Hunting with dangerous game cartridges outside of Africa?

[Northern Shooter]

Curious how many of you have used your dangerous game cartridges on big game at home, outside of Africa? Whether you live in the America's, Europe, Australia etc., what local game have you taken with your dangerous game rifles and cartridge's? How did it go? Which dangerous game cartridge would you consider to be an ideal choice for your domestic big game animals?

I've been taking both my 375 H&H and 458 WinMag Moose and Black Bear hunting (unsuccessful so far) and I know of others in North America that use their 375s, 416's and downloaded 458's on white tail, elk, moose, grizzly, bison etc. The 375's and 416's sound like they are a fairly common choice for hunting in Alaska/Yukon, enough oomph for brown bear, enough range for reaching out on caribou and elk.

 

[Fatback]

I’ve killed a few whitetail deer and wild pigs with my 375 H&H. I’ve used 300 grain TSX, 300 grain swift AFrames and 260 grain accubonds. All preformed exactly as expected. With proper shot placement there really isn’t much more meat damage than with some of my more traditional deer cartridges. I really enjoy hunting with mine.

 

[375er]

Use my 375 here in the states because I can. It eliminates those messy tracking jobs.

 

[Mark Audino]

I have found the versatility of the .375 to be exceptional outside of Africa. From deep woods whitetail, to desert mule deer, to brown bear, it has made sense. And many times, when I think I didn't need a .375 in Africa and deferred to something bigger, I wish I had taken one. I have shot a lot of buffalo in Africa, Australia, and Argentina. The only ones that when down and stayed down with one shot were those shot with a .375. Amazing.

 

[DGGardner]

375 H&H with 300 grain TSX worked well on a bison @ 200 yards.
Sub zero temps on the South Dakota plains last January. The 375 performed much better then I did in snow shoes. As stated earlier it eliminated the need for tracking.

 

[K E Johnson]

I have taken a large number of whitetail as well as mule deer and black bear with .375 H&H.
I have took one whitetail with my a .416 Rigby last year.
The .375 was my go to for many years.

 

[Colt Henderson]

I am at 2 elk and 1 gopher here in Montana USA with a 375 H&H

 

[poco]

I have shot some whitetail, nilgai, pigs , a turkey & a alligator with 375 H&H 270gr federal, and look forwards to doing the same with my new 375 ruger

 

[Michael70]

The 375H&H is the only rifle that gets a run since I have returned to the Northern Territory.

Wherever we go, Buffalo and Scrub Bulls are on the menu, I have witnessed too many failures with the 308 to give it any credit as a big game rifle for the Top End; much to the chagrin of the local Gunshop experts who believe that all you need is a 308 to shoot everything in Australia.

The 30/06 and 303 are used on deer "down south" (Sambar) but even there the 375 is making inroads with the crews I hunt with. The current flavour of the hound-hunting crew is a red-dot sighted 7600 Remington pump chambered in 35 Whelan which is deadly medicine on our big deer, but some are toting the 375 with 235gr pills.

The 375H&H will come with me chasing camels and has been used on pigs. It is no harder on the shoulder than my 30/06 and I do not have any valid reason to leave it at home.

Now that the monsoon looks like to have finally set in, I will give the old wood stocked Model 70 a coat of wax to protect it from the deluge, but it has been swamped many times before and is still kicking. If I am ever to have just one gun....this is it!!!

PS. Still on the hunt for something bigger, we have the game so why not?

 

[Pilgrim]

Only when I'm hunting graboids

 

[ET1775]

I have taken one whitetail and one black bear with .375 H&H. I keep taking it with me for elk and cougar but haven't come across any yet.

 

[Grumpy gumpy]

I’ve shot a fallow deer with my458 winmag because I could. I’ve also used it to cull kangaroos ( with permit) again because I could.
gumpy

 

[Hunter-Habib]

I have used:
- a .375 Holland & Holland Magnum to hunt Kodiak bears and moose in the Americas, ibex in Pakistan and an Asiatic saltwater crocodile in the Sundarbans.
- a .505 Gibbs to hunt an American bison
- a .458 Winchester Magnum to hunt Australian water buffalo and Banteng, as well as one Grizzly bear in the Americas.

I'm not vehemently opposed to using larger calibers on smaller game in a pinch, at all (although I would generally PREFER to use a caliber which is proportionate to the game animal which I am hunting). In Africa, I have shot plains game as small as duiker with .375 Holland & Holland Magnum, .404 Jeffery and .458 Winchester Magnum. For the smaller game (such as duiker or Sunni), I have just used solid non-expanding bullets in order to keep meat damage to a minimum.

Also make sure to zero in your rifle for it's maximum point blank range. You'll not regret it.

My predecessor, Yousuf Salauddin Ahmad (the first Chief Conservator of Forests of Pakistan and author of "With The WIid Animals Of Bengal") preferred to hunt Axis deer in the Sundarban mangrove forests with a .450/400 Nitro Express, because one never knew when one was going to cross paths with a Royal Bengal tiger.

In French Indo-China. it was common for the rubber plantation owners to hunt deer and wild boar with the 10.75x68mm Mauser (invariably a French ManuFrance Rival rifle), because one never knew when they would come across an Indo-Chinese tiger, leopard, Seladang, Asian sloth bear or jungle elephant. Because they figured (very wisely too) that it's safer to be over-gunned for small game than to be under-gunned for large (and potentially dangerous) game.

 

[flatwater bill]

Was able to use my 416 Rigby on a hot rock chuck shoot last spring.....killed 44 chucks with 58 shots. Not too bad for ranges between 15 and 200 yards. Lots of good trigger time. and general familiarity of the gun.................................FWb

 

[grand veneur]

I shot two wild boars and a Wisent in Belarus with my rifle caliber 460 Weatherby Magnum and the 500gr SP bullet from Hornady. That was the only time where one of my dangerous game rifles worked outside of Africa and saw snow.

Although I shot a lot of game at home and worldwide with the cartridge 9,3x64 Brenneke, I don't consider it as a classic dangerous game cartridge.

 

[Pondoro]

I have shot moose locally here in Norway with .375H&H...these days I hunt the same species with a 9.3x74R double rifle..

I use the 9.3 at driven hunts too (wild boar etc.).

 

[cmk]

I've used my 404 on two roe deer (A-Frame 400gr) and one fallow (NorthFork PP 400gr). One of the roes got a bit messed up as there were a lot of secondary projectiles (bone hit) so it was rather bloodshot, and some meat was wasted. I guess it could have happened with a smaller calibre as well. Roes are not big, approx the same size as a springbok, so something between a 222Rem and a 6.5x55 is really more suitable.

Fallow deer are a bit bigger, but this one was a young hind - only a little larger than a roe. Legal minimum here is 6.5x55 or equivalent, so a bit overgunned.. Shot just behind the shoulder, complete pass-through and it walked off for 50 metres or so while bleeding out. No wasted meat, really.

 

[Tim Blackwell]

I've used my .375H&H and .458WM quite a bit here in Australia on our big game, including Buffalo, Scrub Bulls, and Banteng.
I'd consider the 338 or 9.3 as a sensible minimum for these animals, stalking mature bulls on foot. But the bigger cals certainly work well.

 

[BeeMaa]

Use my 375 here in the states because I can. It eliminates those messy tracking jobs.

Exactly!

Every hunt I’ve been on since I went to Africa I’ve been reaching for my 375H&H. Will be doing so again in a couple of weeks on a whitetail cull hunt with some friends.

 

[Tanks]

I used a .416 B&M for elk and .500 MDM for black bear. Both DRT.