My notebook includes comments from an old article on the 9.3x62 from the African Hunter site. It mentioned one of the cartridges which preceded it included the .375 Fl. Exp. in "cheap and nasty" rifles, and I'm curious if this is a fair assessment. My notes also include a reference to H&H rifles loaded in a +P variant of the .375 NE, so I have to wonder if the reputation was really all that bad. Perhaps there were a number of cheap bolt guns in the .375 NE?

And by the title of your thread I thought you were talkig about cheap and nasty women...

quote:

Originally posted by asdf:
My notebook includes comments from an old article on the 9.3x62 from the African Hunter site. It mentioned one of the cartridges which preceded it included the .375 Fl. Exp. in "cheap and nasty" rifles, and I'm curious if this is a fair assessment. My notes also include a reference to H&H rifles loaded in a +P variant of the .375 NE, so I have to wonder if the reputation was really all that bad. Perhaps there were a number of cheap bolt guns in the .375 NE?

If you are talking about the 375 2 1/2" NE,
then yes, there were some very cheap and nasty guns made in this calibre.

Cogswell and Harrison being one of them.

As to this cartridge in bolt guns ???
Seen MS's in it but not many others, but
then again I don't go looking for them.

But those Coggies were crap IMHO.

quote:

Originally posted by asdf:
My notebook includes comments from an old article on the 9.3x62 from the African Hunter site. It mentioned one of the cartridges which preceded it included the .375 Fl. Exp. in "cheap and nasty" rifles, and I'm curious if this is a fair assessment.

As a reference to some of the rifles as opposed to the cartridge, yeah I suppose it could be. That was certainly true of the .303, which the .375 2 1/2" Flanged Nitro Express replaced.

India was far and away the largest market for rifles for the British gun trade. When the .303 was banned there in 1899, the .375 was one of a number of cartriges introduced to replace it. Unlike the others, it was commonly used in magazine rifles, including Lee-Enfield sporters, as well as doubles and singles.

quote:

My notes also include a reference to H&H rifles loaded in a +P variant of the .375 NE, so I have to wonder if the reputation was really all that bad.

Yeah, there was a .375 No. 2 load that used the same case and Cordite charge, but with a 320 grain bullet which, undoubtedly, produced significantly more pressure than the standard 270 grain load. Some of the rifles I've seen for it were Hollands. Holland built a lot of rifles for the .375 2 1/2".

It's a good cartridge that, like the .303, was intended for ordinary game but was widely used beyond that intended niche. It replaced the .303, and was never intended to be what the .375 Magnum was. This was one of Elmer Keith's favorite cartridges (he had a best quality Lancaster double chambered for it), and certainly would not have been had it been anything other than superbly effective on ordinary game.

These days it seems that everybody wants to make it into something that it wasn't intended to be.
-----------------------------------------------
"Serious rifles have two barrels, everything else just burns gunpowder."

Yes, it is the .375 2.5" I was referring to.

Thank you 400 Nitro Express, and 500N, for the information.

I knew of Lee-Enfields in .375 and of Keith's double, but I wouldn't call those cheap or nasty.

The Holland DR's that they built for this
cartridge were sweet little things - and damn
good shooters from what I have seen.