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

About the scopes, the first one is a Schmidt & Bender 1,25-4x20. The second a Zeiss Victory 1,5-6x42 and the las one a Zeiss Diatal ZA 4x32. All with Nr. 4 Reticules. The last one, the 4x32 is one of my favorites big game scopes!

Best!

PH

Zeiss Victory 1.5-6x42 on this one, chopped and fluted to cut barrel weight.

DF

That’s awesome. I hope you do well. I’ve never put in for cow. Only firearm bull. Report back with how you do when you go.

Don’t ever worry about the 375 h&h doing the job. It is only limited by the shooter’s capability. Made several 300 yd shots in Africa. Shot a 412 BC elk at 432 yds. All with 300 grain swift Aframe. Great bullet, not best bc. I recommend practicing at 400 yds or more. Don’t worry about the mule, load the wagon.

Don't overlook the 250 grain SGK. They are hell for tough.

I guided an elk Hunter from Australia in the Frank Church wilderness one time. He was shooting a 375H andH.. He missed a 5 point bull, and a nice mule deer from solid rests. He was so scared of the recoil, that he had a terrible flinch and couldn't hit anything. I shot his rifle to verify that it was shooting ok. It was, but even at that,I wasn't crazy about the recoil either, as that was the first one that I had shot. He later shot a small bull with my 243 I had in camp. I had a lot of hunters over the years that had magnum rifles and couldn't shoot them very well because of th e recoil flinch they developed. Most of the hunters that shot decent, and there weren't very many of them, shot something that didn't kick as bad. Something in the 270, or 30 06 range. I always liked it when a hunter showed up with something like that. Chances were, they would shoot better.

My first thought is the OP needs to get a ballistic calculator or use one of the free online calculators. And maybe a chronograph as well.

I use the Barnes 235 gr. X boattail bullets in my Model 70 .375 H&H. They don't make them anymore, they're flatbase now. I have plenty of the 235 boattails stockpiled though. My rifle shoots them well. Took several elk, 2 moose and even deer & antelope with it. It's a great shooter. I had a Remington 700 BDL in .375 H&H, biggest POS I ever owned.

Hi Yoder,

Agree!! The SGK 250 grs (and 300 grs by the way) is also one very fine elk and medium game bullet in the .375 H&H.

Best.

PH

With many, the “magnum moniker” alone, scares a lot of people. The 375 H&H, is not much more than a 30-06 (similar trajectories at typical hunting distances) with a larger bore. As “most” .375 H&H’s are fairly heavy....the felt recoil, is pretty tame. About 30 years ago, my wife (girl friend @ the time) ran some 300 grainers through my Win. Model 70. Her comment, “That’s not nearly as bad as I thought it would be”! This from a women that biggest cartridge shot previously was a .264 WM.

Now, if you bring the weight down to a much more practical “hunting carry weight” ( 9 pounds or under - scoped, loaded, and scoped) the recoil will be a bit more. However, nothing that an experienced shooter should fear. Unless the shooter has some injury (shoulder, ect.) that is sensitive to recoil!

A little math comparison: A 9.0 pound 375 H&H, shooting a 270 grain bullet (2700 fps) has a felt recoil of approximately 45 ft/lbs. My wife’s 9.0 pound .338 WM, pushing 225 grainers @ 2950, provides a bit over 39.0 ft/lbs. I don’t think an additional 5 or so ft/lb. felt recoil to be a serious challenge! JMO. memtb

I see these very light 375's and wonder what the thinking is on that. A 7# .375 will rattle yo teeth. And, as you correctly stated a 8.5-9# gun pushes more than slaps, not that unpleasant to shoot. The M-70 I posted, even with the heavy scope is pushing 9#'s. With a 1.5-5x20 Leupold, 8.5#'s or so all up. The big Zeiss sure is nice in dim light, though. I don't want one lighter than that. The basic gun is around 7#, 12 oz or so, balances great after the barrel was chopped and fluted. This gun, IMO, is about ideal. I even like the Tupperware stock. Don't have to worry about scratching it. It's tough and the SS speaks for itself.

DF

Just mounted this 2.5x8 Leupold on my 375 H&H. Weighed it and comes in at 9.2 pounds, unloaded and minus sling.

Dirtfarmer, A very nice rifle! I need another .375, like I need more income taxes. But, given the opportunity to buy a Model 70 SS, I’d keep the barrel at 24”, cut as much weight as is practical, and run an AI reamer in it, and drop a Leupold 2.5-8 or 3.5-10 in Leupold QD base/rings on it. Then, I’d have another rifle that doesn’t get enough use. But, she’d be a beautiful “safe queen”! memtb

Sounds like a plan.

Ha!

DF

I had a regular Mod 700 BDL SS .375 (when they made them) reamed to the 375 Weatherby ( ala Ackley) and shot the 270 Barnes in it. It was a flat shooter!

Depends on the stock and recoil pad. I had a 700 XCR in .375 H&H. If it hadn't had a truly FUBAR chamber, I'd still have it. Mine weighed 6 lb 12 oz .. actual weight, not manufacturer prediction .. bare, no optics. It was not bad at all to shoot, big push. I attribute this to 2 things, first, the R3 recoil pad, and second, a bit of flexibility in the factory stock itself. However, when you take a fired case, turn it a quarter turn, and can't chamber it, something is BAD. When it requires Imperial Sizing Lube, which I reserve for case forming, not regular sizing lube, to get it into a FL die, something is BAD. Given that, the 2-1/2 inch accuracy, which is unacceptable to me, was not a surprised. I had a plain-jane Leupold Vari X II 3-9X40 on it. If not for that FUBAR chamber, it would have been a real useful do-everything rifle.

Tom

I shot 1 elk with 375hh. used 300 nosler pt. down and out very quick. shot 1 cow elk with 45 colt 300 gr wfnl . both died in about same time.

I used the Sierra 300 SBT going 2600 or close. I found it to be a very soft bullet, made 5 inch exit holes. First shot ( 200yds) broadside, mid way up, tight against the shoulder. Boom, she humped up, had a miserable look on her face ( I guess, ha) and just stood there! I did not want ther to run down into a very nearby, God Awful Hole, so hit her top of shoulders. Ruined a lot of meat too, was then pressed for time for South Africa, so just used the then available 270 Failsafe factory load. Good stuff, no more bloodshot/ruined meat either! This was important because we sold the meat to help cover the costs. Contrary to popular belief, we Preachers are not all like Al Sharpton. You guys see that today? $ 1 Mil.

At least you got yours to exit. Back in the ‘80’s, before I started using “real” bullets, I had 3 bullet failures with the Sierra 300 grain SBT. They failed to exit broadside shots on a deer and a black bear.....finding only an empty jacket! Lost my first elk, easy, close range, “steeply angled” shot, thinking that the bullet would easily do it’s job....it was not. Yes, I’m slow to learn. Once going to the Hornady 270 SP’s at H&H velocities.....bullet failures were a thing of the past. Step up the velocity another 2 or 3 hundred fps, and I found the Hornady’s lacking.....but, that’s another story! memtb

Shot my first elk in Colorado with a 375 H-H. in 1997.
That year I shot a Dalls sheep, a moose and a black bear with my 308 Win so I wanted to try out the 375 H-H too.