Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Thoughts on the 375 Ruger vs. 338 Win Mag for 1, do-it-all rifle

JJ,

You NEED to find one of these......



That'll fit the bill me thinks.

Now THAT is a REALLY cool rifle. If they made it right handed I'd get one in a second.

You know, I surf pretty consistantly for LH rifles. I found one of these a while back when they first trickled in. Was a gunbroker gun for, I think, $670. Wasn't sure I wanted that configuration or not.

I REALLY like the matte blued/walnut.

I was worried about which stock was on it, as I have a grey laminated 25-06 in a MKII which is super heavy and kinda club like. I like the Hawkeyes much better.

Shoulda scooped it while it was there.

That recoil pad is pretty intimidating.

I really want to get my 375 RUM over a chrono and see what the real numbers are and how much of a whimp I am...

Jesse just remember if you trip off to Africa, it is nice to be able to find ammo if something gets lost or stolen etc. I am not positive you will find .375-Ruger ammo anyplace but the bigger gunstores in the USA.

This is the one reason I opted to have my .375H&H rechambered for the .375-Wby in the first place. It gave me 150fps more velocity than the .375H&H if I needed such. In the mean time, I can still shoot those .375H&H bullets out of this rifle very accurately. The only thing that happens is those H&H cases become fire formed into .375Wby brass.

I learned a long time ago, shooting a .375 caliber over 2500fps is not necessary on big game animals and it also is punishing to the shoulder once one hits the 2600fps level of velocity. Many of those African PH's say that 2400fps will do just fine 95% of the time with proper bullet using 300 grain bullets.

I have 3 loads for my .375-Wby using 300 grain Woodleigh bullets.

IMR-4350 powder, 77 grains, Velocity is 2470fps. CUP is 48,000.

IMR-4831 powder, 88 grains, Velocity is 2725fps. CUP is 54,000.

RL-22 powder, 90 grains, Velocity is 2660fps. CUP is 51,900.

However, I really like the .338 caliber for big game hunting in the USA and for African plains game. This caliber is also well suited for smaller species too, if one can handle the recoil etc. I have more .338's than anything else in my collection. Also very hard to beat a model 70 Winchester when hunting big game!

JJ,

This one is definitely not a 'club'. Swings and points, for me, like no other rifle I've owned. Haven't had a chance to fire it yet and it's already my 'fav'. I agree with you, though only slightly modified from the MII, the 'Hawkeyes' are a big improvement.

I wanted a handy 'truck' and 'bear' gun as well as a hunt anything, anywhere rifle. This one fills that niche for me at least.

I haven't handled one, but would imagine the 'African' is a pretty handy little rifle as well. Also, I was never a fan of irons on a bolt gun but the iron sights on these things are the best factory open sight I've ever used. You should get one....

Not that you couldn't just down load your RUM and achieve something similar to the Rugers.

Best of luck with your decision,

David

Jesse Jaymes; I'm voting for the Ruger .375 African. When I first saw and handled one, Mule Deer showed up a few minutes later, I handed him the rifle and told him point blank " If I had it to do all over again, I'd do it with that rifle..."
My opinion has not changed since that day...
In response to some posts, my understanding is that the .375 Ruger has caught on like wildfire in both Alaska and Africa, so any problems getting ammo in those places should clear up soon...
Ingwe

Yea, there was a mention of going H+H, but for me in LH, not really a viable option. At least not easily. At the end of last week I was set to just order the damn .338 barrel and be done with it. Then of course, the Big Flip Flop. I though, "They will be making .338 barrels for A LONG TIME". I can get one in 6 months or 3 years. They will probably NOT make the LH African forever. Plus the possibility of scraping the $290 for the barrel would be much easier than getting all $875 for the LH African in the future.

And with all of the custom and semi custom rifles I have, there is something to be said for a "factory" rifle. They have all the "bugs" worked out of them, or they go back for free. With a built gun, it's back and forth to whoever built it for tweaking and whatever. Lots of shipping and dicking around.

Would be nice to have a fully functioning rifle with no minor headaches or hang ups, that feeds 100% of the time, and functions well.

