Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Ruger African or CZ 550?

Been looking at 375 caliber rifles and would like opinions on these two rifles. My Dad has a 416 in the CZ and I like it but would have the barrel shortented. I have a SS Hawkeye in 30-06 and like it alot. I also like the 23" barrel listed for the African. Of the two, I'd lean Ruger.

I also have concerns about a 375 splitting stocks. I beleive Phil Shoemaker reported such when the first 375 Ruger's came out.

Thoughts?

Get the African, have it properly glass bedded and enjoy shooting it. It's one of the handiest factory 375s I've handled.

Get the CZ. 375 H&H ammo will be available anywhere you go and long, long after the 375 Ruger has joined the ranks of the 8MM RemMag.

I like my 77s but they are not Magnum Mausers.

Thanks for the thoughts.

I've handled both rifles and the Ruger seems more user friendly to me.

I agree that the H+H isn't going anywhere soon but understood ammo for Ruger variety was available in most large cities in Africa. Wrong info?

My concern wouldn't be finding ammo in larger cities in Africa, but finding ammo out in the bush. If you're hunting wild Africa (rather than game ranches in South Africa and Namibia), then the nearest large city may be many hours away, whether by Land Cruiser or a charter plane. Just about every dangerous-game PH has a stash of .375 H&H, whether his own or ammo left behind by clients.

I don't think the .375 Ruger is going away, but it will be a long time before ammo will be found almost everywhere.

The 375Ruger is not going to be found easily or consistently outside a few cities in the USA. Unless something special at the shop, it's not available as a regular shelf item anyplace in Africa I know of. I Agree with the above posts its headed down the path of the 8mm Rem mag.

I strongly prefer the Hawkeye rifle to the CZ, but not the Ruger 375 cartridge. Best option is finding a used Hawkeye and rechamber/ rebarrel to the 375 HH cartridge. Thats a winner for now and the future. Equally good idea, look for a used Model 70 in 375HH

+2 Good advise IMHO.

Jim,

Just out of curiosity, what cartridges are readily available off the shelf in RSA?

I assume the venerable 30-06 and .375 H&H would be a given?


Oh, and to add my two cents for the OP..... I prefer the feel, weight, and balance of the Ruger African, but as already mentioned, I'd be concerned with ammo availability should your bag containing your ammunition come up missing. Thus, the .375 H&H would get my vote.

I took an Alaskan 375 ruger to Zim last year. Took buff, hippo, sable, zebra, impala, hyena, warhog and klipspringer w/it. It is 2" shorter than the African. Handles very nice is the jesse (mean, thick brush). Just allow yourself an extra day when traveling for the possibility of lost luggage and you will have no regrets on the Alaskan. Left ammo w/PH, said he would get one and use when he was not guiding for DG.
Good Luck,
1kyhunter

i was in the same predicament and found a mark X 375 H&H and so far seem to be pretty happy with it. Just want to add a timney trigger to it and maybe a bell and carlson medalist stock for rough hunting.

bwinters,

Consider a Whitworth Mauser in 375 H&H

..375 Ruger joining the ranks of the the 8mm Remy Mag?..........You`re in dreamland!

Hornady just might and will disagree with you on that. Besides, Hornady has, is currently, and will continue to acquire distribution permits from So African provinces as well as distribution rights from other world-wide venues for their factory 375 Ruger and 416 Ruger ammo.

I wouldn`t want to put wager down on your opinion.

............Do the baggage handlers and/or any other airline personnel know the difference between a properly packed and concealed 375 H&H rifle and its ammo vs a 375 Ruger rifle and its ammo?

So if either were lost in transport, and neither got to a particular final destination in time for your hunt, you`d still have to rely on the usage of a backup rifle and ammo from your PH`s inventory would you not? That`s why they have back-up rifles.

So all this biz about 375 Ruger ammo getting lost or the lack of availability thereof imo, kinda borders on the redundancy.

Most of the typical metric cartridges like 7mm, 9.3's and the American standards like 308, 30/06, 300 win mag, 7mm mag, are easy Even the 338 is usually around, although not at the same level the 375HH is. Most African hunters will jump from 30 caliber to 375 The 338 has minimal following. If the 300 mag is too small then logical jump is to the "legal for all" 375 cartridge.

Good luck with that 375Ruger in Southern Africa! Or almost anyplace else for that matter. When you do find it blow the dust off the box and be sure they are still good before you buy.

I'm a very serious Hornady fan but I think the 375Ruger was an attempt to boost sales thru gun writer hype, much like the Short mags. They filled that gap that was full of perfectly effective and functional cartridges already.

Gotta keep pushing the new stuff to make sales. I have no fault with that. I'm glad they make money from people who have it in Excess to give them. Keeps them in business and that's good for all of us. But nobody is going to convince me that the 375Ruger provides any functional advantage over the 375HH or that the shortmags have any value at all over the selection that was already available to us.

If they really wanted to provide a great option somebody should be producing the 338/06 and the 35 whelen in big numbers. Those are cartridges that really work on big game!

The 375HH is available everyplace the biggest most dangerous game on earth is hunted. It will be for the foreseeable future and most certainly the rest of my lifetime. The 375Ruger has no chance of claiming that role, not now, not ever. The installed base of the 375HH is so huge that to make this feeble attempt at trying to over throw the king.......... although valiant, is a losing cause which was known all along. It was a way to extract money from people wanting the newest fad. It made money for them by improving the business with a bump using some magazine marketing for the population that just has to have the newest advertised stuff!

