In The Market For A 375 H&H
I've been kicking around the idea of a 375 H&H for awhile, mostly "just because". Currently the only big game I shoot is two or three elk every year and my M70 300 Win Mag does a great job of it. The first rifle I looked at was a M70 Safari - Nice rifle, nothing fancy, just about what I would like. I have looked around at others, but the one that stood out the most was the CZ 550 American Safari. It seems to have a higher quality "feel" about it than the Winchester (not that the Win is bad) and is similarly priced.
Doing a little looking online, the magazine capacity caught my eye. The Win is the standard old 3+1 while the CZ is listed as 5. Is that 5 as in 4+1 or as in 5 in the mag an 1 in the chamber? Mag capacity isn't really a factor but it did pique my interest.
Other than that, I have pretty much narrowed it down to the M70 and the CZ 550. What are your thoughts on the two?
First, you might look around a bit at gun shows in your area, or even on-line, for a used but still serviceable
BRNO 602 in .375H&H, which is really the predecessor magnum action for the CZ line of 550 magnums. I can highly recommend it. Capacity-wise, 602s in .375 hold 5 down + 1 in the chamber.
You might find a 602 being sold for a reasonable price either because the owner has tired of shooting it off the bench only, or he has at long last disabused himself of the notion that he's ever going to have enough money saved to satisfy his inner Ernest-Hemingway fantasy and hunt dangerous game in Africa multiple times.
The .375H&H 602s are, as DGRs go, reliable in cycling/feeding and acceptably accurate out of the box, whereas the reputation of the 550s out of the box is that many are twitchy and get the jam-skis unless tweaked and polished by a DGR 'smith who knows what he's doing. I have a 602 in .375 and had it customized to my preferences many years ago by a highly talented DGR 'smith. It's a beauty
and a shooter.
Second, be advised that unless the owner switched to an aftermarket or custom stock, the 602s came factory-dressed in an old-school "hump-back" walnut stock which, while stylish from a European perspective, only serves to accentuate recoil and cheek-smack, especially when zero-ing or testing handloads off a bench. This is where BRNOs unfortunately developed a reputation for being painful to shoot after more than a few shots, which some wrongfully attributed to the .375 cartridge (602s were also chambered in .458WinMag) when it was actually the fault of the stock's design. Happily outfits like AHR, which specializes in building and customizing DGRs, can re-stock a 602 (or 550 for that matter) in wood or synthetic.