Looking for actual 378 Weatherby Hunting Experience

[Azklmsr]

Good Afternoon and Happy Friday!

I'm looking for actual hands on "I Used my 378 Weatherby and this is what I found" experience. Anyone have actual hands on experience? I am curious.

Please no "Everyone will hate you and you wont have any friends" messaging. Just looking for folks that might have used this for heavy critters and what the experience was.

Good Hunting all

Kurt

 

[Surgeon1]

Kurt:
Got one with 99 rounds of factory rounds in a trade 20y ago. It was a Mark V and I shot it about 20 rounds and took it out elk hunting. Took me 4 days of shooting to sight it in. It had a Weatherby brand scope which was crap. Long story shot a rag horn elk with it at approximately 100 yds. Only gun to ever scoped me in 60+ years of hunting and shooting. It killed the elk, but no more dead than any other suitable elk rifle.
Did a spring Coastal Brown Bear hunt just a couple years later off a 60ft yacht in AK. There was a 2nd hunter who I didn't know, who brought 2 rifles (340 & 378 Wby). The first night in the Sitka harbor, the Outfitter told him that he would not be using the 378! long story short we drew straws to see who would make the first stalk in a Zodiac to shore and then alternate. After stalks on 5 bears he shot his bore with the 340 with near disastrous results, but with the help of the young Master Guide and his Marlin lever in 45-70 they got the bear.
After 3 more stalks, I got my Bear with a 375 H&H DIT with Swift A-frame 300gr.
Took me a year to sell that 378 Wby at a loss, only time I was ever happy to lose over $1000.
Take it for what it is but there are a lot of big game calibers that will do a better job with less pain. And I love big bore rifles and own and hunt with them from 375 H&H, 400H&H, 416 Rigby, 470NE, 458 Lott,
and 500NE and they are all more pleasant to shoot than my limited experience with a 378!
Good luck with your quest, let us all know your "real world experience"

 

[meigsbucks]

No hunting experience with one, but bought one off a guy at my gun club who got back from a safari in the early 1980’s. No muzzle brake. That rifle was F’ing vicious! Even loading it down a bit didn’t help much. Got rid of it.

 

[analog_peninsula]

A certain very wealthy middle eastern hunter who runs a site that shall remain nameless has very, very extensive experience using his 375/404 wildcat and copper bullets. He claims 300 grain bullet performance is optimal at 2800 fps but that might be specific to his choice of bullet. I hear endless commentary on the brutal recoil of the .378, but I own one on a magnum Mauser action, and find the recoil to be very ordinary, so the criticism should probably be shifted onto the design of Weatherby stocks, or maybe to lightweight rifles.

Anyway, don’t confuse the .378 cartridge with the Mark V rifle as stocked by Weatherby. If you have a trustworthy rifle that fits you well, and reliable ammunition designed to withstand .378 velocities, I wouldn’t look back.

BTW, “Extensive” in this case means hundreds of buffalo, and any number of other animals including elephant, etc.

 

[RedTag]

I know a few guys here who’ve used .338-378 Weatherby for moose and bear with good results especially with the Barnes bullets as they can keep up higher velocity. But these guns absolutely need to be braked or else the recoil is horrendous and for that reason many folks don’t want to be anywhere near it in the field. A friend of mine was very nearby when another hunter fired his and he described it as most unpleasant with a serious potential/probability for permanent hearing damage. I know that isn’t exactly a direct answer to your question but worth mentioning.

 

[318AE]

Good Afternoon and Happy Friday!

I'm looking for actual hands on "I Used my 378 Weatherby and this is what I found" experience. Anyone have actual hands on experience? I am curious.

Please no "Everyone will hate you and you wont have any friends" messaging. Just looking for folks that might have used this for heavy critters and what the experience was.

Good Hunting all

Kurt

What are you trying to determine? Whether a .375 300gr bullet at 2,900 fps does the job, provided shot placement is right?

 

[Azklmsr]

Just wanting to know what those who have actually used the round on heavy DG have experienced