375/408 Banded Solids Test

[Augustus]

Yep, firing these things is where the rubber meets the road, they are stable or they are not, they are accurate or they are not, the BC will manifest itself. Nuff said.

 

[kellyzier]

Yep, firing these things is where the rubber meets the road, they are stable or they are not, they are accurate or they are not, the BC will manifest itself. Nuff said.

Frankly, I am optimistic about the shoot, and no offense, but these guys have not even picked a date yet. You can't plan something this big without setting a date. People have kids, family, events, sports etc and there needs to be a date for the shoot. Without a date, we will be talking about the NV shoot for the next 3 years.

For this reason, Im hoping and waiting for guys like you, Dave (black diamond), myself and others to simply get batches of these bullets and shoot them. Dave should be shooting his 420 grainers very soon, and I trust his judgment. If they work in his 8 twist gun, then Im pulling the trigger and ordering my first barrel. Let me know if you get some of these bullets from GS, it would be good to hear your feedback

kz

 

[kellyzier]

Kelly,
I have built two 375's for my personal use, the first one was to test a McGowan
12 twist barrel. It shot the 350,s great, but the longer bullets were not so stable.

My second rifle has the Gain Twist experiment, i wanted to move into the higher BC
bullets that are coming out, remember the standard twist for the cheytac is 11.5 and
that shoots the Hookers good and they are a high BC of .945 plus the SMKs at .770
I do a lot of R and D here with barrels and twists and new wildcats, some work some dont.
I have tried most twist rates but when you start dealing in the extreme BC bullets your
going to be stuck with one bullet type or make.

Long range ... well the SMK has enough energy to kill an Elk past 2400yds, the 370gn RockyMtn
will have even more and these are legal hunting bullets. So in my opinon if your building a rifle your going to hunt with then get a barrel that will handle these bullets. If you push these bullets to 3200fps and over spin them you will see poor results. It takes quite a while to get a
gain twist barrel from Bartlien. I would like to try a Gain twist in somthing like 20 to 10 exit, Just for the Jacketed bullets.

Dave,
Have you had a chance to shoot those new GS 420 gr solids??????

thanks
kz

 

[Black Diamond 408]

Kelly,
They are not availble yet.

Dave

 

[kellyzier]

Kelly,
They are not availble yet.

Dave

I must have misunderstood you,,,I thought that GS sent you some demo bullets to try in your gun....

 

[kellyzier]

Kelly, I seriously doubt an 11 twist will stabilize the solid copper 6 cal ZA 375 at top velocities. You will not be happy with a 7.75 twist using the solid copper 6.5 cal ZA375. To be honest no one really knows how the bullet configurations and barrel twists are going to shake out in the end. The tungsten core bullets theoretically will stabilize in slower twist barrels than the solid copper when compared to configurations of the same demension. The CG and wt. can be manipulated in an almost unlimited fashion by changing the size and shape of the core. Also the tungsten core bullets should be frangible and if so will be devestating on game.

Franky, there are several people including myself who are trying to work all this out on their own dime. My advice to you and others is to be patient and see what shakes out in the next few months. There should be more to share about the whole line of Za copper solids and the Za tungsten core bullets within a few wks. It is for certian that you will need a switch barrel set-up to take advantage of the line of bullets Pictured in 408s post. If you really have the bug and cant wait any longer I would advise you to order two barrels. Get an 11ish for the SMK and similar bullets and a 10-6 gain twist for the various solids. Buy you an action wrench and barrel vise and you should be GTG. Anyway if you do this it will help us all when you post what you are seeing when you begin to fire some rds.

Agustus,
Did you order your 9--5.5 gain twist barrel yet? If so, what lead time did they quote you and who did you order it from. I might do the same for my second barrel. Im running out of time and Im hearing about longer lead times for barrels.

Frankly, if I thought a 1--7 standard twist barrel would do the job on the longer solids, I'd perfer to order this. But it sounds like the gain twist might be a safer bet???

kz

 

[kellyzier]

Kelly, I seriously doubt an 11 twist will stabilize the solid copper 6 cal ZA 375 at top velocities. You will not be happy with a 7.75 twist using the solid copper 6.5 cal ZA375. To be honest no one really knows how the bullet configurations and barrel twists are going to shake out in the end. The tungsten core bullets theoretically will stabilize in slower twist barrels than the solid copper when compared to configurations of the same demension. The CG and wt. can be manipulated in an almost unlimited fashion by changing the size and shape of the core. Also the tungsten core bullets should be frangible and if so will be devestating on game.

Franky, there are several people including myself who are trying to work all this out on their own dime. My advice to you and others is to be patient and see what shakes out in the next few months. There should be more to share about the whole line of Za copper solids and the Za tungsten core bullets within a few wks. It is for certian that you will need a switch barrel set-up to take advantage of the line of bullets Pictured in 408s post. If you really have the bug and cant wait any longer I would advise you to order two barrels. Get an 11ish for the SMK and similar bullets and a 10-6 gain twist for the various solids. Buy you an action wrench and barrel vise and you should be GTG. Anyway if you do this it will help us all when you post what you are seeing when you begin to fire some rds.

Augustus,
And one more thing, I have heard that the new GS 420 gr solid will stablize in a standard 1--8 twist barrel at velocities well past anything the 375 chey tac (imporved) can produce. Does this sound right??????

 

[noel carlson]

duplicate deletion

 

[noel carlson]

Kelly,

The timely supply of standard 416R LGT barrels has been a real problem.

