The 375HH may not be "ALL THAT" for African Plains Game

[Kynadog]

I agree with the OP when he says, the .375 is not a "magic bullet." I would argue there are no magic calibers/bullets--only suitable calibers and bullets and good shot placement. A .375 H&H is adequate, as is a .300 Win. Mag. or a 7x57.

One thing that often catches my ear in a discussion like this is when people use a bang/flop as proof that one caliber/bullet combination is better than another. When an animal goes right down, it is impressive for sure, but a bang/flop is NOT the best measure of a suitability or effectiveness of a caliber/bullet combination. To me, the best measure of effectiveness is whether the bullet will get to the vitals (spine, heart or lungs) and retain enough mass and energy to disable those systems. A well-constructed 7mm through the spine will produce instant incapacitation of PG, whereas a .375 through the heart will not (and vice versa). On the flip side, an animal shot through the heart can go quite a way (increased adrenaline, possibly?) and rarely do they drop on the spot. Does that mean the shot or caliber or bullet was ineffective? No. It is just a different mechanism of injury.

One often overlooked consideration in rifle selection is recoil. Not from an accuracy standpoint, but whether the shooter can keep the animal in the field of view after the shot. In my experience, it is difficult to keep eyes on an animal after the shot with a .375 H&H at anything over 4x or 6x. Contrast that with a 7x57 where I can usually see my impact all the way up to 12x. Does that make the .375 H&H unsuitable? Not at all. Just a consideration.

To be clear, my comments here have to do with PG not DG.

 

[Spearhead]

Then shoot more accurately? I have killed dozens of PG animals with a .375 ranging from Suni through eland over many hunts in several African countries. Not one of them has required a second shot. The vast majority (including two huge eland bulls) were dead where they were standing. All were shot with either a 300 gr TSX, A Frame, or Hydro solid. It is all about the bullet and where it is placed.

I have used a lot of other chamberings on PG over the years including .275, .300, .270, 30-06, and .338. The only rifle that left me having to employ follow-ups was the .275, and then it was because the first shots were not well placed. Do I think the ideal PG rifle is a .375? Actually I do not. I think that title should probably go to the .338 Win Mag or .300 Win Mag. But nothing beats a .375 on a one rifle hunt where buffalo are also on the dance card.

As mentioned by Mr @Red Leg stated, and can’t be overstated, for a one gun safari to include a possible buff add on, the 375 works for many.
If you handload, there are more options and off season fun building specific need loads.
Nobody is saying the 375 is the end all be all. It just does many many things very very well. There are better suited PG calibers as well as DG calibers, but as a one gun show, I’ll dance with my 375 h&h. If you are not happy with the 375 for plains game, don’t use it. If you think the 375 is inadequate for buff, don’t use it for water buff in Brazil…. Oops

 

[PARA45]

On my last three safaris, I hunted a Lioness, a cow Buffalo, a bull Buffalo, and 9 PG animals, all taken with my 375 H&H and Barnes TSX 300 Grs bullets. I also made my longest shot on an animal with this 375, shot a kudu at 312 yds, quartering away. Did not recover the bullet. The more I shoot my 375, the more I like it.

 

[BGGMKLR]

I've shot quite a few PG animals now with my .375HH. My last few trips the .375 is been taken along with my double .470 as a backup for buffalo and the primary PG rifle. The results have included many bang-flops, some that ran a small distance but still just a one shot kill, and a few that ran a bit more and required follow up shots.

The difference between the ban-flops and the others was shot placement. The bang-flops were well placed on the shoulder shots, the others were due to less than perfect placement. The old saying about hitting an animal poorly with a bigger caliber is less desirable than a perfectly placed smaller caliber applies still.

So I will continue to hunt PG confidently with my .375HH and expect great results when I do my part. I will say however if the shots start getting beyond 200 yards, a lighter smaller caliber with a faster bullet is sometimes a better choice.

This.
Spike

 

[Bandera]

Well the 375 is a medium bore. I guess it could have medium results. But it doesn’t if the shooter does his or her job.
As far a Barnes being to tough? Well the controlled expansion is better than bullets that come apart.

