Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Is the Ruger 375 dead?

The Remington 700 XCR II in 375H&H would make one heck of an affordable hunting rifle. I think it would be in the same ballpark $-wise as the Ruger African/Alaskan.

In an action with a trouble-prone box trigger that will freeze up or rust up in the middle of nowhere. The Ruger is ten times the wilderness rifle the Remington is.

Actually, I have seen a 700 trigger become paralyzed, which can happen with an enclosed trigger.

A friend from New England sprayed the trigger of his 7mm Remington Magnum with the notorious WD-40 after the season ended in Vermont. He didn't hunt with the rifle again until the next year, when he came to Montana. We went to the range to check the scope on his rifle after the plane flight, and it wouldn't go bang. We took the stock off and I sprayed the trigger inside and out with with carburetor cleaner until it freed up. Luckily he came out for pronghorn season, so the weather was warm and dry, so the cleaner could evaporate quickly. Even then, however, the pull was much heavier than before, and I had to readjust it.

Have also seen one freeze up after a day of hunting in wet snow. The hunter was staying in a wall tent on a late-season elk and deer hunt, and the temperature dropped to below zero that night, and the next morning the trigger was frozen up. We thawed it by taking the barreled action out of the stock and leaving it next to the wood stove for a half hour.

Enclosed triggers can work fine in nasty weather if maintained correctly. But not everybody even bothers with any maintenance, and in fact my friend from Vermont said he'd sprayed his trigger with WD-40 after every season and never had any problem before.

But a lot of the time, especially on real wilderness hunts, nobody feels like taking their rifle apart to dry and oil the innards after a long day of hunting. And that is where a basic CRF rifle with an open trigger design really helps.

All rifle mechanisms are not the same when it comes to reliability in the field.

In fairness, I had a Winchester Model 70 that wouldn't eject reliably - a burr in the ejector slot kept the ejector blade from riding up freely. A little polishing of that slot and the ejector itself fixed that, but it seems that for such an important part of the operating cycle rifles would use more than just a weak little spring to push that ejector up.

Yup that can happen. Not even the M70 is immune to snafus.

I have seen some guys necking down the Ruger 375 to 7mm and calling it the 7 LRM. Every thing I have read leads me to believe it to be a very good wildcat.

What about the Ruger 375? Is it relegated to novelty? If so, why do you think. Similar ballistics to the 375 H&H but in a standard length action and could be had in 20 and 24" barrels (I think). Anyone seeing the 375 Ruger on store shelves?