullets and N570 powder and getting 3,000 fps safely. I have been as high as 3,130 but its a pain resizing after pressing the bullets in. I run a 26" Lawton barrel built on a Howa 1500 action.