Recoil and the .375 H&H

I have a Win-70 .375 H+H, Felt recoil is comparable to my M-70 .300 WM.......which has a slightly lighter barrel.

Any shooter can handle a .375......some might want to work up to it or use fit/rifle weight to make it more comfortable, my 1st rifle was a .375 H+H, no regrets and it honestly gave me confidence to buy and bench shoot bigger stuff.
 
Typically, people who shoot one of my .375 s for the first time looks puzzled and says something along the lines of "that's it?". That's pretty much what I said when I shot my first one too.

Having said that, hot handloads will wake up the mild mannered teddy bear, and rebarelling my first 375 H&H to Weatherby made it into a different animal, and if you take it another notch to a .378 you'll get to a place where many hardened big bore shooters would rather not be. Speed of recoil has more to do with perception than amount. On paper heavy waterfowl loads in a 12 gauge have recoil numbers like bonefide elephant stompers, but in practice just about everyone can shoot those.
 
IL say the same as everyone else... I have a ruger rsm 375 h&h and very much enjoy shooting it, kicks less than my 338 win. More of a push. Mind you its pretty heavy. Even the 458 lott isn't as much as you expect.. I just picked up a ruger no 1 in that caliber. It does kick but not as bad as I thought it would be.
 
Poor fit and/or poor fundamentals are a bunch less forgiving in bigger bore guns.

I have two friends that have shot mine one time each and refuse to shoot it again due to poor fit but mostly poor technique at the time they shot.

One got out of a dump truck, and used the dump truck hood- fender as a bench thus a bad fit/body position and being a big guy it "smote" him and I hee hawed because I said you aren't going to shoot like that are you? He had gotten away with poor fundamentals on other calibers.

The other friend was out helping me practice jump shooting and asked to try my .375. He threw up and fired, but didn't have the butt against his shoulder so he got thumped hard and a got a thumb/backhand in the nose. Again poor fundamentals.

OP, buy one, or as I offered, PM me if you are this way and try mine first. I believe you will like the .375 with the gusto of a hound dog.
 
I too am interested in a #1 375H&H. I do not know if original poster handloads but I had buddies that did the 375 thing for a while and they used 235gr bullets. I also noticed that in the Hornady reloading manual they have loads and reduced loads for 220 gr bullets and I believe 200gr flat nose bullets intended for the 375Win. They would be fun to shoot all day long in a heavy 375 which I believe the Ruger #1 is.

Cheers 257Stew
 
Dogleg said:
Typically, people who shoot one of my .375 s for the first time looks puzzled and says something along the lines of "that's it?". That's pretty much what I said when I shot my first one too.

Having said that, hot handloads will wake up the mild mannered teddy bear, and rebarelling my first 375 H&H to Weatherby made it into a different animal, and if you take it another notch to a .378 you'll get to a place where many hardened big bore shooters would rather not be. Speed of recoil has more to do with perception than amount. On paper heavy waterfowl loads in a 12 gauge have recoil numbers like bonefide elephant stompers, but in practice just about everyone can shoot those.
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Agreed, worst rifle I owned for recoil was a Remingnton 700 LSS .375 Ultra, I'll shoot .505 Gibbs with less thought, that rifle had me considering the recoil before I pulled the trigger. That's the mark of going too far, and for me I was certainly there at the time with a light .375 Ultra.
257Stew said:
I too am interested in a #1 375H&H. I do not know if original poster handloads but I had buddies that did the 375 thing for a while and they used 235gr bullets. I also noticed that in the Hornady reloading manual they have loads and reduced loads for 220 gr bullets and I believe 200gr flat nose bullets intended for the 375Win. They would be fun to shoot all day long in a heavy 375 which I believe the Ruger #1 is.

Cheers 257Stew
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I have. .375 No.1T, it's not heavy, it's not light, she's just right. If I had to guess I'd say 8 3/4lbs.
 
Ardent said:
That's a beauty Johnn!
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:)Thanks guy. Don't know if I'll ever get to put it to a true test in the field, Africa, unless I do well in an upcoming Lotto 649 draw:p. However and while I'm still able, I do enjoy the shooting of a variety of calibres. Not long ago, I acquired another 375 'family member' that I'm starting to 'play' with. Here's a before facelift



And after photo.




It's a custom 375 Chatfield Taylor that Super Cub was kind enough to part with:d:d. However, once again, something else to shoot and reload for for the most part.
 
Wow, JP, that is a beautiful refinish job on that CT you got from SC! (Gotta love CGN code!:)). Is that Cerakote? Did you have just the barrel done or did you need to do the whole thing to get a nice uniform look? Very nice, very serious and business-like.

