Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only 375 Weatherby vs 375 H&H

Congrats on a good bear!!! In my opinion the 375s are the very best bear calibers...90% of the guides I know use the 375 H&H as back-ups...I've taken 15 of my 19 NA bears with my 375 H&H using 275 BBC loaded to 2850 from my pre-64 M 70...this Fall I am using the 250 BBC loaded to 2950 as I will be doing a Brown Bear/Mtn Goat combo hunt Oct 3-17th in Unit 6...

Thanks guys. I can't express what a huge deal this was to me. I hit me hardest at a small airport in AK when most of the 35 other hunters or so had a little longer faces. Only one other got a browny, and it was 7.5' sow. Still a great bear, but it drove home how fortunate I was. I felt bad for many of the dissapointed hunters, but it made me more-fully absorb how lucky I was.

I know some think it's odd, but I love this rifle, and have become so comfortable with it during the last seven months, that I may use it on a lot of medium-to-large game. The recoil just doesn't bother me anymore. If I get to hunt any DG (up through buffalo) in Africa, I can't imagine needing also to bring a smaller rifle. Even during the bear hunt, after taking the brown boar, I switched to the Nosler factory 260gr AB loads for any potential black bears, wolves, or wolverine. Because we had slightly diminished priorities of hunting (had to make noise working on the pelt, etc...) and the weather became so unseasonably hot during the remaining ten days, we barely saw a mammal for the last seven days. So I didn't get to use them (except occasionally to shoot the river before getting in the raft on rafting days for fun). I knew that they hit almost exactly two inches to the right of the 300gr NPs. I clicked the scope eight clicks to the left and shot at the base of a reed at 100 yds in the river to demonstrate to the guide and myself that it was on. It was. In any event, the 300gr NP loads trully don't bother me anymore at all. I worked hard over the months to get that way. But was surprised in mid-August when I had (when practicing loading the first round from a bolt closed on an empty chamber) gotten distracted by another inquiring range shooter and forgotten that I had not loaded a round when firing one of the shots during a fairly-long range session. The rifle surprisingly (to me) went only "click," and, even more surprisingly, I was still looking at the bullseye. I certainly didn't even feel any recoil when shooting at the bear recently.

The 260gr AB load is even milder and has great down-range numbers--both in terms of drop and retained velocity. It almost rivals my best .340 Wby loads. And, as much as I like my .340 Wby Accumark, I have become so comfortable with the .375 Wby DGR, that I have a hard time wanting to carry anything else in my planned Maryland, Virginia, W. Virginia deer and black bear hunts this fall. Just so I don't abandon the poor guy, I probably will use the .340 on a possible NC pig hunt. The friend who hunts there, told me the farmland on which we would hunt is so overrun with big pigs, that you actually regularly can get long-range shots, and there is no limit. I know most would think it is insane to hunt smaller animals with this rifle, but it feels right to me.

Yeah, I no more "need" a .375 than anything, but last year I latched onto a nice .375 H&H Ruger Number One and have really fallen hard for the rifle & cartridge. Used it on a black bear hunt here in Washington earlier this month, the 260 gr Accubond at a modest 2620 fps mv did a great job, one shot at just over 300 yards.

Really like the rifle & cartridge and figure I'll just use it on black bear & elk until I get the chance for a north-country grizzly or moose hunt, or maybe a trip to Africa. Recoil really isn't bad at all, even with full-strength 300 gr loads.

Congrats again on the bear - nice, really nice!

Guy

MH: Not insane at all....think of the scores of impala,warthogs, etc shot by hunters in Africa with 375H&H's...

Nothing like rolling a brown bear to give you confidence in a rifle!

contrats, MarineHawk. awesome!




hmmm. i guess if i needed ammo for my .375 AI in a pinch, i'd just get some .375 H&H ammo and rock on... of course the same can be done with the Wby, but IIRC you can even use the .375 WBY ammo in the .375 AI (never done it myself) so the "ammo at the Mom & Pop store" argument is a non issue.

that said, my use of the AI is to get 24" H&H velocities from a 21" barrel. seems to work. I'm running the 270 TSX right now, but i'm gonna wring out the 235 grain TSX next.

