I have a thing for the 375, either the H&H or Ruger version, which are essentially ballistic twins of each other. The laws of physics seemed to have converged on a very handy compromise of bullet weight, velocity, recoil (and thus not requiring an ungainly or overly heavy platform) suitable for making venison from whitetails to eland, taking bears from black to brown and everything in-between without being ridiculous at either extreme.
I don't think you'd find either 375 will kick off the bench more than the 3.5" 12 ga. It's very subjective, I know, and depends on other factors too. I also find the big 30's and .338s (I used a 340 B for about 18 years) to be generally more obnoxious or as much so as the 375 H&H or the Ruger version. I'll even throw in the 375 Mashburn here which is an "improved" H&H. This may be meaningless to anybody but me but IMO the big, fast magnums snap you, while the more moderate cased bigger bores push you.