These are all one shot kills with animal expired with in 50 yards.
Buffalo at about 60 yards bullet lodged in opposite shoulder
Giraffe at 115 yards bullet lodged opposite side under the skin
Zebra at 150ish yards. Bullet lodged near back hip.
Black Wildebeest 211 Yards bullet lodged back hip also.

I think I might start a 375 shelter. Send me your inadequate 375’s and all of your ammo. I will take of the 375’s at no charge to the former owners.

 

[375Fox]

I’ve taken a lot of PG in a couple countries with the 375 H&H. It does the job very well, but I used it because it was a 1 rifle safari not because I thought it was ideal for PG. For PG safaris I take the 300 Win. If this is going to be a fair test the same bullets need to be used. The animal I’ve tracked the furthest in Africa has repeatedly been duiker. They are simply too light to really initiate bullet expansion in a tough bullet, but I’ve dropped them on spot with 223 using varmit bullets. The federal fusion is bonded but it’s a very thinly jacketed bullet that sheds some weight and expands quickly. A swift A frame or trophy bonded bear claw in 375 is a very controlled expansion bullet with a thick jacket. It’s not going to rapidly expand and dump energy up front. Slow controlled expansion isn’t really a benefit on an impala but it is a major benefit on a buffalo and large PG. However, I’m not taking multiple bullets on a safari again. Slow controlled expansion gives predictable results on every shot. Rapid expansion and shedding weight to make a huge initial wound channel and dump a lot of energy up front might make an impressive hit on an impala. It also might make an all day tracking job on a zebra shot in the shoulder.

 

[Red Leg]

Thx for the input Sir. Truly, my 375 is one of the most accurate rifles I own. It is a custom ER Shaw built Enfield P14 and it shoots so well that it is not natural. Typically sub-moa at 100y and usually closer to 1/2-moa when measured c-c. Below is a 3-sh group shot from a bench with 300g TSX ammo at 400y with a 6x Kahles scope. It measured <2.0". Will it do that all the time? I doubt it but then, I never tried as it seemed like a waste of ammo since I would never shoot game at those distances. I just happened to be verifying dope at various ranges prior to a hunt and decided to throw a few downrange at the long gong. I aimed at the upper right of the tgt because I had another group in the middle with my 30-06 that I did not want to spoil until I had time to drive down and look at it. Shooting accurately has not generally been an issue at the range or in the field. )

I do appreciate your experiences as intuitively, one would expect that the larger bullet would be more effective all things being equal and I have wondered if my limited experiences with the 375 were simply a cluster of less impressive results that would get lost in the noise if I continue to use it on game. Let's face it, outside of Africa and Alaska and a few limited other places, the 375 is mostly overkill. I will keep using the 375 where the fit is good.

View attachment 711622

375HH Shaw Custom​

View attachment 711628

3sh at 400y w/375HH
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View attachment 711629

3sh at 400y w/30-06 Husqvarna​

Lovely rifle and you and it clearly shoot well. Personally, I discovered shooting off of sticks required a whole different commitment to range time. I am 72 and have been shooting off of them ever since I began traveling to hunt when they started to become a common thing thirty plus years ago. I still refamiliarize prior to every hunt. A .22 works just as well in that role as a .375.

 

[SRvet]

Well the 375 is a medium bore. I guess it could have medium results. But it doesn’t if the shooter does his or her job.
As far a Barnes being to tough? Well the controlled expansion is better than bullets that come apart.

These are all one shot kills with animal expired with in 50 yards.
Buffalo at about 60 yards bullet lodged in opposite shoulder
Giraffe at 115 yards bullet lodged opposite side under the skin
Zebra at 150ish yards. Bullet lodged near back hip.
Black Wildebeest 211 Yards bullet lodged back hip also.

View attachment 711647

I think I might start a 375 shelter. Send me your inadequate 375’s and all of your ammo. I will take of the 375’s at no charge to the former owners.

I’m impressed with the expansion at 211 yards

 

[Challer]

You should not be having any issues with one shot stops with the 375. Somewhere in your calculus there is a problem.

