.375 Winchester
With few exceptions, time has not been kind
to big game cartridges designed for close to medium range shooting. The .375
Winchester is a good example of an excellent cartridge allowed to die. It
was introduced in the Winchester Model 94 in 1978 and later available in
the Marlin Model 336, Savage Model 99, and Ruger No. 3 rifles. As of 1987,
no rifle is available in .375 Winchester, and Winchester has discontinued
the 250 grain factory load.
The .375 Winchester is quite similar in appearance to the much older
.38-55
Winchester but any comparison stops there. Whereas the
.38-55 is
loaded to mild chamber pressures for rifles built decades ago, the .375
Winchester is loaded to a maximum working pressure of 50,000 CUP. It should
go without saying that the .375 Winchester cartridges should not be fired
in rifles chambered for the
.38-55 cartridge.
The .375 Winchester was introduced in the Model 94 Big Bore, a rifle with
a beefed up receiver side walls designed to resist linear deflection from
the increased backthrust.
In spite of its failure to win many friends among those multitudes who hunt
deer, black bear, and wild hogs, the .375 Winchester is an excellent woods
cartridge. But then so is the
.35 Remington,
a cartridge of similar performance with a seventy year head start on Winchester's
.375 cartridge. It might be of interest to note that along with the .375,
Olin also developed a .40 caliber cartridge on the
.30-30 case.
Had the .375 become successful, we might now have a Model 94 in .400 Winchester,
but since it didn't we probably seen our last new woods cartridge from
Winchester.
As this is written, only three .375 caliber bullets suitable for use in rifles
with tubular magazines are available; the 200 grain
Sierra, and 220 grain
Hornady, and the 250 grain
Barnes, all of flatnose form.
Cast bullets up to 250 grains also work quite well in this cartridge. A number
of powders do a good job here, including
H335,
IMR-3031,
W-748, and
Reloader 7.
Source: Hodgdon Data Manual, 26th Edition
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