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In the process of finishing up caliber selection for a few elk rifles.

Inside 500 does the 338 win do anything the 375 HH doesn’t ?

The .338 is likely to be a lighter rifle by a couple of pounds. Trajectory a bit flatter. I have and use both for elk. I use the .375 in blow downs and black timber where ranges are likely to be less than 200 yards and you may not get that nice profile shot everyone wants. .338 for everything else.

So here’s my ordeal a 375 with 250 ttsx or 338 with 210 partitions.

Both rifles are under 8 lbs full dressed.

I consider the .375 to be a 350 yard gun. I'll probably catch some heat for that. The .338 with 210 Partitons will go everybit of 500 yards. If my rifle shot them well that's what I would use as I think its the perfect weight for the .338 Win Mag. Expansion with the Noslers at any distance, the Barnes needs to be driven hard, and I'm a fan of them as they're all I use.

Lee, why do you feel the 375 is a 350 yard gun?
Is it a 350 yard gun with Barnes X bullets in your mind, or are you speaking of it in generalities?

I have shot a 375H&H so much that I am now on the 2nd barrel in mine, and it shoots to the same trajectory as a 30-06 with 180 grain bullet, so I can't say it is limited to only 350. In fact, the very 1st moose I ever killed was shot with it at a distance I don't shoot to any more. We used a topo-map to range the shot and it was about 800 to 850. There is never a need to shoot that far, but I was young and was home on leave from the USMC, and I used to shoot long distances a lot, So I thought I could make the shot --- and I did. One shot in the chest at over 800 and the moose went about 40 yards and fell.

I would agree that the 375H&H is probably best inside of 350 yards with solid copper expanding bullets, because those bullet should impact at 2000 or more to work as designed, but that's a bullet limit, not a cartridge limit.

Your last paragraph is the key.

Do you have a .308?

300 WSMs

My thoughts.

My view is the 250-gr TTSX in the 375 H&H extends its versatility. A BC of .424 is not too bad. If you can punch it out at 2850-2900 fps, with 225 yard zero, you’re about 20” down 400 yds and still at 1800-1900 fps (low end of the expansion window) at five hundred yards with roughly a ton of ME left. Beyond the 400 yard mark you’ll probably need a ballistic reticle or elevation turret and I would consider another bullet.

While extraneous conditions are always the caveat in longer shots, I would have no qualms about the cartridge and bullet’s capability to 400 yards. Any further and I’d start to worry a bit about expansion. I took a very good whitetail at five hundred with a 7mm 150-gr TTSX started at 2950-3000 fps and the exit was just a caliber-sized wound.

But, that’s just regarding that bullet in the 375. The 338 with a comparable bullet is capable too.

Great cartridge, maybe the best, “all around”! If Africa ( buffalo, etc.) is not on your bucket list....the .338 WM is hard to beat!

On a side note: the .375 H&H doesn’t have to be heavy. There are some fairly light-weight, factory .375 H&H’s available. My AI ( though semi-custom) weighs 9# 1 oz. scoped ( Leupold 3.5-10), loaded ( 4 round), and with sling. Not a real light-weight, but tolerable!

With 250 TTSX’s at over 3100 fps....I’m very comfortable (ideal conditions)to beyond 500 yards. memtb

Is there a reason you wouldn’t use your 300 WSM?

For the reasons you stated GDV, I would also consider the 260gr Accubond for the longer-range stuff. Nosler allegedly loads it to 2,750 fps in the H&H. With its B.C. of 0.473, it has about the same trajectory you described above for the 250gr TTSX: sighted in at 225 yds; 21" low at 400 yrds; and 1,875 fps at 500 yds. But, at that 1,800fps-1,900fps range, the AB might perform better than the TTSX.

In comparison (apples-apples as to the mfr and bullet-type), Nosler loads the 200gr AB in .338 Win at a purported 2,950 fps with a B.C. of 0.414. Sighting in at 225 yds, you get: 19" low at 400 yds, and 1,918 fps at 500 yds

That's a similar trajectory/velocity. The .375 just puts 30% more lead into the target.

The 300 is an option but I love the 375. It’s a kitty cat even in A 8 lb rifle.

I used a 338 to kill my one elk, but I remember this list from a thread on elk rifles that ran several years ago:

Made sense then, makes sense now.


Okie John

I completely agree. Great cartridge that with the newer bullets is undervalued for elk hunting in NA.

• Rifle with scope and sling must be under 8lbs
• At least .30 caliber
• No porting, brakes, or other superfluous hardware
• Non-glare stainless steel in a good pillar bedded synthetic stock
• 22” barrels—except in the magnums that need a 24” barrel for velocity
• Simple trigger group, bolt and safety designs
• Shoot flat enough that 2” high at 100 ensures that holding high hair at 300 yds will put it in the vitals
• Iron back up sights
• Scope with an objective no larger than 40mms held with field detachable mounts (scabbard friendly)
• Shoot premium bullets under 1.5” throughout the entire temperature range that can be encountered

____________________________________
I'd agree on much of this, but not all.
Few of my elk rifles have weighted under 8 pounds field ready, but I never felt 8.5 to 9.5 was too much. So the ideal would possible be 8 pounds and less, but most men would not like a 30 cal over a 30-06 in a light gun and practice is the key, (improving marksmanship) not gear.

Stainless? In Idaho where I killed many elk, I would have loved stainless. In Oregon or Washington too. But I don;'t own a stainless rifle, and I have not even thought I needed one for my hunting in Wyoming or Montana. Again, if the ideal is being reached for, stainless would be nice, but not necessary.

