In most reloading books I read, the 375 is referred to as the queen of the medium bores. With saying that, the 375 is the minimum caliber for some African countries and to some minimum in Africa means big bore over here. Here are a few quotes about its attributes:
"Considering all animals, without a doubt the all around rifle must belong to the .375 H&H." -- Mike LaGrange, Ballistics in Perspective (2d Ed.), PHS Publishing (1990), p. 49.
"This cartridge and rifle was definitely designed for the 'one-rifle' man; it's the only weapon that has ever been definitely designed as an 'all-around' rifle for the man who cannot afford or does not want to be bothered with a number of different weapons, and yet who wants to shoot a wide variety of animals. There is no other rifle on the market with which such a wide variety of different species of big game, from the largest to the smallest, can be killed equally satisfactorily. Its three different weights of bullet are all most deadly on the type of game for which they were intended, and at the ranges at which such animals are normally shoot." -- John "Pondoro" Taylor, African Rifles and Cartridges, Safari Press (1994), Chp. V, "The Medium Bores," p. 131 (emphasis in original).
"There is no other rifle in existence of which so much can be said as it can of the .375 Magnum." -- John "Pondoro" Taylor, African Rifles and Cartridges, Safari Press (1994), Chp. VII, "An All-Around Rifle," p. 204 (referring to a .375 Magnum double rifle made by Holland & Holland).
"I am giving this rifle ['Holland's .375 Magnum'] a chapter to itself because I honestly think that it deserves it, it is so far ahead of any of its contemporaries . . . " -- John "Pondoro" Taylor, Big Game and Big Game Rifles, Safari Press (1993), Chp. VIII.
"There is no other weapon in existence of which so much can be said; and when it is further remembered that the rifle can be obtained as double, single and magazine, so that all tastes are catered for and all types of shooting considered; it must surely be admitted that here is, indeed, a weapon which every man - or woman - wanting a rifle must at least consider."-- John "Pondoro" Taylor, Big Game and Big Game Rifles , Safari Press (1993), p. 98-99.
"I know, from using the rifle myself, that the .375 magnum can safely be taken against any animal anywhere in Africa."-- John "Pondoro" Taylor, Big Game and Big Game Rifles, Safari Press (1993), p. 103.
"Indeed . . . the .375 may not have a place in every safari battery today. But whether in .375 H&H or some other configuration, the .375-bore remains what it was nearly 80 years ago - the single most useful rifle any African hunter could carry." -- Craig Boddington, Safari Rifles , Safari Press (1990), p. 53.
"The actual necessity for a .375 H&H - or any cartridge of similar or greater power - is quite limited in North America. Brown bear, polar bear, the largest of the interior grizzlies, just perhaps bison, and you've said it all. However, unlike the shorter-ranged and much harder-kicking .416s and larger calibers, the .375 H&H is both shootable and versitale."-- Craig Boddington, American Hunting Rifles, Safari Press (1995), p. 142.
For Alaskan Brown Bears, the "est of all, to my mind, remains the 1912-vintage .375 H&H. It has the reach if you need it - but, and this is more important, it has the knockdown power for close-range work."-- Craig Boddington, American Hunting Rifles, Safari Press (1995), p. 366.
"The beauty of the .375 H&H is simple: you can take every animal on earth with the caliber without ever being over- and only rarely undergunned." -- Peter Hathaway Capstick, Safari: The Last Adventure, St. Martin's Press (1984), p. 97.
"The .375 was, and is, the legal minimum for dangerous game in several countries and still remains the one outstanding choice for the hunter who wants a rifle that works well on everything from little gazelles to five-ton elephants. My .375 has done exactly that, in addition to having given quite satisfactory results on the 48 buffalo taken with it . . ." -- Finn Aagaard, Aagaard's Africa, National Rifle Association of America (1991), p. 80.
"f I could have two cartridges to hunt the world, I'd be quite happy with the .30-06 and the .375 H&H. And if I could have just one cartridge to hunt the world over, my only answer is the .375." -- Craig Boddington, "Classic Hunting Cartridges: .375 Holland & Holland Magnum," Petersen's HUNTING, June 1995, p. 43 (emphasis in original).
"The .375 is one of my real enthusiasms in big-game cartridges. If I were going to hunt all over the world and could use only one rifle, it would be the .375. If I could have only two, one would be a .375 and the other would be a .270." -- Jack O'Connor, The Complete Book of Rifles and Shotguns, Outdoor Life (1961).
"As much as I like the .375, I have never seen much use for it in North America, except for hunting the big Alaskan brown bear. However, if anyone wants to use it on elk, moose or grizzly, I am not going to take exception. It is a hard-hitting, flat-shooting cartridge, for which I have scored a higher percentage of one-shot, in-the-tracks kills on medium to large soft-skinned game than with any other cartridge." -- Jack O'Connor, The Complete Book of Rifles and Shotguns, Outdoor Life (1961).