 

[CoElkHunter]

What do you think about the 375HH for use on Plains Game? Share your opinion. I have been hunting with the 375HH for about three years now and honestly, for use on plains game in Africa and North America, I have not been all that impressed. To put that into context, with the exception of a poorly placed first shot on my Kudu this year, all of my first shots with the 375 have been well placed. My rifle shoots exceptionally well and I shoot it well. I am not particularly recoil sensitive and enjoy shooting full power 500g loads in the 458wm. Not that the recoil of the 375 is all that different. Some but not much.

So, why am I making such a blasphemous claim? Don't get me wrong. Every animal I have shot with the 375 has died, but...

With the exception of a whitetail deer that I shot in WV a few years ago as an ammo experiment, none of them were one shot kills. They all required one or more follow up shots. And the inspection of the internal damage on the deer indicated that the bullet did less damage than a 270win would (my usual deer rifle). I think that the usual bullets loaded into a 375 are built tough for killing large tough game and as such they expand more slowly and penetrate deeply and dump energy more gradually. While it might be necessary for Buffalo, it is not helpful on smaller, lighter game. I have used 250g Trophy Bonded Bearclaw, Barnes 300g TSX, and Swift A-Frame. All performed more or less the same.

The most impressive kill on game with a 375HH that I have made was a Blue Wildebeest. It was a world record class Alpha herd bull that stood his ground and faced us at 160y. I made a perfectly placed slightly quartering frontal shot that took out the right lung, the plumbing at the top of the heart and just nicked the left lung. Penetrated almost 36" and lodged in the paunch. That 300g TSX bullet expanded to 1.9x or 2.0x as I recall. The bull ran 60y and fell. A 2nd shot at 60y to the neck was a pass thru and the last shot at 10y was to finish the beast hit the chest and lodged on the opposite side and expanded to 2.2x. The first shot killed it but it still took two more. WB's are tough. I often wonder what a 30-06 or 300wm would have done on the same bull?

I have killed five African PG animals with the 308 and over a dozen deer and ALL were one shot kills except one deer and that was traced to a poorly constructed bullet that did not expand at all and functioned like a solid. Even in that case I killed the deer after several shots. I have used the 270 on at least a dozen deer and ALL were one shot kills and most dropped in their tracks. I have taken five or six with the 44mag in a rifle and ALL dropped in their tracks DRT. I have used the 7mm Mag and the 7mm/08 on PG and both worked effectively, even when some shots were not placed perfectly.

So, why is the 375 not the cat's meow? Slower MV with controlled expansion bullets is part of the issue. Even with the 180g heavy for caliber ammo in the 308, at 200y the 308 hits at speeds roughly 10% faster than the larger 375. Using 180g federal fusions the 308 expands to 2.4x and still penetrates well. The 375 with a 300g TSX is going to expand to about 1.9x at the same distance (200y). So, if both bullets expand to about the same 0.7 inch diameter and both penetrate enough to reach the vitals, will the one hitting faster do the most damage? I don't know but the empirical evidence would favor the smaller, faster, option.

Now, we are not advocating the use of a 308 or 270 to hunt Cape Buffalo. That is a different animal. Thick hide, large tough bones and a supernatural will to live and trample whomever pissed it off. Just sayin.

All, I am saying is that from what I have seen so far, the 375 while adequate for PG hunting, is not a magic bullet. A 30-06, 308, 7mm Mag or 300wm all might be a better choice. Lighter rifle, less recoil, and just as effective if not more so, on the typical PG prey.

None of us mere hunters are going to ever get enough personal experience to solve this question. We just do not have the time or funds to gain that kind of expertise. I would ask that our PH's who hunt hundreds of days each season and take hundreds of animals every year weigh in and share your opinions. I would ask that our older, more experienced hunters also share your experiences and opinions. Have you used the 375 on plains game or witnessed its use? How did it do? What was the internal damage when compared to other typical PG rifle choices? How often was the animal downed with one shot? and how often did it drop in its tracks? (central nervous system shots do not count).