Flat shooting: Again something that will not work against you in any way, but is way overrated for first time elk hunters. I don't know how many elk I have killed in the last 46 years exactly and I could not count the ones I have seen killed by friends and clients. My longest shot ever on any elk was about 400 yards. I did use a 270 on that elk, but if I had been holding my 375, or my 9,3X57, or 9.3X74R, or my 308 or any of my 30-06s I am sure the results would have been a dead elk all the same. The tripe you see on TV is mostly just that. In the total of elk I have killed of seen killed I have seen about 10 shots over 500 yards and I have seen about 8 more farther then 500 and NONE of them were necessary. All the 500+ shots could easily have been made at closer ranges, but the bragging rights of the hunters became important to them, and they wanted to shoot at those ranges.
Of all the elk I have killed in my 46 years of hunting them I'd guess I have killed 1/3 of them with my 375H&H. The other 2/3 were spread out from cartridges from 270 Winchester, 270 Short mag, 7X57 Mauser, 30-06, 308 Winchester, 300 Win Mag, 308 Norma mag, 300 H&H mag, 8X57 Mauser, 338-06, 338 Win mag, 348 Winchester, 9.3X74R, 44 magnum handguns, 454 Casull handgun, 62 caliber flintlock and I am probably forgetting a few as I write this list. Some are flat shooting and many are not. Other then my flintlock and one time with a 44 mag revolver , I have never had the mind set that what I had in my hands didn't shoot flat enough. And in those 2 times I still killed elk, one when I got a bit closer with the 62 cal flintier, and once when I had another elk get closer to me when I was hunting with my Ruger Super Blackhawk. So even those 2 times, I still got an elk.
If you are going to buy a new elk rifle I would say a flat shooter is just fine, but it's not as much an advantage as some would have you believe.

Premium Bullets.
Usually a good idea, but remember it's the hole the bullet makes, not the bullet itself that does the killing. Many Cup-and Core bullets work very well on even large bulls, but if you don't have 1st person knowledge of a particular bullet at a certain velocity, falling back to the premium bullet is not a bad thing to do. A Winchester Power Point may do just as good as a Nosler AccuBond, but the AccuBond will never do worse then the Power Point.. I don't always use "Premium Bullets", for 3 reasons.

#1. Such a bullet may not be needed.
This is usually true in calibers of 338 and larger. Not always however. I have killed a lot of game with a 9.3X74R and 13 of them were killed with 270 grain .366 bullets from Speer and ALL of them have come apart more then I'd like with one shattering so badly it went only 5" deep into the spine of a small white-tail buck (shot from above). Again, is is an argument for bonded-core, partition and sold Expanding bullet (if shot at ranges to insure impact at 2000 FPS and higher) If in doubt, and if you can get them, use premium bullets. So that leads me to reason #2.

#2. I can't get a suitable premium bullets for the gun I am using.
Sometimes they are available, but at such a price that rifle practice is not doable for anyone other then the very wealthy. (Somehow I have not found my name in the list of the most wealthy yet) I have seen this with my 6.5X54 Mann/Scho. My rifle will not feed spitzer bullet at any seating depth, being one of the old receivers that depends of the radius of the bullet nose to feed. So I have to use round nose bullets. The only ones I can find that work are the Hornady 160 grain RN, and a few imports from Norma and PPU. Same can be said for the .310 and .311 bore rifles so I can't get Nosler to make a partition in that size. Sales would not be high enough to sell them I guess.

#3. Velocity may not be high enough to make a premium bullet work any better and maybe not as good as a standard bullet. I have seen this with many rifles and about all handguns and muzzleloaders. If your impact velocity is going to be 1800 FPS and slower you'll often see cup-and Core or Cast bullets do BETTER then premium bullet. In this list you will find the 30-30, the 30-40 Krag with 180, 200 or 220 grains, the 303 Brit with 200 to 220 grain bullets, the 444 Marlin, the 44 mag, the 45-70, the 375 Winchester, the 38-55, the 35 Remington, 308 Winchester and 30-06 firing the heaviest bullet they handle well, 9.3X57 Mauser and a bunch more cartridges.

What I would say is that if someone were to use the list above they would not be disappointed as long as they can shoot that rifle well. If recoil of a 30 or larger caliber is enough to cause the buyer to flinch I would say it's best to go up 1-1.5 pounds, but overall the list is good. As you can see from my post, I don't think it's necessarily perfect, but it's close enough that a gun-buyer would not get a sub-standard hunting tool if he followed it.

Lifetime of knowledge in this thread, and I can't say I disagree with any of it. Thing with elk hunting is you might have a bull just stand up 60 yards away and you shoot him right off your shoe laces. Or it might be the last day cross canyon shot at 350+ at last light. I would pick a rifle and load that will handle either situation and its one I shoot well. If your a ninja in the woods a .308/270/30/06 will do just fine. If like me you have to find a park or saddle or funnel that an elk will eventually cross and sit on it for a couple of days and need the stand off distance so you don't get winded or seen, you may need the reach of something a bit faster and heavier. It really depends on the skill level of each hunter.

Made sense then, makes sense now.


Very similar to my rifle, except..... A “whisper” over 9 pounds ( scoped, 4 rounds, sling), and I zero at 300, making it only about 9-10 inches low at 400 yards. Pretty much.....”point and click” to 400 yrds. memtb

Due to my many questionable and just plain wrong life choices, I've only gone on two guided elk hunts. Both with the same outfitter. His rule was simple, show up in camp with your rifle dialed in at 300 yards. Most calibers will be down 8 inches or thereabouts at 400. That was his limit for shooting unless he knew you real well. If the elk were farther than 400 he got you closer.