Re: Anyone shoot a 30 378 Weatherby Magnum?
The 30/378 is great round. It has about 4800 lbs. of energy and I believe it's still the most powerful .30 cal. round. I had a Weatherby Mark V with a 26" or 28" SS fluted barrel with a KDF muzz. brake & std. fiberglass stock. (HS Pre.) Even though the rifle was very light and sounded like a clap of thunder just hit, that little brake worked so well it was like shooting a std. .308 rifle. It used to amaze me how little recoil it had for such a canon. The 30/378 was designed as a 1000+ yard target round and does a very good job of it. A buddy of mine used one for long range hunting, in fact he shot a red stag with one at over 1500 yards and it went through both lung's! According to my iPod Ballistic calculator, it still has 1300 lbs of energy & 1200 yards! And according to the computer, the 30/378 with a 208 gr. Hornady A-Max vs. the 30/06 with the same bullet, the 30/378 does have aprox. the same energy & 600 yards as the 30/06 has & 100 yards. (This depends on the bullet & how fast it's pushed, some are a little better and some are worse.) If you run the 30/378 "hot" it's a barrel burner, in fact I'v read that the barrel can start eroding in as little as 75 round's! However, if you use 50 BMG powder from Hodgdon, and drop it back aprox. 5 gr., the barrel seems fine even after 1500 round's. (At least mine did.) And it still has crazy power. (Esp. for 1000 yard paper punching.) I wish I had not got rid of mine, I liked the Mark V rec. and I really liked the 30/378 round. I would like to get another one but with a better barrel and stock. If you want massive power without massive recoil, this is a great way to go. And you can run small bullet's at very high speed's or heavier one's for hunting. Although, my buddy used 165 gr. Nosler Bil. tip's for hunting and his "rule" was, 1000 yard's minimum to take the shot. The only thing is, you must reload unless your rich. They are about $100 - $120 per 20 round's of loaded ammo, and about $62 for 20 rnd's of just brass! You also want to buy the 50-BMG powder in 8 lb. jug's, it doesn't take long to drain a pound of powder at 107 - 112 gr. per round. If you can deal with all that, buy it! It's a hell of a round and a lot of fun, and when you fire one off everyone wants to know.. "what the F#@% was that"!?
