.375 Holland and Holland, the most versatile big game hunting cartridge?

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Northern Shooter

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I've read several times now that that 375H&H is one of, if not the most versatile big game hunting cartridges in the world. It's been used to take everything from Whitetail to Elephants.

As someone who recently purchased their first rifle in .375H&H, I'm now looking into optimal ammo options for different applications.

I'll be using it to hunt everything from Whitetail to Moose and hopefully one day Bison.

Which ammo works best for each game? I see that cartridges are available in 235/250/260/270/300 and 350 grain with the 270's and 300's being the most common. These all have a large variety of velocities, ballistic coefficients and energy levels.

I'm guessing that the 235's and 250's would be the best choices for whitetail and possible elk? They seem to be the flatter shooting options and still have tons of energy. 270-350 would cover all North American large and dangerous game including Moose, Brown Bears and Bison. I've also been reading up on solids which seem to be commonly used on large dangerous game in Africa, is there much point in using those for North American game?

If you shoot this cartridge, what are some of the better ammo choices for these applications?
 
When i lived in South Africa, i used my 375H&H for everything big and small, turned all my other rifles into safe queens.

In my rifle, a Mauser M03, the 270gr Hornady shot to virtually the same point of impact at 100m as my 300gr Hornady loads. (both handloads) I used this combo of bullets when i went hunting in the zambezi valley, when going after both plains game and dangerous game.

However, most of my regular plains game hunting i used the 260gr Nosler Partition, a great bullet.

Sadly i find it too heavy to carry in the coastal mountains of BC, so have not hunted with it in Canada. (time to toughen up i guess)

Enjoy your 375 H&H, is an awesome cartridge.
 
I used the 375 H & H alot in Alaska ,Africa and Northern Canada.
For Moose and interior Grizzly I used a 270 gr Barnes tsx .
For the big Brownies, Buffalo and Africain plains game I used the Barnes 300 gr tsx both worked great.
For north American game I would go with the 250,270 gr tsx.
 
235 grain Barnes TSX may be worth considering for whitetail or mulies? I have not tried that as I usually hunt deer with 30-06.
I only load the DGS here as backup ie in my case one Federal Premium Safari Cape-Shok 300 grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claw then followup with Hornady 300 grain DGS x 4 in the magazine when taking my teenaged son mulie hunting where I know there are grizzlies nearby that come in for shots on occasion. He shoots 30-06 and it just makes me feel more comfortable if there was a charging grizzly. Have not used it for that though as thankfully haven't been charged yet.
 
Any of the bullets listed will do just fine for any game here you'll be able to point the rifle at. Maybe think about picking one bullet and load that the rifle likes the best, and that can be shot well, and just stick with that? It's a 375... it has plenty enough to get it done with any bullet weight.

R.
 
The 375 H&H is a sweet cartridge to load for most any critter or plinkin' work folks want to do. One can load projectiles ranging from round ball "mouse fart" loads for close in work on birds or pest critters to raccoon size & on up to the heaviest beasties folks wish to pursue. A very fine cartridge the 375 H&H is fer sure.
 
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Congrats on the new purchase.

I like the ppu prvi 300 gr soft point. Price is (was?) Decent for both loaded ammo with decent brass and for bullets. Tradeex used to sell them, then intersurplus. Not sure if they are still in stock. I haven't bought (or looked for) the commercial ammo since before the pandemic.

Just a decent, normal, cost effective cup and core bullet that works well on game that you could realistically harvest here in Canada (I.e. fairly thin skinned). It expands well and you don't have to try to squeeze every last fps out of it of you reload. I was also very impressed with the 9.3mm ppu bullets.
 
doctor_meltdown said:
Congrats on the new purchase.

I like the ppu prvi 300 gr soft point. Price is (was?) Decent for both loaded ammo with decent brass and for bullets. Tradeex used to sell them, then intersurplus. Not sure if they are still in stock.

Just a decent, normal, cost effective cup and core bullet that works well on game that you could realistically harvest here in Canada (I.e. fairly thin skinned). It expands well and you don't have to try to squeeze every last fps out of it of you reload. I was also very impressed with the 9.3mm ppu bullets.
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it is a good cup and core bullet nothing too fancy either.
 
doctor_meltdown said:
Congrats on the new purchase.

I like the ppu prvi 300 gr soft point. Price is (was?) Decent for both loaded ammo with decent brass and for bullets. Tradeex used to sell them, then intersurplus. Not sure if they are still in stock. I haven't bought (or looked for) the commercial ammo since before the pandemic.

Just a decent, normal, cost effective cup and core bullet that works well on game that you could realistically harvest here in Canada (I.e. fairly thin skinned). It expands well and you don't have to try to squeeze every last fps out of it of you reload. I was also very impressed with the 9.3mm ppu bullets.
Click to expand...

