Magazine capacity of a 375

I hear you on that but everyone is different, and like things a certain way some people don’t like the hog back stock on some CZ or Brno rifles so they change it, some people don’t like the safety and change to 3 position safety, some want a barrel band put on, some people might want to shorten the barrel and it seems that most people on here think the action needs smoothing up where I find it perfect everyone is different and it does not make the rifle inferior, they are bloody good rifles for what you get and if you want better then pay more for a rigby.
No issue with any ease of use changes. All of my guns have essentially the same cast, drop at heel, and LOP. Further, I refuse to own a rifle with a bad trigger pull. I own .45 ACP’s and AR’s - all to some extent modified. What I have no tolerance for is a rifle that doesn’t function properly when it leaves the factory or gun maker. Since the great days of the BRNO Fox and others (the 600 series comes to mind) CZ seems to have become dependably unreliable enough to create a cottage industry fixing and “improving” them.
 
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Its a plus to have extra rounds in a DGR, but keep in mind its not an absolute need, charges are seldom to if ever, and you have backup PHs in todays Africa..My Ruger Hawkeye holds 3 down, that can be improved with a special made slightly thicker ground out floor plate, to take another round if you must or some talented smith can make it a 10 shooter!!

Its never been an issue with me, but its a good option, and gives added confidence I suppose..
 
As a related point to this, I had a play with my .375H&H Win 70 yesterday on the running boar shoot at the range.

First, a bit of context. In this running boar shoot, one calls ready and the target comes out, runs through its sighting gap in about 2 seconds, then disappears behind a screen before resetting and coming back the other way about 3 seconds later.

The detail is usually 10 rounds, then a break, then 10 more later once barrels have cooled and someone else has had a go. Two people shoot one target simultaneously with a 'big' and a 'little' calibre to speed things up (you can distinguish say a .22 and a .30 hole for scoring purposes).

Usually, there is a natural pause every couple rounds whilst people swap out mags on their hunting guns or top off internal mag, but this week my 'little calibre' partner was using a straight pull AR style .223 with an 25 odd round mag. In the interest of fun and experimentation I thought I'd see if I could keep my rifle fed without stopping the detail to top up my gun.

I found that it was perfectly possible to pick up the target, mount the rifle, shoot and then, in that 3 second reset pause, drop it out the shoulder, eject the empty, grab and load an additional round from a belt ammo holder, close it and remount in time to catch it coming back the other way. In fact, on a couple occasions I found that the 3 seconds was plenty long enough to drop the gun from the shoulder, eject and then load 2 into the mag before remounting.

As long as you've practiced the drill and have ammo in a known place readily available, it is literally the work of a second to top off a mag with an extra round. No use in a charge, sure, but in the vast majority of instances, you can keep a top loading rifle running for as long as you have ammo on your person and magazine capacity is purely incidental.

On an unrelated note, 20 rounds of full fat 375 in just a summer shirt has left me a touch sore today. Go figure.

Al.
 
Once again I would like to pick everyone’s brains. Can I ask how important people think the additional magazine capacity is when comparing the likes of a CZ /BRNO that has 5 round capacity with a Winchester model 70 Safari Express with 3 round magazine capacity. Are there situations that arise commonly where this becomes important where the rifle is used on a guided DG hunt? Having never hunted DG, all I can go off is the videos on the internet where there often seems to be one or two shots fired before there being time to top up the mag. With true charges it seems to be one or possibly two shots fired before the argument is concluded one way or the other. The reason for asking is that I have located a nice 1975 BRNO 602 (with peep sight) at a good price and also a great condition Winchester 70 and I’m in a dilemma which way to jump
CZ 602... NO BRAINER!!
 
CZ 602... NO BRAINER!!
And by "NO BRAINER" you meant a BRNO ZKK 602 or a CZ550? :D
We know what you meant...you meant a whole lot of ammo in the magazine.

Cheers mate.
 
As a related point to this, I had a play with my .375H&H Win 70 yesterday on the running boar shoot at the range.

First, a bit of context. In this running boar shoot, one calls ready and the target comes out, runs through its sighting gap in about 2 seconds, then disappears behind a screen before resetting and coming back the other way about 3 seconds later.

The detail is usually 10 rounds, then a break, then 10 more later once barrels have cooled and someone else has had a go. Two people shoot one target simultaneously with a 'big' and a 'little' calibre to speed things up (you can distinguish say a .22 and a .30 hole for scoring purposes).

Usually, there is a natural pause every couple rounds whilst people swap out mags on their hunting guns or top off internal mag, but this week my 'little calibre' partner was using a straight pull AR style .223 with an 25 odd round mag. In the interest of fun and experimentation I thought I'd see if I could keep my rifle fed without stopping the detail to top up my gun.

I found that it was perfectly possible to pick up the target, mount the rifle, shoot and then, in that 3 second reset pause, drop it out the shoulder, eject the empty, grab and load an additional round from a belt ammo holder, close it and remount in time to catch it coming back the other way. In fact, on a couple occasions I found that the 3 seconds was plenty long enough to drop the gun from the shoulder, eject and then load 2 into the mag before remounting.

