GeorgeS,

What do you mean by the "now discontinued ballistic tips"?

The .375 BT HAS been discontinued...I think that is what he was referring to.

Since Buffalo and Elephant are a little scarce here in Georgia I decided to get some real world practice with my .458 Lott on some of the indigenous dangerous game here, namely the snorting, charging, always aggressive whitetail deer.
Or as the natives say �look at M'< !--color-->yBO< !--color-->yGO< !--color-->"
Anyway, I have killed five deer with it in the last two seasons, ranging in weight from 65 to 155lbs. Three were killed with 550 grain woodleighs and two with a bear load I developed. 400 grain spitzer soft points at 2400 fps.
The three killed with the 550gr dropped to the shot and meat damage was less than from my .270 w/140gr soft points.
This year I started using the 400gr bullets to access their abilities on live game.
The first deer I took was a doe, 65 lbs (woof, woof) she was taken as she faced me at 35 yards. I expected massive damage but it turned out that the exit indicated a lack of expansion.
This past Saturday I took a 5 pointer (cull buck) at 25 yards. At the shot he bucked and ran off visibly wounded. BUT he never went down.
I immediately assumed that I had made a bad shot and had gut shot him, the woods were thick and he was chasing a doe. I waited five minutes and began my track. It was immediately obvious that he was hit hard. There was a lot of arterial blood and in rhythmic patterns��.Aorta.
I found him piled up 50 yards from point of impact. Field dressing revealed the .458 entry wound. Absolutely no solid lung tissue, no aorta or vena cava, his rib cage was popped free of his spine and free floating with a tennis ball exit wound through the opposing ribs, which is OK since I never eat the ribs.
This episode reveals three things. First this is a good load for my upcoming bear hunt and second, I need to revert to tougher bullets if I am to continue hunting deer with this weapon. Finally, I guess Cape Buffalo aren't the only animal able to run off after taking a Lott in the heart.
I have every intention of taking one of the local "leopard" squirrels with the Lott later in the season��.don�t worry I am going to �bark� him.

SBT,

Quote:

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Dead deer with a lung shot recovered in 60 yards - No meat damage. Sounds like a great job to me.

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Amen, and said like a true meat hunter!

Dakor, since when do whitetails drop in their tracks when hit through the lungs? And if the exit hole was the size of a nickel, the bullet did indeed expand. What did you want, an exit hole the size of a grapefruit? The 250 Sierra just might give you the 'cherry bomb' effect.

For deer you might want to load up some 235gr Speers to about 2750fps. This has been deadly on deer for me and duplicates my 150gr -06 load ballistics ( or close enough). The 375 makes on hell of a deer gun if you use the right bullets. BTW I used nothing but 300gr in Africa from buff to nyala.
Good luck!
Russ

Dead deer with a lung shot recovered in 60 yards - No meat damage. Sounds like a great job to me.

Have used 235 gr Speers on deer. Won't do it again. They break up on impact. Very dead very quickly, but damage too much meat.

Also had a 260 gr NBT take a left turn in a deer hit just behind the right front leg. Bullet left a trail of jacket shards to the exit on the left rear quarter. Won't use them again either.

Been thinking a lighter Woodleigh might to OK. Thoughts?

I used my 375H&H Safari Express and Sierra 250gr Game Kings on a South Africa PG hunt last year. The bullets worked great on everything but the smallest animal I took; a Mt. Reedbuck. Eventhough shot completely thru the heart, it acted as if nothing had happened and my PH said I missed. A soon as I had another round chambered, the Reedbuck fell over and had gone a total of 10 yards.

dakor,

I love the .375 and think it is the greatest all around cartridge that a person could want. It all depends on the bullet you use. I took a small muley buck season of 2002 with the Barnes 235 gr X loaded over a healthy dose of IMR 4350. Hear is a picture of him.







The entrance hole:







And exit hole:

Deer have a tendency not to fall over when they get hit unless you break the shoulders or hit the spine. In my experience, heart and lung shot deer will typically run 30-50 yards before falling over, no matter what you hit them with.

Pete

I have used 250gr Sierras, 270gr failsafes, and have witnessed 260 BT's used on deer. The 260 BT was on a small whitetail fawn (40lbs) at about 15yds and the hair literally exploded off of that deer. There was a carpet of hair for about 20 feet in all directions. At H&H velocity this may not have been a problem but if I had some I'd think twice about using them on deer. That may be why they are discontinued. I have shot probably close to 10 deer with the Sierra's and it is an excellent bullet for that. I used it for elk for several years also and even took 5 animals in Africa with it including a Kudu. The bigger animals stop them before a lot of penetration but they've killed everything I've hit with them. 270 Failsafes are way overkill for deer (my gun was sighted in for them after a trip to Alaska) and I only used them on one deer. It dropped on the spot. All of these bullets were out of .375 H&H IMP's.

After shooting my .416 this year for deer it's easy to see that deer barely even tax most bullets in the larger calibers. I sure wish we could get Nosler talked into a 300-325 Accubond for the .416's.

I am not complaining I was just surprised at the reaction of the Doe I shot. I mean this load has over 4000 ftlbs at 50 yards so I figured she would have dropped on the spot. Now as for deer dropping on a lung shot I have had very few run away when being hit with my 6mm-284 or 7mm STW but those are high velocity rounds and that really seems to make the difference. My 6mm-284 seems to smack a deer harder then a 270 or 30/06 because of the speed of the bullet. I used the 300 gr TSX because this is the load I am going to use for moose and Brown Bear in Alaska next fall and wanted to shoot something with it to get used to it. As for the deer I missed earlier in the morning I just flat out missed I watched both does I shot at run across a plowed field for a long ways until they crossed another field and went out of sight. I looked for blood on the stubble where they had run and found nothing so I missed I will admit it. I think I will try my 260gr Accubonds on my next Doe and I will give you a report on how it works.

The swift A-Frame has worked well for everything I have used it on. I use the 270 gr bullet for deer,nilgai, hogs, eland and in a few weeks for cow elk if the red gods smile. They open but not too fast. Some deer run, particularly if only a behind the shoulder shot is the lick. I try to hit bone these days with all my hunting. That shoulder bone opens the tougher bullets right up. You will have fewer complaints. Take the pure lung shot if you must preserve every last bit of meat and don't mind tracking. Hit bone if you want to find them where you pull the trigger and can spare a package of burger from each shoulder. All that said, opening day I shot a big 8 point whitetail at 196 yards straight through both shoulders. The 270 gr bullet crushed the on side shoulder and jellied his heart. Exit wound about a silver dollar size through the off shoulder. He still ran over a hundred yards. Some deer, like cape buffalo and everything else, just take a lot of killing to get the job done. Go figure, 375 H&H, perfect shot placement, low in the shoulder. Hit bone on the way in, just missed bone on the way out. Still made it off our property and had to be retrieved from the neighbor's. ? Still the 375 makes a pretty good deer round.