That's actually the first ammo that I've found in stock, I picked up 20 rounds, sold in packs of 10. The PPU seems to be some of the "cheapest" 375 at $4.30/round.

Looking forward to sighting this thing in shortly and experiencing .375 for the first time.
 
Northern Shooter said:
That's actually the first ammo that I've found in stock, I picked up 20 rounds, sold in packs of 10. The PPU seems to be some of the "cheapest" 375 at $4.30/round.

Looking forward to sighting this thing in shortly and experiencing .375 for the first time.
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Hope you have a pleasant experience. After shooting 300 Win mag, i found the 375 H&H a pleasant.
 
Northern Shooter said:
That's actually the first ammo that I've found in stock, I picked up 20 rounds, sold in packs of 10. The PPU seems to be some of the "cheapest" 375 at $4.30/round.

Looking forward to sighting this thing in shortly and experiencing .375 for the first time.
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I guess they went up in price. Save the brass. If you don't reload, Tenda has more of the ppu loaded ammo and still has free shipping over 300$.
If you like the ppu, maybe reach out to intersurplus to see if they will be getting a restock of the PPU bullets. They have the 270gr interlock at an ok price as well which would also do a good job for a 'do everything' cartridge in Canada. I don't think you need the super premium /bonded etc bullets here if you're going to be doing mainly deer/elk/moose/black bear
 
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I love the 375 H&H, but to call it "most versatile" is a bit of a stretch. Sure, it will kill a wide range of things, but is that really the best measure?

a 375 of any ilk ( the mid-performance 375s by Ruger, Holland, Weatherby, not the 375 Winchester or 378 Weatherby) is best suited to a mid-power variable scope. 2-7x. 2.5-8x. 3-9x. Typically a rifle so outfitted will generally run 10.5 to 11 lbs. Now this is still a very potent cartridge and loaded with a 260gr Accubond would be a great western game rifle. But in the neighbourhood of 11 lbs would you really want to pack that up into the sheep mountains? Wouldn't a 270 in the 9lb range be more pleasant? Hell, would you want to pack it into the moose willows where a 20" barreled 30-06 would probably make more sense?

Then you take that same rifle into the coastal rainforest for blacktails? Probably a little much weight to carry.

Now, sure, you could cut the barrel down and put on a lighter weight stock to make the whole package more manageable in the thick bush. But if you manage to drop that thing down to 8.5 lbs their manners get much less pleasant. Sure, a great bear rifle. But it's still a lot more oomph than you need when a similar rifle in 30-06 would more than handle the task and be significantly more pleasant to shoot.

Finally, the 375 is a poor fight stopping rifle. Yes, it will kill large things, but it's not really the best choice for wading into thick stuff either looking to pick a fight, or looking to stop a fight.

So, yes, you can shoot and kill everything with a 375. But you can also pick up your groceries in a baby Freightliner. It's just dumb.
 
I hunt a bit with a pre 64 .375h&h. I load it light, running 260gr partitions roughly 2400 fps. The one moose Iv take’m with it, it did the trick. I was surprised at the little meat loss compared to smaller faster calibers Iv used.
 
BigUglyMan said:
I love the 375 H&H, but to call it "most versatile" is a bit of a stretch. Sure, it will kill a wide range of things, but is that really the best measure?
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Myself, I think that probably is the best measure, keeping in mind the context in which the .375 H&H garnered that reputation. I completely agree that it's usefulness in North America is quite limited. But in Africa...

Here at home, we have precious little dangerous game to hunt -- and really, other than the larger bears, what is there? Moreover, we also tend to hunt one species of game at at time -- so we generally choose a specific rifle appropriate for the game and conditions we hunt the most. But it's really only in Africa where one can still be on a multi-species hunt where you just never know what you'll get a chance at. Maybe you spot a big kudu and start chasing it, only to find a chance to kill a giraffe for lion bait. Or you're tracking a heard of buffalo and suddenly spot an outstanding bushbuck 300 yards away across a marsh. The only thing that can really carry you through all those scenarios is a relatively flat-shooting cartridge that can reach out on shots at small and medium game, and at the same time hit hard enough and penetrate deeply enough to do an adequate job on the really big stuff close up. On both ends of the spectrum, the .375 H&H is a compromise, but it's reasonable one. And it works. I had no problem killing that bushbuck across the water. And the giraffe went down too. But had I been packing a .500 NE double, I would have had to pass on the bushbuck. And had I been carrying a 30/06 when I saw the giraffe, I would have had to pass on that as well. In the end, I think the .375 has earned its reputation fairly and honestly. In Africa it's seldom the best choice, but it's almost never a bad one.
 
luckily you can still find good uses over here for bison, grizzly, muskox but it can be hard to drag on the mountains. a shame we do not have volunteer gun bearer ...
 
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