I have been holding off on offering the more advanced barrel due to my pre-occupation with refinement of the ZA projectile series, but am reassessing that priority. I may just enter the barrel business earlier than originally planned. I will keep you posted.

I would like to take this chance to express open thanks, and explain the rationale to the rest of you, for the involvement of people like Augustus.

The beta testers are, uniformly, talented, observant, and frank in their field reports. The single greatest asset in the production of a superior product, is a function of their feed-back. There is no quid pro quo for their services, but you can be assured that I will take care of them at the proper time. In the interim, be grateful that they share my passion for the improvement of our tools. The sport is the ultimate beneficiary.

 

[GoldenRod]

I have a .375 CheyTac built on a Lawton 8000 action. The barrel is a Lawton 11.5 twist Lost River Bore, fluted, and finished at 32" in a McRee brake. It sits in a McRee stock. I am just starting to load for it and was going to duplicate the Jamison 375 load of 139 gr. Retumbo, 350 gr. solid and 350 gr. SMK., LMR primer and Jamison Brass. My question is do you think this is wise or should I back it down. I have not shot the Jamison factory load. I would think it would be safe but want to get feed back from folks that have loaded and shot this platform. I will be testing from 1K to 2K yards once up and fully running.

 

[Extremist458]

Kellyzier,

The GS Custom 420 grain .375 SP's are finished. If you would like some, you are more then welcome to order online. They are stable from a 1:8.5 twist or faster, and are oxygen free copper with 17 years of GS experience and design behind it. If you would like more information or details, feel free to shoot them an e-mail at [email protected], or PM me and I'll give you my phone number.

P.S. GS Custom Bullets is coming to the US!...actually, they are already here. We are opening up the manufacturing facility here in Niles, MI.

 

[kellyzier]

Kellyzier,

The GS Custom 420 grain .375 SP's are finished. If you would like some, you are more then welcome to order online. They are stable from a 1:8.5 twist or faster, and are oxygen free copper with 17 years of GS experience and design behind it. If you would like more information or details, feel free to shoot them an e-mail at [email protected], or PM me and I'll give you my phone number.

P.S. GS Custom Bullets is coming to the US!...actually, they are already here. We are opening up the manufacturing facility here in Niles, MI.

Sent them an email and waiting for a response...I cant find any data on the 420 on the GS web site..Do you have any tech data including BC??? Have these guys done some extensive R n D on this new bullet with any of the chey tacs??/

thanks
kz

 

[Extremist458]

Gerard is at the AIM show in Johannesburg right now, so it might be a week before he gets back to you. Sorry. The website has not been updated yet with a lot of the bullets, and the technical data section is rather lacking. GSC makes over 260 bullets, and they are so swamped right now they haven't had time to upload anything in the last year. It is a new bullet and so we have not heard from anyone who had taken it past 1000 yards. 5 guys have rifles built for these bullets, and they are waiting for the bullets to arrive before they can take it any further (only a small batch of samples was initially sent for testing). Waiting to hear back from a guy who is taking it past 1100 yards, and another who is taking to 3000m, so he has promised.

As for Technical Data, I can help out with much of that. Gerard has the entire file on it, but I can tell you it has a B.C. of 1.243 at 3100fps, and we have seen as much as 3400fps, which he has designed to be about the fastest you want to send that bullet (designed speed is more his thing). But the real kicker is that it maintains a B.C. of .9+ at 1200fps. The bullet likes an 1:8.5 twist, but it will work out of faster, and maybe (untested) as slow as a 9.

Unfortunately non of the test rifles we have shipped to are Chey-Tac's. Snipe-Tac yes, and a special built .375/50 case I have yet to see. No real extensive R&D yet. The design is the same as in the 295 grain .338 that has been sent all over the world since 2004, but I have not seen nor heard back from the guys buying them yet, but then again, I believe they are waiting on their rifles to get finished. Hope that helps.

 

[kellyzier]

Gerard is at the AIM show in Johannesburg right now, so it might be a week before he gets back to you. Sorry. The website has not been updated yet with a lot of the bullets, and the technical data section is rather lacking. GSC makes over 260 bullets, and they are so swamped right now they haven't had time to upload anything in the last year. It is a new bullet and so we have not heard from anyone who had taken it past 1000 yards. 5 guys have rifles built for these bullets, and they are waiting for the bullets to arrive before they can take it any further (only a small batch of samples was initially sent for testing). Waiting to hear back from a guy who is taking it past 1100 yards, and another who is taking to 3000m, so he has promised.

As for Technical Data, I can help out with much of that. Gerard has the entire file on it, but I can tell you it has a B.C. of 1.243 at 3100fps, and we have seen as much as 3400fps, which he has designed to be about the fastest you want to send that bullet (designed speed is more his thing). But the real kicker is that it maintains a B.C. of .9+ at 1200fps. The bullet likes an 1:8.5 twist, but it will work out of faster, and maybe (untested) as slow as a 9.

Unfortunately non of the test rifles we have shipped to are Chey-Tac's. Snipe-Tac yes, and a special built .375/50 case I have yet to see. No real extensive R&D yet. The design is the same as in the 295 grain .338 that has been sent all over the world since 2004, but I have not seen nor heard back from the guys buying them yet, but then again, I believe they are waiting on their rifles to get finished. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the info here......Any guesses on how fast a 375 snipe tac will take this 420 gr bullet, without over doing it pressure wise???