Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only Kimber Caprivi .375 H&H--Any Improvement?

oldman1942 flapping his gums over here to eh?

Yep...almost time to see if OldDouche will call me a racist again...



Ingwe

I know as many PHs as anyone and I believe most have control feed rifles for backup....Some do not and they are mostly plainsgame PHs and mostly in RSA or they are fairly new to PHing and can't afford a control feed rifle..At least that is my assesment based on the ones I know personally..I do know some old elephant control officers that used push feed M-70s way back yonder, mostly because that was all that was available..

But the bottom line is I have had a couple of bad experiences with push feeds allowing the cartridge to fall out as I ran after buffalo and tried to chamber a round, I have seen many more failures with pushfeeds than with control feeds..I personally think control feed rifles are not bullshit and I base that on experience not on guess and by gosh by oldman, and btw I would bet I have him bested by a number of years...

I know some folks that use pushfeeds and they are satisfied with them, and I have no problem with that, what I do find disturbing is when someone spouts off about a control feed rifle being BS when it is not, That is my option, my opinnion, to use or not to use, and the bullshit is on the internet, not in the field.

IMO, a dangerous game rifle is a 98 Mauser full custom, first and foremost, followed by a Win.control feed M-70 if you use a bolt gun. but if you switched it around that wouldn't hurt my feelings..

You will never see me in the bush with a push feed rifle of any sort unless I'm pushing a couple of rounds into my double rifle! and I actually prefer a good Mauser to a double rifle for hunting DG..I do love double rifles however.

Ray,

i follow you most of the time but i met the late Robet J Montvoisin who guided in a lot of central african countries (Cameroon, Zaire and CAR) and in Zambia and was too a elephant culler in Chad in the 50s and he was using a Weatherby Mark V in 460 and 375 Weatherby magnum in his last years of guiding. i think some french speaking guides are on those action too. i ve met too a canadian that guide in Tanzania and he used too a mark V action. but they re exeptions as usual.

see you

Hi all, I'm new to the site.

So, back to original question. Are the Caprivi's any good? I am entertaining the prospect buying one. It looks nice, but the problems I have read about concern me. Other options are the CZ 550, a custom gun, or a Dakota or similar.

I don't have any plans to hunt dangerous game, just have always liked the 375 H&H caliber. I shot a mule deer with a Sierra 300gr bullet out of a Ruger #1, and had no meat damage to speak of. I had a Remington Model 30 Express barrelled in 375, but the "gunsmith" did a hack job, so I won't be stocking it. I have two Argentine 1909 actions I bought many years ago, and was thinking of having one of them built into a 35 Whelen. That would make an adequate elk rifle, but still isn't a 375 H&H. Any ideas?

The M70/375 is probably about the most strongly associated calibre and rifle out there and with top resale values.

But you a spanning some big price ranges when you inlcude CZ and Dakota.

I know it's a big range of pricing, but price isn't the primary concern. It's more about value. Is the Winchester out and available yet? Any street pricing? It should be about the same as the CZ 550, right? Is the Sako CRF? Just looking for a good rifle, and can pay a bit more for better wood, smooth action, etc.

I think the M70 is supposed to hit the shops in the later part of the year. Winchester lists the retail at about $1300US

Gunbroker and similar have the previous model which some would prefer because of the trigger but they can be pricey.

Sako is CRF in terms of what that means but it is not the external claw extractor. They are like a push feed but with the bottom half of the bolt counterbore cut away so the case rim can slide under the PF style extractor.

Dakota is way out of the area of "and can pay a bit more for better wood, smooth action, etc."

If Kimber is OK, then it is hard to beat at the price.

For good wood probablly the best deal around is the CZs which are done by American Hunting Rifles. Stick that in Google and you will get their website. The rifles have a tremendous reputation pn AccurateReloading Big Bores forum and AR is the home of Big Bore forums.

Dakota and Wby Safari are $6000 plus and so so wood and you would be at $8000-$9000 with either with wood ugrade.

If you want super smooth and super reliable feeding and top accuracy then the Sauer but it is PF. You can upgrade their wood but that will put you into Wby/Dakota pricing.

