I love the 375 Ruger. I read all the articles and threads on how it wasn't going to last and how it didn't have the grand ol' history of the H&H. But here we are on yet another long thread with folks chiming in over and over with rave reviews on the 375 Ruger.
The thing I like most about the 375 Ruger is that it puts a whole lot of whoop-ass into a regular ol' package. Everything about it is just, well, regular. The size of the rifle is no bigger than a deer hunter's 30-06. There's not a whole lot of crazy pressures or fine tuned barrel lengths or elite velocities. It doesn't need premium bullets (unless what you're hunting is trying to kill you) to absolutely flatten the fxck out of what you're shooting. Hell, even the recoil just feels like a bigger version of the 30-06. I scored my lefty ss/lam Alaskan Hawkeye for $693.00 NIB. I slapped a Vortex Viper 2x7x32 on it, and based upon the success of the H&H, I'm comfortable that I can hunt anything in the world with it. Maybe what I am saying is that it is the big bore version of a working man's rifle. I love it. It ain't pretentious, it just works.
In July, I killed two nilgai with my 375 Ruger. I used a 300gr Sierra Game King loaded to about 2450 fps with 71.5gr Reloader 15. Ranges were 80 and 150yds. One ran 50yds, the other just flopped over. Believe it or not I've actually had a few people gripe that why even mess with the 375 Ruger if you're not going to load it faster than the H&H. Why? Because it (censored word) plowed through both of them and knocked them on their asses, AND my shoulder didn't take a beating for it. Nilgai is damn tasty by the way. When sighting in my rifle for the hunt, I initially used Hornady factory ammo. My rifle doesn't like the 300gr RNSP load, but once I switched to my handloads it dropped them in on top of one another over and over.
Not that the 375 H&H couldn't also do these same things, but I personally am not aware of a factory made 375 H&H that weighs less than 9lbs scoped that wouldn't cost several hundred bucks more to acquire. I don't think anyone is saying the Ruger should replace the H&H by any means, and it certainly won't, but Ruger and Hornady hit a home run on this one. It's a great combination and more and more people are realizing it.