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  • FireInTheWire

    Caprock Crusader
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    I shot mine on the King Ranch in 1989, using a .375H&H bolt-action rifle. Range was 30yds., bullet was a 300gr. Swift A-Frame, placement was through both shoulders and lungs.

    It was down before thew rifle came out of recoil.

    If you can, just borrow a .300 Win. Mag. from someone and use 180gr. Swift A-Frames, Nosler Partitions, or some other bonded-core soft points. Practice with it and have fun.
    30yrds! You a ninja?
     

    GeorgeS

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    It was the third bull we'd gotten that close to. it was 98 degrees with very high humidity and they were torpid.

    My guide was very good (not a King Ranch employee) and we did a LOT of crawling. I think I might still have some nettles and cactus spines imbedded in my hands and knees! :laughing:
     

    satx78247

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    So, I have reserved a spot to hunt Nilgai,

    Unfortunately, I am told that I need and artillery piece to shoot one without pissing it off.

    The .300WM was stated as the minimum they required for this hunt, what other calibers are on par with the .300WM?

    pbratton,

    Personally, IF I go after a Blue Bull, it will be with my Remington Model 760 that Jessie at JES reformatted for me in 9.3x62mm.
    (It is scoped with a 2.75X LEOPOLD.)
    It shoots BEAUTIFULLY with JHP/solids or GCCB to 300+ grains & is DEADLY ACCURATE.
    (Jessie's work is PEERLESS, his prices are reasonable & his "turn-around time" is usually 2 weeks or less.)

    Fwiw, the 286 Grain factory JHP loads and/or my 300 grain GCCB are quite suitable for any game animal up to & including ELEPHANT.
    (FYI, a 300 grain GCCB at 2000-2100 FPS is a KILLER & spoils little edible meat. = DEEP PENETRATION is the "old-school" 9.3X62 Mauser's forte.)

    NOTE: Cases for the 9.3X62MM & its "little brother", the 9.3X57MM, are EASILY remade from .30-06 & 8MM Mauser brass.
    (I usually get 6-8 reloads per fire-formed Lake City M2 "once-fired" brass case.)

    BTW, the 9.3X57MM is "well thought of" by European commercial moose hunters & for Red Deer, too, out to beyond 200 M.

    yours, satx

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    satx78247

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    The 9.3x62 is a killer; my guides in Africa considered to be almost as good as the .375H&H.

    GeorgeS,

    Depending on what one means by "almost as good", the "old-school" 9.3X62mm & 9.3X57mm cartridges MAY be BETTER in some ways than the equally venerable .375 H&H.
    (As I said earlier, the 9.3MM cartridges do NOT spoil much edible meat & MAY, with similar velocities, penetrate deeper than the .375 H&H. Also, BOTH 9.3 cartridges "kick" LESS than the .375, given similar weight rifles.)

    BTW, a 9.3X62MM rifle can be built-up in a 7-8 pound rifle & still be "reasonably comfortable to shoot". - I would NOT want to shoot a 7 pound rifle in .375 H&H.

    yours, satx
     

    baboon

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    GeorgeS,

    Depending on what one means by "almost as good", the "old-school" 9.3X62mm & 9.3X57mm cartridges MAY be BETTER in some ways than the equally venerable .375 H&H.
    (As I said earlier, the 9.3MM cartridges do NOT spoil much edible meat & MAY, with similar velocities, penetrate deeper than the .375 H&H. Also, BOTH 9.3 cartridges "kick" LESS than the .375, given similar weight rifles.)

    BTW, a 9.3X62MM rifle can be built-up in a 7-8 pound rifle & still be "reasonably comfortable to shoot". - I would NOT want to shoot a 7 pound rifle in .375 H&H.

    yours, satx
    You tend to carry the rifle more then shoot it. The recoil is over fast enough it shouldn't be a problem. That's why I went for lite weight in my .416.
     

    GeorgeS

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    I won't denigrate the 9.3x62 as it is a fine cartridge. I will extol the virtues of the .375H&H.

    The .375H&H is a pussycat to shoot; my wife shoots mine. She does not shoot my 10.75lbs. .470 Capstick, however. :laughing:

    The .375H&H doesn't have a reputation as a meat destroyer; if anything, it ruins relatively little eat.

    A major advantage the .375H&H has over the 9.3x62 is that it is legal for Africa's Big Five everywhere (the 9.3x62 is accepted for thick-skinned dangerous game only in Namibia, if I remember correctly).
     

    satx78247

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    I won't denigrate the 9.3x62 as it is a fine cartridge. I will extol the virtues of the .375H&H.

    The .375H&H is a pussycat to shoot; my wife shoots mine. She does not shoot my 10.75lbs. .470 Capstick, however. :laughing:

    The .375H&H doesn't have a reputation as a meat destroyer; if anything, it ruins relatively little eat.

    A major advantage the .375H&H has over the 9.3x62 is that it is legal for Africa's Big Five everywhere (the 9.3x62 is accepted for thick-skinned dangerous game only in Namibia, if I remember correctly).


    GeorgeS,

    FYI, the STANDARD FACTORY load for .375 H&H's "kick" is about 40% more foot -pounds than the STANDARD FACTORY LOAD for the 9.3x62MM.

    Also, I do NOT believe that I said that the .375 H&H is a "meat destroyer" BUT it DOES cause MORE "blood-shot meat" than the 9.3x62mm does.

