Greetings from the Freezer!

I am seriously planning on buying a 375 (not sure yet if it should be Ultra Mag or H&H) as an all purpose rifle for: moose, deer, bear, caribou... and eventually cape buffalo. I currently hunt with a bow, and this rifle would be my first.

Is 375 overkill for North-East American game? I just want the animal to drop on the spot when I shoot it.

Also, would I be losing that much meat on a deer?

As for bullets, would 'solids' perform well on Moose, or would they just go thru without a good mushroom?

TIA for your time,
Guillaume Dupuis

375 is an excellent caliber for any game from deer up. I would not use a solid on deer,elk,moose,etc. Use a nosler,swift,something in that range. I have an ultramag but you can't beat a 375 HH. I'm finding with 338 and 375 a lot of the bullets just punch through versus smaller fast calibers that reportedly do horrific damage. If i were to do it over again i wouldn't think twice about getting another 375 for general game hunting.

Thanks Bill.

What about the loss of meat? Is it that bad?

Thanks again,
Guillaume

Best general application caliber in existence.
3/8" slugs are better killers than < 3/8" slugs. Now don't forget where you first heard that.
I say go for the H&H, use it on everything here and by the time you get to Africa, you'll be as deadly as Bwana Saeed on the long shots and almost as deadly as Raymondo with "Sweet Thang", up close.

Very seriously, it's a wonderful hunting cartridge, anywhere.

I and my friends have found the 300mags to be none too overwhelming on moose. I prefer the 338 win mag. The 375 will work great but the rifles are heavier, and generally and cost more. Since most of my Quebec travel is done via boat I wouldn't think weight alone would disqualify the 375.

I don't think starting out with a .375 is a good idea.

Get a .22LR and familiarize yourself with the various aspects of the gun and shooting.

Then, move up to something like a .270 or .30-06; practice until you become proficient with it.

THEN, get a .375 and practice, practice, practice before taking it out after game.

Choosing a .375 as a fist rifle is like learning to shoot handguns with a .44 magnum; possible, but there are better ways to go.

Only a central nervous system (brain, spine) will drop an animal on the spot. The best you can hope for is that it doesn't go far.

As for meat damage, a .375 with conventional bullets will not wreck a lot of meat because bullets 270gr. and up are designed for heavy game.

George

If you do get that 375 and it is an H&H try the Federal factory load with the 250 Trophy Bonded Bearclaw. It is a plesant load to shoot and powerful enough for any thing in the US and Canada.

GeorgeS makes a good point ... I missed where you said it was your very first rifle. Sorry about that!

If a .375 is overkill for Quebec, I'm really pushing it in New Brunswick with my .416. If you've never owned a rifle, you owe it to yourself to start with, TA DA, a 30-06. I'm sure you've at least fired rifles before so it would be a good place to start. Then after a short while when you become completely addicted to the things like the rest of us, you can upgrade to the draggon slayers. Good luck neibour.

I think you should maybe down scale to on of the 338 for your all around rifle. Good for everything in N.America. Cape buffalo, a little light but many have died from a 338.
A 375 may be a little bit much to shoot on a regular basis if this is to be your first rifle.
30-06 may be the perfect cal. for Quebec in my opinion.

375 is an awesome caliber. I would go with the 375 H&H over the Ultra mag. 375 H&H shoots plenty flat for anything out to 350 yards or so. The 375 Ultra is just flatter shooting, it probably won't kill any better. Once you reach a 300 gr. @ 2600 fps, I just don't think you gain much in killing power. The Ultra will just burn more powder and kick harder. Also, the 375 H&H in a 9lb. rifle is easy to shoot.

My buddy uses 260 gr. Ballistic Tips in his 375 H&H. Great for deer, and they would work on bigger stuff too. But, a 270-300 gr. bullet would do better work on moose and bear. Meat damage will be minimal. The 375 bullets are modest in velocity, and they are built somewhat tougher than smaller calibers.

Solids are not wanted on thin skinned game, and they may even be illegal in Quebec. They are here in BC. On moose, you want a expanding bullet, it will do much more damage. Try a Barnes X or CT Fail Safe if you are wanting lots of penetration. Solids are meant for thick-skinned animals, like Buffalo and Elephants, etc.

Game will drop on the spot more often than not with a 375. If they don't, they'll leave a blood trail a blind monkey could follow.

I would say that the 30/06 would be an excellent place to start, and loaded with a good bullet like a woodleigh weldcore 180 gr bullet your good for most situations.

If you must must have a .375 get a cz 550 they weigh 10 pounds scoped and loaded have a pachymeyer recoil pad and handloaded with 235 gr speer or woodleigh bullets at around 2700 fp recoil is nothing. You could work up to the 300 gr pills down th track if you wished.

The .375 H&H is a wonderful all round cartridge and I feel if you opted for one of the .375 Ultra's etc. that would be a bad move.

Another cartridge that may be of interest which neally gives the power of the .375 but a little better in the reocil department is the 9.3x62 also available in the cz American and cheaper than the .375 range of rifles. This may actually be your best bet if you must have an over 30/06 bore.

