Has anybody had success with any of the Federal factory loads for the 375 H&H?

Particularly interested in the Trophy Bonded Sledgehammers and Bear Claws performance, and the Barnes TSX performance in the Federal factory loadings.

I have a buddy who will be using his new Empire 375 H&H on an upcoming hunt with me in Tanzanaia.

GN

I used my 375H&H as a second rifle on a trip to Zim last Oct. I used a big bore for DG and my 375H&H as a back up for my big rifle and for everything else. I used the Federal 300 grain standard velocity Trophy Bonded Bearclaw and some 300 grain Woodleigh solids which were hand loaded.

The performance of the Bearclaws was excellent. I used them on everything from eland down to impala and recovered three. I recovered one from an eland, one from a wildebeast and one from a waterbuck. The recovered bullets all look like they belong in an add, including the one from the eland which was recovered from the spine, heving entered from the front and destroying a good section of it.

The 300 grain Bearclaws are amazingly accurate in my rifle. The Sledgehammer load would not shoot to the same POI as the Bearclaws so I used a handload with the Woodleighs that shoots less than an half inch higher at 50yds and into the same group at 100yds. That load is the 300 grain Woodleigh solid over 73.5 grains of IMR 4350 using a Federal 215 primer in R-P case, crimped at the canelure. Use at your own risk and take normal precation and work up.

If I was going to use a soft point for Buffalo out of a 375H&H I would use the Bearclaws, but I think your freind would be better off with a bullet that didn't expand so much. Penetration could have been better if buff were a target. For instance, the recovered bullet from the wildebeast entered just behind the nearside front upper leg and was recovered just under the skin at the rear of the upper leg on the off side; the bullet from the waterbuck entered at about the last rib and was recovered just in front of the shoulder on the far side.

Hope this helps,

JPK

I have to agree with JPK on the performance of the Bearclaws. Before I moved up to the 416 Rem Mag, My primary guide rifle was a 375 H&H in M-70 stainless. The first year out with the new gun I had no time to reload before the spring BB season. So I bought 3 boxes of the Federal 300 gr. Bearclaws. They grouped just under 1" after breakin and I was pleased.
The very first trip a client made a bad shot on a 8' BB ( broke the leg ) and I made the follow up shot. I hit the bear in the shoulder and broke it. The bullet came to rest under the skin on the off side after makin a mess of everything in its path. It was a picture perfect mushroom, and still weighed 276 grains.
Since then it has done similar shots with such consistancy that I never have reloaded for it( hard for me not to do ). I put about 3 boxes a year through the gun.
This gun is going on a BB hunt in unit 9 on May 10 in the hands of a good friend and client. This is the go to ammo for this 375H&H
Hope this helps your decision... Maddog

I have used the Federal Safari loads with the 300 grain Nosler Partitions and have found them to be quite good.