.375 Winchester: Can This Be True?

[StrikeEagle]

I was reading the Tenth Edition of Cartridges of The World and was astounded to see the following entry under .375 Winchester:

"The .375 Winchester is a fine deer or black bear cartridge and would probably also do well on heavier game such as moose or brown bear.

Whoa! .375 as a moose round? Or brown bear??

Can that be right? It seems like a very extravagant claim. Does anyone here have any experience with it?

 

[Regolith]

Why not? My dad took out his moose with a 180 grain .308 Win, which - according to my research - has a similar amount of energy as compared to the .375 Winchester.

With good shot placement and the right bullet, I can see the .375 win having no problem taking out a moose.

 

[buttrap]

it has about the same energy on target as a M-2 ball 06 round..same load with the AP slug will kill a halftrack at 100yds..so unless mooses say White on the grill and have tracks I think a .375 would do just fine.

 

[StrikeEagle]

Well, ok... I'm convinced about the Moose. But Brown Bear? You feel it's enough?

 

[Duckbill]

While I have no experience with those animals, I have full confidence in the 375Win on anything in North America. Range is your only limitation IMO. I can handload a 220gr Hdy bullet to 2320fps in my Marlin375. It'll drop a boar hog like a bad habit.

 

[db_tanker]

I like to think the 375 Winchester is one of those "hidden treasures"


So...


<jedi mind trick>


"These aren't the driods your looking for"




D

 

[osteodoc08]

How does it compare to the 375 H&H? If it is similar, I'd have no problem using it on anything in North America. Africa, well, 375 H&H has long been considered the 'minimum' and with that in mind, I'd rather bring enough gun to the fight......Maybe one of those fancy 600 Nitro Express rounds I hear about

 

[Regolith]

osteo....its more comparable to .308 and .30-06 than anything else.

 

[obxned]

This is one of my favorite cartridges. When Winchester developed the 30/30 as their first smokeless sporting cartridge, they based it on the popular 38/55 black powder cartridge. The 30/30 case is a slightly beefed up and necked down 38/55 case. Nearly 100 years later, the 30/30 was necked up to .375, creating a 38/55 smokeless. (Note - the 38/55 and .357W are NOT interchangeable due to the heavier case construction on the smokeless cartridge)

It's a nice whitetail cartridge, and good for elk and moose in the timber. It was developed as a moose cartridge for the Canadian market, but never sold very well. This could be due to the popularity of the old .303 Enfield, or the availability of really big bore levers like the 45/70, or maybe just because so many Canadians have been hit in the head with hockey pucks. Why American whitetail hunters who use lever guns never bought them is still a mystery to me.

 

[osteodoc08]

Regolith: osteo....its more comparable to .308 and .30-06 than anything else.

Thanks for clearing that up. I'm not one to go bananas for the "next big thing" when it comes to new cartridges (with the exception of the 17 HMR). I haven't kept up on the latest and greatest, so I didn't know how it performed. Given that It is similar to 30-06, I pesonally would like to stand by my original statement of

I'd rather bring enough gun to the fight

. Elk and moose, sure. Grizzly, not so sure.

 

[Geronimo45]

Elk and moose, sure. Grizzly, not so sure.

Well... Davy Crockett and folks like him were killing of grizzlies with rifles that had a lot less ballistic goodness than the .375.

Big, fat, hairy critters (including bears) have not grown kevlar in the 100+ years since that time, so .375 ought to do the job.

I seem to remember somebody from S&W killing a pack of big critters with a .357 Magnum sixgun when the .357 first came out. Probably a bear or two amongst 'em...

Really, folks - bears are not superman, you don't need 5000 grain kryptonite slugs to take 'em down.

 

[BigG]

It's all relative. When the 30 WCF was new, around 1900, they thought that was good Alaska grizzly bear medicine. We today think you need a 50 BMG or equivalent. Guess the bears got tougher.

 

[ArmedBear]

Wow!

Next thing you'll be saying that people used to hunt big game with the .44-40, or that the .30-06 works on elk, or even something really outlandish, that the .30-30 will kill a deer at 25 yards!

 

[db_tanker]

of course there is also the outlandish story of the 303 British or the 7mm Mauser doing terrific damage to the wild game populations in Africa and India...of course, those are all false...


move along here....nothing to see

 

[ArmedBear]

Or that the California Department of Fish and Game just marked its hundredth anniversary, which means that game here had been decimated before most hunters even used smokeless powder...

 

[charlieb8]

.375 Winchester

Moose in Sweden are routinely killed by 6.5 X 55 Swedish. They are not that hard to kill, speaking from Alaskan experience.

I had a chance to buy a beautiful Valmet double in 375 Winchester. I decided against it as the ammo was almost an orphan.

 

[McCall911]

I was reading the Tenth Edition of Cartridges of The World and was astounded to see the following entry under .375 Winchester:

"The .375 Winchester is a fine deer or black bear cartridge and would probably also do well on heavier game such as moose or brown bear.

Whoa! .375 as a moose round? Or brown bear??

Can that be right? It seems like a very extravagant claim. Does anyone here have any experience with it?

That's the same thing I have in my well-worn COTW #6, by the late Frank Barnes, that I keep beside me.

My understanding is that the .375 Winchester is pretty much a higher-pressure update of the old .38-55. So, yeah, I agree that claim might be a bit extravagant, especially when it comes to brown bear.

I certainly couldn't say one way or another about its effectiveness on brown bear, but I wouldn't report as much if I didn't have firsthand experience with its effectiveness on such an animal. (All due respect to Mr. Barnes.)

 

[RecoilRob]

How does it compare to the 375 H&H?

Frankly, it doesn't. 250grn @ 1900 vs 300grn @ 2600. Not slamming the Winchester round, it is a fine short range lever gun option. It is just a pipsqueak compared to the H&H, though.

 

[gezzer]

Moose are not hard to kill I have killed 2 with ML one a 45 cap lock Bullet rifle and the seconded with a 54 flintlock using a patched round ball. Both 1 shot kills.

A .375 Winchester would be good IMHO for moose, deer and black bear.

Grizzly, Only as a desperate this is the only gun available.

 

[osteodoc08]

Geronimo45
Quote:
Elk and moose, sure. Grizzly, not so sure.

Well... Davy Crockett and folks like him were killing of grizzlies with rifles that had a lot less ballistic goodness than the .375.

Big, fat, hairy critters (including bears) have not grown kevlar in the 100+ years since that time, so .375 ought to do the job.

I seem to remember somebody from S&W killing a pack of big critters with a .357 Magnum sixgun when the .357 first came out. Probably a bear or two amongst 'em...

Really, folks - bears are not superman, you don't need 5000 grain kryptonite slugs to take 'em down.

A wise man told me once, "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."

I, personally, would like a little more oomph when going after a grizzly. YMMV.