The 375 is a great cartridge. With practice most can learn to shoot it well. Start out with light hand loads with less than max velocities. Deer will most likely drop on the spot. I have had two bucks run after being hit. They were big bucks. both ran less than 30 yards. All the rest fell on the spot. Decent hits on pigs have given the same . I had one caribou that was shot in the lungs just kick and take off. I shot twice more before he dropped. The 2+3 shots may not have been necessary but if he was still moving I was still shooting. Nilgai and eland have dropped at the shot. The 375 just seems to work on most game. I will never part with mine and will use it for most all my hunting from now on. Cape buffalo on down to small whitetails. If you use the 375 on all your other hunting excursions you will likely be ready for Mbogo when the time comes. I will give you a report on whether my practice got me ready in August. Good hunting. "D"

the 375 seems like a lot of gun for a deer or a caribou.

probably fine for moose.

I agree with some of the other comments about a lighter caliber.

I would start with a 30-06, that should take care of any deer , caribou and bear and would be fine on moose (that's what I use).

if price is the issue You should be able to find a decent 30-06 used. and then as funding permits buy the 375 HH for Africa

if you used the 375 on smaller animals like deer and caribou you might have a lot of meat lost.

I you are dead set on 1 rifle only about the 9.3X62 it is at least legal to use in Africa?

[ 01-26-2003, 16:40: Message edited by: rockhead ]

Gents,

My gunsmith's got a used .300 Weatherby, for 400USD (...which is in great shape). I might start with this rifle, and then a few months before the oversea trip get the 375H&H.

I'll trust your experience

PC mentionned a CZ550 when I'll be ready for a 375. Would anybody have a comment comparing the CZ550 and a Sako?

Thanks again for your valuable help,
Guillaume

Guillame: IMHO a 300 Weatherby recoils much worse than a 375 H&H. If you're thinking of the Weatherby for your first rifle, get the 375. The 375 will not mess up much meat, but the Weatherby will.

DON'T get a .300 Weatherby as your first rifle.

If you have not shot alot of rifles, you owe it to yourself and the animals to shoot something you can handle. A .300 Weatherby can recoil like bastard with some stocks.

For what you are talking about, a .270 or 30-06 would much better serve your purposes for now.

You can always get bigger guns later.

gdupius,

I would opt for the cz .375 over the sako as I prefer control round feed rifles over push feed types such as sako. The cz's shoot great and are an all steel magnum mauser action, you get a set of express sights on the cz which is a bit of a bonus. Major drawbacks would be the stock and safety buyt these can be replaced and personally I do not mind the stock infact I quite like it.

I have 3 cz rifles at the minute and have a desire to get two more in the next year, I simply love them.

Just talked to one of my buddies. He killed two whitetail doe on a cull hunt this weekend with his CZ 375 H&H, with Federal factory 250gr Trophy Bonded Bearclaws. One doe was hit in the neck shoulder junction, bullet exited the far shoulder, deer went right down. Second deer was hit behind the shoulder, bullet broke one rib on exit, deer ran about 20 yards. Shots were around 180 yards. He used his CZ because he had not hunted with it yet, plans on using it for Elk.

Thanks guys,

... so long for the 300Wby, and the CZ will get more attention!

For the immediate future, I'll probably get a 30-06, from the info I've gathered from you folks.

Just before putting the $$$ down, I'll get the sales guy to take me to the range and try these 3 calibers: 270RemMag, 30-06 and the 375 HH.

Thanks again,
Guillaume

hey,
the question of recoil would be of interest.
Me for myself raised up with shooting and personaly don�t like any gun, that kick out the brain when shooting
But the recoil isn�t only a question of the caliber..it�s more the whole amount of this and that:

- the caliber of course
- weight of the gun.....
-but what most of u have forget to mention is that the form / style of the stock has a real hugh influence of th efeeled recoil.
look for a plain/ safari style rifle , no monte carlo stock style!

I use a .375 H&H in germany for my wild boar and red shooting and have to say, the felt recoil of my old Mauser 98 is little more then a .30-06.

If u interested in how it works: here u may find interetsting information:

http://www.serveroptions.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=003097

by the way... some weeks ago i shot a roe doe with the .375H&H,..and it works better than my .30-06 (if u can make it better than one shot kills,..even the.30-06 punches the roes and boars out of the tracks
For my opinion...if u can handle it, go for it.
But Note: even a "big bullet" has to be placed well!!! It�s all a question of shot placement and the hunters character not to shoot in any situation!

cheers
Konstantin

I would never ever recommend a calibre as large as a .375 to someone who is looking for their first rifle. The absolute last thing that you want to do is develop any kind of flinch, which can be difficult to get rid of.

Seeing that you are hunting deer up to Moose, why not start off with a 30-06? A 30-06 can be had in a much lighter rifle than the .375. Plenty of Moose have been killed with the 06 using good quality premium projectiles - and good shot placement. The recoil of a 30-06 is going to be alot more manageable than the .375 for a first time shooter.

Once you've gotten use to the 30-06, then yeah, get the .375. It's a superb calibre!

Just my 0.2 cents opinion.

You dug up an EIGHT YEAR OLD thread?

Wow.

quote:

You dug up an EIGHT YEAR OLD thread?

Wow.

hahaha I know, I posted it then looked at the date - hmmm its a little too late I know!

Then tried to delete it but couldn't, so here it is.