Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .375 H&H and .375 Ruger

I was reading the 2023 Hodgdon Annual Reloading Manual, specifically to compare data for the .375 H&H and the .375 Ruger. I was surprised to find data for the.375 H&H but none for the .375 Ruger. Is the .375 Ruger declining in popularity?

Does anyone have information on the comparison of sales of reloading dyes for the two calibers?

Check out https://www.hodgdonreloading.com/reloading-data-center?rdc=true&type=54

It has 375 Ruger data for seven bullet weights and 27 different powders.


Okie John

I had a .375 Ruger for about a year when the cartridge/rifle first appeared, a Ruger. It was accurate, and fed cartridges from the magazine very well. But it kicked a LOT harder than my .375 H&Hs, even the iron-sighted Ruger No. 1 Tropical I hunted with considerably in Africa, which only weighed around 8-1/2 pounds. Never could tell any difference in how it killed.

Perhaps one major problem was that just about every PH I've ever hunted with had considerable "left over" .375 H&H ammo in his stash, but never saw any .375 Ruger ammo in African stores or among PHs. In fact, the only place I saw any was in the tiny "general store" in Sleetmute, Alaska in 2009, when I bear hunted in the area. There were also a couple of stainless/synthetic Rugers on the shelf.

Also might mention that my buddy Ron Klemp, owner of a big sporting goods store in Kimberley, South Africa, said when I asked about the .375 Ruger a couple years after it was introduced, that customer stuck with the old H&H because they knew it worked--and could also always find ammo.

Which is one of the difficulties in introducing a new cartridge that competes directly with one that's been well-established for around a century.

I am sure they said the exact same thing when the 300 Win mag was introduced, the 300 H&H was more popular

Is the .375 Ruger proprietary to Ruger rifles and Hornady ammunition? If so, they should both let go and let it breathe a little.

This is coming from a guy who loves the .375H&H.

Howa, Savage and Mossberg have chambered for it.

I was a 375 H&H fan long before the Ruger. But, I have been sold on the Ruger since my first one shortly after its introduction. It was an easy sell to me, 375 H&H performance in the nearly identical package as my 338 Winchesters. I still have a few 375 H&H's but have not hunted with one since having the first 375 Ruger.
Actually the same can be said regarding my 338 Winchester use.

I cannot say that I have noticed much if any difference in my felt recoil between my 375 Rugers & 375 H&H's. I have alternated shooting them on the range and I don't recall much difference. Though, as we know, various things can influence the individual felt recoil.

The 375 Ruger case also morphed into a pretty dang good 416.

I do hand load. That of course gives lots of options with the Ruger cartridges. I have zero regrets regarding the 375 Ruger and 416 Ruger. Both are in my favorites list.

Favorites will/are often challenged by "new" favorites - then they in turn will be challenged by something newer. It's not that they're necessarily "better", but they seem so because they're newer!

Funny, because I recently opted for a "new" .375 H&H and turned down a "new" .375 Ruger a few months ago for practical reasons, which I'll not go into now but will if someone wants to know.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

When Ruger announced its version of the venerable .375 I scratched my head. A solution in search of a problem.

T
The problem was the "large" action required for the H&H.

The 375 Ruger fits in a 7mm Rem mag/300 Win mag/338 win Mag length action.

Ruger makes a LH stainless 375, so I grabbed it.

BMT

Had a 700 in H&H. Now have a Guide model in .375R.

If restricted to factory ammo I'd probably get the H&H. Wider load selection, available everywhere. Even in Maine. And who cares about brass life when you toss it?

My H&H chamber, like many/most belted mag chambers, was long enough to stretch brass on first firing. Could do the faux-shoulder drill on virgin brass, expand to .416, then back down for snug chambering, suppose.

My .375R seems a reloader's dream. Whatever people think of Hornady brass in general, their .375R brass is superb. Ran the first batch out to 14 firings, FL sizing every time. Needed to trim every 4 firings. At 14 firings had some incipient and partial separations. Tossed the lot.

Current batch was FL sized first time. Haven't needed to FL size again, and am at 12 firings with no detectable (with wire) incipient separation. Trimmed this batch just once. Seems to have stopped growing.... To be fair, I use a chrono and conservative (Hornady manual) data. No idea how the Speer folks safely got their .375R data, but they sure weren't using my Guide gun. Even so, I have no trouble pushing 300s to 2550 fps. 20" barrel and all.

Hornady brass, in general, seems to have tight primer pockets. Pockets of retired .375R brass are as snug as new, best I can tell with the Sinclair hand tool. Consistently so, as in every single piece. Similarly, case neck tension is as good now as first loading. Every single piece.

For the record, I do not anneal. Don't especially care about the Ruger advantage re action length. Do understand how some might care. Like '06 vs .308. Choice is good.

If worried "cartridge cancel culture" will do in the .375R just put in a lifetime supply of brass. I did.

I don't see or interpret the 375 Ruger as an insult to the 375 H&H. It provides an option as does the 300 WSM/ 300 Winchester / 300 H&H, 416 Ruger / 416 Remington / Rigby, 6.5 Creedmoor / 6.5x55, and other cartridges in the same caliber. If the option is of personal value, use it. If not, skip it.

The 375 Ruger simply offers 375 H&H performance in an off the shelf rifle, with nearly identical to a 338 Winchester rifle dimensions. If the Speer #15 manual is accurate, you can broaden the velocity difference in favor of the Ruger. Individual load psi's are not listed. Both have the same SAAMI MAP and per Speer average case capacity is only 4 grains water in favor of the Ruger. Definitely some variables involved in the 150-200 fps Ruger increase.

