Let’s have some .375 fun

Warthog was the smallest. One shot and done
43CC8347-A054-4D0D-9848-98C4786415E1.jpeg
 
All three in this picture. The Oribi on the left with a Baser S2, and the Red Duiker and Suni with an R8. All three were taken on a couple of safaris in Mozambique with 300 gr solids. The Suni was the smallest. All three had perfect .375 holes going and coming with which the taxidermist had no issues.

Duiker Full Mount Taxidermy
 
A Gemsbok.

But you need at least a .300 Win Mag for a duiker!
 
Smallest animal a yellow tail mongoose at around +/- 25 feet in front and off to the right side of my PH's bakki, with a 300 grain soft point meant for a warthog.
20210520_092727.jpg
 
The steenbok in my avatar with my 375 Ruger.
 
2F4A839B-5A08-4800-BB19-79877E7F8C47.jpeg

I can’t say for sure these where the smallest with my .375. I took this set of triplet yearlings 18 years ago last November. The funny thing is I passed up on yearlings with both my 1911 and Model 71 Winchester last fall. Don’t have as many mouths to feed now I guess.
What I wouldn’t give to have the guy in the photo back today. Youth wasted on the young. My kids are both in college now.
These were taken on my 10 acre home place. I have harvested a good number of deer here. I have taken more deer with my .375 H&H than anything else.
 
I'll jump in here and state that I used my 375 H&H last season using cast and a light load to take a nice doe at approx 125 yards. The load performed beautifully without undo destruction of meat. Nice blood trail and ended up with good meat in the freezer. I would like to hunt grizzly or moose with my 375, but due to the expense it likely will not happen. In the meantime I enjoy shooting my 375 "medium bore" as it is sometimes called. I view the 375 H&H as one of the worlds great cartridges. It is also very versital being able to kill even the largest dangerous game with the proper bullet. Cast boolit shooting is a natural for this caliber especially if smaller game such as deer are on the menu. I have other rifles that I shoot and are probably more suited for whitetails. However I have not seen any other caliber perform any better on whitetail than my 375 H&H. I am considering using my .416 Remington mag next year with cast just to give the old girl a workout since Africa with her is not gonna happen.
 
I heard that @michael458 has used his on barn rats. But he moved up to a 416 for a little more stopping power.

Well, what you HEARD was a damn bald face LIE........ I am going to set the record straight here and now and forever.

The only animal I have ever shot in my life with this useless caliber was a waterbuck in 2000. I was on a quick little trip to the Matetsi and my Winchester M70 458 Win did not arrive at Vic Falls from J'burg. We had some lions to sort out. It was a couple of days before the 458 arrived, in the meantime my PH at the time decided I needed to shoot this waterbuck. To this day I am not sure why, but he had a Winchester M70 375. At least it was a Winchester. Shot the waterbuck and he just strolled along like nothing had happened. Since he was not running away, or seemed to have any concerns at all, I just allowed him to walk along until he finally fell over after a 100 yards or so...... Needless to say I was not much impressed with that......... I told my guy, we have to go get my damn rifle ASAP.......... It did pitch up and we proceeded to sort the lions out along with some other things over the next few days.

The only 375 I ever owned in my entire life I bought from a late friend of mine. It was a nice stainless Winchester M70 and I got it from him for $600.00. What Winchester M70 Classic is not worth $600? It sit here for a year or longer trying to ponder what to do with the thing? Finally Dan from Cutting Edge needed a 375 to do some test work with the new Raptors he was working on, I offered it up to him, and promptly rid myself of the thing. I had plenty of 458 Lotts and what have you, so I really did not need to build another.

There is a 375 version of the B&M series I am sad to say. It most certainly was not my idea, that you can be sure of. A B&M fan, that already had 3-4 of the larger versions wanted one. Since he was a really good sort I agreed to it, but made it known under no uncertain terms that he was responsible for load data and everything else involved, as I had ZERO interest is such foolishness. We got a reamer, did the gun, and he held up his end and I held up mine, I never owned one and don't want one.

The only other time there has ever been a 375 here was another fellow had a 375 B&M and brought it for some Terminal performance tests with CEB Raptors and Solids. Once that was completed I had him remove the thing.

Now, the True Jest of the story should have read;

"I heard that Michael458 had used a 416 on some barn rats, but found it coming up short, so moved on to Bigger and Better calibers, 458 through 500 caliber"
 
Nevada “picket pins” aka: a type of high desert miniature “prairie dog”.
I have also shot prairie dogs (pins) with my 375
Prairie dogs
Jackrabbit
Its about time that you guys got a realistic view of what a 375 caliber is capable of. I would hope that you had some backup even with these species, just in case of course.....................

Trees count.

