.375 hh

[huntintoo]

More than 20 years ago, I had the opportunity to purchase a lightly used M70 Safari in .375 It has always been the favorite in a gun safe housing much more expensive custom rifles. Like many I grew up reading the tales from Jack O'Conner who was a big fan of the .375 and wrote glowingly about the cartridge I always wanted one.

My .375 has been used on elk, moose, and free range nilgai in Texas (which might be the toughest critter in the bunch to knock down). The nilai guides often carry .375s for backup. It has also been loaned to make a trip the South Africa and performed very well with mostly one-shot kills on plains game. The ammo can be bought just about anywhere big game is hunted.

The rifle is quite accurate to 300 - 400 yards with factory or handloaded ammo, and flattens game animals like nothing I have used, and that includes .338 Win Mags and the like

This is not a supper sizzle, long range round like the big mags, but a classic old veteran that is still getting it done in the game fields all over the world.

Every dedicated rifleman deserves one.

I got researching the .375's back in 2008 found the .375 Ruger and have Loved it. Deer Elk and the shiras Moose in my Pic. 270 Grain Barnes FTX. One shot drops! My DRT gun (Dead Right There).

 

[LDHunter]

I went with the 375H&H because the two 338WM's I've shot had way more perceived recoil than the 375H&H with no more killing power at less than 400yds.

There's just something magical about the 375H&H and I'm not talking nostalgia because I couldn't care a hoot about nostalgia when selecting a hunting or target shooting cartridge.

I'm talking about killing power, ease of loading, inherent accuracy, recoil.... The 375 is the king of the big game hunting calibers in my estimate unless you're talking about a true dedicated dangerous game rifle such as an African or Alaskan guide might carry and that's a whole different kettle of fish.

Don't get me wrong... The 338 is also an excellent cartridge but I see it as more useful as a long range hunting or target cartridge due to the many choices of target and hunting bullets with high ballistic coefficients.

The recoil of a 375 is more of a push like a 308 with a 180gr bullet and the 338 is brutal and makes me think of a 300WM on steroids.

If you're going to use that H&H for elk hunting just buy a couple of boxes of factory loads with the 260gr Nosler Partition or load your own with the same bullet. Don't worry much about working up a load either. The 375H&H is so easy to load for that almost any old load will do if you have a good rifle with proper bedding and a good trigger.