375 enough gun?

[Art Lambart II]

375 vs 416

If you’re going to buy a double rifle go with the 416, up close and personal is the 416's bread and butter.

If you’re going to become a dedicated DG hunter buy the 416. Remember you don’t feel recoil in the field and if things go from slow and controlled to fast and furious you’ll want all the knockdown power you can get your hands on.

If you’re going to buy a scoped bolt gun get the 375 H&H. The versatility of the 375 is legendary, with the right bullet you can take the smallest Duiker or the largest Elephant. The 375 is a proven long range performer, I’m not a fan of shooting more than 100 yards but it is comforting to know you can shoot 350 yards if you have to. The late Jack O’Conner said “I can hunt anything, anywhere in the world with my 270 and my 375 and never feel under gunned”.

There you have it, advice and no real answers

Good luck with your choice, let us know what you decide.

 

[Velo Dog]

Delete this thread! Princess Bride just read it and it has pushed my plans for a 416 Rigby and even a double rifle back a few years. She pointed this thread out to me and said "You shoot your 375 very well why do you need one of those other guns" A sad moment. All that work gone to waste.

A feller can have too many women in his life but, never too many rifles.

 

[greyfox]

Delete this thread! Princess Bride just read it and it has pushed my plans for a 416 Rigby and even a double rifle back a few years. She pointed this thread out to me and said "You shoot your 375 very well why do you need one of those other guns" A sad moment. All that work gone to waste.

Tell her that global warming is REAL and the Ice Cap is melting, there's a BUNCH of mastodons that are going to wake up horny, hungry and ANGRY. They'll terrorize the cities and all the people with puny 30.06's and 270's will be mastodon bait or girlfriend, so unless you want to be covered in frozen sperm, you NEED a 416/450/double (fill in the blank) It's all for protection of her!

 

[Witold Krzyżanowski]

A 375HH should do the trick for you, then hedge your bet with a 404Jeff

I think the same as Rob.
Witold

 

[Rob404]

Delete this thread! Princess Bride just read it and it has pushed my plans for a 416 Rigby and even a double rifle back a few years. She pointed this thread out to me and said "You shoot your 375 very well why do you need one of those other guns" A sad moment. All that work gone to waste.

Women should not be allowed to make important decisions such as rifle calibers,,it shows they have way to much time on their hands,,their spare time should be spent doing important household projects such as
1,washing and waxing the family car or truck
2, mowing the lawn on weekends
3, painting the house when needed
4, looking after the children so the Man can spend important time honing his hunting skills
,,,

 

[Pheroze]

Women should not be allowed to make important decisions such as rifle calibers,,it shows they have way to much time on their hands,,their spare time should be spent doing important household projects such as
1,washing and waxing the family car or truck
2, mowing the lawn on weekends
3, painting the house when needed
4, looking after the children so the Man can spend important time honing his hunting skills
,,,

Eek good thing the avatar maintains your anonymity! Lol

 

[Pheroze]

That's some pretty solid advise right there. I can say if I was to do my lion and buff hunt over I'd take my CZ 375 H&H and leave the 416 at home in the safe.

I would love to know why. I really love the caliber but have no hunting experience with it. What changed your mind on the calibers?

 

[Royal27]

Delete this thread! Princess Bride just read it and it has pushed my plans for a 416 Rigby and even a double rifle back a few years. She pointed this thread out to me and said "You shoot your 375 very well why do you need one of those other guns" A sad moment. All that work gone to waste.

@Jfet We all knew that having PB here would come back to haunt you at some point. Well, it just did.

Of course she is absolutely right, which is why I'm glad my wife isn't a member here. I mean otherwise my .458 Lott might not have a ho,e now.

 

[gizmo]

I would love to know why. I really love the caliber but have no hunting experience with it. What changed your mind on the calibers?

It has do do with the lack of factory ammo available for the 416 Ruger. The cartridge itself is awesome. It out performs the 416 Riby hands down with the same bullet weights and it does it out of a standard action. But.... The Hornady DGX and DGS line of ammo is the only that is available in factory ammo. It is absolute garbage and could have very well got me killed. Never again will I trust my life to it. I am a Hornady fan but this stuff is dangerous.
Also, the 375 H&H is a battle hardened tried and true cartridge. It's been the definition of a african cartridge. In a sense it's the little round that could. It has successfully cleanly killed all of the big 5 for over a hundred years and is still doing it today. It will kill a kudu dead in its tracks at 300 yards then turn around and shoot completely through a elephant with a solid. Kill a buff stone dead with a soft then turn around with a solid and kill a duiker that will still be able to be mounted. All of this with very similar ballistics to a 30 06 with very light recoil in comparison to the big bores. ( 375 is really a medium bore in my opinion)

 

[gizmo]

Women should not be allowed to make important decisions such as rifle calibers,,it shows they have way to much time on their hands,,their spare time should be spent doing important household projects such as
1,washing and waxing the family car or truck
2, mowing the lawn on weekends
3, painting the house when needed
4, looking after the children so the Man can spend important time honing his hunting skills
,,,

Omg bro, you stepped in it there.

 

[Desperatezulu]

It has do do with the lack of factory ammo available for the 416 Ruger. The cartridge itself is awesome. It out performs the 416 Riby hands down with the same bullet weights and it does it out of a standard action.

Wow, this is a big statement - prepare for some lively debate. The only part I agree with is the standard action bit - for the performance comment I disagree completely. But as a Rigby man, I admit I am biased

Regarding the OP, the 375 is adequate but bullet placement and bullet selection is just that little bit more critical. As you go up in bore size, so the margins for error increase slightly. The question is whether the increased recoil reduces your accuracy to a greater extent than the increased margin for error, or not!

