Hunting Whitetail with a 375 H&H?

K

Kreyzhorse

New member
Gun season in Kentucky is fast approaching. My hunting partner bought a 375H&H in the off season and wants to hunt with it year. While this is certainly a bit of over kill for a whitetail I am hoping to get some insight from any one who has hunted with a 375 H&H.

What North American game have you hunted with it and what were the results (besides dead animals)? Are there any particular ammo makers he should look into and what grain is recommended? Is a 375 just too damn big and will it damage too much meat?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or experiences.
 
The one rifle that will do it all. If your friend hits the deer in the front shoulders (heart lung area) there should not be much meat damage since there is little useable meat in that portion of the animal.

Too much gun for my tastes. Why put up with all the recoil when it is not necessary?
 
Too much gun for my tastes. Why put up with all the recoil when it is not necessary?
Click to expand...

I'm with you on the recoil factor but the 375 H&H is the one caliber that he had to own. Wanted one since he was a little kid. Anyway, he found a nice Ruger No. 1 for a great price and the deal was done. He's now second guessing hunting with it due to both recoil and meat damage.
 
Here you go:

Federal PowerShok
270 Grain Soft Point
In the tremendously hard hitting but wonderfully fun 375 H&H Magnum...

The back of the box says, "Big Game: Designed for maximum effectiveness on bigger animals with thick skin, heavy muscle tissue and bone such as elk, moose and brown bear." Yea, who cares that deer are in the "Medium Game" category, at least he knows he is bringing a big enough gun. Besides, the whole will still be smaller then a 12 gauge slug!

I bought a "fun" gun as well this year, and those are the loads I'm planning on using. In the great state of OHIO we are allowed (as farmers) to shoot deer with rifles as long as it is on our own land. It is officially going home with me this weekend as an official truck and combine carry gun.
 
Smart-mouth from me: How ya gonna get more meat damage? Shoot the deer in the butt?

I've never understood why something like a .375H&H is gonna expand MORE in a thin-skinned, lightly-boned animal than, say, a hot load in the 7mm or .30 category. Expansion and blowup is what makes a mess--coupled with a bad hit, if meat damage is the concern.

Odds are that for the usual preferred hit-points on a deer, there will be less meat damage from any big-bore than from the usual .243-.30 range of cartridges.

ArtBeenDoin'ThisSixtyYearsEatman

:D (There goes that character defect again.)
 
Having shot a blacktail deer with a 375 H&H, I can affirmatively state you will probably get a 3/8" hole going in, and a 3/8"-1/2" hole coming out. I can tell you that you will not ruin very much meat. The bullet is only traveling 2400-2500 fps, and is designed for Cape buffalo and elephants and such, so it will not expand hardly at all. It is kind of like shooting deer with a 45-70: big hole right through. You probably won't have to track the deer more than 25'.
 
Having shot a blacktail deer with a 375 H&H, I can affirmatively state you will probably get a 3/8" hole going in, and a 3/8"-1/2" hole coming out. I can tell you that you will not ruin very much meat. The bullet is only traveling 2400-2500 fps, and is designed for Cape buffalo and elephants and such, so it will not expand hardly at all. It is kind of like shooting deer with a 45-70: big hole right through. You probably won't have to track the deer more than 25'.
Click to expand...

My original thought was exactly what you mentioned above. Bullet hits, expands and comes out the other side. The reason I made this post is that my buddy who owns the 375 just got back from an antelope hunting trip in Wyoming. He brought a picture back for me showing what a 300 H&H at 125+ yards did to an antelope. I was amazed at the carnaige this round did to the antelope. The pic I have is pretty graphic so I won't post it, but it blew almost all of her lower organs out through a massive hole on her right side. I have truely never seen any thing like it.

After seeing that picture, I thought it was time to get some opinions on the 375.
 
Tissue damage is a function of the bullet and the speed at which it travels. Select a moderately stout bullet and one will get one .375 hole and a fist sized hole at the other side at the biggest. Select a lightly built bullet and get the same first hole, and a larger hole on the other side (all things even). Hit bone and all bets are off for the lightly constructed bullet's behavior, but the stout one breaks the bone without the higher likely hood of breaking up.