The 375 RUM currently has a VX-III 2.5-8 with the B+C reticle on it. Would take about 20 minutes to lap the Ruger supplied rings and get a new rifle up and running.....


HMMMM?

I've asked the Missing Ammo question on the Africa forum at least once before. And if it's not 30-06 or 375 HH, then I really do not think it matter what you have for chambering, I doubt you will get extra ammo. Would be a borrowed gun in most cases in my opinion.

.375 RUGER!! Just do it.

"One rifle"?!

Blasphemy!

JJ

I recently swapped out my Ruger 338WM for a Ruger 375 Alaskan. It wasn't because I believe the 375 Ruger is soo much more effective than the 338WM, it was because of the handiness of the 375 Ruger in the Alaskan package. Since the first day I handled a 375 Ruger Alaskan, I thought..."Man that just feels right!". Once I researched the cartridge itself and realized that you could easily surpass the 338WM with equal or heavier grain bullets and do it all in the more compact package, I was sold. The difference in handling of the 20" Alaskan as opposed to the 24" 338WM is quiet inviting. I could have gone the 375 H&H route as well, but like i said, it wasn't really about the cartridge,as much as it was about the package. A 375 H&H with a 20" barrel would fall behind ballistically very quickly to the 375 Ruger. I honestly believe that there is no tougher package for where I hunt than the Ruger, it aint purty......but they just always work!

AlaskaCub, have you shot your Ruger .375 over a chrono yet?

No I have not.

Does the .375 Ruger typically deliver the manufacturer's stated speeds, anyone know?

I know, .325 WSM (just to pick on one of the new cartridges I have used) does NOT.

Jeff-

I used to run my Chrono all the time, but got pissed off due to many loads not meeting specs. A valid question.

From the few folks' data I have gone over, it looks like it's able to obtain factory rated specs with handloads, and the factory fodder performs as advertised.

This is based off of Quinn on Gunblast and some data floating around here.

H414 seems to get me the closest to factory specs with 270 grain bullets. I'm running a 24" barrel on my M70 .375 Ruger not the 20" like the Ruger Alaskan. I rebarreled my 7mm Rem Mag to .375 Ruger and love it, you will not be disappointed with it. I haven't killed any big game with it but I'm sure it is up to the task.

I know what you mean by chrono's messing with your head. I rarely set mine up anymore, except to get an average speed for a load that I shoot long range with, so I can punch the numbers into my software...

Those ball powders like H414 (uh... it's a ball powder, yes? It's been a while) sure do make a FIREBALL!

Yep ball powder, would like to use H4350 but my groups have been better with H414. Helps that I bought 8 lbs of it along with 8 lbs of W760 for $180 when I found a store going out of business. H4350 has been scarce around here so I've been using the H414 for the Ruger and saving the other stuff for my cartridges that don't use as much.

I have been fortunate enough to own both and hunt with 338 Win. Mag. (Great rifle). However, now having owned and shot the 375 Ruger for a while (no hunts yet)...I must say I am very impressed. Serious range and accuracy for such a heavy bullet and I find it's recoil less painful (by far) than the 338...big push vs abrupt slam. Just my .02.

Plus 1 for the 375 Ruger. I have the Alaskan model. Very handy rifle. Mine has killed 2 elk. A spike at 110 yds, he did some neat acrobatics mid air when the 270 gr Hornady hit him. The other was at 376 yds, with a leupy 1.5-5. Yes 5x is plenty out to 400 yds. When I bought my rifle I found quite a few of the 270 Hornadys at gun shows, they shot so well I've never tried anything else. I shoot them over RL 15, don't remember the charge off hand, but it wasn't max and I get just a hair over 2600 fps with a 20" barrel. That African model with 3" more barrel would be pretty awesome. Good luck with your choice.

wky the hardon for speed here? any of the loads listed in the calibers mentioned with a bullet featuring a decent BC and an appropriately zeroed scope will get it all done.

and if you have a M70 then why not the H&H and cross reloading component availability off the list?

we americans are so concerned with squeezing every last bit of velocity out of these rounds we forget we can accomplish a lot of the same thing with the scope being zeroed.