Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .375 H&H. best bang for your buck !

If it has to be a 375, find something used on a CRF action, with the Model 70, Mark X and Whitworth at the top of the list. If it doesn't have to be a 375, get a new CZ 550 American in 9.3x62. Make sure it has the knurled mainspring retainer (described at http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9411043/m/772101421?r=110103421#110103421)

I'd buy it ASAP and I'd shoot it enough to know that it worked perfectly before I took it hunting.


Okie John

Good new for me ...

I bought mine 1500 euros (brand new).

Custom mods: 500 euros (oil finish, stock lenght adj. and recoil pad, Mak pivot mount bases, scope zeroing, mod. irons, trigger weight adj.)

Bonus: second hand docter sight 2 + and custom low mount: 250.

uh...we might be talkin two different rifles.....pre 64, and post 64 classics, are both crf and look similar, but the prices are way different....

Sorry, I didn't mention it: it's a post'64 release of a Pre-64 type (CRF / long claw extractor), but IMO those ones are excellent rifles.

I bought a 7lb Sako Model 85 (Stainless Synthetic) this summer -in 375 H&H.

It is the finest factory rifle I have ever owned.

Even at 7lbs - it's recoil attenuation - is amazing.

It is as accurate as any factory rifle I've ever owned.

I wished everything I owned functioned as well, was designed as well, and was built as well.

amazing....you would think at 7lbs it would slap a snot bubble up on your nose.....is that sako's new crf?

Yes - it is CRF.

It is GUARANTEED to shoot 5 shots into an inch with factory ammo. It does that - easily.

I've shot 30-06's and 7mm magnums that felt far worse to shoot

It might be the patented stock - or perhaps it's the patented recoil pad. All I know, is that after the first afternoon of shooting it - I was pleasantly shocked and amazed by it. It's my new "Northern B.C. Mountain rifle".

Here's the pad - it is supposed to really absorb shock and is also supposed to deflect energy away from the shooter's cheek. To my shoulder and cheek - it works beyond expectations.

hey Brian, If it is not too much trouble, could you post a picture of the bolt?

Here is a Whitworth listed on Gunbroker. I can attest to the B&C stocks. They are tough as nails. My .375 was built by Dennis Olson and is quite similar to this one. And yeah it has a B&C stock.

375 H&H

It'll take a while - if you meant the bolt - alone - as I'm not at home - and my own home computer is broken.

I'll try though - if that's what you want.

I am going to have a 375 H&H built on a Winchester Model 70 stainless classic in 7mm Remington Magnum; barrel will be a Shilen, stock is a McMillan Echols Legend, if it ever arrives

Frankly, it will only be used if I go to Africa, and then only if I go to a country where a 375 is required. My 9.3x62 does everything that I would want a 375 to do, and everything that I used to use a 338 for.

Not saying that you don't need another rifle and chambering, but ......

You can kill simply everything in sub-Saharan Afrika, up to and including eland, with a .30-'06.

I have.

Steve

Yup. But I do so love the 375. All the rifles mentioned are good choices I think, but for me, not a 700. jorge

Friend Jorge,

We are indeed rifle loonies!!!!

And that ain't bad.

Your buddy Steve

BCBrian,

Nice rifle and a great black bear mount! The eyes look like they will blink at any moment. I wish I could find a gun shop within 100 miles of home to go handle a Sako SS 85. The 14 inch LOP they list for the Model 85 rifles would be on the long side of what I prefer and they don't look like you can shorten the stock easily. Good hunting to you.

Scott

yes, you can, but on the larger stuff the .375 sure is nice.....like this bravo who needed two 300 gr. TBBCs in the chest to calm him down.

Steve NO,

I have killed kudu with various cartridges from the 7x57 to .375 H&H. I have yet to detect a pattern in how much killing they require--except that if hit right they don't require much.

In fact only two of my kudu have been shot more than once, both because the first shot wasn't perfect. This was because both kudu were running: One was hit a few inches behind the shoulder, the other through one shoulder and the front of the far shoulder. Both bulls stopped within 100 yards because they were felling poorly and I shot 'em again, whether they needed it or not. It turned out they didn't, but you never know. Those two were shot with the 9.3x62 Mauser and .375 H&H.

All the rest of my kudu have been shot when they were standing still, at ranges out to 360 yards. They all fell inside 60 yards, no matter whether they were hit with a 7x57 or a .375. In fact the other kudu I've shot with a .375 went farther than those shot with the 7x57 or .30-06!

Also, after quite a bit of observation I am not entirely sure that a .375 makes all that much difference on the supposed really tough plains game animals like gemsbok, wildebeest and zebra. I have seen too many of those killed neatly with one shot
from cartridges like the .270, 7x57, .308 and .30-06. And I have seen quite a few of those animals turn into running gun battles after being hit around the edges with cartridges like the .338 and .375.

But I probably will take my .375 to Africa again and use it on plains game, just as I did the first time I went, and for the same reason: It's my "African" rifle!

you can see where this guy was hit....I was glad he got hit with a .375 and really didn't care to trade down. shots were offhand at about 90 yards as he was getting out of Dodge, second one was after he was off his feet.

a few days earlier I'd double lunged a zebra with my '06and 180 partitions and had him run a couple of hundred yards through thick stuff, along with his herd..... found him, but that experience made me opt for the .375 for the kudu....just because I could. and because its Africa.

I understand!

However, I have also seen a zebra double-lunged with a good bullet from a .375 (260-grain AccuBond, which went all the way through and created lots of damage) and it went 200 yards--and without a blood trail until the very end.

My wife killed a big Burchell's stallion in South Africa last year with a .308 Winchester, using a 150-grain E-Tip. It was perfectly shot as well and went 160 yards before falling.

The examples can go on and on, butanymore I am pretty much convinced the animals are going to so what they are going to do, and within reason what we hit them with doesn't make near as much difference as where we hit them. The bigger cartridges (and bullets) may help break bigger bones, and may create a bigger blood trail. But after seeing too many fall in basically the same distance regardless if they were hit with a .338 or .375 or something "too small" I am not very sure about anything except shot placement anymore.

I did not get an exit on my zebra and what little blood trail there was started late and was obliterated by his entourage...


by and large, though, I agree with you....put a bullet that expands and holds together through the front third of the animal and the rest doesn't matter that much.


but when you've spent a fortune to get there and hunt, and they're going to charge you for anything that gets away, I'll take any advantage that's readily available. plus, as you say, hauling around a .375 model 70 seems kind of obligatory in Africa. I really like that rifle, too.