I'm not about to be critical of one's rifle selection, but that's way to much gun for my hunting needs. I would love to have one if I ever go to Africa or Alaska, but a bolt gun or double would probably be my first choice (even thought I'm a #1 fan and own one.) An Osage Orange, Ebony or Mesquite stock (think heavy) would complete the package.
 
it blew almost all of her lower organs out through a massive hole on her right side.
Click to expand...
Well, gut shots are not pretty. I have seen antelope shot with 243, 25-06, 270, 7X57, 7mm Rem Mag, 30-06, 308, etc, and only one was a gut shot, but it was the worst. A 300 H&H is no slouch, but it's no artillery piece either. A well-placed shot right at the point of the elbow will drop one with very little meat wasted. The 375 H&H is too much gun for most things you will come across without going to Africa or Alaska, but it does not rip the animal to pieces. Most of the bullets for this cartridge are stout, so they will not expand much at all, leaving a nice clean hole in and out. But like fisherman66 said, if you hit bone, all bets are off. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, my advice would be to try some better quality bullets for your current rifle. I am partial to Noslers, but you may like something else.
 
Lots of folks hunt the mini deer we have up here with .375, primarily because where there are deer, there are large toothy furry things.

WildseeartisnthatfunillletyouinfringeAlaska ™
 
I have seen the most meat damage from high velocity rounds like 264 Win or 7 Rem mag.Sometimes they will transfer all of their energy and not even exit a deer.If the bullet hits a shoulder or ham there is so much hemorrage that the piece is unusable.
It doesn't matter how much energy the 375 has if it only transfers some fraction of that in the width of a deer.
I'm like the rest of them,don't know why you would want to take the beating.But, I doubt it would damage much more than the usual suspects.
 
Really, the 375 won't be that bad of a beating either...

The felt recoil on my 375 1917 Sporter is probably at or below that of the same in 30-06. It really isn't a matter of getting a butt kicking, but whether or not it would destroy the deer. The thing with the H&H is that it has enough shear ft-lbs of energy that it will crush any bone it hits and keep on trucking. It will be an in and out clean kill. Good holes to bleed out through and I doubt that deer will run too far...heck, if you get a good shoulder shot and hit both sets of bone, it would probably send it sideways.

I think it would be fine, the loads I mentioned earlier would be good. Unless you are going to work up some of your own, that is probably going to be some of the lightest loads you can come up with.

F-C

P.S. - I know for a fact that a 375 will kill a 10-12" round oak, in one side and shatters the other, no problems on a deer. Ultimate expansion test too by the way, really shows how the round will work.
 
Well, gut shots are not pretty.
Click to expand...

The sad thing is, this wasn't a gut shot. This shot was almost a straight shot into the chest, just slightly to left of dead center (see attached diagram). The round traveled through the body and exited just prior to the hips. When it exited, it took all the lower organs through the exit wound.

My understanding is that he was using Barnes Triple Shock bullets @ 180 gr. I'm guessing this was the culprit for the mass exodus of the lower part of the antelope

Thanks for all the posts so far. He's found some 300gr soft points that sound like they should hold together.

As far as recoil, thankfully I'm not the one pulling the trigger. I'll report his shoulder and hearing damage in a later post!!! :)
 

Attachments

  • diagram.jpg
    diagram.jpg
    6.2 KB · Views: 482
Last edited:
we have found that most rounds going 3000fps or faster do more meat damage regardless...slower bigger= lessss meat damage!! HOORAH For big and nasty and slowwwwww
 
Interesting post. Now read the one just above--22-250 for bear.. Kinda the two extremes of the scale. Thoe 2 hunters might considering swapping guns althought 375 is BIG for black bear.
 
Since this post showed back up, thought I'd relate how the hunt went with the .375 H&H. My buddy shot a doe at roughly 150 yards. He hit her a little high on the shoulder on a down hill shot but hit one lung. The entrance wound was barely visable. The exit wound however, was about the size of a silver dollar. The small doe dropped where she stood and didn't so much as twitch after hitting the ground.

The 375 is a bit of over kill certainly, but there wasn't a lot of damage and it was very humane. Overall, I was surprised by the results. The gun shoots very well and the recoil, while stiff, isn't terrible. I have a feeling this will remain his deer rifle in the future.
 
On a mule deer hunt trip, I took my .375 H&H and my buddy took his 7mm mag. He'll be the first to tell you that his 7mm did WAY more meat damage than my .375 did.

If you want to hunt deer with a .375 H&H, any 270gr soft points should be fine. You can even go down to 235 grain soft points if you want. No matter what bullet you use, a shot through the boiler room will knock him flat.

If an Africa PH will recommend a .375 H&H for everything between a 1500 lb eland to a 15 lb dik dik, I don't see a reason not to use one on whitetail!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top