But, seriously, waiting for the Lotto? I would respectfully suggest that you consider selling some (a lot?) of that redundant iron and take the remaining ones on more hunts. Trust me, they get much easier to sell after the first couple dozen or so! A couple weeks in Africa (or wherever...) will change your life. A headful of terrific new memories trumps a safe or three full of steel any day of the week, and takes up much less space.
 
I have a Win 70 Safari in .375 H&H. The nine pound rifle comes back and up a little without hurting me, and is in my opinion pleasant considering the amount of energy involved. Maybe like a 12 gauge magnum goose load with a bit more push. I don't know that I would shoot it off the bench much, but I was pleasantly surprised at the reasonable recoil. I really like the cartridge and don't think I would be without it. Pick your favourite .270/.308/.30-06 and a .375 H&H.

The .375 Ruger might be a viable cartridge as well and I hope it stays around. It would be typically chambered in lighter rifles though, so the recoil goes up. A standard length .375 Ruger in a lighter bolt gun might be a nice companion to a heavier rifle in .375 H&H when sharing the same bullets.
 
A sad follow up to Douglas, but indeed, the .375 H&H bloody well works. Last picture is Dogleg's grizzly, and despite the .375 on my shoulder actually taken with a .300 Ultra though there were two .375 H&H's in camp. Can assure you the .375 H&H works on grizzlies too. I'm missing about a dozen or a few more, unoteworthy moose, bears, etc, and have done many Impala with .375 culling. The most well rounded chambering I've ever tried, does anything, anywhere.











 
OP - I see you are in Ottawa, if you want to try one PM me (.375 H&H CZ 550) although I am quite sure you will find the recoil manageable. It isn't bad at all and I often use mine as an all round gun both here at home and in Africa.
 
Ardent said:
A sad follow up to Douglas, but indeed, the .375 H&H bloody well works. Last picture is Dogleg's grizzly, and despite the .375 on my shoulder actually taken with a .300 Ultra though there were two .375 H&H's in camp. Can assure you the .375 H&H works on grizzlies too. I'm missing about a dozen or a few more, unoteworthy moose, bears, etc, and have done many Impala with .375 culling. The most well rounded chambering I've ever tried, does anything, anywhere.











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:)Great photos, thanks for sharing.
 
It is not bad at all with a suitable weight and well fitting rifle. I had a sore cheek the day after one outing when I shot 57 rds of full power handloads sitting at the bench from two different rifles. Aside from that time I have never had an issue. My first reaction to the 375hh was "that's it, wow, that's great..." and then I kept shooting. As has been said by many a lightweight 300wm is much worse.
 
I have a CZ550 in 375H&H. The gun pushes rather than slaps like a 300Winmag. Recoil is pleasant and is of no concern, in fact when shooting at a big browney or that trophy bull moose you dont even notice that the gun went off.
 
heronfish said:
Nice to see the overly proud crowd come out here and claim that the 375 is a mere pop gun and any man as manly as they can shoot it without problem.
The truth is the 375 is a large, powerful round and is above what most would find comfortable to shoot. All the other comments about finding a gun that fits definitely apply to it.
The only way to find out if you enjoy it is to buy it. And buying a gun is almost always a good idea.
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Yes the 375 certainly is a large powerful cartridge and it will kill anything that walks, talks, flies, or crawls on planet earth. Having said that I have a Norma 308mag, a 300 Weatherby and a 338/378 that kicks a heck of a lot harder than a 250gr Barnes in a 375H&H. I do maintain the 375 ouchanouch is a puppy dog and I do believe that almost anyone one, even a small stature female would have no problem with this venerable loading. Now thats not to say that this rifle does not recoil, it certainly does but it is not all that difficult to get use to. Heck I have had over and under 12 gauge and double barrel 12es that were absolutely horrible to shoot and beat the heck outa you and your cringed every time you touched it off.
Never had a 375 do that, I guess that recoil like anything else is a subjective thing and means different things to different people
 
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Here's a shooter's point of view video I did using .375 H&H, .450 Rigby, .470 Nitro, .505 Gibbs, and a 7x57 at the end for comparison, I've shared it too much but suspect the OP hasn't seen it, and it gives a good perspective on .375 recoil. The .470 belongs to Douglas / c-fbmi, and the .505 to stickhunter. Compare how the .375 climbs compared to the .450 or .505, those actually kick. Also fully manageable for those interested in acclimatizing to the recoil.

 
Here's a .375 story. There are a couple of brothers that shoot at our club range frequently, not too long ago I would have said constantly. I hope they're Ok. Anyway, between the two of them they own hundreds of rifles and have shot more than most of the rest of the members put together. One of them was on the bench next to me and was getting the crapbeat out of him by some plastic savage. He wasn't trying to hide it either. I offered my .375, that particular one a CZ. With some misgivings he tried it then looked at me quizzically and asked "So why exactly have we spent all these years getting beat up by little guns"?
 
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