View attachment 711544

Very nice blue wildebeest! If one is hunting only PG in Africa, I believe a .300 or .338 WINCHESTER MAGNUM with a 180gr or 225gr Barnes TTSX respectively is the way to go. Just my humble opinion after taking twelve animals on my one African PG hunt with a .300WM.

 

[towserthemouser]

I've been delighted with my 375 on everything from mule buck, whitetail, hog, duiker, klipspringer, zebra, wildebeest, gemsbok, eland, leopard, up to and including giraffe, hippo, and Cape buffalo. If I do my job, the rifle reliably does its job. And from duiker/klipspringer up to giraffe and hippo is showing a LOT of versatility from any cartridge. I have complete confidence in mine.

What I will add to the conversation is this: if you're hunting in "lion country" (the best sort of country to be in, and by lion country I mean any place that includes lion, elephant, and/or buffalo or hippo), there is the possibility of an unprovoked charge. They're not common, but they do happen, and there are members here who can tell the stories. For this reason and this reason alone, I would personally not go afield in DG areas with anything less than a 375. And I would have no argument against something starting with a 4 either. Your rifle is a game-harvesting tool, but it is also a self-defense weapon......

If it's strictly a PG area, by all means take a 270 or a 275 or a 30-06 or a 300 or a 338 or whatever you shoot well. They'll all do fine with proper bullets and good placement.

 

[skydiver386]

If you think the 375 is inadequate for buff, don’t use it for water buff in Brazil…. Oops

 

[Doug3006]

You don’t need super premium bullets to quickly dispatch plains game with a 375. Assuming you place the bullet in the vitals, a 270 or 300 grain Nosler Partition will quickly and reliably kill plains game. If you’re also hunting buffalo, you will want a tough, premium bullet like TSX, TBBC or A-Frame. With these bullets, smaller animals may not drop like they were hit by lightning, but they will die quickly if you do your part.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

I’ve used .375 Holland & Holland Magnums on plains game as large as bull elands with successful results. Accurate initial shot placement is most critical.

And don’t forget one little thing about African game (be it plains or dangerous): They die harder than anything in the Americas or Europe (barring perhaps the huge Kodiak or Kamchatka bears).

 

[skydiver386]

For Plains Game I've only shot a Warthog and one Wildebeest with the 375, but having heard how these guys aren't easy to put down, I grabbed the 375 instead of the 308. The 300gr TSX entered the chest and exited the back of the left hip. He went exact 2 feet...... straight down.

I consider it mostly luck because much like Buff, the things tend to shrug off hits once their adrenaline is up. I'd probably make the same choice if Zebra were the target animal.

 

[meigsbucks]

I’ve only taken an elk (270gr Hornady), two impala and a bushbuck (300gr Swift AF). The elk went about 30yds, one impala DRT, one impala, maybe ten yards and the bushbuck, maybe ten feet. So in my limited experience, I fhink the .375 is suitable for PG. However, for a PG only hunt, I’d opt for a .300 or .338 mag. Lighter, flatter shooting and less recoil.

 

[double rifle newbie]

since its inception, the 375 h&h has been successfully used on everything that walks the earth. just like any caliber, make your first shot a good one and use the right loads.

i venture a guess that the overwhelming majority of hunters with experience with this caliber strongly approve of it being a fantastic choice vs ones who are skeptical.

the last deer i took with my 375 was with a left front quartering shot. the energy from the 270gr turned the bone it hit into a grenade, completely shredding the lungs and heart with bone fragmentation, and also breaking both front legs. the vitals were jellied.

yeah…it works

 

[SRvet]

I've been delighted with my 375 on everything from mule buck, whitetail, hog, duiker, klipspringer, zebra, wildebeest, gemsbok, eland, leopard, up to and including giraffe, hippo, and Cape buffalo. If I do my job, the rifle reliably does its job. And from duiker/klipspringer up to giraffe and hippo is showing a LOT of versatility from any cartridge. I have complete confidence in mine.

What I will add to the conversation is this: if you're hunting in "lion country" (the best sort of country to be in, and by lion country I mean any place that includes lion, elephant, and/or buffalo or hippo), there is the possibility of an unprovoked charge. They're not common, but they do happen, and there are members here who can tell the stories. For this reason and this reason alone, I would personally not go afield in DG areas with anything less than a 375. And I would have no argument against something starting with a 4 either. Your rifle is a game-harvesting tool, but it is also a self-defense weapon......

