Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only Advice on 375 H&H porting

I know recoil is a subjective thing but I would not brake/port it. My 375 is 8.5 lbs, scoped, loaded, and slung and it's not at all abusive. My 340 at the same weight is worse and it's not braked or ported either though I tried one of the first brakes on the market, the KDF Recoil-Arrestor in the early 90's. This was before I thought I needed hearing protection and the sound that rifle made with it was absolutely horrendous; gave an AK guide and myself a headache for most of a day after I shot a caribou. I unscrewed it and almost threw it away but didn't. It's been in my safe ever since.

Brakes (and ports) on big rifles are like second-hand smoke (if you fully protect yourself). Invariably you shoot around people who aren't protected for whatever reason and there is no way it doesn't injure to some degree.

A 375 H&H is not bad at all all things considered and I believe most can learn to shoot it quite well without any other holes in the barrel if they are motivated, and shoot a lot.

I would say, shoot it first a bit to see where you stand and reduced loads are a good idea too so you can acclimate yourself to the rifle and work up slowly to full loads if necessary.

Also, as has been mentioned, wearing quality hearing protection seems to diminish the affect of recoil somewhat and should be worn no matter what you're shooting. If not, you'll begin paying dearly by time you're 50.

I have many rifles ported from .280 to .416 Rigby & like the results. Other than a moderate increase in noise I see no down side. As stated, recoil is reduced only marginally, but muzzle jump & perceived recoil are greatly reduced. I wear plugs & muffs at the range & use a rubber slip on recoil pad. These all make the .416 Rigby easy to shoot & the .375 H&H should be even more comfortable. Go for porting.

As always, there are different, worthy opinions from different people with different experiences.

I'll also admit to a bias here due to seeing some folks - and this is based a bit on experience and a lot by observation - who shoot more than they can handle (rifle & cartridge, scope, long range) because they can't or won't practice enough and add all the trinkets they think will make them Sargeant York way out there and recoil arrestors of some type are often in the mix especially on custom rifles.

Note, I made a generalization; did not include all who use them in that comment; neither did I say they didn't have some utility.

i had a mag-na-ported 375HH and have a mag-na-ported 35whelen, Like others do not notice an increase in sound and muzzle rise is near non-existant. my 9.3 is not ported and really notice muzzle jump.

Try it first. I had a Sako Finnbear Deluxe of 60's-early 70's vintage. The stock didn't fit me well and it beat the dickens out of me. A brake would have been very useful, or, maybe Magnaporting. A custom 458 with a stock that fit was a pussycat compared to the 375 Sako. A current 375 has an ugly but useful brake.
But, try it first and then decide.

I like Mag-na-port so much that I had ALL of my rifles done and my shotguns Pro-ported...My smallest caliber is a .17 and largest is a .425WR for bolt or single shots and ,476WR for doubles and ALL are done...

On the varmint calibers there is absolutely no muzzle climb what-so-ever so I can track every shot I make and on the larger calibers, recoil was reduced somewhat but muzzle climb decreased significantly where second shots where able to be taken far quicker (if necessary)...

I also mounted LimbSaver recoil pads on ALL my rifles as well...the lighter calibers it's for traction mainly, keeping the butt from shifting too much and its for recoil on the larger calibers...( I got a great deal on them if I bought by the case)

Every gun over .280 had one Mercury tube added and two over .338...

Every gun over .300 also had a muzzle brake installed, yes, in addition to the porting except the three double rifles that we shot as it looked silly and would have decreased the value far too much...

I happen to be very recoil shy (damaged 5 vertebrae in the middle of my back, broken collar bone and broken left shoulder blade falling down a mountain side) ...

Then again, as said, recoil is a subjective thing and a body's physiology, mass, bone structure, nerve endings, pain threshold, previous injuries all play an important part in how we handle recoil...I at 6' and 225 lbs can handle it differently then one of my daughters at 5'8" and 135 lbs...

In your case with no/zero/zilch/bupkis collector's value and already beaten up go ahead as your not losing anything but I'd think of other ways as well to augment the porting--recoil pad, tubes--as the porting does decrease recoil slightly (12%??) but more so muzzle climb...