[45-70 nut]

Alright lets hear your faveorite. I would like a new rifle soon and am leaning toward the ruger african in 375 ruger because I just plain like the ruger rifle and is the only reason I would choose a 375 ruger over the H&H mag. But I am also considering a ruger (obviously) 338WM. I really like the idea of having one do all rifle, but seriously doubt Ill ever get rid of my 45-70's. so lets hear the good,bad, and ugly of the two most versitle cartridges on the planet. So claimed.

 

[zb338]

I happen to think the .338 bore is the great American rifle. Just as the .375 is the great
African rifle. You can shoot light bullets in the .338 and it is a great deer rifle. You can
go to the 250 grain or even heavier and shoot anything in North America with no problem.
It doesn't matter which .338 caliber you choose they all work great for North American
big game.

Zeke

 

[jaybirdjtski]

I almost bought a pretty nice 375 Ruger caliber that an acquaintence offered to sell to me. Price was very good. I have a 375 H&H Model 70. I read up on the Ruger, looked at the auction sites, and what I found was that I might have a hard time reselling that rifle because of the caliber. My guess is that the 375 Ruger is a cartridge that was developed to fill a niche that didn't need filling. Standard action with 375 H&H ballistics. There are alot of 375 Rugers waiting to be sold with little interest at the asking prices.
I'd opt for the 338. You have a great selection of bullets with excellent downrange capabilities. You can load it for deer or load for bear or anything in between. I think that if you wanted to resell the rifle you would have a much easier time as it is a popular caliber. If you had to have a 375 caliber, I'd go for the H&H. My only negative on the 338 Winchester mag is that it is a belted cartridge. You might want to look into a belted cartridge resizer made by Innovative Technologies. It solves the problem of short case life with belted cartridges.

 

[mattsbox99]

I'm no fan of the .338 caliber at all. I'd take the .375 Ruger anyday.

 

[jodum]

I'm no fan of the .338 caliber at all. I'd take the .375 Ruger anyday.

Now come on Matt, you mean there is actually a gun you don't like.

 

[magnumitis]

I say .375 all the way.

But not the Ruger. Get an H&H and have a Weatherby reamer run through it. You will not be disappointed. The .375 Wby. outruns the Ruger and the H&H by a good margin. You can always load the Roy down to H&H or Ruger numbers if you wish. You cannot load the other two up to Weatherby snuff. Besides that...you can fire standard H&H ammo in the Weatherby chamber if you want. It's a win-win situation.

As far as brass life with the belted cases.............. I'm using Weatherby brass (by Norma) and have well over 10 reloads on my batch of test brass. Probably would not get that many out of fire-formed Remington H&H brass. But if you set your resize die correctly and don't load over-pressure, your brass life will be just fine.

My smith has a .375 Roy reamer with only one chamber cut on it if you're interested.

 

[mattsbox99]

Now come on Matt, you mean there is actually a gun you don't like.

I like all guns, just not all calibers...

 

[45-70 nut]

I almost bought a pretty nice 375 Ruger caliber that an acquaintence offered to sell to me. Price was very good. I have a 375 H&H Model 70. I read up on the Ruger, looked at the auction sites, and what I found was that I might have a hard time reselling that rifle because of the caliber. My guess is that the 375 Ruger is a cartridge that was developed to fill a niche that didn't need filling. Standard action with 375 H&H ballistics. There are alot of 375 Rugers waiting to be sold with little interest at the asking prices.
I'd opt for the 338. You have a great selection of bullets with excellent downrange capabilities. You can load it for deer or load for bear or anything in between. I think that if you wanted to resell the rifle you would have a much easier time as it is a popular caliber. If you had to have a 375 caliber, I'd go for the H&H. My only negative on the 338 Winchester mag is that it is a belted cartridge. You might want to look into a belted cartridge resizer made by Innovative Technologies. It solves the problem of short case life with belted cartridges.

I am really suprised the 375 ruger is not more popular than it is. dont get me wrong I love the history of the h&h but a nonbelted standard length magnum just seems to make more sense.

 

[Davers]

Both .338 Win. Mag. & 375 ruger are fine!

