375, 416, or 458 ?

gorky

gorky

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If one would choose, for their general hunting purposes of larger game, would you go with the hard hitting big bore that is the 458 Lott or would you stay with the classic 375 H&H ? There are a few options in between (416 Rigby), but the Lott and the H&H are my front runners.

The gun is a Ruger No 1 Tropical, hunting will be moose, elk, bear, and possibly a trip to Africa (though if that happens, it will be an excuse to buy a new gun anyways).

What would you go with and for what reasons ? Ammo cost/availability ? Recoil ? Resale ? Snob factor ? I will be shooting factory ammo only (at this point at least, no time for reloading), if that would make a difference.
 
Ruger #1 in 458 lott. Its a 458 win mag, and you have a pleothora of load options for it to download it or up/ heavy load it. You can get bullets in the widest weight range and even wads for shotshells for chickens and small game.
But if you dont handload, you ahve two rounds for which you can pick up, and safely shoot out of the rifle.
Just my free 2 cents :)
 
gorky said:
If one would choose, for their general hunting purposes of larger game, would you go with the hard hitting big bore that is the 458 Lott or would you stay with the classic 375 H&H ? There are a few options in between (416 Rigby), but the Lott and the H&H are my front runners.

The gun is a Ruger No 1 Tropical, hunting will be moose, elk, bear, and possibly a trip to Africa (though if that happens, it will be an excuse to buy a new gun anyways).

What would you go with and for what reasons ? Ammo cost/availability ? Recoil ? Resale ? Snob factor ? I will be shooting factory ammo only (at this point at least, no time for reloading), if that would make a difference.
Click to expand...
375 H&H by a long shot

> Classic caliber
> Easy to shoot
> Accurate
> Versatile
> Easy resale
> Best bullet/ammo selection
> Easy to reload (which you should plan on doing for any med/big bore)


.
 
375 would be my pick. less recoil and flatter trajectory. granted i have never shot a 458, but the 375 is manageable.
 
The 375 Ruger woudl be my pick, folowed by the 375 H&H

I don't see much reason for a guy to own a 416 and up in North America, unless he was a Alaskan brown bear guide:)
 
Had one in Rigby, it would be the cool one. Factory ammo is way too costly though. The obvious one would be the 375 for all the reasons Supercub said. The 375 is slightly lighter in the #1s than the other two so that also helps. #1s aren't the best design for handling recoil in the larger calibers. The Rigby and my old .460 kicked pretty bad. The Lott would be ugly as well and range limited. I'd still get the Rigby.
 
One good thing about the 458 is that you can load it back to 45/70 levels and have quite a bit less recoil. Bullet selection is pretty good.

Disclaimer ........ I don't have any personal experience with this matter, but just read it on the interweb, so it must be true. :)


.
 
SuperCub said:
375 H&H by a long shot

> Classic caliber
> Easy to shoot
> Accurate
> Versatile
> Easy resale
> Best bullet/ammo selection
> Easy to reload (which you should plan on doing for any med/big bore)


.
Click to expand...

These are all the reasons that I am leaning to the 375 right now (plus I miss having a 375 on the wall).

We do have some plans for a trip to Alaska to go after a bear of the big and brown variety but I am under the impression that the 375 is still more than adequate for such a situation. Would a 458 or even the 416 be more prudent if this type of hunt was on the horizon ?
 
The 375 H&H is a good all round caliber, you can hot load it and down load the charge for lighter game. It's been going strong since 1912. Does the job well.

Now saying that, I shoot 416 rigby @ $3/round (and that's cheap)

Some 375H&H info:

ht tp://www.reloadbench.com/cartridges/375hh.html

ht tp://www.african-hunter.com/375_magnum.htm

ht tp://webpages.charter.net/375magnum/index.htm

Regards

Pete
 
gorky said:
These are all the reasons that I am leaning to the 375 right now (plus I miss having a 375 on the wall).

We do have some plans for a trip to Alaska to go after a bear of the big and brown variety but I am under the impression that the 375 is still more than adequate for such a situation. Would a 458 or even the 416 be more prudent if this type of hunt was on the horizon ?
Click to expand...


No, the the 375 woudl be preferable, IMHo.
 
I have heard a couple of stories that the Rigby and the Lott are overly destructive on game animals... I know this is largely dependent on bullet selection but are the 4xx calibres meat-destroying relative to the 375 ?
 
Gorky,
Since you said general purpose hunting rifle that really only leaves the .375. The Lott is a specialized fighten' rifle.:D BTW, your old .375 still gets a lot of attention everywhere it goes.
 
No, the .416's and up are not "meat destructive"

The bottom line is that they are "fight stoppers" and/or designed for hunting much larger and tougher game than we have in NA.

A 375 (properly understood) will give you a similar trajectory as a .308, and all the bigger "hammer" of a big gun.

Think of the .375 as a 30-06- Good for shots to 300, good up close.

I've picked the 375 Ruger to be my "big hammer" since it is a good "close up and personal" cartridge, but also affords easy hits to 350 yards. The bigger cartridges do not:)
 
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