GooseGestapo
Member
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2003
- Messages
- 6,164
There is nothing in N.America that "needs" a .375. But, when approaching an elk kill carcass the next day for packing out, it's NICE to have the "horse power" of the .375 if there's a bear on the carcass.
(Unless you're hunting exotics in W.Texas....in that case, it's perfection...).
My .375 is a .375Ruger, but all things considered, it's not much different besides being chambered in a standard length action. Mine is the Ruger M77mkII Hawkeye "Alaskan". It was taken by previous owner to Africa and has taken plains game and a Cape Buffalo.
Since I've owned it, I took a ~170lb whitetail with it. I used the Speer 235gr bullet over 75.0gr of RL15. I started at 68.0 and worked up till accuacy was good (it's excellent at near moa). Velocity is mid 2,700's and recoil is like others stated, about like a 180gr .300winmag or 12ga shotgun w/1oz slug.
The bullet performed quite well, about like the .30/06 w/180gr bullet that indeed does less meat damage than the .270 or .300winmag.
Mine's a keeper. I ran across a bag of 130 Sierra 250gr SptBt. at a lgs and bag was marked $25.00. It came home, along with 3 boxes of Hornady 270gr Roundd Nose Spts at $16.00 per box of 50. The Sierra's are remarkably accurate at ~2,700fps over 72.5gr of RL15 for a "mid" power load. I found that the 270's give top-end .375H&H performance w/moa accuracy over 82.0gr of IMR4350 for 2,750fps.
My rifle wears a 3x-9x Burris Full-field w/ballistic plex. The reticle matches the trajectory of the 250gr Sierra's w/200yd zero...
I did replace the 1/2" factory pad w/1" Pachmayer "Red" old english "Decelerator" and cut stock 3/4" to fit my 5'10 frame. Felt recoil was much diminished. Ruger should put a similar pad on at the factory.... I also moved the foward sling stud to the front of the stock. On the bench it was "banging" my foward hand pretty hard.
And yes, except for the 225gr Hornady PtSpt, the 235gr to 270 indeed hit close (+/-2") of the same impact at 100yds... 300yds would be a different story....
It's a keeper !!!!
(Unless you're hunting exotics in W.Texas....in that case, it's perfection...).
My .375 is a .375Ruger, but all things considered, it's not much different besides being chambered in a standard length action. Mine is the Ruger M77mkII Hawkeye "Alaskan". It was taken by previous owner to Africa and has taken plains game and a Cape Buffalo.
Since I've owned it, I took a ~170lb whitetail with it. I used the Speer 235gr bullet over 75.0gr of RL15. I started at 68.0 and worked up till accuacy was good (it's excellent at near moa). Velocity is mid 2,700's and recoil is like others stated, about like a 180gr .300winmag or 12ga shotgun w/1oz slug.
The bullet performed quite well, about like the .30/06 w/180gr bullet that indeed does less meat damage than the .270 or .300winmag.
Mine's a keeper. I ran across a bag of 130 Sierra 250gr SptBt. at a lgs and bag was marked $25.00. It came home, along with 3 boxes of Hornady 270gr Roundd Nose Spts at $16.00 per box of 50. The Sierra's are remarkably accurate at ~2,700fps over 72.5gr of RL15 for a "mid" power load. I found that the 270's give top-end .375H&H performance w/moa accuracy over 82.0gr of IMR4350 for 2,750fps.
My rifle wears a 3x-9x Burris Full-field w/ballistic plex. The reticle matches the trajectory of the 250gr Sierra's w/200yd zero...
I did replace the 1/2" factory pad w/1" Pachmayer "Red" old english "Decelerator" and cut stock 3/4" to fit my 5'10 frame. Felt recoil was much diminished. Ruger should put a similar pad on at the factory.... I also moved the foward sling stud to the front of the stock. On the bench it was "banging" my foward hand pretty hard.
And yes, except for the 225gr Hornady PtSpt, the 235gr to 270 indeed hit close (+/-2") of the same impact at 100yds... 300yds would be a different story....
It's a keeper !!!!
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