Barnes .375 300 grain repackaged / rebranded question

[Dr. Dirt Nap]

I've been using Barnes Vor-tx in 300 grain .375 H&H for several years now. The older box had a water buffalo. The new box calls the ammo "Safari" and has a different image of a buffalo. Same tsx bullet.

My understanding (perhaps wrongly) was Barnes had simply updated the .375 box so I purchased several boxes for this upcoming year. Though I won't be shooting out past 400 and probably not past 250, I planned to have a custom turret cut. However, the new box shows a muzzle velocity of 2540 while the old box shows 2460. Perhaps I misunderstood and this is different ammo not just a rebrand. If anyone has any input on that I would appreciate it since this is expensive stuff and now I have a couple hundred rounds of old ammo and a couple hundred new with different specs.

Perhaps a noob question: If I went ahead and had a turret cut, would it be acceptable to just split the muzzle velocity since I'll be shooting such short distances making both loads acceptable with the turret? How significant is a 3.25% (half that if I split) difference in velocity in ranges under 400 yards?

 

[Dr. Dirt Nap]

On another site there was confusion about the new boxes. For anyone out there searching for info on the recent Barnes .375 changes I thought I'd follow up with the following:

I spoke with Barnes. The Vor-tx "safari" is only .375 h&h option and the original Vor-tx in .375 is no longer in production. Barnes did increase velocity to at least the 2,540 listed on the new box.

Based on my set up the difference in velocity equates to a POI delta between old and new velocities of 0.48 inches lower on the old stock ammo at 200 yards and 3.36 inches lower at 400.

I may use the higher velocity data for the turret and use the old ammo as practice (although that's a lot of shooting) and use the higher stuff and new turret for hunting. Undecided. I'm not in a bench competition - this is for field use, so may just split the difference.

Anyway, I know I've seen several threads on various sites expressing confusion so hopefully this helps someone along the way. Side note, Barnes customer service was excellent. It's nice to work with great people who provide great products.

 

[BULLBLASTER]

Why dont you chrono the ammo that you are planning to use and know the velocity? Then there is no guessing until you change lots.

 

[Dr. Dirt Nap]

I agree, that would be the best way to do it but I don't have a chrono and have never needed to be that dialed in. I can see it would be a best practice though.

 

[Dr. Dirt Nap]

Checked into it and didn’t realize chrono’s were so reasonably priced. I’ll pick one up. Good idea.