I have been using, the not so new & shiny powder, H380 with Barnes' load at slightly longer COAL, with their 270 grain TSX & LRX. The LRX averaged ~2720 fps out of a factory 20" barrel. Not a load for a velocity race, but plenty suitable for my purposes.

In my view the only advantage is for Ruger's bean counters. By using the '06 length action, they have fewer variations to manufacture. They can make a .375 Ruger for roughly the same cost as a similar '06 or .300 win mag. To fit the H&H cases, they had a whole nother action and those puppies were pretty expensive for my tastes back in their day.

My sole reason for switching to the .375 Ruger was that it used the same standard length action I use in my other rifles do better than the .375 H&H. My 3 go to bolt rifles are now the 30-06, 300 WM, and 375 Ruger all built on Left Hand Commercial Mauser 98 actions. 100% parts commonality except for the bolt bodies. With the handloads I use, the 375 Ruger and 30 06 have almost the same ballistics.

Ballistically, I see no practical difference between the Ruger and the H&H. Many, many more hunters would find the legendary .375 H&H a more attractive option due to its very long and hallowed reputation.

You can't go wrong with either.

As a follow-up to my earlier comment, I strongly suspect the .375 Ruger hasn't made major inroads in African customers because it costs a LOT to import rifles, ammo and components over there, whether in South Africa or elsewhere. Have visited several African gun stores, most often in RSA but also in other countries.

On a 2007 trip to RSA was kind of astonished to find so many boxes of Sierra bullets on the shelves--at twice the price they usually sell for here. In one store the green bullet-boxes outnumbered ALL the other component bullets. Of course, this is largely due to culling, but a lot of hunters use 'em for general hunting, especially in cartridges such as the .308--which is very popular in RSA.

But there's usually an adequate supply of used .375 H&H rifles, because the cartridge has been popular over there for at least a century. Which also results in a steady supply of factory ammo and components, some made over there--bypassing import costs.

On the opposite side of the deal, the .375 Ruger rifles and ammo I've seen in gun stores in Alaska haven't been priced all that much higher than in the Lower 48. This means customers can buy a very weatherproof, controlled-feed stainless/synthetic Ruger for far less than a beat-up, walnut-stocked .375 H&H.

Might also mention that the ONLY .375 Ruger rifle I've seen in Africa was a custom rifle made by an American company, used by one of my hunting companions on a 2011 hunt in Tanzania. At that time most of the dangerous-game PHs I knew (and have known quite a few) used either older rifles they'd had for many years (or even inherited), or CZ 550 magnums in various chamberings.

I think the CZ in the bigger calibres like the 375 is finished. If true then I can see the Ruger in 375 Ruger picking up sales for those who want CRF in 375 as the Model 70 is quite expensive.

While I think that under "normal" geopolitical conditions that projection into the future might have some validity to it, yet we're not living in so-called "normal" times! So due to my age and world geopolitical changes and uncertainties on a daily, if not hourly, basis, I've chosen the "now view" as in expectations for hunting in my Canadian world today. I've written on this perhaps ad nausea, but, if ever, the .375 Ruger is a loooong way from replacing the "old" H&H in the thoughts and experience of the few in this part of Canada who might have serious interest in a .375 magnum.

I chose the H&H over the Ruger at a local emporium because of convenience and costs. When the .375 Ruger was offered in a Savage with stainless everything, 23" fluted barrel + muzzle brake + camo syn stock, I made a 1hr trip to chesk it out. Price was just under 1K. I handled it and concluded it was too heavy in the barrel end. It didn't balance well, plus they didn't have any dies, brass or ammo for sale. That was nearly a year ago. It did sell, but perhaps to someone on the western end of Canada - I don't know. But they've not stocked another since.

At the same store (a large one), 3 months ago I picked up a new M70 Zastava in .375 H&H for well under 1K, plus three bags of Rem .375 H&H brass, dies and bullets. That rifle has been my main firearm for a bear hunt since. I really like it - it fits, balances, and has ballistics from handloads superior to .375 Ruger factory ammo. And the barrel is 22". It is becoming a favorite in under three months. And, oh - I've owned and used just about all common mediums available, including three other .375 H&Hs. Can a .20" 375 R make 5000 ft-lbs at the muzzle? My H&H does - easily.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

What barrel length does your Zastave have, 22"? The Ruger case has an extra 5 grains of capacity over the H&H, so probably.

Yes, CZ discontinued the 550 Magnum.

But in many ways that's irrelevant. One of the interesting things about big game rifles is they don't "wear out" very often--and if they do it's usually the barrel, which is easily replaced.

Which is why I don't see the .375 Ruger "replacing" the .375 H&H in the long run--especially in most of the U.S. There are a LOT of used .375 H&Hs in the world, many of which are still in fine working condition. And very few U.S. hunters have a real justification for buying a .375 magnum of either variety--unless, of course, they just want one. And if they do, there are plenty of used .375 H&Hs available.

Which is why at some point, "new" cartridges that basically approximate older cartridges don't succeed in the marketplace nearly as often: They're competing against an ever-increasing number of used but still very functional rifles.

Love my 375 H&H but so glad Ruger came out with one.
Otherwise I'd be sol for 280 Ross and 30 Newton cases.