Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting .375 H&H for elk

I can see the humor in that.

DF

My Sako 375 is one of my favorite rifles. I've had it since the 80's and early on put it in a McMillan stock. I've only used 300 grain bullets in them. Mostly Nosler partitions. Early on I tried some Barnes 300 grainers. In the box of 50, 2 were so out of round the bullet would stick in the die. Regardless I took my biggest bull moose with the bullet. I was very impressed, the bull was facing away from me looking over his shoulder at me. I was Leary of the Texas heart shot, so I shot him in the hip. It was obvious that the bull was immediately sick. I put in another round in him as I didn't need him getting any deeper in the bush before he died. The impressive thing was that the bullet went in, as clean as if I'd used a big drill bit into the meat. No shock, mess on the hip. You could eat right up to the hole. That rifle handled everything from brown bear, to moose and caribou. I considered it a very pleasant rifle to shoot and have shot 40 rounds off the bench before with no bruise or anything. What a wonderful cartridge.

Hey isn't that Trump Jr from the KUIU video?

Yep.

Not sure about the video.

DF

Not exactly my idea of a “sheep rifle.” 🙂

Mine either.

I guess if he wants to pack it, it did seem effective.

DF

The previously mentioned 375 H&H was an early Remington KS Mountain Rifle with a couple of inches knocked off of the barrel. It went 7 1/2#, scoped, slung and loaded. It has since been replaced with a tweaked SS M70 that weighs a few ounce more. No need at all for a heavy 375.

My Classic NH was way too barrel heavy. I had it cut back to 21" and fluted. which cut the forward weight a bunch. It's still in the 8# range, nine plus pounds with the heavy Victory scope, lighter with a VX-3 1.5-5x20. Those barrels are too good to swap.

What ya think Don Jr's big rifle weighs? Looks like a NF scope. I'm guessing 15+ pounds, a lot more than what I would want to pack up and down those mountains.

He took a lot of flack for those pictures and his Africa hunt with Eric.

Gotta respect them for that.

DF

He didn't, I grabbed my rifle from him and rec'd a gym membership.

All that said, I certainly would rather pack my 8.5lb Kimber 338 win mag up and elk mountain over a 16lb bull barreled Sharps 45-110.

Ya reckon ole Billy Dixon would be laughing about now...?



DF

I've got a Kimber Talkeetna in 375H&H w/2-12x42 Leupold VX-6 that shoots 250gn TTSX's right @ 2800fps. There's nothing about that rifle/load that would cause me to not want to hunt elk with it, at any range/conditions in which I could accurately judge what the wind was going to do.

Uh-Yessir, he is. ; ]

Sounds like a damn nice rig, Horse.

I need to draw a few more tags so I can actually take it hunting.

I forgot to add, I'm swapping the VX-6 off for a Leica 2.5-10x42 because I'm not fond of Leupold's wide-duplex and the center intersection is more coarse than I like. I live and hunt in very open country and have very good corrected vision, at this point for me regarding a reticle, the finer the better in the center.

Since I've gotten older I've cut the distance I walk considerably. Before my hip replacement it was difficult to go a mile, let alone drop in and climb out of canyons.

Still, I prefer lighter rifles to heavier. Most of the trips involve far more walking than shooting, and at the end of the day my shoulder can tell the difference. We pack our elk out on our backs or, if possible, with a cart. More than one elk has gotten walking papers because i didn't want (or physically couldn't, or both) want to pack it out.

Dropping 25 pounds last year made hiking those hills a LOT easier. I'll take weight loss where I can get it - rifle, pack, waist.

Agreed, I don't need trash in my reticles either, especially FAT trash, good luck getting those tags, you may have to book a big bear hunt with Phil, bet he has a tag!

There's certainly nothing wrong with a .375 for elk, although the high-BC hunting bullets are quite limited. The 260gr Accubond is one of the few that comes to mind. 600y seems a bit much, but then it's a bit much with any rifle.

Given a choice I'll take a 6.5mm or 7mm magnum in a smaller, lighter rifle and be able to shoot farther with the same impact from wind call error. Those big magnum actions are rather unwieldy compared to say a Kimber 8400. Yes, you CAN carry them but it's a lot less pleasant.

Ya think that big rifle Don Jr was packing on that AK sheep hunt (picture I posted) would weigh as much as your big Sharps? He must have packed it in.

DF

Had my 375 H&H at the range today for some practice. Oh, what fun to shoot!



This year though, I plan on bowhunting for elk, so the 375 will only come out to play for bear season. It's done just fine on bear in the past.

Guy