I'm thinking about getting a Ruger #1 in 375 for a PG gun -- I looked up the ballistics for it, and they don't seem too bad w. a ~200gr. bullet and less than 300 yds -- which is about my limit, if it's a longer shot, I'll leave it to my brother or my buddy.

If this is a bad idea, what is the bullet availability like in 338 Win Mag/any benefit over a 300 Win Mag?

Aglifter.
I used my M70 in 375 for plains game i May this year. From springbuck to gemsbuck and blue wildebeest. Longest shot aprox. 200 yds ( blesbuck), shortest aprox.50 yds ( warthog ) I used 270gr Swift A-frame wich worked perfect. I don´t think a too light bullet in 375 is such a good idee, not much of eighter SD or BC left, just a puny lump of lead and brass.

In the 200 gr range you are better off with a 300 Mag of some sort, or go with the 240 North Fork in 338 Winmag.
I´m looking for a 338 Winnie to mate with the 240 NF for my next trip, the best of two worlds.
Just my two cents

A .375 is the perfect rifle to take PG hunting, especially if you intend to step up to DG someday.

.375 is a fine calibre for any plains game (and any dangerous game, if you do your part).

Arild gives good advice about bullet weights. Personally, I wouldn't use anything lighter than 270gr., with 300gr as my 'go to' load. It just seems to negate all the calibre's strong points. If I really need to shoot something over 300+ yards, I'd want a different calibre (.338 / .30 mag)

You can't go wrong with a .375 as it is good for anything you'll hunt in Africa. Any particular reason for choosing a falling block action over a bolt action?

A .375h&h is a good choice for a PG round. If you ever intend to use it for DG, go to a bolt gun. I love my Ruger #1s but would reserve them for PG only. BTW, unless you are shooting a Barnes 'X', the lightest effective bullet weight is 225gr & the most practical would be 250-270gr for plainsgame. Still a very effective 300yd rifle.

Aglifter,

The 375 with a 270 gr. premium bullet will shoot as flat for all practical purposes as a 30-06 making it an excellent choice for almost anything. The lighter bullets if they shoot in your gun will go fast but they loose a lot in down range performance because of poor ballistics coificient and sectional density.

If you are think about buying the 375 with the idea that you would use it for DG at some point you probably should give some additional thought to choosing a one shooter.

Mark

The .375H&H is a great choice as a plains game rifle. I shoot a 270gr TSX @ 2700 FPS. This combination is a good to any range you can shoot any other rifle comfortably.

I use my rifle for everything from Africa to Alaska to right here in my home state of Colorado.

If you can do it with a .300 or a .338 you can do it with a .375 PERIOD.

Think of it as a dangerous game legal .338. Because balistically that is what it is.

PS

Does less meat damage than a super .300 too.

Absolutely, for all the reasons stated and I even use a 300 Swift AFrame, not know for it's BC, but I saw a kudu drop with one shot at a lazered 352 yards and I myself took a nice bull eland at almost 200. For a one gun safari, to include DG, the 375 is hard to beat. jorge

I shot some 260 accubonds at the range on Sat. They were very accurate and I plan on taking a box to Namibia next friday along with some 300 grn a-frames. Anyone have any experience with accubonds on plains game

It's a great choice. Try the Nosler 260 grain accubonds. It makes the 375 really flatten out.

Unless you are just a single shot affectionauto
I would get a bolt gun....It's your money...
In 2002 I shot a kudu at 400yds with a 375..
But it comes from knowing how to shoot your rifle with a particular bullet...

aim small miss small...

Mike

I have used a 375 with 260gr Nosler Partition to take all the plains game Zimbabwe has and have done so for years. It's my favorite caliber period. I have 5 including a Ruger No.1. I would not feel undergunned even if I ran into Dangerous Game. Rarely get a second shot and in the event of a charge I hope I have a backup shooter if I'm using a SS or anything else. I have 2 No.1's one in 375 and one in 405 and feel perfectly confident with either but only out to 200yds with the 405. The 375 is easily a 300yd rifle with 260gr Noslers. I only used 300gr bullets once and they were Woodleigh solids for Buffalo for second shot and didn't need them as first 300gr Woodleigh soft did the job with one shot. For EVERYTHING else I've used 260gr Nosler partitions.

With a .375H&H in the gunsafe, just had to shoot it. Used Barnes X 210 grainers and 235 grainers. Accuracy was excellent and the elk dropped quickly. Have fun with yours.

Thanks for all the input. I'm simply fond of falling blocks, and I've never felt that comfortable using a bolt-action. Just personal preference, no real reason. I'll probably buy a Christensen Arms bolt action sometime, just because they seem like very nice guns, and they're pleasant to deal w., the few times I've encountered them at shows -- but I just don't ever need to make longer range shots, barring, maybe, this trip to Africa.

I have used the 375 for quite some PG and had the same thoughts as you to use a light bullet for better ballistics. I made some tests and found out that on 300 yards/meter it was only a matter of an inch our two so I decided to go for the Rhino Bullet in 270 grains, has worked well for me.

I have shot more plainsgame with a 375 than with any other caliber.

You can shoot it, accurately, as far as is reasonable with any round. I have used it out to 350 yards with a wounded animal and 275 on an animal that I could not get closer to.

It is a great round. But, get a bolt, unless you want to buy another one for Buffalo hunting later on.

I didn't think there was any other rational choice. The 375 H&H, that is. Not the Ruger #1.

quote:

Originally posted by Aglifter:
I'm thinking about getting a Ruger #1 in 375 for a PG gun --

If this is a bad idea,?