 

[Desperatezulu]

Women should not be allowed to make important decisions such as rifle calibers,,it shows they have way to much time on their hands,,their spare time should be spent doing important household projects such as
1,washing and waxing the family car or truck
2, mowing the lawn on weekends
3, painting the house when needed
4, looking after the children so the Man can spend important time honing his hunting skills
,,,

Rob, you left out no. 5: Leaving blankets on the couch, so you have somewhere to sleep!

 

[gizmo]

Wow, this is a big statement - prepare for some lively debate. The only part I agree with is the standard action bit - for the performance comment I disagree completely. But as a Rigby man, I admit I am biased

Regarding the OP, the 375 is adequate but bullet placement and bullet selection is just that little bit more critical. As you go up in bore size, so the margins for error increase slightly. The question is whether the increased recoil reduces your accuracy to a greater extent than the increased margin for error, or not!

Hey I like Rigbys but... The Ruger pushes a same weight bullet with higher velocity and more energy. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with the Riby round. The Ruger just out performs it. Same with the 375 Ruger and H&H. I prefer the H&H much more than the Ruger despite the Ruger out performing it.

 

[Desperatezulu]

I think you may have your wires crossed on the 416 Ruger vs Rigby and the 375 Ruger vs H&H... I agree in the 375 the Ruger has more horsepower. And for both cals the Ruger is the more efficient cartridge.

The Ruger pushes a same weight bullet with higher velocity and more energy.

I'm saying this is not correct when it comes to the 416s. At the same pressures, the Rigby pushes the same bullet faster - it simply burns more powder.

Ruger is running close to max pressure to match the Rigby at idle for the standard 400gr @2400f/s. Sure Ruger made a bunch of claims about getting 2400f/s with a 400gr out of a 20" barrel but I think all of that has long since been debunked as marketing hype and Ruger has toned it down to 2400 from a 24", i.e. matching the Rigby standard.

Once bullets >400gr (and heavy/long monolithics) come into the picture, then the Rigby runs away with it by virtue of the bigger case capacity and accommodating longer bullets. As I said before, I'm biased!

Anyway, enough of a hijack from me.

 

[gizmo]

I think you may have your wires crossed on the 416 Ruger vs Rigby and the 375 Ruger vs H&H... I agree in the 375 the Ruger has more horsepower. And for both cals the Ruger is the more efficient cartridge.

I'm saying this is not correct when it comes to the 416s. At the same pressures, the Rigby pushes the same bullet faster - it simply burns more powder.

Ruger is running close to max pressure to match the Rigby at idle for the standard 400gr @2400f/s. Sure Ruger made a bunch of claims about getting 2400f/s with a 400gr out of a 20" barrel but I think all of that has long since been debunked as marketing hype and Ruger has toned it down to 2400 from a 24", i.e. matching the Rigby standard.

Once bullets >400gr (and heavy/long monolithics) come into the picture, then the Rigby runs away with it by virtue of the bigger case capacity and accommodating longer bullets. As I said before, I'm biased!

Anyway, enough of a hijack from me.

Hey fair enough! Ok you make some good points and I should have specified as my statement is overly generalized. It is a more efficient cartridge. Yes over the standard 400 grain load the Ruger looses it but... For the average consumer who buys factory ammo in a standard loading the Ruger wins by a mile IMO. Now that being said I'll help your argument in that for the hand loader the Rigby is the clear winner because of the larger case and ability to do more with it. I still stand by my statement that for the average Joe the Ruger is the clear winner. Unfortunately it completely looses because of the crap factory ammo available. Ruger and Hornady had a stroke of genius in the development of this cartridge then Hornady completely dropped the ball with pathetic bullet performance. Hence why I will be using the 375 for DG in the future or loading my own ammo for the 416. I'm hesitant though because I'm not sure the reloader can get the same performance as the factory loads in external ballistics while having the option of using a bullet with terminal ballistic superiorority.

 

[Desperatezulu]

Yip, agreed on all your points.

To the OP, the 375 is enough gun, but you'd be better off with a 416 Rigby according to both Gizmo and me

 

[gizmo]

Yip, agreed on all your points.

To the OP, the 375 is enough gun, but you'd be better off with a 416 Rigby according to both Gizmo and me

Well I have to agree with you by my own admission on the 416 but I'd still say sticking to the OP I'd still take a 375.

 

[Witold Krzyżanowski]

Hey fair enough! Ok you make some good points and I should have specified as my statement is overly generalized. It is a more efficient cartridge. Yes over the standard 400 grain load the Ruger looses it but... For the average consumer who buys factory ammo in a standard loading the Ruger wins by a mile IMO. Now that being said I'll help your argument in that for the hand loader the Rigby is the clear winner because of the larger case and ability to do more with it. I still stand by my statement that for the average Joe the Ruger is the clear winner. Unfortunately it completely looses because of the crap factory ammo available. Ruger and Hornady had a stroke of genius in the development of this cartridge then Hornady completely dropped the ball with pathetic bullet performance. Hence why I will be using the 375 for DG in the future or loading my own ammo for the 416. I'm hesitant though because I'm not sure the reloader can get the same performance as the factory loads in external ballistics while having the option of using a bullet with terminal ballistic superiorority.

Hi Gizmo.
I use cartridges from Hornady in my Mauser cal. 404Jeffery.
I am very pleased with this amunition.
Witold

 

[Velo Dog]

I suppose you chaps expect me to believe that there are actually other cartridges these days, besides the original and jolly perfect Rigby, called - ".416 whatevers" ?

 

[Royal27]

I suppose you chaps expect me to believe that there are actually other cartridges these days, besides the original and jolly perfect Rigby, called - ".416 whatevers" ?

Modern versions are capable of shooting frozen herring. ...