.375 h&h for whitetails

[ET1775]

I killed a doe 20 some years ago with a 300 gr. I believe it was a triad bullet, perhaps the lion load. I don't remember the specifics, just the results were... catastrophic and immediate.

 

[JG26Irish_2]

The 300g Barnes TSX in the 375 is a great round and it retains 100% of its weight and drills deep. Only does modest meat damage. Truly too much gun for deer but it works great. I shot a Blue Wildebeest with that load on my last Safari and it was a 180g frontal shot, slightly quartering and it hit with a loud "Whop!". The beast reared up, wheeled and stumbled and then ran away, dropping after about 60y before I could reload. That bulled expanded to 2.0x and penetrated over 3ft lodging in the paunch. Along the way, it hit the left lung and top of heart and just clipped the right lung. Another anchoring shot expanded to 2.2x and was found under hide on opposite side. These are tough animals but it did the job. They are accurate too. I have not used my 375 on game that often as it is not needed to kill most plains game. If I was going out West for Elk or Moose or Bear, it would be a prime candidate, depending on the terrain and expected ranges encountered.

 

[62flint]

I hope to use my 375 this year for local whitetail. I just hope I am not under gunned

 

[woodsrunner]

The 300g Barnes TSX in the 375 is a great round and it retains 100% of its weight and drills deep. Only does modest meat damage. Truly too much gun for deer but it works great. I shot a Blue Wildebeest with that load on my last Safari and it was a 180g frontal shot, slightly quartering and it hit with a loud "Whop!". The beast reared up, wheeled and stumbled and then ran away, dropping after about 60y before I could reload. That bulled expanded to 2.0x and penetrated over 3ft lodging in the paunch. Along the way, it hit the left lung and top of heart and just clipped the right lung. Another anchoring shot expanded to 2.2x and was found under hide on opposite side. These are tough animals but it did the job. They are accurate too. I have not used my 375 on game that often as it is not needed to kill most plains game. If I was going out West for Elk or Moose or Bear, it would be a prime candidate, depending on the terrain and expected ranges encountered.

Good info. I've not shot game yet with my .375 despite owning it for 15 years and carrying it many miles in the big woods. I purchased it on account of the abundant grizzlies on our farm and out on the land in general here and incidentally i've shot multiple big free-ranging livestock when required over the years, mature bulls of different species etc. in the 1 ton range. I've found it to be a supremely confidence-inducing calibre in my rifle (a custom CZ 550 magnum), the bullet goes where you want it to and the animal goes down, period. I've witnessed a lot of debacles slaughtering big livestock (and some with game) on account of being undergunned. The whole concept of being "overgunned" is only relevant to my mind if you're ending up with excess damage to your resource. Otherwise, no such thing. I mean, the implication with the whole "overgunned" discussion is that just like a carpenter with a totally stocked workshop, our gunsafes are jammed full of rifles each one intended to be the perfect medicine for the specific individual game animal we are after on a given hunt and that's the one we must carry if we are to avoid making ourselves the butt of jokes. There are no such firearms except on a case by case basis, however. Instead, i prefer to cover all my bases, be prepared for whatever might come up. This is the reason for carrying a .375 H&H in my area when the bears are still active. People who joke at this just don't get it.

 

[buffybr]

This old revived thread reminds me of an opposite thread that I briefly participated in on another forum. The OP of that thread had killed or two whitetails with his .223 with heavy bullets and then claimed that a .223 would be a good choice for any big game animal in the lower 48 states.

I simply replied that "there are better choices", and got royally flamed by the .223 cult, including claims of 500+ yard one shot kills on moose with .223 bullets. I have two .223 rifles, and shoot one of them almost every week at steel on our range out to 430 yards. I have killed deer and pronghorn antelope with my .22-250, and have killed at least a dozen deer with a .22 LR, and had several friends that killed elk and even American buffalo with their .22-250s, but again, I say there are better choices.

My first centerfire rifle was a .30-06 that I bought when I was in college. For about 10 years I used that rifle for everything from prairie dogs to elk, because that was the only rifle that I had. I then bought a .22-250 for mainly varmints, a .257 Ackley for deer size animals, and rechambered my .30-06 to .30 Gibbs for elk size animals.

About 30 years ago I bought a Remington Classic Model 700 .375 H&H rifle, thinking that I would use it in Africa someday. In 2000 I went through a two year, nasty divorce and my ex-wife wanted that rifle because I had bought it while we were married, and she said she could use it deer hunting. To my knowledge, she has never shot a deer, either before or after we got divorced.

She did not get awarded that rifle, and I never fired it, and later traded it for a Rem Model 541-T .22 LR rifle, which is a great, inexpensive, and literally no recoil practice rifle.

In 2005 I did go on an African Cape Bufffalo hunt, and I bought a .375 RUM for that hunt. Along with my buffalo, I shot a Chobe bushbuck, a common reedbok, and a couple of other Plains Game with that rifle. And on my next South African hunt I only took my .375 RUM and shot a variety of other PG animals, including a Vaal Rhebok, a Jackal, and a couple of 20 pound Steenboks with that rifle. Not that I thought my .375 RUM was the best choice for those animals, but because it was the only rifle that I had brought for that hunt.