As long as you've practiced the drill and have ammo in a known place readily available, it is literally the work of a second to top off a mag with an extra round. No use in a charge, sure, but in the vast majority of instances, you can keep a top loading rifle running for as long as you have ammo on your person and magazine capacity is purely incidental.

On an unrelated note, 20 rounds of full fat 375 in just a summer shirt has left me a touch sore today. Go figure.

Al.
Since you're doing this top loading recharge, why not see how well your crimp is holding up in the magazine? Watch for bullet pulling and either see when it occurs or that it doesn't occur at all. Just a thought from reading Capstick...
 
The perfect DG rifle is a Double, but a Bolt gun needs X many down. Buy what you want, not how many in the magazine.
 
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Since you're doing this top loading recharge, why not see how well your crimp is holding up in the magazine? Watch for bullet pulling and either see when it occurs or that it doesn't occur at all. Just a thought from reading Capstick...

I did think about this, yeah.

For this discipline, I start with 3 in, fire two, then slot one or two in each shot till the end when I finally shoot the gun dry. The bottom round in the magazine is left in place throughout so that I always have one in reserve in case I fluff the reload on a single run. As such, that last round in the mag effectively gets the recoil of the previous 9 shots exerted on it before it finally reaches the chamber.

I didn't see anything untoward on it except a bit of deformation of the exposed lead tip (Sierra Gameking) and as I'm using 300 grainers out to maximum book COAL, it couldn't actually move out that far before it'd be hitting the front of the mag well.

My attitude to loading for this rifle runs along the lines of 'all the crimp' so it's got about as much on it as I can manage with a Lee FCD. Seems to work well and accuracy is still all that I need. Hell of a job pulling the bullets on my load development ladder test though.

Al.
 
I did think about this, yeah.

For this discipline, I start with 3 in, fire two, then slot one or two in each shot till the end when I finally shoot the gun dry. The bottom round in the magazine is left in place throughout so that I always have one in reserve in case I fluff the reload on a single run. As such, that last round in the mag effectively gets the recoil of the previous 9 shots exerted on it before it finally reaches the chamber.

I didn't see anything untoward on it except a bit of deformation of the exposed lead tip (Sierra Gameking) and as I'm using 300 grainers out to maximum book COAL, it couldn't actually move out that far before it'd be hitting the front of the mag well.

My attitude to loading for this rifle runs along the lines of 'all the crimp' so it's got about as much on it as I can manage with a Lee FCD. Seems to work well and accuracy is still all that I need. Hell of a job pulling the bullets on my load development ladder test though.

Al.
My M70 beats up the Sierra's pretty good too. I was running heavy FCD crimp too. I never noticed the accuracy diminish, but I was only shooting 50 yards. I rarely pull anything unless it's unsafe. Shoot them up and start a new.
 
My M70 beats up the Sierra's pretty good too. I was running heavy FCD crimp too. I never noticed the accuracy diminish, but I was only shooting 50 yards. I rarely pull anything unless it's unsafe. Shoot them up and start a new.

I don't think I'd have been comfortable shooting the top end loads to be honest. I still had 5 loadings left, so 2.5gr added powder in the top one and I was getting slightly flattened primers where I stopped.

This Gameking load I've got does 2450ish and holds around 1.5". That'll do fine as my running boar plinking ammo! I've no idea if the tip deformation would give a flier, but as it's a moving target at 55yds, I hardly think it's enough to matter.

Al.
 
I don't think I'd have been comfortable shooting the top end loads to be honest. I still had 5 loadings left, so 2.5gr added powder in the top one and I was getting slightly flattened primers where I stopped.

This Gameking load I've got does 2450ish and holds around 1.5". That'll do fine as my running boar plinking ammo! I've no idea if the tip deformation would give a flier, but as it's a moving target at 55yds, I hardly think it's enough to matter.

Al.
I love the Sierra 300's they just aren't worth $1 a piece for plinkers. I went with the 285 speer grand slams. Much less expensive and no noticeable difference in zero.
 
I love the Sierra 300's they just aren't worth $1 a piece for plinkers. I went with the 285 speer grand slams. Much less expensive and no noticeable difference in zero.

The Sierras are about the cheapest 300ish grain .375 you can source here in the UK. A lot of places its them, or Barnes TSX. I pay £38/50, which is about 90cent or so each in USD. It's just an expensive toy!

Al.
 
PPU is 50 cent a piece here, but they are tough on steel. Very accurate though. Maybe my next bulk purchase.
 
PPU is 50 cent a piece here, but they are tough on steel. Very accurate though. Maybe my next bulk purchase.

These are just bullets, not loaded rounds, right?

I can source PPU loaded rounds, but not components. Plus a PPU loaded round is roughly the same price as my handloads, but I do it better, so I haven't bought any!
 
These are just bullets, not loaded rounds, right?

I can source PPU loaded rounds, but not components. Plus a PPU loaded round is roughly the same price as my handloads, but I do it better, so I haven't bought any!
Correct. Projectiles only.
 

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