300gr 375 H&H Federal Blue Box

thumper1

thumper1

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I went out hunting last night for my spring meat bear and much to my suprise I came across one that was hobbling and while further glassing I noticed it was only walking on 3 legs so I did the ethical thing and harvested it. Apon skinning the animal I was surprised to find my bullet just under the skin I was using my 375 H&H with 300gr federal blue box ammo when I took the shot. I was only about 150 meters away from it I wouldve thought it would"ve gone right through and kept trucking on. It was'nt a huge bear by any means but it did hit its back bone and then went through its ribs. I don't know if I should use them on moose now or load some up with a better bullet. whats your opinon? (oh and as for the bear and it's foot it looked as if someone shot it in the pad and broke its foot)

 
I've used them on a couple big animals, Wildebeest being one and they worked, but I was shooting 270 grain. I've hunted with them in 7x57 175gr as well and they're a very soft bullet, respectable "knock down" as every foot-lb of your .375 H&H's energy ended up in that bear. Exits when shooting big stuff, I like, as you don't need every last foot-lb, but I'm guessing your bear didn't travel far so it did its job. They are surprisingly soft bullets with extremely limited penetration however, I agree, and on bigger stuff it's likely wise to move to more substantial bullets.
 
Eh...dead is dead. If you plan on shooting a heavy boned animal then I would up the bullet to something that will stay together better(eg. federals w/ partitions). I'd say that would kill moose well, bison I wouldn't shoot with that bullet. Actually I'll change that to shoot the moose in the kill zone and not in the shoulder or something as it would likely explode on the bone and damage a lot of meat.

On a similar vein I smacked a huge black last year with a 220gr Hornady FP out of my 375 H&H and it exploded upon entry. Granted this was expected as I had jokingly dubbed them my 'varmint grenades' before hand(they are a 375 winchester bullet). Bear made it about 20-30m and died. Really though when you think about it you're dumping like 4500ft-lbs of energy into your target and having all of it transfered over. That's a lot of damage regardless of bullet integrity.
 
I would have expected a complete pass through with any decent calibre rifle, spine hit or not. Not a bullet I would trust on a moose.

I believe Federal uses Hornady bullets for this and the 7x57 load that Ardent mentioned.
 
Remeber guys it's not energy that kills. A big open ice body check involves 1000 ft-lbs of energy, and the results are similair to what energy does to game. It knocks em down, stuns them, bang flops them; but it is always either blood loss through bleedind in the woumd channel or cns damage from a shot hitting the cns system that does the killing. I would look for aomething that penetrates better.
 
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This cartridge really opens up when you hand load it. I have had great success with mine with the 260gr Accubond. Good BC and excellent penetration.
 
I used the Federal stuff in my .375 for assorted plains game in Botswana, only because my own ammo had failed to make the trip with me. The outfitter supplied it, and we both assumed it would be more than adequate for the plains game portion of the hunt. It did the job, and everything I shot died without any major theatrics...but both the PH and I were quite surprised at the performance of the bullets. Fourteen bullets were used on 10 animals, ranging in size from a maybe-60-pound Springbok to an Eland that was estimated at 1800+ pounds. We recovered eight bullets, including the one from the Springbok (!) and one that killed a Warthog that wasn't much bigger. The bullets were misshapen, twisted and had obviously lost a lot of weight...they didn't look like anything out of a magazine ad. They killed those critters, but if the gun used had been in a smaller chambering it might have been a different story. If you're one of those guys who insist on using the smallest cartridge you can get away with for the game in question, I'd definitely look elsewhere for ammunition.
 
Pretty interesting John, and startling. One Wildebeest I shot with it I lunged, so he went several hundred yards and the results likely weren't indicative of the bullet's actual performance, needless to say didn't drop quickly but a solid kill. Following that I saw it go both ways, one quick drop after 20 staggering yards and another that reacted as if not hit, and went quite a bit further. I chalked him up to a fluke. I think I'm forgetting one other critter I used it on. The "good" ones with it certainly are impressive, just concerned about the 1 in 3 or so "bad" ones. I had started to warm to Blue Box as the quick drop was as good as anything, and the lung shot can't be blamed on the bullets. I may exercise more caution after reading this stuff, having .375's stop in Black Bear, Warthogs and small antelope is a bit of a wake up call.
 
If you had been using a 375 Ruger, the bullet would have passed through with ease. ;)

Never been a fan of the Federal Blue Box bullets. I used a few of them years ago, and their poor performance is one of the reasons I started looking much more carefully at bullets. I feel they are one of the bullets that work "when everything goes right" but are not a bullet that can be guaranteed to work when everything goes wrong.
 
I don't believe Federal makes bullets, do they? If this is the case who's bullet is it? IMHO it is hard to beat Parts, A-frames and TSXs, I've used all of these in my H&Hs over the years and cannot recall a single failure or questionable event, except when they don't fall down from a near miss......I hate that and of coarse it's the bullet and rifles fault!!!!
 
Anybody used the Hornady Interlock 300 gr BTSP and have a opinion on them? Got a couple boxes of them at a reasonable cost, don't know if I should just use them up at the range or actually use them in the field. Also have a box of partions in 260 gr. Partions have been my favorite for years and more recently Accubonds.
 
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Speer doesn't make a 300 gr. round nose for the .375, nor a 175 gr RN for the 7x57. Check the photo posted by the OP and the bullet is identical to a Hornady round nose.
 
It's not impossible but I still doubt it. Bullet companies will make bullets for ammo companies that are not available to reloaders. I have a recovered 160gr 7mm Barnes TSX boat tail that I recovered from a moose. I was shooting Federal Vital Shock ammo. If you look at their website, Barnes doesn't make a 160gr 7mm TSX boat tail.
 
They sure look a lot like the Hornady round nose, identical ogive / meplat and length from cannelure it appears. Hotcors are pretty junky bullets mind you, so that's no improvement if it were the case, I think they're Hornady RN though. I had a 235gr hotcor act very badly on a Zebra, killed it but had me worried for a bit.
 
c-fbmi said:
I don't believe Federal makes bullets, do they? If this is the case who's bullet is it? IMHO it is hard to beat Parts, A-frames and TSXs, I've used all of these in my H&Hs over the years and cannot recall a single failure or questionable event, except when they don't fall down from a near miss......I hate that and of coarse it's the bullet and rifles fault!!!!
Click to expand...

And the scope. They deserve their share of the blams.
 
Ardent said:
They sure look a lot like the Hornady round nose, identical ogive / meplat and length from cannelure it appears. Hotcors are pretty junky bullets mind you, so that's no improvement if it were the case, I think they're Hornady RN though. I had a 235gr hotcor act very badly on a Zebra, killed it but had me worried for a bit.
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That's an awfully light non-premium bullet for the task at hand. I'm surprised you'd use a bullet that light for the 375 when there are so many goos 270 grain bullets available.

FWIW Boddington gave the 270 Gameking good reviews for plains game. I just have no idea why anyone would bother using anything other than a Nosler, A-Frame or TSX when going to Africa..
 
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