"My own .375 is a Model 70 Winchester restocked in French walnut by Griffin and Howe and equipped with a Kollmorgen 2.75x Bear Cub scope on the Griffin and Howe side mount. It also has a Lyman No. 48 receiver sight and the factory front sight. If I want to use the scope, I simply slip out the slide of the 48, slip on the scope, and vice versa." -- Jack O'Connor, The Complete Book of Rifles and Shotguns, Outdoor Life (1961).
"[The .375] has enough power in a pinch for elephants and rhinos, yet it shoots flat enough for mountain hunting. Up to 250 yards, there is so little difference in the point of impact with the two bullet weights that I am not a good enough shot to be able to determine by group which bullet I am shooting." -- Jack O'Connor, The Complete Book of Rifles and Shotguns, Outdoor Life (1961).
"Incidentally, the published velocity figures for the .375 check out exactly on the chronograph with factory ammunition, which is by no means true of all factory-made cartridges." -- Jack O'Connor, The Complete Book of Rifles and Shotguns, Outdoor Life (1961).
"THE .375 H&H MAGNUM
But the queen of the medium bores is the .375 H&H Magnum, one of the world's most useful and widely distributed cartridges, and probably the best all-around cartridge ever devised." -- Jack O'Connor, The Complete Book of Rifles and Shotguns, Outdoor Life (1961).
"And there isn't any doubt that a good big gun is better than a good little gun - if it's properly handled." -- Jack O'Connor, The Complete Book of Rifles and Shotguns, Outdoor Life (1961).
"You also don't need anything bigger, but if you happen to own a .375 H&H you've got a pretty good black bear gun . . . for any black bear that walks." -- Craig Boddington, "Big Bear Guns," Petersen's HUNTING, February 1998, p. 29, 56.
"Chances are equally good, however, that next time I try for a brown bear I'll go right back to where I started and carry a .375 H&H. The good old .375 is the classic brown-bear caliber and with good reason. It will stop a charge if necessary, and if necessary it will also make 200-yard shots with ease. And although it's been very good for 85 years now, it's better than it ever was thanks to superb new bullets like the Swift A-Frame, Trophy Bonded Bearclaw, Barnes X and Winchester Fail-Safe. If you have a .375, you have your brown bear rifle." -- Craig Boddington, "Big Bear Guns," Petersen's HUNTING, February 1998, p. 58.
"When asked my choice for a survey [about what is the "all around rifle"], my answer was the .338 Winchester Magnum, provided we're talking about North America and we include the big bears. Exclude the big bears and the simple answer is the .30-06, just like it has been since 1906. Throw in the rest of the world and the only sensible answer is the .375 H&H, just like it has been since 1912." -- Craig Boddington, "Big-Game Rifles," Petersen's HUNTING, April 1998, p. 53.
"Brown Bear: The brown bear is just an overfed grizzly. He gets much bigger, and he is usually hunted in closer cover. The .375 H&H is the rifle, period." -- Craig Boddington, "Big-Game Rifles," Petersen's HUNTING, April 1998, p. 56.
"For an octogenarian, the .375 Holland & Holland Magnum gets around right well. Other cartridges are decidely superior for most any specific big-game hunting assignment. But if you balance lethality against ranging capability, and factor in tolerable recoil, the .375 H&H (a.k.a. .375 Belted Rimless Magnum and .375 Belted Rimless Nitro Express) does more jobs better than any single round we have. It is arguably the most broadly effective cartridge in the entire history of sporting firearms. If internationally experienced hunters were asked to vote on one cartridge for all-around use, the .375 would win by a landslide." -- G. Sitton, "Reloads: The .375 H&H Magnum," Petersen's Big Book of Cartridges, Vol. 1, p. 84.
"As an all-around African cartridge for a hunter who wants the convenience of transporting only one rifle, there is still no better choice than the .375 H&H. It really will do it all. . . . I would use it for most purposes, including at least the first shot on a buffalo and would reserve solids for elephant and for following up wounded buffalo. . . . Almost any hunter, I believe, can learn to tolerate the recoil of a .375 H&H, at least for the few shots normally fired in the field. Anyone who cannot do so has no business hunting buffalo." -- Finn Aagaard, "One Rifle - One Load," Rifle, No. 171 (May-June 1997), p. 22.
"The .375 H&H is well liked as a back-up gun by Alaskan brown bear guides and would make a splendid all-around choice for hunting anything in big bear country, though I am not sure everyone would like to pack one up a sheep mountain." -- Finn Aagaard, "One Rifle - One Load," Rifle, No. 171 (May-June 1997), p. 22.
"For my big rifle, I can unequivocally recommend a stout bolt action in .375 H&H Magnum.
That was easy wasn't it." -- Ron Spomer, "The All-Around Rifle Battery," Rifle, No. 158 (March-April 1995), p. 50.
