I am in agreement with Red Leg. I sight in all my rifles of my lead sled and I love it. Whenever I go on a hunting trip I always go to the range and recheck my zero of my sled. Really does work very well. I just bought a 375 Ruger which I have not sighted in yet for my upcoming first trip to Africa ( wow can't wait) and you can bet I will most definitely use the sled. Velo dog you said you like the 300 RN. Would you recommend that for eland, kudu, waterbuck? Although my hunt is for leopard if we get the time or chance I will try to shoot those animals also. Since I have not sighted in yet I was curious on which ammo the forum would suggest. I will be shooting a 300 wsm for leopard.
Hi Johnnyblues,
Excellent question.
Your PH is the best person to answer this question but, myself being a hyper-active motormouth and all, thanks for asking it here.
(Leave it to me to give detailed instructions on how to build a clock when, somebody only asks, "What time is it"?)
The short answer is yes and no, because old fashioned soft core bullets must not be driven at too high of velocity, lest they shatter on heavy bone (eland / waterbuck - shoulder / brisket) and thereby fail to penetrate far enough.
This of course becomes extremely important as you go up the body weight scale of game animals.
Also consider how tenacious of life a particular species is (such as waterbuck) combined with said body weight.
It might be needless to say that if your largest intended animal was to be kudu, then pretty much any 300 gr bullet at whatever speed your .375 is capable of driving them at would very likely work fine.
Kudu are not built like eland, waterbok, zebra and some others - as those are built rather stumpy and "block" shaped, whereas kudu (although not small at all), are somewhat tall and thin for their 600 or more pounds.
From the get go, my roaring success with the 300 gr RN bullet in .375 H&H has been at 2400 fps MV and at that, it has worked very well and will continue to work very well.
At that tame speed, I would not hesitate to shoot all PG, (except giraffe) with the 300 gr round nose Hornady or Woodleigh round nose, either brand (it's not a round nose but the Nosler Partition has also been a fantastic performer for me at 2400 fps as well).
I've never shot a leopard but I am willing to presume that load with RNSP or NP (which is a semi-spitzer in 300 gr / .375 diameter) would be a fine leopard (and lion probably) load, based on all that I have read and heard tell from those who have shot them with various calibers and bullets.
However, I understand that the Ruger version of the .375 shoots 300 gr bullets around 2650 fps with factory loaded ammunition ?
At 250 fps faster than what I have shot my critters at, with the excellent Hornady .375 caliber / 300 gr RNSP bullet, I really do not know if it would hold together on HEAVY animals or not, especially at the typical closer ranges found over most of the Southern African countries.
I do guess that it would hold together but if I were you, I'd want something more than just some old fart's guess.
At the price of a wounded and lost animal, not to mention having to live with the fact that you inflicted suffering and failed to end it, who wants to count on Velo Dog's best guess - I would not want to.
Likewise, I know I am the odd duck, and most Hand-Loaders would sooner bash their heads against their loading bench than to load even the old H&H version down to 2400 fps, not to mention the faster Ruger version.
So .... for "normal" velocities, to shoot larger animals, the 300 gr Hndy RN is not exactly what I would recommend to the "normal" hand loader/plains game hunter.
That being said, the experiences of myself and the several people I know who also hunt with the .375 H&H, here in Alaska, Africa as well, seems to strongly indicate that the good old Nosler Partition is probably a slightly better bullet for larger animals, especially if you load above about 2400 fps.
And, the Swift A-Frame is even so much the better (same basic design but bonded cores to the jacket/very tough bullet at all practical velocities, including the Weatherby line and Rem Ultra Magnums of today).
As my favorite PH (Hannes Swanepoel) likes to say about the .375 H&H loaded with 300 gr bullets: "The Nosler Partition is too soft for Buffalo but one of the best Plains Game bullets".
Also: "However, the Swift A-Frame will do them all very well." (or words to that affect).
Incidentally, Hannes uses the 300 gr RNSP in his Brno .375 H&H for most of his personal hunting when this cartridge is appropriate and also loads it to 2400 fps (birds of a feather).
My parting shot is:
As much as eland, waterbuck and such permits costs these days, why use a cheap bullet?
However, if you must - as long as you load them to around 2400 fps, the RNSP will work fine and the're usually shockingly accurate in most rifles as well (one reason that I keep using them).
Presuming that you bought the Ruger version so that you could drive bullets a bit faster than the H&H version, I'd say, you should get busy shooting either Nosler Partitions or Swift A-Frames from your .375 Ruger, in hopes that they will be accurate.
Whichever one of the two is most accurate in your rifle, then there is your bullet for all PG, from eland to duiker.
If they both shoot about the same, then I'd say the A-Frame is best (primarily due to the size of eland).
Cheerio,
Velo Dog.
