For Sale: CZ 550 Magnum 375 H&H with full Matrix Upgrades

Buckums said:

Great looking stock for factory CZ and all the Matrix (AHR) treatments. Any idea on round count, etc.? Factory LOP? (13.75 if I'm not mistaken). What front sight did you put on it?

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Velo Dog said:

Greetings Garciamarquez1918,

The memory of your near perfect global hunting rifle for sale here, will haunt you when it’s gone.
Specifically for an Africa “mixed bag” of buffalo and “plains game” hunting trip, yours is not “near” perfect, it is “absolutely” perfect.
This, especially since you have had the most desirable modifications professionally done to it.

Over the years, I have become acquainted with a number of PH’s, in Namibia, and South Africa directly plus some from other African countries as they visited my home state here, to advertise at the annual Alaska Sportsman’s Show and so forth.
Without exception, every one of them always recommend that clients traveling with their own rifle for buffalo and “plains game” combination hunts, bring a bolt action .375 H&H, sighted in with 300 grain “modern” extra tough bullets (A-Frame, Bear Claw, Rhino, North Fork, etc.).
They also without exception recommend said .375 be topped with a simple but rugged low to mid-powered scope.

Understandably, PH’s usually carry a .40 bore or larger when guiding clients on heavy dangerous game.
But again, the common recommendation for clients is exactly the rifle you have.
The general consensus being, “A proper hit with a .375 always trumps a marginal hit with a .458”.
That is not to say there is anything wrong with you bringing “more gun” than your .375 but, I’m just parroting what the above thoughts are as spoken to me from PH’s guiding dangerous game in multiple African countries, where buffaloes are commonly hunted.

Yours truly is a rifle enthusiast.
Therefore personally, I would prefer to use one of the “.40” bore (and / or upwards of caliber) on African buffalo (.450/400 NE Flanged, .404 Jeffery, .416 Rigby).
The buffalo in my avatar was taken with my now long gone .450 No2 NE double with 480 gr bullets, soft and solid respectively.
Plus, I would not feel at all sheepish to hunt buffaloes with any of the classic .50 bore nitro cartridges (.500 NE Flanged double, .500 Jeffery and / or .505 Gibbs repeaters).

If you do decide to buy a larger caliber for your buffalo hunt, you should also keep your truly excellent .375, as it is the quintessential African (and Alaskan) dangerous game, not to mention “general bag” cartridge..
This, especially if you do not top it with “too much scope”, as so many of our fellow Americans tend to favor these days (huge magnification / huge front lens, overly complicated features and sales gimmick gadgetry then mounted in extra-tall rings, etc).

I am not a PH but only just a hunting client.
With that, the .375 H&H is my absolute favorite hunting cartridge.
I am so very fond of it that besides my beloved Brno 602 Magnum Mauser derivative repeater, I also own a Franz Sodia (Ferlach Austria) ejector double rifle in this wonderful caliber.
It is perhaps a bit light for elephant or hippo on land and a bit much for steinbok and klipspringer but, it will do it all with satisfactory results and traditional class.
It is even easier on edible meat and skins for taxidermy than all of the ..300 Magnums so popular today with traveling hunters.
The old tried and true .375 throws bullets at roughly the same trajectory as a .30-06 and with somewhat tolerable recoil at that.

I have used the .375 H&H quite a lot in both Africa and Alaska with perfect success.
Shot my very first caribou with it, using the now sadly discontinued Winchester 270 grain “Power Point” bullet, about 40 years ago.
I’ve also had perfect success with hand loaded 235 gr Speer semi-spitzers (same trajectory as the .30-06 with 150 gr spitzers).
And, I have taken a good number of black tail deer with it on Kodiak, Afognak and other islands here in Alaska.
It is comforting to carry fresh meat back to camp through the thick coastal bush here, while in close proximity to grizzly bears (recharged with 300 grainers, just in case).
I have even shot quite a few ground squirrels, jack rabbits and more than one or two coyotes with various bullets from my .375 in Nevada plus Soviet Occupied California.

“I spent most of my money on proper rifles and big game hunting, the rest I just wasted”.

Cheers,
Velo Dog.

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Hedge774 said:

I agree with the above sentiments. Every other day or so, I think, "Man, I need to sell that..." Then I think, "Is need really the word? Or am I just feeling guilty about money?" Would tragedy befall my family if I didn't part ways with that rifle that I adore? No. If that was the case, it would be gone without a story to tell. Truthfully, the guns and rifles I have that would be worth the effort of selling would be almost impossible to replace for what I paid for them. As one of you wise men once told me, "It's as cheap today as it's ever going to get."

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Hedge774 said:

I'll take the Jack Russell.

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