 

[jodum]

I own a 338 Win Mag and would feel comfortable hunting anything in North America with it. I do not know how easy 375 Ruger ammo would be to get if you had to buy a new supply on a hunting trip. 338 Mag and 375 H&H are some of the most common ammo for big game hunting. Buy what your heart or pocket book tells you though. I personally would own one of each if I was single and a millionaire. I hope the first doesn't happen soon and I don't see the second happening.

 

[jaybirdjtski]

45-70......I was surprised too. Makes lots of sense to have a standard action with a non-belted cartridge.
I just felt that I might end up with a white elephant if I ever wanted to unload it. The guy ended up selling it for under $400.

The same sort of thing happened with the 480 Ruger, a perfectly good hunting handgun round. Just didn't want to end up with an orphan. My take also, as has been mentioned, you can get factory 375 H&H and 338 Winchester ammo just about anywhere big animals are hunted, probably even in the closest Wal Mart!

p.s. I can remember times when I was in the lumber business and bought something out of the ordinary that made sense to me. I perceived "value." Unfortunately, most of my customers wanted what worked for them, what they were used to, and I would end up with a losing deal having to just about give the stuff away.

 

[gunchamp]

I own both. 338 in a m77 and the 375 in the alaskan. I like both, so its easy. Buy em both then you cant go wrong. On the 375 ruger though, it not only matches h&h ballistics, it exceeds them. The cartridge is extremely accurate and I have not had any problems getting ammo.

 

[mjyeagle]

get the 375 rum i love mine

 

[CCAguns]

.338 vs .375

Unless you have plans to hunt Africa, the .375 is not needed. I have had three .338 Mags. Sold the Ruger 77 to buy an old Browning Safari - gorgeous rifle. Both shot extremely well. I additionally have a Remington 700 in .340 Weatherby - now that's one **** of a rifle. Killed several whitetail, nilgia, elk and one caribou with it. Never feel undergunned. Ballistics of a 7 Mag. Get a .340 Weatherby!!!!

 

[2Bits]

Ruger makes a nice production type rifle but I too must say NAY to the Ruger .375!!!

I doubt you could ever find ammo for that rifle in Africa for starters, or the USA outside of a couple of big cities. The .375 H&H is all over the world for a fact. The H&H has a ton of history behind it also.

 

[beretzs]

I have a M70 338 Win Mag, and man, it is a very versatile round for all around hunting. You can load 180gr Ballistic Tips to good speeds and get 300 Mag trajectory or you can load it heavy with 275gr bullets that will shoot through about any animal walking. Plus, you can still get 2600+ out of the 275's. There are a ton of great bullets in the middle also.

On that thought, I would like to have a 375 also. Maybe another M70 when one becomes available. Either the H&H, Ruger or a Wby would be a great round, with alot of versatility, but really big for most smaller, big game. If you load your own, you really can't make a bad choice and ammo availability really doesn't mean much. I always pack ammo in a few different spots, so if one bag is lost, I have a back up supply. Scotty

 

[2Bits]

I basically load two bullet weights in my .338 Win mag: A 225 grn and the 275 grain Swift A Frame. As was mentioned, it will handle anything crawling, walking or running in North America and most species in Africa as well.

 

[bikelite]

I have a Brno... the old one in a 375 hh set trigger and the 375 just hits harder and man I can drop 80g of imr 4350 on top of a 300g bullet and clover leaf on a good day... 338 wont even come close and I have one in a rem. That brno Action is wild , its a true magnum action I have put as much as 87 g into the case and can seat that bullet way out but 80g I find was the sweet spot.

 

[magnumitis]

I have a Brno... the old one in a 375 hh set trigger and the 375 just hits harder and man I can drop 80g of imr 4350 on top of a 300g bullet and clover leaf on a good day... 338 wont even come close and I have one in a rem. That brno Action is wild , its a true magnum action I have put as much as 87 g into the case and can seat that bullet way out but 80g I find was the sweet spot.

I'm not going to be your mother and lecture you. But I do feel it my responsibility to ask whether you are loading 87 gr. of 4350 under 300 grain bullets?? If you are......please don't ever sit down at a bench beside me. You're running about 4 gr. over max at the 80 gr. mark.

PLEASE be careful!!!!!

 

[MMichaelAK]

Ammo availability lets the 375 Ruger out for me.
Its just harder to find that either the .338 Wm or .375 H&H.

Id say get the .375 H&H because everything the .338 can do, the .375 Holland and Holland can do too.

If you really need more horsepower, go .378 Weatherby.