.375 H&H for Lower 48 Game

[Betterinthebush]

One like this?

Leupold 1.5-5X20, Montana rifle sling.

It was in unfired/pristine condition when I bought it. I used it on safari in Namibia one year ago. The barrel has exactly 45 rounds through it. I shot only Barnes TSX for all rounds. It is an excellent shooter.

I was going to save it for my youngest son, but he now wants his own rig for his memories.

DM me if you’re serious.

 

[deewayne2003]

I caught the factory seconds of Hornady 270gr soft point on clearance through midway, combined with some older CCI mag primers and starting charge of Ac2700 is my practice load.

That was also my white and pig load all last year and it worked beautifully.

 

[Hunt anything]

Growing up hunting deer in Alabama there has been ample opportunities to experiment on the plentiful whitetail. I stopped counting at 120 or so. I’ve taken deer with everything from a .243, sorry @Bob Nelson 35Whelen , .270, 30-06, 7mm REM Mag and .375 Ruger. over the last 54 years since the age of 8. The .375 Ruger tends to ruin much less meat than any of the faster and lighter calibers using factory 300gr Hornady DGX.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Growing up hunting deer in Alabama there has been ample opportunities to experiment on the plentiful whitetail. I stopped counting at 120 or so. I’ve taken deer with everything from a .243, sorry @Bob Nelson 35Whelen , .270, 30-06, 7mm REM Mag and .375 Ruger. over the last 54 years since the age of 8. The .375 Ruger tends to ruin much less meat than any of the faster and lighter calibers using factory 300gr Hornady DGX.

@Hunt anything
I noticed you said you hunted deer with everything from 242 to 375.
I didn't notice you have hunted them with a 35 Whelen or 358.. using heavy weight for cal like a 225 int the 358 to a 250 in the Whelen tends not to destroy much meat. A 200 grainer at 3,000fps out of the Whelen is another story. Massive meat damage in pigs that's for sure
Bob

 

[Boredrill]

Remington made a run of 700s in 375 H&H last year or the year before; it's the SPS DG. I bought one and find it very accurate and easy to carry, but it doesn't seem to kill elk any better than either my 35 Whelen or 358 Win Hawkeye. That new Rem 700 trigger system is just excellent - it came from the box simply perfect! Bottom line is he rifle is excellent, but for me not any better than a couple of others I have for any hunting I do. My wife says I better not get these kinds of lusts after strange new women!

 

[cash_tx]

Remington made a run of 700s in 375 H&H last year or the year before; it's the SPS DG. I bought one and find it very accurate and easy to carry, but it doesn't seem to kill elk any better than either my 35 Whelen or 358 Win Hawkeye. That new Rem 700 trigger system is just excellent - it came from the box simply perfect! Bottom line is he rifle is excellent, but for me not any better than a couple of others I have for any hunting I do. My wife says I better not get these kinds of lusts after strange new women!

Just remind her that guns are the cheapest form of mistress that a man can have.

 

[jreidthompson]

Nearly all 375 H&H are 1:12. I’d be surprised if 1:16.

My browning abolt2 is listed as 1:12

 

[Vintageguy]

I don’t have as much meat loss with my buffalo load pushing an A-frame at 2500fps as I do with my old 7mm and 30 cal deer loads. The jacket on that bullet, for that caliber is perfect. Opens on big stuff but not so much on smaller game.

 

[Clodo Ferreira]

Hi Coues,

I use my Winchester pre 64 (made in 1954) 375 H&H as my all around rifle, mainly for Red Deer and Wild boars, since 1992 until some 5 year ago when I change to 9,3x62 my present favorite rifle!
I uses many bullets between 235-250-260-270 grs. I tried the Nosler P 300 grs just to test it, not because was needed.
The 270 grs Hornady Interlock Spire Point was the basic bullet because was always available and good enough, not great because, some times more than I liked, they got separated the core and jacket in Red Deer. All dead, of course...
The bullets I would chose right now, for your needs, the same as mine, they are: Barnes TTSX 250 grs-Nosler Accubond 260 grs and even, the Barnes LRX 270 grs. This LRX has a very high BC and opens at very low velocity but penetrates like the Barnes X.
Any of them will work splendidly from the smallest deer to the biggest ones, and big bears of course!

Good luck!

CF

 

[Dave303]

I have a few friends who hunt here locally in SA. I can tell you that 2 of them have rifles gathering dust in a safe because they always just grab the 375H&H. You can shoot everything from Springbok to Buffalo and not change load or ammo. The meat damage is really actually minimal in the softer skinned and smaller game. One of them shot a lovely fallow deer 3 weeks ago with the 375H&H and the meat damage was not bad at all.

