375 HH favorite loads

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bigbull

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Hi guys and gals, I am looking for suggestions on favorite 375 loads. Bullet types and actual game taking results or failures.
I am going to be using this new to me rifle (Win. pre64 M70 375 H&H) for moose and black bear, I only want to use one bullet for both, so close range baited black bear
and open area moose hunting will be the two extremes, I know it is asking a lot of a bullet but have at it.
Thanks
BB
 
It isn’t a tall order at all. Thats the beauty of the three seven five; you don’t have sweet talk it to work on an over-sized Teddy bear one day and a wimpy moose another. Both are soft animals, and you could do that with blue box Federal. ;) Just resist the urge to find the hardest softs on the planet to shoot soft animals. Even huge black bears aren’t very big; aren’t any harder to kill than a whitetail. They are sort of a ##### to follow though, so dropping them in their tracks is preferable.

My stand-by loads for the 375 these days are the 270 A Frame for anything including buffalo, 260 accubond and 235 Speer for more mundane hunting. I’m currently using RL15 in all three rifles, not sure how that happened. W760 and H414 are easy paths to hand loading success, with perhaps not the highest possible speeds.
 
I used a 235gr Speer Hotcor in my 375 Ruger at 3000 fps on a whitetail buck this past fall. Severed the spine, sent one half of the severed spine up through the muscle and almost penetrated the hide and the other half went down into the body cavity. Full pass through and dropped it instantly.

There's a sticky thread in this forum on 375 bullet performance, it seems to me that their results in twst medium showed the 235gr speers and 270gr Hornadys to be the best bang for buck. I'm currently working up a 270gr load as we speak.
 
I have used Sierra 250 grain and 300 grain for both with 760 powder. My groups are so good I have never tried any other powder. Sierra group better than other bullets I have tried and these bullets have worked great on game of all sizes. For an all around bullet I prefer the 250 as on deer size game I get more bang flops and less travel on lung shots. Most travel under 12 yards. With the 300 I never had a bang flop and most deer would travel 10 to 45 yards. On some harder bullets I would have some deer travel up to 100 yards on lung shots. On all game the Sierra bullets have opened good and held together and the couple I have actually found were perfectly formed and in the two to two and half times the diameter of the bullet.
 
littlehughey said:
There's a sticky thread in this forum on 375 bullet performance, it seems to me that their results in twst medium showed the 235gr speers and 270gr Hornadys to be the best bang for buck. I'm currently working up a 270gr load as we speak.
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Thanks, I saw that great sticky. I was left wondering how some of the bullets that I thought were soft like the 235 Speer and 270 Hornady came out with stellar performances.
I really was surprised by the results.
BB
 
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I have used the Nosler 260 Partition and RL 15 with good results for the purpose you propose, in my case it was elk, and one small bear but Moose and Big black bear would be same - same. I actually believe the .375 was designed for and works best with 300 grain RN bullets, but when not hunting in Africa that weight is not required for most game. Each of my 4 .375 rifles shot best with 300 grain bullets.
 
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Perhaps I should qualify what "good results" with the 260 NP .375 bullet means. A cow elk at about 100 M quartering towards me, one shot just behind the near shoulder joint, passing's through the heavy muscles, both lungs, and the far side ribs. Dropped within 10 M or so. A smallish ( approx. 270 lb.) black bear, quartering away, at about 70 M. Shot through mid rib section, out the far side just in front of the humerus. Dropped on the spot, not even a wiggle. Bull elk, quartering towards, exact same shot as the cow elk at the same distance fired from the same spot ( a tree stand) . Bullet hit less than a hands width farther forward, at the point of the hard and dense humerus / scapula joint. Bullet shattered the entire scapula, damaged the muscles of the entire shoulder, but it deflected out wards and no part of the bullet penetrated the chest cavity or lungs. My habit of shooting again, quickly, on any game still on its feet regardless of how well I think the shot went and how powerful the cartridge used, - paid off again. Another quick shot as the bull bolted, put it down with a shot thru the spine. Just because a bullet is big, heavy, tough enough and fairly fast doesn't mean it can't be deflected by the shoulder joint. The .375 H&H works, really well, almost all the time, but it's not magic.
 

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Dogleg mentioned the A frames. That would be my bullet of choice for the big stuff. If I am fortunate enough to go after a cape Buffalo that is the bullet I would use.
 
Longwalker said:
I have used the Nosler 260 Partition and RL 15 with good results for the purpose you propose, in my case it was elk, and one small bear but Moose and Big black bear would be same - same. I actually believe the .375 was designed for and works best with 300 grain RN bullets, but when not hunting in Africa that weight is not required for most game. Each of my 4 .375 rifles shot best with 300 grain bullets.
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LW, It is interesting that all 4 of your rifles prefer the 300 grain bullets, could you explain if they prefer the same 300 grainers or any 300 grainers?
BB
 
.375s are all throated for a 300 grain round-nose; and that can leave Weatherbyesque jumps with spitzers, esp light ones. If you find you have a picky barrel you might need to look into bullets with longer bearing surfaces, with tends toward flat-bases or more voluptuous ogives. Monos do well in those conditions as well.
 
bigbull said:
LW, It is interesting that all 4 of your rifles prefer the 300 grain bullets, could you explain if they prefer the same 300 grainers or any 300 grainers?
BB
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The old Hornady 300 gr. RN was consistently good, so of course they discontinued making them. I have found the 300 Nosler partition shoots good nearly all the time. The Hornady 300 gr. Boat tail Spire point was less consistently accurate in my rifles. The Hornady DGX and DGS seem to shoot similar to the old RN, but haven't used enough of either to say for sure. The Federal factory load 300 RN and the Remington factory load 270 RN were consistently accurate in my rifles. I suspect they were actually Hornady bullets. Currently available 300 RN bullets that look promising but untested by me are the PPU and Woodleigh. I'd really like to use th Speer 235 gr. semi spitzer as a practise and smaller game bullet, but my rifles just don't like 'em. Have yet to try Dogleg's suggestion of monos. The Barnes 235 or 270 TSX seems like a logical choice.
 
Dogleg said:
.375s are all throated for a 300 grain round-nose; and that can leave Weatherbyesque jumps with spitzers, esp light ones. If you find you have a picky barrel you might need to look into bullets with longer bearing surfaces, with tends toward flat-bases or more voluptuous ogives. Monos do well in those conditions as well.
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That is good news for me. I picked up a bunch of 300gr Interbonds and RN at a gun show for really cheap and haven't tried them yet. My 260 NAB's and 270 Speers are already shoot incredible.
 
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