I recently picked up a 375 JDJ barrel and want to work up loads soon. My biggest concern is bullet performance on shots beyond 100 yards. Does anyone know what the minimum velocity for expansion is with 270 gr Hornadys? Would I be better off using the 270 gr roundnose bullets for reliable expansion on game? I want an all around load for deer, elk and bear. Any experiences with these bullets on game would be appreciated.

When I bought mine in 2000 I called and spoke to Mr.JD Jones at SSK industries and he told me the 270 gr. Hornadys were the best bullet to use. My longest shot with one was 182 yds on a mule deer in Wyoming. I hit him in the front shoulder and the bullet went through him lenghtwise shattering the ham bone on the opposite hind quarter and the bullet was just poking out through the meat on the hind. I didn't think he was angled quite that much so I think the bullet was deflected a bit after hitting the front shoulder. The bullet was dented but did not open up at all.
Mike

Could you use bullets for the 375 Win.

I am pertty sure they would open OK

this one might work well

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/default.aspx?productNumber=295266

The 270's are pretty sturdy and quite frankly a little too much bullet for deer size game. Great for big stuff though. For deer I would use the 220 gr. bullet.

Gary, thats one of the issues I was wondering about with the 270s. I need a bullet that will handle both deer and elk since you can come across either one at any time. From ssphunters post it sounds like they are a little harder than I would like for longer shots. H20Bug, I have been looking at that bullet too. From the review on Midway I'm not sure if I would get enough penetration for elk though. Thanks for all the info guys!

I've been using the 260 gr. Nosler Accubond and they seem to be the best bullet I have found for the 375 JDJ.Like Gary said I've seen the 270 gr. not open up and the 220 gr. are great deer bullets but might be a little soft for elk. I haven't got to test the Accubonds at long distance but from what I've seen there good to 300 yds. with a max load. Nosler says there good down to 1600 fps.

Having killed four bull elk and one cow elk with my .375 JDJ and 270 grain Hornady bullets, (one coyote also!) but zero deer, I cannot comment on the 270 grain for deer. I do know that the 220 grain Hornady has been recommended by JD Jones for deer size game. He would know best as he designed and field tested the cartridge.

For your excellent question, pab1, I would consider the time proven bullet that offers the best of both worlds: the 260 grain Nosler Partition: front end expansion and rear core penetration.

Just My Humble Opinion.

Hi 348, welcome to HHM!

I am very curious as to the performance of the 260 Accubond on game. What game have you taken with it and what did you experience in bullet performance?

I killed one Blue Wildebeest with that bullet and it penetrated full body length end to end, incredible performance; but from a rifle.

Thank you!

Gregg

Thanks Gregg and 348! I checked Noslers site and they list 1800 fps minimum for Partitions and Accubonds. Do their larger bore bullets expand at lower velocities?

A lot of there BT's have a 1600pfs min velocity

I've used the 270 Hornady out of the .375 JDJ a great deal, on animals as small as 30 lb. steenbok and klipspringer, through whitetail deer size impala and blackbuck, and up through 400 lb. black bear and caribou, 6-700 lb. Zebra, and 2,000 lb water buffalo. I've never been disappointed.
My longest shots, however, were at 135 - 140 yards, on both impala and zebra. Many bullets were not recovered, but the animals showed significant wound channels, suggesting good expansion. For my own use, I consider it the most versatile bullet.
If I were to hunt only deer sized animals, I would select the 220 Hornady, but that gives up a lot of versatility, which is a lot of the attraction for the .375JDJ.
A few random examples of that versatility:

Gregg the nosler accubond really seems to be a great bullet. The whitetails I've seen have a exit that is about the size of a baseball. The one hit close to the spine blew a chunk not just a hole out the off side. The only problem with my experiance is they've all been 100 yds. or under.If you check out gary reeders site http://www.reedercustomguns.com in the photos section under the 2005 celb. hunt he has a pic of a sheep shot with his 378 gnr with the 260 accubond (the gnr is going 200-300 fps more then the jdj) but the results I've seen are close. The only problem with these is the bullet is long so you have to seat them a little lower then the base of the neck and work up loads for this from the 270 gr. data. Give them a try but you might want to test them out to see what results you get (I know some internet sites have posted about the noslers not opening up but from my personal experiances they work great but I haven't tried them on anything over 250 lbs whitetails).Hope this helps.

I am going to guess that the picture you are looking at was using an Encore platform. The 378 GNR out of the Encore is more like a 375-06 JDJ and not the 375 JDJ.

I think it you are going to be hard pressed not to look real hard at 500WE’s “words.” And they say a picture is worth a thousand words. LOL

TCMan yes I know the GNR is faster but the exit in that pic. looks just like what the jdj did with the 260 gr. Accubond
Also on the 260 gr. partition (I haven't tried it in the JDJ yet) back a long time maybe 20+ years ago in THe Sixgunner someone I think it was the hunting outfitter JJ Hack (he has a website with contact info )but I can't be sure had the results of the partition in the 375 JDJ. But JD says it needs more vel. to work so I don't know it might be worth e-mailing JJ or JD about that one. But I know the accubond works for me but I think everyone should test there loads before trusting them on a $$$ hunt.
Gregg also really like the video it is great to have a real handgun hunting video done in the wild. Any news on when the elk vid. is comming out?

sadly i dont get to hunt alot with the 375 jdj but the 235 grain speer ( when one can find them ) packs a pretty good punch and doesnt need loaded down like the 200 grain sierra does and the slightly better b.c. cant hurt on the longer shots


http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/default.aspx?productNumber=184288
( the link is to midway but one has to check all the various regular places to find them ) FWIW they also work great up close in a 375 winchester as well

I went to the 260gr Accubond and found it to be the most accurate bullet out of two different barrels shooting MOA or smaller groups at 100yds and I was getting 2300fps.