For me I love my 308, but I know when the license for my 375H&H is approved I will probably shoot the 308 very little...

 

[Challer]

Using the 375 as much as you can is excellent way get get as much familiarity and proficiency as you can. Otherwise you may never shoot 100 rounds through it. 375 is my pig gun

 

[CO_mtnman]

I've started doing this years ago for my meat hunts. I have way less meat damage on my whitetail does using my 375 h&h compared to my 270, 7mm and 6.5 prc. I've been using the cutting edge safari raptor 275gr with a medium charge of imr 4350

 

[Choupique]

And yall are forgetting the most important part - shooting deer with a .375 is fun!

If for nothing else, the questions you get asked in camp about deer hunting with an elephant rifle are worth it.

 

[dchum]

I will be taking my .375 on an Aoudad hunt. If you drop down to 250 grains, it becomes a much flatter. and pretty versatile rifle. I will be taking the new Montana Rifle Company Tsavo and using 250 Gr TTSX hand loaded by Choice Ammo.

where are you hunting aoudad ?

 

[jruby]

I have two 375H&H rifles. A Sako l61r and q Ruger #1 Tropical. I shoot them occasionally. Its nice to know that they can br used to good advantage in the lower 48. I always thought that they were too mucj before. I do question if a lighter cartridge might be better for deer. My tep favorites are the 6.5x55 and 7x57 followed closely by the 270 and 25-06. Will have to try a 375 and see what happens.

 

[farmer_john]

One like this?
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Leupold 1.5-5X20, Montana rifle sling.

It was in unfired/pristine condition when I bought it. I used it on safari in Namibia one year ago. The barrel has exactly 45 rounds through it. I shot only Barnes TSX for all rounds. It is an excellent shooter.

I was going to save it for my youngest son, but he now wants his own rig for his memories.

DM me if you’re serious.

That mountian lion looks amazing by the way... just wabtednto be the first to tell you.

 

[M70375!]

Velocity is what ruins meat, not bullet weight

 

[Choupique]

question if a lighter cartridge might be better for deer.

That depends how you define better. If your goal is rapid kills and meat damage a distant second concern, you can load a .375 h&h to absolutely scream with a 235 gr bullet and hammer the crap outta deer. With standard loadings, yes most traditional deer calibers ill perform better.

My extensive experience with .338 win mag and elk bullets on deer well showed that it was actually less damaging than a .270 with traditional soft 130gr bullets, and often resulted in 30-50 yard blood trails on rib shots. A deer just doesnt offer much resistance and doesnt get those tough bullets to open up very well. A more right sized caliber and bullet design is almost always going to yield quicker kills.

The cool thing is you can dial your damage up and down with shot placement. Want to hammer them? Go straight through both shoulders and you will get some expansion and corresponding damage and better chance of bang flop. Want to save all the meat? Shoot it through the ribs and enjoy a short generous blood trail (or maybe a bang flop). Want to kill 4 pigs in one shot? Can do that too.

Im a huge fan of shooting small game with big guns. It works really well, and it is fun.

 

[steve white]

The late Don Henry of the Mannlicher Collectors Assoc. used a 375 H&H on elk hunts, as they hunted knife edge ridges in the Cascades. He wanted them to absolutely drop to the shot, not go off the edge and down into a nightmare retrieval situation.
But he never claimed it was a light stalking rifle!

Nephew was all bent because a white tail doe didn't drop DRT. But it was a clean kill with no bloodshot meat, just ran 40 yds.

 

[Choupique]

white tail doe didn't drop DRT. But it was a clean kill with no bloodshot meat, just ran 40 yds.

This is the most common outcome with a .338 in mag as well. Its wonderful because it is tremendously predictable and controllable, and you will always get full penetration regardless of range, angle or shot placement. You basically cant stop a 270+ grain bonded bullet out of a .375 h&h in a whitetail deer at any normal range.

You CAN drop them every time if you want. Use match bullets as fast as you can drive them and aim for the shoulders. You'll get a lot of carnage though and I personally was never interested in that. It can get downright nasty. A little field experiment with a .308 and hornady ELDM's yeilded so much wasted meat that we decided to never do that again. Same with a .270 and 130gr gamekings. If I want carnage and DRT, ill use a lighter caliber with lighter bullets. A .270 or .30-06 with the right bullets is vastly more effective than a .338 win mag or heavier caliber with bonded big game bullets on light game from a pure average speed of kill perspective.