My gut feeling is the Kimber Caprivi would be OK. I think some of the accuracy probems with Kimber in the smaller calibre are because they are very light. Vey light barrels that are not real good barrels can be real hair pulling stuff. But the 375 Caprivi is a heavier barrel, about like the M70 375.

I also suspect the Kimber Caprivi gets some bad press because of the action being like a Rem 700 under the wood while it preteds to be a M70 above the wood.But the reality is that is an image thing.

And last but not least, what about the Ruger RSM in 375. They are a nice rifle, reasonable wood and priced less than the Kimber Caprivi.

Thanks, Mike. It seems to me that the RSM, at 10# without scope, is a bit heavy in a 375. It's 1/2# heavier than the 416, probably because of the bigger hole in the barrel in the 416. Maybe the Caprivi is the way to go, although the Winchester should be okay.

Yes the RSM is heavy but balances and points far better than the muzzle light Kimber. It can also be found for 1/3 the price. If you can't handle an 11 pound 375 H&H well.....

IMO light rifles cause more bad field shooting than any other single factor.

My $375 $1200.

On paper, the Kimber Caprivis is the best value. If I lived in America I would give one a go. But all costs more in Australia and sending back via agent causes a headache just thinking about hit.

As a side note, I had one of the early RSM 375s, same as the one oldman1942 has and I found the weight OK. Although we are not climbing around mountains in Australia But of the Kimber is Ok I would prefer it. The RSMs recoil plate system is a put of and I don't like the Ruger mounts.

The Ruger recoil plate system, combined with a cross bolt is very rugged. Doubt you'll see an RSM with a split stock.
Ruger rings are rugged and avoid one more failure point on heavy kickers, scope mount bases. They can also be removed easily if necessary and another scope put in place or the irons used.

Sad they don't make it anymore and the Hawkeye will never be the rifle it is. heck they don't even make a real 375 H&H.

The Kimber also costs almost 3x as much, the difference of which will buy a Schmidt & Bender rather than a Tasco.

I think Ruger has $2400US on its website and Kimber about $3200US

If you can find a RSM on the Ruger website , please share it. All I can find is the blackeye for about $1100 and it's not a 375 H&H.
while the RSM did cost that much back when it was made, I'm talking street prices today.

http://www.ruger.com/products/m77HawkeyeAfrican/index.html

for rsm s for sale:

http://www.gunsamerica.com/Search.aspx?T=ruger%20rsm

There you go

http://www.ruger.com/products/m77MarkIIMagnum/models.html

On the opening page at the top is "bolt action rifles" and then well down in the list that opens is Magnum and then when that opens click model.

RSMs were notorious for split stocks when they first came out. I had the metal bar that is supposed to be the recoil damper bedded in mine. jorge

You are comparing a autoloader to a bolt action. An autoloader takes the "human" element out of loading the next round. You could be stressed out of your mind and that next round will feed. With a bolt action, you are asking someone to manually load the next round. Under stress, I can see a CRF being more reliable. I would guess that most people are under stress when they hunt DG.

Don't know where you dug up that Ruger website but this is the current one:

http://www.ruger.com/ no 375 H&Hs only Hawkeyes in 375 Ruger.

and here is what Davidson says: http://www.galleryofguns.com/genie/default.aspx?item=77RSM%2D375

NO RSMs, they aren't making them anymore. EOS

So I guess we need an autoloading 375 H&H for the uninitiated?
I'm sure Benelli could build one (GRIN) but I think they are not allowed in most African countries.
Even easier, take a 300 or 9.3x62 WinMag R-1 barrel, rebore rechamber to 375 Epstein. 76.0 Grains of IMR 4350 pushes the 270 grain Barnes X bullet at 2,597 fps average for 4,043 ft lbs of ME. Should suffice.

Lots of info on the net.

Hi Ruger375,

How is Quebec and Lac St Jean this time of year?
Glad you spoke of Monvoisin: this man guided hunters to really big tuskers in his time in deep forest of Cameroun,RCA and what was Congo. Modest and well educated. Look at his book at Trophy Room Books, if he was english spoken from english part of Africa would have been better known, as most of french spoken huntig guides.
Dom

Paddler,

The Argentine Mauser is one of the best to buid an DG or big caliber rifle. Have look at dorleac-dorleac.com
Can find some good ideas.
Dom