375 H&H DGX Performance on Whitetail?

[CP392]

It will certainly do the job. Just a little much for WT Deer. If you want to hunt WT with your .375 I would go with a 235 grain soft bullet.

This is the dilemma I'm having. A heavier weight, heavier constructed bullet should expand less, therefore causing less damage. More of a clean channel cut through the target. Where as a lighter bullet, both in weight and construction coupled with the higher velocity, in theory would cause more trauma and excessive damage. This is really the root of my original question. I was concerned that the DGX would not expand enough and "ice pick" through a deer and not be as quick and clean. I'm sure I am overthinking it but that's my concern. I just want quick, clean, ethical kills.

 

[375er]

This is the dilemma I'm having. A heavier weight, heavier constructed bullet should expand less, therefore causing less damage. More of a clean channel cut through the target. Where as a lighter bullet, both in weight and construction coupled with the higher velocity, in theory would cause more trauma and excessive damage. This is really the root of my original question. I was concerned that the DGX would not expand enough and "ice pick" through a deer and not be as quick and clean. I'm sure I am overthinking it but that's my concern. I just want quick, clean, ethical kills.

I have shot several wt with heavier bullets in .375. It hits hard and drops em like a rock. As you are thinking, way less meat damage than the typical deer cartridge. Go have fun!

 

[cajunchefray]

At a .375 rifle power level and above, my focus is to place that first shot correctly. The performance of a Hornady DGX, Swift A-Frame, or Nosler Partition is secondary to that first correct shot.

 

[BeeMaa]

At a .375 rifle power level and above, my focus is to place that first shot correctly. The performance of a Hornady DGX, Swift A-Frame, or Nosler Partition is secondary to that first correct shot.

On a whitetail...sure. Raise the stakes to DG and the bullet used plays a much bigger role. And I'm not one to change my load on a particular rifle to suit the game, I'd rather change rifles and use a different cartridge altogether.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

This is the dilemma I'm having. A heavier weight, heavier constructed bullet should expand less, therefore causing less damage. More of a clean channel cut through the target. Where as a lighter bullet, both in weight and construction coupled with the higher velocity, in theory would cause more trauma and excessive damage. This is really the root of my original question. I was concerned that the DGX would not expand enough and "ice pick" through a deer and not be as quick and clean. I'm sure I am overthinking it but that's my concern. I just want quick, clean, ethical kills.

Your thinking is correct. We eat the whitetail we shoot, we don't sell the scraps to the biltong butcher. I helped my buddy pull the skin off a mule deer he shot with 45-70. Big hole in, big hole out, and almost no bloodshot. Very clean. Stick with 300 gr and modest speed and you should do fine. Whitetail are hardly plains game. I have shot a ton of them and none further than seventy yards. But I don't sit on a sofa in a tree house overlooking a bean field. I presume you are talking about hunting deer, not just shooting them.

I can't remember when I last shot a deer with my 30-06 without an exit wound. I just presumed deer rifles were supposed to do that.

 

[Tradmark]

I shot a big whitetail buck with my 450-400 3” and it made quite the impressive wound channel. Blood was shooting out both sides of the deer. Cant imagine a 375 being not at least as good.

 

[Grandpa Moose]

Have used that bullet on a Cape Buffalo and it passed length wise on a frontal shot at beginning of charge YES you will get a pass through so watch what is behind your point of aim

 

[jimbo1972]

I just bought a Blaser R8 and will be using the 375 barrel with 260 accubond on WT this year. Ballistically very similar to 30-06 with 180 grain. Expect good results.

 

[PerH]

Getting to understand how one bullet behave under several circumstances is a good thing .

Example , over here some guys used 6,5x55 and 140 Amax bought by bucketloads for all kind of match , lrs and hunting in several countries for years .