I shot this tree with a .375. I was shooting at a bongo, but these old eyes can't focus on anything other than the front sight and the target . . . this tree happened to be in the middle (along with a bunch of other stuff . . . this is the jungle after all). Fortunately, it was a .375 and it still hit the bongo, spining it.

They do say "use enough gun"!
Ok, that is about right, looks to be something like a 3 inch diameter tree, quite lucky I would say, using 375 caliber that is. When you graduate to trees that are a little more substantial, yes, by all means, "USE ENOUGH GUN"

This is a real tree, and I used a 500 B&M and 450 CEB Safari Solid at 2400 fps to bust through it, as you can see it hits hard, knocking all the bark off one side. This tree was about 12-14 inches in diameter. The bullet passed through the tree, hit the buffalo on the shoulder and passed completely through the buffalo as well, putting it down where it stood......... Yes, Use Enough Gun, especially if you are going to tackle larger trees............

P6231330%20copy-XL.jpg
 
Its about time that you guys got a realistic view of what a 375 caliber is capable of. I would hope that you had some backup even with these species, just in case of course.....................


Ok, that is about right, looks to be something like a 3 inch diameter tree, quite lucky I would say, using 375 caliber that is. When you graduate to trees that are a little more substantial, yes, by all means, "USE ENOUGH GUN"

This is a real tree, and I used a 500 B&M and 450 CEB Safari Solid at 2400 fps to bust through it, as you can see it hits hard, knocking all the bark off one side. This tree was about 12-14 inches in diameter. The bullet passed through the tree, hit the buffalo on the shoulder and passed completely through the buffalo as well, putting it down where it stood......... Yes, Use Enough Gun, especially if you are going to tackle larger trees............

P6231330%20copy-XL.jpg
See there Michael. If you would just shoot around those trees, instead of through them, you might not need so much gun....LOL!!!
 
Well, what you HEARD was a damn bald face LIE........ I am going to set the record straight here and now and forever.

The only animal I have ever shot in my life with this useless caliber was a waterbuck in 2000. I was on a quick little trip to the Matetsi and my Winchester M70 458 Win did not arrive at Vic Falls from J'burg. We had some lions to sort out. It was a couple of days before the 458 arrived, in the meantime my PH at the time decided I needed to shoot this waterbuck. To this day I am not sure why, but he had a Winchester M70 375. At least it was a Winchester. Shot the waterbuck and he just strolled along like nothing had happened. Since he was not running away, or seemed to have any concerns at all, I just allowed him to walk along until he finally fell over after a 100 yards or so...... Needless to say I was not much impressed with that......... I told my guy, we have to go get my damn rifle ASAP.......... It did pitch up and we proceeded to sort the lions out along with some other things over the next few days.

The only 375 I ever owned in my entire life I bought from a late friend of mine. It was a nice stainless Winchester M70 and I got it from him for $600.00. What Winchester M70 Classic is not worth $600? It sit here for a year or longer trying to ponder what to do with the thing? Finally Dan from Cutting Edge needed a 375 to do some test work with the new Raptors he was working on, I offered it up to him, and promptly rid myself of the thing. I had plenty of 458 Lotts and what have you, so I really did not need to build another.

There is a 375 version of the B&M series I am sad to say. It most certainly was not my idea, that you can be sure of. A B&M fan, that already had 3-4 of the larger versions wanted one. Since he was a really good sort I agreed to it, but made it known under no uncertain terms that he was responsible for load data and everything else involved, as I had ZERO interest is such foolishness. We got a reamer, did the gun, and he held up his end and I held up mine, I never owned one and don't want one.

The only other time there has ever been a 375 here was another fellow had a 375 B&M and brought it for some Terminal performance tests with CEB Raptors and Solids. Once that was completed I had him remove the thing.

Now, the True Jest of the story should have read;

"I heard that Michael458 had used a 416 on some barn rats, but found it coming up short, so moved on to Bigger and Better calibers, 458 through 500 caliber"
I guess I spoke out of terms. After more research, I discovered the actual story. It was your grandma that used the 375 with round nose solids on mice in her kitchen pantry. But after a stern berating about the rules of solid bullet performance, you steered her towards bigger and better things. Better??? LOL!!!
 

Forum statistics

Threads
53,613
Messages
1,131,106
Members
92,663
Latest member
RaymondNie
 

 

 

Latest posts

Latest profile posts

Early morning Impala hunt, previous link was wrong video

Headshot on jackal this morning

Mature Eland Bull taken in Tanzania, at 100 yards, with 375 H&H, 300gr, Federal Premium Expanding bullet.

20231012_145809~2.jpg
Living life like a lion for 1 day is better than living life like a jackal for 100 years.
 
Top