375 Raptor cartridge

[curtism1234]

Greetings all, I haven't posted in a while. Reason for this post, I own two 375HH and still trying to work through some life-impacting upper body injuries - carrying a heavy rifle does not appear to be in the cards for me.

375 Raptor ---This sort of 375-08 cartridge has intrigued me and I do not see anything in the search engine here. It is a somewhat known wildcat cartridge (has it's own headstamp brass). Light recoil, light weight rifle, short action, and incredibly customizable --- rebore your controlled round feed 308 Winchester 70 Super Grade or buy a carbon fiber barrel and 10 round magazine for your Savage.

What this expanded 308 case and fast burning powder allows for is to push a 300gr bullet to 2200fps --- within about 100fps or so of a 9.3x62. It has been stated online (without a lot of info) that it has taken Cape Buffalo.

For those 9.3x74, 9.3x62 and 375 H&H shooters, would you feel under-gunned for buffalo with those ballistics?

TIA

 

[TOBY458]

I would look into the 376 Steyr or 9.3x62. Both have reduced recoil and can be loaded down to the level you mentioned for the 375 Raptor if needed.
However, I would say that with a good bullet, you could kill any buffalo alive with a 300gr bullet at 2200 fps. Although it wouldn’t be legal in some countries that require a certain amount of foot pounds of energy.

 

[hoytcanon]

I took my .375 WSM to Namibia and it performed very well with the 235 TSX, but I would not want less than that if you are targeting buffalo. I am working up a load with the 250 TTSX for the rifle, but I see it as an all around sort of cartridge, not a DG specific cartridge and it has considerably more capacity than the Raptor.