Yup, Yup, and Yup.....

You're more than welcome to hunt with anything you like...it's your money and your trip...do it your way.

But this is an open forum and you did ask!!

Single shot rifles are not at all the best choice for a Safari.

Ruger barely makes the grade as a rifle...let alone an African PG rifle.

The .375 H&H as good as it is is far too much. It's overkill to the Nth degree...It'll work but not at all ideal.

IMO the ideal is a 338-06 sporting 225 Grain A-Frames in a light Mauser bolt rifle or M-70 piloted with a 22" #2 contour barrel. The entire rig with scope et al about 7 1/2 punds.

I'm not knocking the 375 H&H at all...it's among the finest of the finest. It's just a lot more than needed for PG.....in fact the 30-06 has been known to work very well.

Aglifter,

I like the .375 H&H cartridge a lot, and I have taken plains game with it in Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

I used to own a Ruger #1H Tropical Rifle in .375 H&H. I found it to be on teh heavy side, and I eventually sold it.

You can make up a magazine rifle in .375 H&H with a "three down" size action, and you will have a nice rifle to carry and to shoot.

jim

quote:

IMO the ideal is a 338-06 sporting 225 Grain A-Frames in a light Mauser bolt rifle or M-70 piloted with a 22" #2 contour barrel. The entire rig with scope et al about 7 1/2 punds.

We're in agreement excpet in the caliber. A wildcat in africa or for general hunting in far away places is nonsense, especially when a 338 Win Mag (if your choice is a 33) can do what a 338-06 can only much better and ammo is readily available. jorge

I took a 375 #1 to Namibia last summer. It is a tad heavy, but it is a man's gun. If you can't handle the weight stay in the truck. It is shorter and handier than any bolt gun with the same length of barrel. Mine will shoot into an inch at 100 yards with Barnes 300gr triple shocks. With a little practice which you should be doing anyway you can reload without taking your eye off the target, and they can be shot nearly as fast and accurately as a bolt gun. Just because it's a single shot doesn't mean you only have one bullet, and it's the first shot that counts. I shot 4 animals and only had to shoot one more than once, the rest were all one shot kills. Don't get me wrong I love my bolt guns but a single shot can/will get the job done.

Even though not premium bullets hornady spitzers in 270gr loaded at 2550 fps as served me well from the small ones like springbuck, mountain reedbuck to the bigger ones like wildebeest and kudu. shortest range 40m to the longest at about 250m.

The caliber is fine for Plains Game.

IMO you are really going to miss the extra 1 1/2lbs the bolt gun will provide you in recoil absorbing weight.

The Ruger #1 in 375 H&H probably is not going to be alot of fun to shoot.

The Ruger #1 in .375 is a great African plains game gun. I have used mine extensively as a back-up gun on plains game, and for my own plains game hunting. It is short, handy, pointable, accurate, and comfortable for me to shoot with.

It is the one gun that I most often get that “I-can’t-miss-even-if-I-tried-feeling†– and then obviously I make one or two spectacular bad shots just to get the humble levels back to normal again.

Most of my other guns are Mauser based bolts, but my “grab-in-a-rush†gun for plains game remains the .375 Ruger #1.

I hunted last year and borrowed a really poor quality Musgrave mauser in 308.

The guy I was hunting with was a Olive farmer from Spain who had been on a ton of Safaris and he had a CZ 550 American classic in 375 with a EAW mounted Kahles 1.5-6x42. He hadn't shot it alot and it really beat him up. I know he was flinching a lot and he had a lot of misses.

If I was going to take a 375 I would take a 30-06, 300 mag, 270, 308, 7mm mag, what have you. For two reasons to have a back up and to take a break from the recoil.

If your 375 is something you can handle 100 shots from over a week then take it.

You never know when you might get into the baboons thick.

The .375 is too much gun for Dassies.

I killed about 10 dassies, 4 or 5 springhares, a couple fox, and a couple skunks, and a african wild cat with a 222 and a shotgun.

Quite a bit of fun shooting those things.

I asked the San tracker if he was going to eat them, and he told me meat was meat!

1st trip to Africa took a .300 WM for PG and several animals took more than one shot even though well hit and using premium bullets. Next two trips used a .375 for hippo,leopard, buff, and PG, all with excellant results using Swift A Frames. Last year used the .375 again for more plains game but used 300 gr.Barnes X. All one shot kills and the exit was no larger than the entrance. My point is: Aside from my .450-.400 for DG the .375 is all I will ever take again for Africa. Speaking of some of the ballistics above, we chronographed some loads yesterday and some of the 300 A Frames were a tad over 2700 FPS (factory).

Once upon a time I was hunting PG in Zimbabwe with a 300 winnie and a quick opportunity came up on a decent kudu. I had to shoot relatively fast. Just as I got on his shoulder with the cross hairs I squeezed the trigger and at the last milisecond realized there was one limb dead on the cross hairs. Too late. Boom. Away the kudu went. So began a merry chase through the kopjies of Zim. We did finally collect the kudu bull. He had lots more bullet holes in him than I had fired. I was using 200 gr Nosler Partitions. It splattered when it hit the limb and hit the kudu in the gut and hindquarters like buckshot. My PH said that if I had been using a 300 gr bullet from a 375 it may have splattered as well but you would have had much larger fragments hitting that kudu. If you want to hunt larger plains game with a 30-06 it sure will work when everything goes great. Nothing wrong with using a 375 for any of it. I tend to agree with Elmer Kieth. The 375 H&H makes a pretty fair deer rifle.