Well given my druthers, if the shot is bad, then yes I will take the 600 over the 375...When the shot is a bit off then the biggest of bores do make a difference..When the shot is good then the 375 is more than enough....Wake up Will, you know that!!

Andy, if you're still following this, I'll have to say that the threads I've seen in my (short) time here all sound the same, i.e., just like this one.



This, by and large, seems to be a board which favors the .375.



My personal conviction is this: The .375 is like the .30-06, it didn't stay around this long by being a poor choice!

Welcome Andy,

If you were to become an professional ivory hunter then yes I would say you would be undergunned and I'm sure that the frist thing that you would have bought after your first money made would be a bigger caliber rifle.

BUt how many of us shoot over 10 elephants in their whole lifetime these days ???

Low recoil and precise shot placement does wonders. Flinching as made a lot of trouble so far in Africa and still is.

I have not been on safari yet. If I may pass on some info though, my friend, who has taken 65 buf, 25 lion and numerous other DG used a .375 H&H almost exclusivley, and certainly by choice. His 80+ year old mentor took several times more DG and suggests the .375 H&H. My friend was in problem animal control and game farm management for 17 years.

I have seen both 375 H&H solids (FMJ with lead core) and 9.3x64 solids (RWS)enter buffalo and follow the ribs exiting on the same side. I have seen this on quartering shots on buffalo facing and shots fired at escaping buffalo that hit the hip.

I am not sure if this is the case with round nosed 375 H&H monolithic solids but I have seen the flat nosed trophy bonded solid bent into an L shape so they will go off in odd directions. i have also seen the same soloids stop on the back of a hippos skull. The shot was from the rear, from a bank and went through very thick neck muscle first. the hippo died but it must have drowned because when the skinner boiled the skull the bullet was stopped on the back of it.

I have never seen a 458 calibre mono solid bend nor as yet a 416 mon solid bend but I have had much experience with 458 mono solids and little with 416 mono solids.

VBR,


Ted Gorsline

You are not under-gunned from what I have seen and from what the various PH's said to me while there.

They all used the.375 most of the time and the .458 Lott on Elephant as a back up.

i am on countdown to safari number 6 and have upgraded to a 416, until now i have seen all 30 cal including the 375 do a good job on game. in fact i have seen a 300 wm do a through and through both shoulders and the bones of an eland, so i think bullet construction is of the utmost importance.

good hunting all. tm