    Despite the FACT that laws change OFTEN in Sub-Saharan Africa, the last time that I checked, the 9.3x62mm is ACCEPTED for "the BIG 5" everywhere & often by being "grandfathered in" OR accepted "by exception", as it is a smaller bore than the .40 caliber rifle that is often required for "dangerous game" in SOME of those nations.

    BTW, the famous PH, Harry Selby, said that the 9.3x62mm became as famous as it is, as it is "eminiently suitable to be carried on horseback, where a larger bore/heavier rifle might well be unsuitable when mounted".
    (FWIW, being "an old school sort of fellow", I WOULD "be IN for" a "safari on horseback", like "the last safari" that Robert C. Ruark & Harry Selby went on in 1963, IF I could afford one.)

    Fwiw, I LIKE the .375H&H, too.
    (Otoh, I once won a "fancy", about 8#, .416 Rigby Mag in a card game & QUICKLY sold it to a TAMU professor after shooting it about 10 times, as it was "too much gun" for me. = FYI, I am NOT all that fond of PUNISHING recoil.)

    A hunter can only kill a game animal DEAD; there is NO "deader than dead" condition in animal life. = My Model 760 in 9.3X62mm is ENOUGH GUN for my use, any place on Planet Earth.
    (That said, I would love to find an over a century old, traditional, BIG BORE double-rifle like that that "gentlemen hunters" once took on safari & that I could afford to buy. = Something like a .500 Nitro Express for Black Powder, w/hammers, would be PERFECTION, imVho.)

    yours, satx
     

    MTA

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    I saw a Texas trophy hunter show and the guide let a kid shoot one with a 22-250 using a 60 grain Nosler Partition. So there’s that.

    I think alot of guides/ranches suggest the big boys because a good mount of people cant shoot worth a shit. Maybe putting a .300wm through the guts makes it easier to find the animal instead of something weaker? My buddy is a head guide on a hunting ranch and the stories he tells me are almost unbelievable but he ain't lying.
     

    satx78247

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    I think alot of guides/ranches suggest the big boys because a good mount of people cant shoot worth a shit. Maybe putting a .300wm through the guts makes it easier to find the animal instead of something weaker? My buddy is a head guide on a hunting ranch and the stories he tells me are almost unbelievable but he ain't lying.


    MTA89,

    When I was teaching shooting, I've seen NEWBIES miss, i.e., shoot over, the >8-FOOT-tall berm (behind the target-frames) altogether.

    yours, satx
     
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    baboon

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    Out here by the lake!
    I think alot of guides/ranches suggest the big boys because a good mount of people cant shoot worth a shit. Maybe putting a .300wm through the guts makes it easier to find the animal instead of something weaker? My buddy is a head guide on a hunting ranch and the stories he tells me are almost unbelievable but he ain't lying.
    Every P.H. I ever hunted with either took the time to see if you could shoot or had heard of your shooting abilities from another P.H.! Last one I hunted with decided not to carry his rifle while in Africa. When ask why he didn't carry his rifle his comment was that I could shoot! In reality I mostly wanted to walk & stalk, and he was more use to the shoot from the truck or shoot from a blind hunters. Personally I think he was to lazy to carry his own rifle. He sure did like my binoculars better then his own.
     
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    Hoji

    Bowling-Pin Commando
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    May 28, 2008
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    I think alot of guides/ranches suggest the big boys because a good mount of people cant shoot worth a shit. Maybe putting a .300wm through the guts makes it easier to find the animal instead of something weaker? My buddy is a head guide on a hunting ranch and the stories he tells me are almost unbelievable but he ain't lying.
    I am spoiled in that I hunt almost exclusively with actual shooters.

    I have also seen what kind of fuckery takes place when folks who “hunt” once a year and don’t train at all take shots they have no business taking happens.
     

    ZX9RCAM

    Over the Rainbow bridge...
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    My dad always brought his .270 along, because it wasn't uncommon for one of the the guests to have borrowed a gun which they had never shot, for the hunt. Often they wouldn't have been sighted in, or been knocked out of sight.
    He'd let them use the .270.

    ETA: This was for white tail hunts.
     
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    MTA

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    I am spoiled in that I hunt almost exclusively with actual shooters.

    I have also seen what kind of fuckery takes place when folks who “hunt” once a year and don’t train at all take shots they have no business taking happens.
    I was shown a video of someone shooting about a foot high over an axis deer at 100 yards. The “hunter” was adamant that 22-250 would be enough gun. If he shoots that bad imagine trying to track a 22 cal gutshot axis

    There was another one who has never hunted before and wanted to use a bow. He shows up with the sight not attached
     

    GeorgeS

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    i use 300gr. Swift A-Frames and Hornady 300gr. solids. More than two dozen African (jackals to Cape buffalo) and Asiatic (chital and nilgai) critters have fallen to my .375H&H rifles and none have exhibited much meat damage at all. Perhaps using a "soft" 270gr. bullet might do so, but not the bullets I use.

    Recoil of the .375H&H is a "push" because it has a slow recoil impulse; my .470 Capstick recoils more rapidly.

    Your mileage may vary.
     

    pbratton

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    So, got the rifle and scope in, hopefully, I can get on the range this weekend.,

    Thought you might like to see the round itself.

    Right to left: 5.56, .308, 6.5CM, .375 Ruger

    20201026_182221.jpg
     
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