Everyone has their own idea of what works, and let’s be honest, not everyone can handle some of the more potent calibresthat make up the armouryof safari calibres immortalised in the works of outdoors authors like Ruark, Capstick and Roosevelt.
After three trips to Africa myself, relying on my trusty.325 WSM and my .375 Ruger each time, I wondered, “All things being equal, which calibre would the pros recommend?”
With that in mind, I reached out to half a dozen profes-sional hunters I either know or have hunted with to seek their input.The question: If all clients could physically and accurately handle all calibres the same, and if you could have just one calibre on safari for plains and dangerous game, which would you want them to carry?To be honest, I expected a little more variety in the answers, but almost to a man, the answer was the same – the .375 H&H Magnum.
Introduced in 1912, the belted-magnum .375 H&H is certainly a staple of safari literature. Considered a “medium-bore” cartridge, it still has the versatility and oomph to hunt everything from dik-dik to elephant.Pushing a 350-grain bullet at some 2 300 feet per second with an average of around 4 112 foot-pounds of energy, the.375 is potent, to say the least.
To quote Chuck Hawks in his write-up of the .375: “The .375 H&H is probably the premier buffalo and bison cartridgeextant and it is adequate even for African elephant.
As a hunting cartridge, it has the power to take the largest game and is less likely to kick the shooter out from under his hatthan the more powerful .375’s (RUM and Weatherby, for instance), or the larger .416’s.”
American gun writer Jack O’Connor called the .375 H&H the “Queen of the Medium Bores” and hunted with it ex-tensively in Africa and India.
I’ve never worked with the .375 H&H myself, but I own three .375 Rugers, each of which has been to Africa once and each used on everything from buffalo down to duiker (with solids, of course).
The differences in velocity between the H&H and Ruger are academic at best; the critter at the receiving end won’t knowthe difference. I’ve been fortunate enough to take three buffalo with the .375 Ruger and all have been (thankfully) one-shot kills.I cannot imagine the .375 H&H would be any less effective.
So why then would the 100-year-old-plus H&H win out over the modern Ruger, which does get a small velocity boostfrom the lack of a belt? For one, it might be nostalgia. The H&H has “been there, done that” effectively for over 100 years.But according to my PH friends, a big reason is availability of ammunition.
The Ruger is new, so ammo is scarce and likely to be difficult to impossible to locate in Africa. However, the H&H is readily available across most hunting countries in Africa, perhaps even more so than other popular safari big bores such as the .416 Rigby and .404 Jeffery.
Beyond that, the calibre does meet that sweet spot between “potent enough for anything” and “not excessively punishing on the back end”.
Despite their love of Africa hunting, most Americans can’t handle the big bores, much less the medium bores. They never use them, having no need for such calibres on whitetail and elk.
As my friend Ronald Barnard with Ubathi Global Safaris said, “Most of my clients are from the US and most use about a.270 Winchester. Even a .300 Winchester Magnum can make them flinch. I have a .338 Win Mag and for 10 years only twoclients wanted to shoot it on their trip here. Most people make the mistake of letting the big calibre punish them on a bench and then they flinch after that!”
I agree. Most Americans just don’t shoot the bigger calibres, and I know a great many who buy magnums and even ultra magnums (yeesh) and develop terrible flinches after their first trip to the range to sight in.
I even picked up a splendid Tikka T3 .300 Win Mag a few years ago for a song at a gun show. The owner thought heneeded it, but then couldn’t handle the light-for-calibre
rifle’s recoil (it was excessive; ballistic tips in the magazine would flatten and slam forward against the inside of the box magazine with the recoil of the first shot).
Ronald is also one of those .375 H&H fans, calling it the “best gun in the world”, and he’s not alone. Pierre Moolman over at Sun Africa Safaris said the .375 is a “no-brainer” for plains game with a reach of 200-300 yards and touted its“proven track record”, having “enough punch to take down any dangerous game ethically”.
In 2023, I hunted with Izak Kirsten’s crew over at WOW Africa Safaris. Izak is also a fan of the .375, but so was my guide,Jack Maritz, whose .338 Win Mag I used on an aou-dad in a 250-yard, high-wind, cross-canyon shot and on a running eland,both with lethal effect. “If I must lose all my guns, I would put up one hell of a fight for my .375 H&H,” Jack told me.
Bossie Mostert from Limpopo Big Game Safaris said he would place the .375 as his top choice for clients on dangerous game. It takes a lot of practice and self-control to handle the big magnums, but, as a client, you’ll do your reputation immeasurable good if you show up to hunt dangerous game, if not carrying your own, at least being able to handle one deftly. There’s nothing a PH hates more than a client who can’t shoot, especially when aiming at dangerous game.
That may be why my friend Pidy Lusenga over at Raptor Hunting prefers a bit of a step up when afield with clients on the trail of big game. “As a guide for many years, my favourite calibre that I say peoplemust carry for dangerous game is a .458 (Lott).
"Normally, this rifle works very well and has never disappointed me.” Pidy went on to say the Lott has saved his bacon more than once in charges by dangerous game and has been most effective at turning or stopping a charge dead in its tracks – with a well-placed shot, of course. With the reputation of us Americans being unable to handle the big calibres, it really is no wonder that every PH I’ve hunted big game with has carried a .40-calibre, or larger, for backup. Ronald carried a Lott as well and Bossie had a .416 Ruger. Jack borrowed my brother’s .450/400 Nitro Express double rifle when we went after my bull buff in2023 (frankly, I think he just wanted to shoot it).
I see .375 H&H rifles for sale by the truckload over at Africahunting.com, and at reasonable prices. Ammo might not be as affordable as typical American cartridges, but it might behove you to pick up one of those rifles and shoot a few boxes of ammunition before planning that next safari.
