I sat down with Emil Praslick at SHOT Show 2024 to talk about Berger’s new bullets!
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Berger .375 Solid Bullets
Berger Bullets already makes two solid, lathe-turned .375 projectiles, a 379 grain and a 407 grain.
Solid bullets are great for extreme long range applications and are less dense than lead so they tend to be longer and have higher form factors than a lead bullet of the same weight. This allows for a higher BC bullet at higher velocities. These bullets are quite expensive as they are time consuming to make.
About the Berger .375 410 Grain Hybrid Target Rifle Bullet
Berger created the .375 410 Grain Hybrid Target bullet in response to requests by competitive shooters, the military, and the sniper community for a .375 conventional bullet. Emil explained that while Bryan Litz had the design for some time, new machinery was needed to produce the appropriate J4 jackets.
From Berger Bullets:
We built this bullet extra-rugged to survive the extreme performance conditions of heavy hitting 375 caliber magnum cartridges. Features the unprecedented concentricity of less than .0003″ total indicated runout that you expect with our legendary J4 Jackets. Designed with Hybrid ogive geometry that offers exceptional ballistic performance and a easy day at the reloading bench with an easy tuning during load development. The 375 caliber 410 grain bullet is super consistent–Doppler verified with less than 1% ballistic coefficient variation!
This new bullet actually traces its lineage to the Berger 6mm 105 Grain Hybrid Target Bullet. If you take the 6mm 105 grain and scale it up to 6.5mm, you get a 140 grain Berger hybrid. If you scale it to .30 caliber, you get a 230 grain hybrid. Scale the .30 caliber to a .338 caliber and you get the 300 grain hybrid, another popular Berger bullet. Take the .338 design and scale it to .375 and you get the new Berger 410 Grain Hybrid Target Bullet!
Berger beta-tested the bullets in both .375 CheyTac and .375 EnABLER with some big names in competitive shooting in addition to Bryan Litz’s extensive testing. (Watch the full video for more details on Berger’s testing and standards.) This new bullet, not surprisingly, shoots like other Berger hybrids. It’s forgiving in terms of jump length, unlike solid bullets, and has good precision. One of the beta-testers reported consistent hits at two miles on the standard ELR target. Emil explained that this bullet is very stable and shoots very well, but it’s important to remember that as you increase in caliber, inherent precision goes down. In torture testing, they’re reaching 3,150 fps and surviving, even out of guns designed for solid bullets with little to no freebore. To determine what rifle twist rate you should be using, or what bullet works best with your rifle, consult the free Berger Twist Rate Stability Calculator.
Keep in mind that you want to build your model to work in the worst possible conditions. Berger has noted 1:11.5 to be the optimal twist rate for the .375 410 grain hybrid, but they’ve tested it already down to 1:7 twist with good performance.
Conclusion
This new bullet isn’t just a scaled up hybrid. Considerable time and effort has gone into the manufacturing and engineering process to produce a large conventional bullet that will work well at long distances. I’m extremely excited about the new .375 410 grain bullet for my .375 Cheytac build!
Get the Gear
Find Berger .375 Caliber 410 Grain Hybrid Target Bullets at Creedmoor Sports and Midsouth Shooters Supply!
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Thanks,
Gavin Gear