"I do not mean to denigrate the .375 H&H [as not being the only true African rifle]; quite the contrary. I think it is arguably the finest all-around big game cartridge ever designed. If I could have but one rifle for all African hunting, I would without any hesitation choose a .375 H&H." -- Finn Aagaard, "Cartridges for Africa - The Reality," Rifle, No. 170 (March-April 1997), p. 17.
"If I had to choose only one rifle to use the rest of my life, I'd take the .375 Holland & Holland." -- John M. Taylor, "Hunting Loads: The Regal .375 H&H," American Hunter, Vol. 25, No. 10 (October 1997) .
". . . I believe the .375 is the round most frequently recommeded by professionals for clients wanting to do all of it [African hunting] with one rifle." -- G. Sitton, "A Winning Pick Six!," Guns & Ammo, June 1998, p. 62.
"In North America, the .375 is an excellent cartridge for bad brown bears (white ones, too). . . . For mature bull elk and moose, especially in the timber, the .375 is by no stretch too much." -- G. Sitton, "A Winning Pick Six!," Guns & Ammo, June 1998, p. 62.
"Discovering [the .375's] capacity for dual use has been great fun, and rewarding. Not only is this rifle's power legendary, but also its destructiveness is frequently less than that of a high-velocity small-bore, especially for those hunters who prefer steaks and loin chops to hamburger." -- Ken Waters, "Update: .375 H&H Magnum Pet Loads," Handloader, No. 200 (August 1999), p. 50.
"A .470 H.V. would be very useful in the Himalayas, although somewhat heavy, and a .375 Magnum would be a very serviceable weapon in the jungles. In fact, this last seems to more nearly approach the ideal all-around weapon than any other. With 235 grain bullet it is perfection for the hills and the comparatively heavy bullet of 300 grains with its high velocity would deal a tremedous blow at close quarters." -- S.R. Truesdell, The Rifle: Its Development for Big-Game Hunting , Safari Press (1992), p. 169.
"The caliber .375 H&H Magnum is....a wonderful cartidge for use on elk, moose, bear, or the heavy artic game. In a factory make rifle and load, the .375 H&H Magnum in the Model 70 Winchester, Model 700 Remington, the
Browing, Sako, etc., is one of the finest all around rifles and cartridges." -- Elmer Keith, Hunting Big Game, Peterson Publishing Company (1965), Chapter Two, "Timber And All Around Rifles," pp. 37-38.
"It (the .375) handles anything from small deer to the heaviest bear or moose. I have used the .375 Holland and
Holland Magnum on a great deal of game with good results." -- Elmer Keith, Hunting Big Game, Peterson Publishing Company (1965), Chapter Three, "Stalking Rifles," p. 53.
"Due to the fact that .375 H&H magnum ammunition is available all over the world, the .375 H&H becomes a very good choice of a plains rifle for Africa. I found that many of the 17 white hunters regularly employed by White Hunters Limited of Niarobi used a .375 for their medium rifle, and most all of them considered it ideal." -- Elmer Keith, Safari, Safari Pulications (1968), p. 136.
[Note: The chapter title this quote is from is called "The All Purpose Rifle"] "In my opinion, if you envisage some open-plains hunting, this strengthens the case for the .375 H&H. It may seem ironic that, in a book about rifles for Africa in the twenty-first century, the .375 H&H is still being recommended as an all-rounder. Some of today's hunters can't help feeling ill at ease about using a cartridge that was introduced as long ago as 1912 - it seems to offend their sense of technological progress. But the fact remains that there isn't much that can beat the .375 H&H as an all-rounder if you take all factors into account, including recoil, carry weight, and the major advantage that ammunition is readily available. Furthermore, the availability of 'heavy magnum' factory loads, which increase the velocity of the 270-grain and 300-grain bullets to an advertised 2,870 and 2,700 fps, respectively, now makes the .375 H&H about as versatile as you could want, if you don't mind the extra recoil." -- Gregor Woods, Rifles for Africa, Safari Press (2002), Chapter 24, "The All Purpose Rifle," pp. 323-325. Please note that there are so many references to the various uses of the .375 H&H Magnum in this book, I only picked the quote that seemed to best sum up the caliber.
"Few who have a great deal of hunting experience with the .375 H&H Magnum will disagree when I describe it as one of the most useful big-game cartridges ever developed. The .375 delivers far more power than is needed for most North American game, and it is a but shy on bullet diameter in times when some of the heavier African game have to be taken under the worst of conditions, but the fellow who decides to hunt all over the world with one rifle can do a lot worse than choosing the .375 H&H Magnum. . . . I can think of no big-game animal presently residing anywhere in this world that I would not tackle with a rifle in .375 H&H Magnum." -- Layne Simpson, Rifles and Cartridges for Big Game, Safari Press (2003), pp. 241-242.
Taken from the website:http://webpages.charter.net/375magnum/allrd.htm
Ron