Thanks toad.

Also, maybe I'm missing something, but if I spend the dough to go to Africa, unless it's literally impossible to ship ammo there or to arrange to have my contacts there order/buy some, I will have some .375 Wby ammo waiting for me when I arrive. Also, can you not put ammo in with your locked gun case, like you can when travelling within the U.S., when flying to Africa? That's what I did when going to Alaska. I figured that, if I lost my ammo, I also would be losing my rifle, so I wouldn't be having a .375 Wby rifle without ammo under any circumstances.

Current issue of Handloader has a complete article on the 375 WM
(cartridge of the month).

I have shot beside Saeed on AR more than a few times. He was using his 375/404 and it was a great rifle and killed buffalo well..I observed him kill probably 50 buffalo over the years he hunted with us..but, I did the same thing with a 375 H&H, 450-400 and 9.3x62 and other lesser rifles..

It still boils down to where you stick a properly constructed bullet.. one big bore is no better than another except in the shooters mind...

Like Will Rogers, I've never seen a big bore that I didn't like btw....:)

Well, digging this old thread up, I have a P64 300 that was rechambered to the 300 Wby. I couldn’t get it to shoot to save my life. Tried every known accuracy load anyone had with Sierras, Hornady, Swift, Nosler, etc. tried IMR4350, 7828, RL26, RL22... nothing. Since it was already in a Mag filled Legend I decided to let JES take it out a little to 375. Figure I’ll see if I like the cartridge and I’ve done great with his other rebores.

Had him do a 3 groove, 1-10 twist on it. Figure it should turn just about anything with the 10 twist. The rifle is pretty nice so it’s a last ditch effort to keep the old barrel and breath a little life in it. I’ll lap it a little with some JB bore paste and Dyna Bore Coat it. I’m looking forward to working with it. Even have some BBCs to run in it as well.

In other words using something similar to the 375 Rem Ultra Mag. Never could understand why this beltless beauty never caught on. To me it always appeared to be similar in load reliability use to the 416 Rigby when hunting in extreme African heat. The 375 RUM can loaf along pushing 300 grain loads at 2,775 fps without breaking a sweat and remain completely reliable while delivering quite a blow. It’s upper end can go another 125 fps. Just seems like such a well designed cartridge to see it somewhat fade away. And of course Remington has done a miserable job, as usual in promoting it.

I have a 375 H&H AI, pretty much a ballistic twin to the Bee. It shoots 375 H&H ammo very well. Afterwards I have AI brass. I don't always load it to maximum power level, but it is there if I want it. Buy the Bee. You'll like it.

cool!!

A 300 grain bullet getting 2830fps!? Holy [bleep]! I get 2600fps at 57,500psi. I quit there since I was able to shoot bugholes with it. I'd wonder what's your pressure?

This is how mine ended up. Turned out real nice, at least for my needs.



It shoots Federal 300 Partitions really well and makes perfect Ackley'ed brass.



Its doing pretty nicely with 250 TTSX's as well.





I am not sure I gain a whole bunch over the standard H&H with 250's but it has plenty of room to make the 300's move out relatively quick.

“Sweet” results.....now go out and kill some stuff with it! memtb

I'm trying Memtb... May take it up for some deer hunting, that's about all I have left right now!

Good Luck! We’re down to cow elk (plus wolves and maybe a cat) now.....got “skunked” on bulls. memtb

Well, cow elk doesn't stink in my book buddy! Hope the wife and you are able to crush a couple with your hitters!

Thanks!! memtb

Well FWIW, here is my MK-V .375 Weatherby SS/DGR,,,,,,, it started out in life, as a MK-V .375 H&H SS Synthetic, that was 1995, it shot "Lights-Out", so after some yrs of procrastination,,,,, I had my Smith Punch Her Out, and it still "Shoot's-Lights Out", with either flavor of Ammo,,,, albeit, the Factory H&H Ammo does shoot alittle "Low", compared to the Factory .375 Weatherby Ammo, but it is "Consistent" with regards to this situation, and I know what to expect, and thats a "Good" thing.
LJ