Recommend a .375 bullet for North America

[Rob404]

No, not for plains game. Should hit like the hammer of Thor if you drive them a bit.

are you talking loading a little hot ?

 

[sestoppelman]

are you talking loading a little hot ?

Well I wouldn't say hot perhaps but up there. Should be able to get near 3000fps with that weight. Be a flat shootin' SOB!

 

[sestoppelman]

Well I wouldn't say hot perhaps but up there. Should be able to get near 3000fps with that weight. Be a flat shootin' SOB!

I just checked my Barnes book and it claims nearly 3100fps with this bullet for almost 5000 lbs of ME! Holy smackerel! Elmer Keith would probably say it is adequate for most plains game!

 

[Rob404]

I just checked my Barnes book and it claims nearly 3100fps with this bullet for almost 5000 lbs of ME! Holy smackerel! Elmer Keith would probably say it is adequate for most plains game!

Well I can,t wait for warm weather to arrive in Minnesota ,Meanwhile my Smith has my CZ for a once over and a Bolt jewell

 

[rnovi]

For what it's worth I used a 300 gr. Partition at 2,500 fps on deer. It was the one and only time I experienced a bullet "failure".

The Partition didn't expand.

The deer went down so fast I honestly though I'd missed at first.

 

[matt85]

the 300gr partition is way too tough and slow for deer out of a H&H! that being said a .375" hole in a deer's heart/lungs is more then enough to bring it down.

if I ever felt like using my 375 H&H to take a deer id use a Speer 235gr hot-cor. these "little" bullets have a pretty good track record for putting deer down fast.

-matt

 

[enysse]

I love those Hot-cor...they are soft and gets the job done quick!

 

[rainierrifleco]

I agree....

 

[Brian]

How about a premium for hunting and the GK's for practice. I really like the performance and accuracy of the 250gr North Fork bonded cores in my .375. But they are expensive and I wouldn't want to do a lot of plinking/practice with them. But for hunting Africa, they're just a small expense in comparison to the overall cost of the trip.

I have heard from good sources that the .375 Sierra GK are good bullets for North America. I have loaded up a batch of 375, 300gr. GK for long range moose next year. ( Cut block hunting for lazy old guys here in BC.) I think that these GK's will be good long range bullets for two reasons:
1. They are soft enough to mushroom at the lower terminal velocity associated with longer shots.
2. Nice Ballistic Coeffient.

When it comes to Africa, low price bullets can cost you ton of money. If you make a mess of a shot on a North American animal, you will probably still find him laying down somewhere not to far away. Wound a wildebeest, Kudu or especially a Buff and you may spend three valuable days at $800 per day chasing him. I have!

For African plains game, I have had good fortune with Cutting Edge Bullets, NorthForks, and Swift. ( Also Rhino Bullets have excellent terminal ballistic, but you won't likely find them over here. Also they are not as barrel friendly as the above bullets. Solid core with no driving bands. )
Good bullets can save a lot of fussing sometimes. Brian

 

[matt85]

interesting reading this old thread. I have since replaced my 375 H&H as my service rifle with a 416 RM. while I was using the 375 H&H, the Hornady 300gr BTSP served me very well. I believe the 300gr GK would probably work decently if you can get them to shoot. ive never had any luck getting Sierra bullets to shoot well. my general purpose North American load for my 416 RM is a 350gr Speer Hot-Cor at around 2500 fps. ive had pretty good luck with Speer bullets in general as far as accuracy goes.

-matt

 

[Velo Dog]

interesting reading this old thread. I have since replaced my 375 H&H as my service rifle with a 416 RM. while I was using the 375 H&H, the Hornady 300gr BTSP served me very well. I believe the 300gr GK would probably work decently if you can get them to shoot. ive never had any luck getting Sierra bullets to shoot well. my general purpose North American load for my 416 RM is a 350gr Speer Hot-Cor at around 2500 fps. ive had pretty good luck with Speer bullets in general as far as accuracy goes.

-matt

Matt85,

It is unusual to hear of a rifle that will not shoot Sierra bullets well but Sierras are known to be a bit soft, compared to many other brands anyway so, there are better bullets available for Africa.
I liked their old style flat based spitzers for "varmint calibers" back when I was shooting ground squirrels and other vermin (California and Nevada).
But, I would prefer some other brands for Africa.
Speaking of the .416 on PG, I have been meaning to try Woodleigh's 340 gr in my CZ (Rigby version).
Not sure I will ever take mine to Africa for PG but I might, you just never know.
I will look forward to reading how the Speer 350 gr works in your rifle.

Merry Christmas,
Velo Dog.

 

[matt85]

agreed, Sierra and even Speer aren't good choices for Africa. but this thread is about North America and while I don't know about Sierra's I have killed a few critters state side with Speer bullets.

I haven't tested the Speer 350gr SP on a critter yet but the accuracy plenty good enough for hunting at 1 MOA average.

I am currently developing a load for African PG using my 416 RM and thus far ive had the best luck with a Barnes 300gr TSX over H4895 at roughly 2700fps.

-matt

 

[Longwalker]

I'm not real impressed with the discontinued Hornady 300 gr. .375 boat tail. I was shooting some handholds out of my Sako .375 H&H yesterday, at my home range. Target holder is a piece of soft spruce plywood 3/8" (1 cm) thick, with a snowbank behind. I was skiing out there today and found two bullets on top of the snow. Was quite surprised at the complete lack of damage on one, and the odd "expansion" of the other. I realize that plywood and soft snow are not animal hide and flesh, but I was not inspired. What do you think?

 

[sestoppelman]

I think I would look for another bullet. That's really odd. Hard to go wrong with Nosler Partitions or Accubonds for plains game at least, neither are buffalo bullets really. Lots of good bullets out there. BTW, what were the "handholds" on that you were shooting at? LOL!

 

[Pheroze]

... BTW, what were the "handholds" on that you were shooting at? LOL!

Dude, never miss a trick, eh?

 

[sestoppelman]

Not if I can help it.

 

[Pheroze]

I'm not real impressed with the discontinued Hornady 300 gr. .375 boat tail. I was shooting some handholds out of my Sako .375 H&H yesterday, at my home range. Target holder is a piece of soft spruce plywood 3/8" (1 cm) thick, with a snowbank behind. I was skiing out there today and found two bullets on top of the snow. Was quite surprised at the complete lack of damage on one, and the odd "expansion" of the other. I realize that plywood and soft snow are not animal hide and flesh, but I was not inspired. What do you think?
View attachment 56189

In Canada tradeexcanada.com has Woodleigh for a very good price. I just use the Hornady stuff for cheap trigger time.

 

[Longwalker]

Handholds are handloads modified by my spellchecker. ;-)

 

[matt85]

I'm not real impressed with the discontinued Hornady 300 gr. .375 boat tail. I was shooting some handholds out of my Sako .375 H&H yesterday, at my home range. Target holder is a piece of soft spruce plywood 3/8" (1 cm) thick, with a snowbank behind. I was skiing out there today and found two bullets on top of the snow. Was quite surprised at the complete lack of damage on one, and the odd "expansion" of the other. I realize that plywood and soft snow are not animal hide and flesh, but I was not inspired. What do you think?
View attachment 56189

the bullet on the right is about what id expect from soft snow (ive seen this before in snow banks). the bullet on the left is strange...

i wouldn't take those results as something to expect on game.

-matt

 

[larry4831]

Use the Sierra 250 grain game king, there's really nothing wrong with that bullet, look on the Sierra manual a guy dropped a 1000 pound grizzly bear with one.