Step back and look at the firearm market. Has anything really improved in the last 100 years? Ammo has made the 30/06 the equal of the 300 mag when it was released, The 375HH is a far more impressive cartridge then the original when used with Smokeless Powder and the TSX VS cup and core with stick cordite powder!

Based on this thinking, any bolt action other than an M-98 or any pistol other than a 1911 represents a sales gimmick. Although some might agree with such arguments, it seems a bit extreme to write off all innovation as marketing hype.

IMO it seems the Ruger basic case represents an advantage, although whether it's a sufficient advantage to enough customers to solve their needs will only be answered by the market, over time.

The Brno 602/375 I had weighed in at 8lbs-14oz bare.
The Hawkeye African in the safe is a full pound lighter.

A huge difference? Maybe not, but it points up the one advantage I think the 375 Ruger has over its cousin. To me, the full length CZ action is a better fit for the 416 Rigby.

Other than the weight of the typically over built H+Hs, it's a toss up between the two.

Pete

My AHR (CZ 550 action) .375 H&H weighs in 9lbs 2.9oz bare naked.

My Ruger Alaskan in a McMillan with QD rings, Leupold 2.5-8x36 and three rounds weighs 2 ounces less! Was a heck of alot cheaper too.

I prefer the lighter, trimmer, handier Ruger. While ammunition may be hard to find in Africa, I hear Hornady is working on changing that.

Until southern Africa is well stocked with .375 Ruger ammunition, I'd leave my Ruger Alaskan at home and bring a .375 H&H or 9.3x62mm.

I hear that the .375 Ruger is selling extremely well in Alaska, and ammunition is readily available on most shelves.

I am moving backwards in my calibre choices with my last 5 rifles being 257 roberts, 3006, 303 brit, 375 H&H, and 7x57. I am not saying I am anti modernistic, but that is how others describe me. I also bought a 22lr bolt.

Have at the new stuff fellas, I'll use what has always worked. By the way there is nothing wrong with a SAA or 1911 colt.

Randy

You made the point I was unsucessfully trying to make. Thanks.

I read the the figure was either 8000 or 10,000 copies of 375 Hawkeyes sold in the first 12 months of production. Either figure is a staggering number for this class of ctg. and bodes well for its future.

Pete

..................Well I have to disagree here about a few points.

First, your statement about "blowing dust" off a box of 375 Ruger ammo in Africa or anywhere else, is at best, a purely speculative opinion. I have yet to read anywhere of any account, where any 375 Ruger rifle taken to Africa, was not successfully used.

Why shouldn`t any new cartridge company attempt to boost sales? Is there something wrong with boosting sales through so-called gun writer hype or otherwise? If you were running a cartridge and bullet company such as Hornady, you`d certainly want the writers to review and honestly critique your new round, bullet or whatever. Would you not?

So the `06 made its debut in 1906. So why the need for the 300 Wby which was intro`d in the 40s? Why the need for the 308? 300 H&H? How about the 300 Winchester which debut in 1963? 300 RUM? 300 WSM? This kind of same old analogy, is always used by the detractors of a new round such as the 375 Ruger...."Why the need when there are other functional 375s?"....There have been new gap fillers for years in just about every caliber and not just with the 375s.

In regards to terminal performance on game, the 375 Ruger has no advantage over the H&H, while the reverse is also true. That`s NOT why Hornady intro`d the round in the first place. And you`re forgetting that the 375 H&H did have a 95 year head start on the 375 Ruger. What do expect after only 4+ years in the marketplace? That every So African shelf and every other knook and cranny worldwide, would be loaded up with 375 Ruger ammo?

The functional advantage the 375 Ruger has over the H&H is simple. In the case of the Ruger Alaskan (aside from whether you like that rifle or not), it gets the same or better performance from the shorter 20" barrel. That in turn, translates to a shorter OAL rifle length, which many (like me) happen to prefer vs a 46" + long rifle, that`s not only in most cases heavier, but can`t handle nearly as well. I can fire a 270 grainer at slightly over 2800 fps and a 225 gr Hornady SP at over 3000 fps from my Alaskan and do so with very good accuracy. As such, its not just the cartridge itself, it is the rifle too which has made the 375 Ruger as popular as it is. Big difference in the field with the Alaskan vs my formerly owned 6" longer and heavier Win M70 375 H&H that I had for many years....No comparison.

Also, Hornady did not develop the 375 Ruger to out throne or un-seat the H&H. That was not their original intent. Their intent, was to achieve the same ballistic performance from a shorter OAL rifle, and design a round which would do that; nothing more and nothing less.

As to the newest fads etc? I may be wrong, but it appears by your comments in the 2nd to last paragraph in your post, that you don`t like the fabulous progress in popularity that the 375 Ruger has achieved over the last 4+ years or so? Just an assumption on my part, but I could be wrong!

Remember too, that all the current 375 Ruger owners which include myself, weren`t forced to buy one. I wasn`t forced by Ruger nor Hornady, or felt that either company were "extracting" my money from me in order to own the latest 375 caliber fad. Oh! And the 375 ruger wouldn`t work on big game, whereas a 338/06 or 35 Whelen would? Well if you say so! Yep! Shame on Hornady and Ruger for not giving more attention to the 338/06 and 35 Whelen.

Your comments and doom predictions are A-typical of most 375 Ruger detractors, which over the past 4 years, have gone "exactly and totally in the opposite direction." The marketplace over the last 4+ years, has seen to it that the 375 Ruger won`t be going anywhere and will continue its ever growing trend with even more popularity. Heard that a few African PHs ordered some 375 Ruger Africans?.....Uh Oh!

If I had such biased and close-minded favoritism towards the 375 H&H myself, I just might be a little pissed off too.......