If it's strictly a PG area, by all means take a 270 or a 275 or a 30-06 or a 300 or a 338 or whatever you shoot well. They'll all do fine with proper bullets and good placement.

I agree, when I booked my last trip to RSA I suspected I would be hunting PG in areas with resident buffalo. Having a .375 in my hands was comforting at a time where a .308 may have seemed lacking.

 

[JG26Irish_2]

Lovely rifle and you and it clearly shoot well. Personally, I discovered shooting off of sticks required a whole different commitment to range time. I am 72 and have been shooting off of them ever since I began traveling to hunt when they started to become a common thing thirty plus years ago. I still refamiliarize prior to every hunt. A .22 works just as well in that role as a .375.

Excellent comments, both yours and others here. I am starting to form an opinion that my perceived issues with the 375 may come mostly from the limited experience with it all using tough controlled expansion bullets more intended for DG than for smaller, lighter PG. As stated earlier, I have some AccuBonds that I hope to try out at some point. Still, I do not reload for the hunting rifles and find that most of the available 375 factory loads (not all) lean more toward the use of those DG focused bullets. I would love to get my hands on a 375 Fusion load for PG as I think it would be the bomb.

Your comments about sticks are on the money 100%. I only shoot off the bench when I am testing ammo for accuracy and verification of ballistics at known distances. Mainly, I shoot off the sticks since than is how I normally will hunt. With the 375 and my smaller 7mm PG rifle, I was routinely placing all shots on an 8"x8" steel plate at 200y from sticks prior to my last Safari and the shots from both were all clustered in a 6" circle. To me that was pretty adequate. Like you, I routinely use a 22lr off of sticks to polish my shooting before a hunt. My approach is to place 1/2" diam DumDum suckers on an earthen berm about 35y away and bust them with the 22 off of my shooting sticks. I typically set up 5 tgts and attempt to break all 5 with only 5 shots. If I can do that, I stop until the next day. In the month leading up to a important hunt, I do this exercise every day. Most days, can hit 4 or 5 out of five in the first attempt. If I miss one, I will keep trying until it is gone. It does vary with the rifle and ammo I use as my squirrel rifle is not as precise as some of my match PRS rimfires. Still I figure that hitting a 1/2" tgt at 35y is about the same as hitting a 3" vital zone at 200y. During my rimfire practice I also attempt to transition from a Rhodesian carry to on the sticks and breaking this shot in 3-5 seconds. It always seemed to me that the time from when a Kudu first became aware of me and the time that he tilted those big horns back and vanished into the bush was about 3sec.

The benefits of the one gun safari are manyfold and when hunting in true lion, ele, hippo country where a chance encounter is real, then it is only prudent to carry enough gun all the time.

 

[JG26Irish_2]

Very nice blue wildebeest! If one is hunting only PG in Africa, I believe a .300 or .338 WINCHESTER MAGNUM with a 180gr or 225gr Barnes TTSX respectively is the way to go. Just my humble opinion after taking twelve animals on my one African PG hunt with a .300WM.

I am slowly becoming a fan of the 338wm. I am currently working up two of them for an upcoming Texas Nilgai hunt. On paper, when applied to the 600sih lb Nilgai antelope, it looks like it will do almost anything the 375 will do but will do it at least 100y further using the 225g ammo. We are told by our Ranch owner/guide that the typical shots can be as far as 300-400y. While we will attempt to get closer, I feel like the 375 is getting mighty slow out past 300y and I worry about wounding an animal and not being able to track it. I know the 375 will kill it but if it goes to far, we lack the services of good native African trackers in Texas, lol.

So far, my 338 is not shooting quite as well as my 375 but my son's is shooting super. So, maybe we will use one of each. Me with the big gun for up close and him with the 338 for the longer shots. We plan to use AccuBonds in the 375 and the 338 if we can get them. If not, the Trophy Bonded Tip is one option in either 200g or 225g.