There are also hunters that use their .375s for deer hunting here at home because they say that it's good practice for them with that rifle. Probably a valid reason for them getting used to the heavier recoil of the .375 vs. using "normal" and "better deer cartridges" like a .308 Win, .243, or (gulp) a 6.5 Creedmoor.









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[pilar]

I had my 375 cranked up with 235gr hot core @ 3000fps , imo to hot for deer ( maybe a Barnes ttx 235 = Mas Major @ 3000 ? )
Cranked it down to 2750-2800 and much better and milder on shoulder

 

[CADDIE5]

Those loads are very similar to Bear Creek Ballistics 450 bushmaster 240HV copper alloy @ 2600fps. Quick kill and no damage to the meat. Reloading makes the 375 very versatile and it kicks like a 12ga with deer slugs.

 

[JG26Irish_2]

This old revived thread reminds me of an opposite thread that I briefly participated in on another forum. The OP of that thread had killed or two whitetails with his .223 with heavy bullets and then claimed that a .223 would be a good choice for any big game animal in the lower 48 states. I simply replied that "there are better choices", and got royally flamed by the .223 cult, including claims of 500+ yard one shot kills on moose with .223 bullets.

In 2005 I did go on an African Cape Buffalo hunt, and I bought a .375 RUM for that hunt. Along with my buffalo, I shot a Chobe bushbuck, a common reedbok, and a couple of other Plains Game with that rifle. And on my next South African hunt I only took my .375 RUM and shot a variety of other PG animals, including a Vaal Rhebok, a Jackal, and a couple of 20 pound Steenboks with that rifle. Not that I thought my .375 RUM was the best choice for those animals, but because it was the only rifle that I had brought for that hunt.

There are also hunters that use their .375s for deer hunting here at home because they say that it's good practice for them with that rifle. Probably a valid reason for them getting used to the heavier recoil of the .375 vs. using "normal" and "better deer cartridges" like a .308 Win, .243, or (gulp) a 6.5 Creedmoor.

Sounds like you know what you are talking about Sir. I love my 223's but despite it being legal for deer, I would never use it on deer outside of a survival situation. The only reason, I ever used my 375 on deer was to get some real world trigger time on it in a hunting situation prior to going to Africa the first time. I recommend that to anyone prepping to go on a big hunt with a new or unfamiliar rifle. It caused me to upgrade the scope after taking a deer with it in deep dark woodland conditions.

As I am sure you and most of our members already know, the 375 is commonly used in Africa on the tiny 10 like the Klipspringer, Steenbok, and Duikers just because it puts them down hard to avoid tracking and it does not tear them up like a 270, 7mm or 30cal might. Once you get past the little extra recoil (no worse than a 12ga shotgun in my view), the 375 is a great allrounder rifle. I am weird, in that I think the 458 mag is pleasant to shoot, lol. But, I do not enjoy lugging 9-12lb rifles around all day. My latest love is a little tiny 5.5lb 338 compact magnum. It is closer to 6.5lb with scope and sling added. I have not shot it yet but even with the super light weight, I doubt it is going to have felt recoil of more than the 375HH (9.5lb rig), but they will likely feel a lot alike, which is fine.

 

[SETH RINGER]

NEVER SHOT WHITETAIL WITH MY .375 JUST CAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY OTHER RIFLES IN THE SAFE BEGGIN TO BE LET OUT, BUT THE BUSHBUCK I SHOT WITH IT NEVER HAD A CHANCE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT "TOO MUCH GUN"!

 

[woodsrunner]

Those loads are very similar to Bear Creek Ballistics 450 bushmaster 240HV copper alloy @ 2600fps. Quick kill and no damage to the meat. Reloading makes the 375 very versatile and it kicks like a 12ga with deer slugs.

I helped a neighbor gut and drag an elk bull from the adjacent wetland early one morning. For who knows what reason he was out hunting elk with his .243, he has far more suitable calibres. Took five shots to bring the thing down as it ran across the open and down into the thick stuff, the placement on all of those shots good, any single one of them would have done the job with a .375.

There is a piece in a Sports Afield about a well-reknowned Alaska bear guide's custom .30-06, very nicely done gun. He advocates the 06 as perfectly good for the biggest bears, then goes on to offer as proof a story where it took six shots to finally bring down the one huge bear in a closer scrape. It's odd what people may think is an argument for one thing, when to me in this case it was quite the argument for the precise opposite. Imagine what could have happened (and has happened of course) between the first and sixth shot from that 06.

 

[1972RedNeck]

I like 300 gr RN soft points in my 375 Weatherby for all NA game at 2800 FPS. For varmints I will load up some 200 Gr bullets at 3400 FPS on occasion. Wish I could find a 150 Gr HP to get upwards of 4K with.

Too much gun is like too much horsepower - too much is almost enough.

 

[JG26Irish_2]

Too much gun is like too much horsepower - too much is almost enough.

One of my favorite quotes. Coming from a former road racer, lol.