My dies and bullets for the 375jdj will be here tomorrow. I ordered the 220 grain hornady soft points since the TC factory rounds worked great for me. What powder and charge do you recommend. I am looking at using IMR 4198. I will start at 35 grains and work my way up. I also have the CCI large rifle primers. How does this recipe sound?

I never reloading would be this fun. Can't wait till Saturday. That will be range day.

I have done a lot of testing with the 375 JDJ and different combos this past year. So far the 220 gr Hornadys have been the worst performers for my barrel, but if youre liked the factory loads it should only get better once you tune the load to your gun.

That being said, the 250gr Sierra has been the lights out shooter of the bunch, no matter the powder or charge weight, the 250 has been giving me tiny groupings. I have only used H4895 and H322 thus far as they were reccomended to me by JD Jones himself as excellent powders.

I do see in my Hodgdon manual a listing for H4198, and 35grs is 4 grains under minnimum reccomended starting load of 39.0. Shouldnt be too big of an issue, just thought Id throw that out there.

I cant comment too much though on book loads as most of my testing has been pushing the limits of the round in my Encore barrel, going over max listed loads VERY slowly to see what extra I can wring out, mainly for the fact of saying I did so, as I have reached a point where Im no longer gaining velocity but still adding powder, thus wasting it, ha ha.

The CCI LR primers are what Ive used from day one and I probably wont use anything else.

The 225 Hornady Interlock has been good to me as well.

All in all, the 375 JDJ is a fun round to play with and can take down anything on this planet if you so choose. It is somewhat forgiving on load recipes and as long as you stay with the load books you should find something thatll work. Just dont get discouraged if the first thing out the door doesnt work great, something will.

Someone on this board (can't remember who, sorry) once stated the the 375 JDJ has elephant killing power and prarie dog accuracy. I have found this to be the case and this is a barrel I will never sell.

I am going to second the 4895 and 250 Sierra combination. Scary accuracy in my 17.5 Encore.

My next venture will be to try the Lyman 264gr bullet and see how it does.

Has anyone used the Sierra on game? Just wondering how well they expand. I know Sierra's can be a bit hard in some bullets because they are designed for rifles.

I, too, am interested in the responses to Gary's question. As I recall conversations with JD, I do not remember it being included in his recommendations. The old 220 gr Hornady has always worked well in mine as well as the 270.

I have or have had 5 different JDJ contender bbls for the 375. All were shooters. I have no experience using that round in an encore. With the encore frame, one could likely get a little more out of it.

The 220's were the recommended bullet for deer sized game but the factory ammo with the 220's was rather anemic and they didn't make it with a 270.

I talked with Doc Rogers about this one a little and he said that the 250 Sierra did quite well on deer sized game. I am as interested to see how it would do on an elk…

I have had the same concerns about the 250 GK, especially since seeing it penetrate 4 in. of a treated 2.8 and the only change in bullet shape was that the soft point tip was broken off, not mashed up, sheered off. My only explanations for this are 2 things: 1. the bullet is REALLY hard, or 2. the bullet kind of glanced its way into the 2x8 and was not allowed a good trial.

Either way its a shooter, and Ill reserve any formal opinion of it until I learn more. At some point this summer before deer season Im going to do the wet newspaper test for some more definitive testing.

I used H322 originally, but switched to AA2520 with better accuracy.
Best bullet for deer seems to be 225 Hornady-good trajectory, excellant damage, good to 250-300 yds. 250 Sierras work on deer, but on larger animals have shed the jacket giving less penetration when bones are hit.
My loads are: 220,225 Horn.-52.5 gr. AA2520, 250 Sierra-52.0 gr. AA2520.
Accubonds are too hard for the .375 in Contender. Can't get enough velocity for decent performance, BUT the work great in .375JDJ Encore

good info will have to try the 225 hornady for deer.

I've had the excellent accuracy using 4895 with 260gr Accubonds.

I have the accubond 260's on the way. Only problem I got carried away repriming my 30-30 cases and used all my primers up. I have to go back to store anyway for IMR 4895 powder. I bought 4198 for the 220 grain bullets and decided to step up. I read the 375 likes the 250 to 270 bullets but with 4895 powder not 4198. Just how many variations of powder will I wind up with.

A whole bunch… LOL

It looks like the reloading addiction is in its full blown stages and the only cure is to buy more barrels…

The next step is casting…

Don't tell me that. I have 6 barrels and one super redhawk already. I am only reloading because I love my 375 JDJ and can't buy ammo. Well that is how this got started anyway. The options for the 30-30 are endless and is easy on the shooter. I don't know if I will reload my 44 mag or 45-70. There is not alot of bullet options for them. The factory ammo is just too good for them.

I will admit the 223 and 35 remington have perked my interest in the past. Maybe the 375 winchester would be a better choice. I could use the same bullets as the 375 jdj.

Last year I put a post out on the performance, or what I interpreted as the lack there of, of the accubonds in my 375jdj while pig hunting.

Well this year I took the same load out for pigs again to prove myself wrong. I took a 100 yard downhill shot at a 250lb boar with the accubonds. Shot quartering towards me, I put the round in at the base of the neck. The animal dropped immediately. Upon recovery I discovered that the bullet penetrated completely through, breaking the neck and exiting the off side leaving a fist sized hole behind the shoulder.

I use the same recipe as ROD with MOA accuracy in my 14 inch contender.

ERIK