For you Hunter's/guides, would you prefer to guide a Hunter with a 375 that he isnt entirtelycomfortable with, or a hunter with a 300 win mag shooting something line 200gr NP or 200gr TBBC that he is very comfortable and very good with? This is just hypothetical, as neither a 375 or a bear hunt os is in my near future

a good hit from a .300 mag that the hunter shoots well with 200 gr. n.p. is much better than a poor hit or even a miss with a .375. bullet placement is everything.

i would never use a t.b.b.c. and consider that to be a poor choice.

Brent, I would learn to experience the pleasure of the recoil of the .375 if I were you-long before you go bear hunting. Not saying anything about the .308 dia. bullets in a bad way, as I have shot quite a few grizzlies with the lowly .30-30 up to the 300 winnie but I haved lived in the bush all my life. I would just think if a rookie went into the bush guided or not he is going to crap his pants I would think he is better off using a bigger bullet-makes for a better story -hypothetically speaking.

Shot placement trumps power everytime! Heck, give the guy a 270 he can shoot vs a 375 he can't.

Then again, I'm of the opinion that guys that can shoot, shoot a 270, 30-06 or 375 equally as well, and those that pull there shots will do it with a small bore as weel as with a big bore.

I think an underpowered rifle you already have is poor economics. I have several suitable rifles in .338 Win Mag or .375 H&H and a .416 Taylor and would spend the money again on any of them if I were trophy hunting for heavy or dangerous game like grizzly. The nicest thing about an exotic-use rifle, you get to do load development or just practice for a long time before it does what you bought it for. It sort of makes the "flavor" of that hunt last longer, and saves your guide lots of heart burn, in my mind.

The 300 would be the one I would want to see. Inaccurate shooting with a cannon is only going to bring trouble.

IMO: The shooter should use the biggest gun he/she can shoot well. If ths is a 30/06 ie then be very good with it and use premium bullets. I say a 30/06 because I have had 2 clients shoot 8+ footers with them, in the last 5 years. But they could shoot, and both used 200gr. NP's that believe it or not 1 200 gr. NP passed all the way through a 8'3" brownie (a picture perfect lung shot). This old bore went 100 yards and piled up. I agree with everybody else that a well placed shot from a smaller weapon is better than a piss poor shot from a cannon.
That said I have had 2 women clients in the last 8 years that both shot 375H&H and did as well as any man. I was worried as one gal sighted in before the hunt untill she put 3 shots in 1.5" off a camp table. She now has a 8.5"' in her den. She was 5'3" about 115lbs and 40 years old.
just to show that you can get use to big guns if you want to...Thanks for reading Maddog

MADDOG-that was good. A little bitty woman @ 115lbs shooting a mans gun-now I think it is time for men to be men!

Brent Yates ----- When I went to Alaska on the great Bear Hunt of a lifetime I was a lifetime .300 Winnie shooter and practiced enough with 200 grain Nosler Partitions to handle the Model 70 like a pee shooter in my sleep. I killed my 91/2 ft Brown Bear at Cold Bay with one shot to the heart with him standing up looking at me from 90 yards. He dropped like an flour sack on the spot, then three other 8 footers raised their ugly heads within 20 yards to reveal their presence. To make a long story short my party of four killed two more Bears (we were tagged for three) and the fourth left with gusto, pounding the ground like a Mule running. The effect on me was on my next trip to Bear country I packed a .340 Wby then the next time a .358 STA both with 250 grain bullets and practiced with both enough to handle them as well as I did the old .300 Winnie. I suggest anyone else do the same, or stay where the Bears don't live. Those huge, fast and powerful suckers wanted to live much more tenachously than I had envisioned and go down hard when full of adreneline.

Grizz. She was good lookin too. I will say that the rifle stock had been custom fitted to her, and a short 20" tube, but had no brake. And she was a work out freak.In great shape. <>< Maddog

quote:

Originally posted by MADDOG:
Grizz. She was good lookin too. I will say that the rifle stock had been custom fitted to her, and a short 20" tube, but had no brake. And she was a work out freak.In great shape. <>< Maddog

Bet she was a welcome change from your normal sort of client.

Our hunting club gave a hog hunt for a silent auction at an Texas A&M event that my wife was involved in, and a girl got it and decided to bring her sister. Me and and a couple other of the club officers were to be guides/transporters/cooks. We were expecting a couple of real ..., well, you know, those that play for their own team sort - manly girls. Late the evening before the hunt, they drive up, enter the lodge and our collective jaws hit the freakin floor.

They could have walked right off the pages of Playboy - a blond and a brunett; they were fun, they could shoot (as they proved with a clay pigeon shoot the next day), and never looked bedraggled. My buds had a great time - I had brought my wife .

Since when is a .375 a cannon? Maybe I'm just desinsitized! I would think that if one is shelling out the bucks to hunt griz that he/she would damn well make sure that they are proficient with whatever weapon they choose prior to going on the hunt. I have found that there is nothing unpleasant about a properly set up .375 and that nearly anyone can get comfortable with one given enough practice and a properly stocked and weighted rifle......

I just completed a spring season with two hunters who were afraid of their rifles. One a .375 and the other a 416. One hunter who had a 338-06 and wasn't afraid of it, killed his bear with a single shot. I see thing like that year after year. Shot placement trumps power every time.

Whitworth<>< Not sure where it says in these post, that a 375 is a cannon...?
Maddog

Hey Guys...Just got a request for a Brownie hunt, fall of 07. The husband of the hunter made the call. She is shootin a 416 rem mag, (that's what I use) and I could not hold back. I said how big is your wife? He said 5"6" and a 140 pounds, and 33 years old. Can she handle that 416? He said like a pro. She has already killed a lot of African game including cape buf. We will see. Well I thought it was interesting. Thanks Maddog

well if nothing else happens, it will at least be interesting when she has to go to the bathroom...

Cold Zero: Boy do I have some good women hunting stories. And they are interesting..

maddog;

i'll bet you do. i will be in anchorage early for the third sheep hunt in chugach s.p.

i'll buy the lunch or the beer if you will be around. i can always use a laugh , wherever i can find it.

as for the cape buffalo, i'll bet the p.h. put at least one whole in it for her. 120 of the 140 lbs. are probably in her ass...

quote:

...to handle the Model 70 like a pee shooter in my sleep.

I've heard it called a lot of things in my life, but yours is a new one to me. I like it. Sorry about your bed wetting problem.

Tried, but in the end could not resist.

Oh, and my question to the original poster is: what good is *any* rifle that can't be shot properly and competently? Seems like a no-brainer to me...

I think anyone can learn to shoot a .375H&H if they want too. It won't hurt you. My wife shoots one with no problem and she is 5'8" and 125 pounds. She has used it in Alaska for bear and Africa for Cape Buffalo. I take her to the range 4-5 times befor we go hunting, where she practices shooting (trigger control, sight picture, etc.) with a 7mmRemMag (usually 8-10 shots) and then she will switch to the .375H&H and shoot 4-6 rounds and call it a day.