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The viability of a 375 H&H for deer hunting

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The viability of a 375 H&H for deer hunting

Old 07-14-2016, 03:08 PM
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Default The viability of a 375 H&H for deer hunting

Several years ago, my grandfather gave me one of his rifles that he hadn't shot in decades: a 375 H&H chambered Sako AIV with a quick detaching 1.25-4x power Schmidt & Bender scope. The thing is a beautiful work of art that he used exactly once in his life on a hunting trip to Africa. As an added bonus, he gave me a few dozen boxes of old Winchester cartridges.

Unfortunately, that was when I began to use handguns almost exclusively, so I haven't hunted with the 375 much at all. However, I have done a bit of handloading for it. Since I already have access to full power ammunition that is sighted in with the scope at 100 yards, I decided to make some reduced recoil loads to use with the open sights. The load it likes best is a 220 grain Hornady flat point Interlock bullet behind 45.3 grains of A5744, which gave me a velocity of 2381 fps. I've had bullet holes touching each other at 50 yards at exactly the point of aim. True, that's not as significantly reduced recoil as I originally wanted, but compared to a 270 grain bullet at ~2550 fps it's an improvement.

My primary interest in using this rifle for deer hunting is because I've heard the big, heavy, tough bullets fired by this round tend to damage less meat. I'm quite aware of how much meat gets damaged when one of us hits a deer with a high velocity ballistic tip bullet. Do you think the 375 will cause significantly less meat damage with either load?

Last edited by TN Lone Wolf; 07-17-2016 at 06:47 AM. Reason: Typo
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Old 07-14-2016, 03:11 PM
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That would depend on the bullet and load.
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Old 07-14-2016, 03:38 PM
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A 220 grain Hornady flat point Interlock bullet at velocity of 2381 fps is way reduced for 375HH.

You should be fine - Try it.
Really only way you'll know for sure!
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Old 07-14-2016, 03:55 PM
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A whole lot of Germans use something very similar a 9X57 220-240 grn., 2200-2400 fps.

They hunt everything from Roe Deer, Wild Boar, to Red Deer with it here. They normally use a round nosed bullet.

Most of the old timers swear by it, especially for Wild Boar. They say the larger diameter bullet hole in the game is less likely to stop bleeding in a Boar if you make a poor shot and it takes off for the hills. In other words it leaves a better blood trail.

No law against selling Wild meat here, they try to mess up as little as possible and still get the job done.

You hit a major bone with a large bullet, or even a higher velocity smaller bullet and bad things can happen. Sometimes it is just luck.

I've shot Roe Deer with my Remington, 35 Remington, 200 grain FTX bullets at around 2200 fps and haven't seriously torn one up yet. But only a few times, so it isn't really a good sampling. No fancy shooting, just below center and behind the shoulder, basic heart lung shot. It is basically a Hog gun for close in work for me. Though a whole lot of Deer have been harvested with this caliber over the decades.
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Old 07-14-2016, 05:51 PM
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It's been a number of years but I used to load some .375 winchester rounds for a friend that had a Marlin lever gun. If I recall correctly, those loads I had for him were not THAT much faster than the load you have worked up for your H&H. I'll have to drag out one of my old load data logs and see but I'm thinking I had him running at around 2500-2550 with that same bullet you have loaded. It sure laid waste to a deer. And no it didn't damage much meat around the shot. I saw him drop a fat doe at around 45 yards that looked like it was hit with a lightning bolt. Bang- flop!
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Old 07-15-2016, 04:51 PM
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Run a solid and you'll be quite happy. I've used mid and large bore magnums on deer - great way to practice with your safari rifle stateside.
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Old 07-16-2016, 06:07 AM
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I've shot a lot of deer sized game (including several WTs) with a 375 H&H. It actually does a lot less meat damage than the smaller bore fast magnums. The 375 H&H has always been a round known for penetration so it fires fairly heavy bullets at modest velocities to get deep into very large game. So when you shoot smaller game with a 375 H&H you tend to get a .37 caliber entry hole and about a .39-.40 caliber exit hole with no bruising or bloodshot. That big slug just plows though and keeps going. In Africa they have a saying when it comes to game shot with a 375 H&H: "you can eat clear up to the bullet hole."

I use a 300 gr bullet for everything in my 375 H&H and it has always performed well even on game like impala and warthog, both of which are close to the average WT in size. They sell lighter bullets you can push faster but that negates to whole reason the 375 H&H exists. If you want to shoot a lighter bullet that moves faster and causes bruising and bloodshot get a 338 Win Mag or a 340 Wby Mag.

There is a reason the 375 H&H has always been called one of the few "perfect" rounds. You can literally take everything on the planet with it and you will rarely be over or under gunned. For the really big and little stuff all you need to do is shoot solids and use soft points for everything else. My rifle shoots handloads softs and solids to the same point of impact and I always carry a few solids. I even shot a jackal with a 375 H&H once with a solid and he had neat holes on both sides and the skin tanned out real nice.
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