.375 H&H Short Barrel Performance

[lgm270]

Years ago I saw a Sako limited run .375 H&H with a 20" barrel and a quarter rib rear sight and a front sight.  What a cool gun it was. One of those  I now  wish I had acquired.  It was a very comfortable little carbine.  A great "brush" gun.

Well, I found this Sako,  Kodiak 85, which is a stainless  .375H&H bolt action  with a 21.25 inch barrel and a laminated stock.

http://www.sako.fi/sako85models.php?kodiak_showdata

Can anyone tell me what will be .375 H&H ballistics  from a 22" or 20" barrel?  

Does anyone have any practical, hands on experience with a shorter barreled .375?

[mcwoodduck]

I got to shoot one of the Sako 20" carbines.
I have a standard Sako AIII rifle.  and the recoil was about the same.  I shoot the 375H&H off hand as sitting behind it on the bench hurts.
I do not think you will loose that much in speed.
As a brush gun for Brown bear, moose, or Elk the 375H&H would be great.  big heavy bullet.
I like the A Square 300 Grainers, but can afford the 270 grain Soft points by Remington.

[Thebear_78]

The 375 H&H is actually pretty efficient out of a 20" barrel.  I had a winchester 70 cut down to 20" and found 75fps was the average velosity loss over the 24 inch barrel,  less with the faster burning powders.

[lgm270]

The 375 H&H is actually pretty efficient out of a 20" barrel.  I had a winchester 70 cut down to 20" and found 75fps was the average velosity loss over the 24 inch barrel,  less with the faster burning powders.

Hi bear. Thanks for responding. Would love to hear more about your short barreled M-70.  For what purpose did you use it?  Loads?  Recoil?   Please respond. You aroused my interest.  Best

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

  My rebarreled 700 has a 25 inch barrel to match what the original Mod. 70 had when the .375 first came out in the Win. But if you want to do some reading on the .375 by and "average Joe", Paul Mathews has a book out called 60YEARS WITH RIFLES. In it he discusses his use of the .375. He bought a new model 70 and as I rmember after one year, cut the barrle off just behind the front sight. It gave him something like 18.5" He used the rifle for another 6000 rds. before trading it to a relative. He seemed quite happy with the short rifle. I think the biggest game he shot, was whitetailed deer.    From what I have read, many Alaska bear guides cut the .375 down for use in the alders with no problem.

[xhare]

I was at my favorite gun store recently (Whittaker Guns, in KY), I handled several of the CZ rifles they had in stock.  One was a short barreled 375, with the same sights as usual.  I don't know the exact length, but could have been 20" but may have been 22".  Hard to tell for sure.  I looked on their website but did not find it.  Anyhow, a nice looking rifle.  Oh, the price was higher than standard so it may be a special run. 

[jro45]

 

[jro45]

I've had expirenance With a cut off barrel. I had a 30/06 I had a new barrel put on it. Witch is fine but the new barrel was 26" long the shot out barrel was a 22" barrel. So
I increased MY FPS about 100 FPS.

[nomosendero]

Kinda explains the logic of a 375 Ruger cartridge teamed with the 20" Ruger Alaskan. You lose some speed, but the 375Ruger is a little faster, in the end the 375R is about what a longer barreled H&H would be, pretty good concept, isn't it?

[Canuck Bob]

I had a buddy years ago who docked a 375 Ruger #1 Tropical to 20".  I owned the same rifle in stock barrel length.  The only real difference was his balanced nicer and was a tad loud with heavy bullets and slow powders.  He scoped his and I went with a peep so his rifle was a touch heavier.  My 24" barrel would be like a 20" bolt rifle in length.  That OAL was real handy.  My buddy's gun was real short, about 36" but with the heavy barrel and nice balance was a dream to shoot offhand in the bush.

We loaded lots of 235 grain Speers to give mild kick and superb deer killing rounds to 250 yards and practiced a lot.  To this day the 375 is my second favorite big bore, 444 Marlin is #1 with me.

My loaded ammo was long, too long for a magazine rifle due to the deep throat on my Ruger.  300 gr. RN Noslers didn't reach the bottom of the case neck.  I was also younger, read foolish, and the Ruger is strong.

That rifle should suit you fine and be a real good hunting weapon.












 

[Dand]

When I was working on the Alaska Peninsula, a friend bought one of those 375 Sakos - black, plastic full length stock. I really liked shooting it (he bought the ammo ). I felt the plastic stock soaked up some recoil and wasn't as sharp as my 300 win mag gun. I never carried it but it handled well at the range and it would have given me a lot of confidence hiking in the Peninsula brush country with the bears.

I think guide here in Dillingham uses the same gun for his bear back up rifle.

I did most of the sighting the iron sites as my friend didn't like the kick. I think we set the sights for about 40 yards and off hand I was happy with minute of bear shooting. I think it would have shown much better accuracy off a bench but we didn't have one.

[Hank08]

Many yrs. ago probably in the 1950s there was an article in The Rifleman magazine entitled "3 little rifles".  The writer was a person who hunted world wide and had 3 rifles made for that purpose, a Win. M69 in .22, a Win M70 in 30/06 and a Win M70 in .375, all custom stocked the same and all with 20" barrels.  He had harvested truckloads of animals with them and felt he had found the perfect hunting rifles.  I thought so too.  I still dream about those "3 little rifles".
H08

[rem308]

Hi All

I have one of the 375H&H Kodiaks.  Very nice rifle to shoot, very easy to swing around, well balanced.  Game I have shoot with it with 300 grain factory ammo was emphatically dead, admittedly only smallish game like goats.  Very accurate rifle, out of the box shoots around moa without cleaning during sighting in.  I am in love with it, however share the favours with my weathermaster in 308.

The only real issue is the recoil pad is a bit thin, and will probably put a limbsaver on it.  After firing 40 rounds through it the shoulder new it, but not as bad as I expected.

The shorter barrel does not seem an issue, but reloading could add a bit of extra pace if one wished.

[FN in MT]

  I've got one of those 20" .375 H&H barrels in my shop someplace. The original owner had the 20" gun converted to a 26" .300 H&H.

 I'd sell the barrel if anyone is interested..

[Camp Cook]

In my old Sako Hunter IV in 375 H&H had a 22" barrel with 300gr Partitions & IMR4064 powder = 2475fps = cloverleaf 100 yard 3 shot groups.

I now shoot a 21" barreled Rem 700 LSS in 375RUM with RL17 powder =

260gr Accubonds @3020fps
300gr A-Frames/Partitions/Gamekings @ 2730fps
350gr TSX @ 2450fps

[danny pay]

hi
i have owned a brno 602 in 375 in many years and for a year ago a friend of min wanted to rebarrel his brno 602 in 375 to 500 gibbs and sold me his nearly new original brno barrel in 375 removed from his gun very cheap now i have one Brno and 2 barrels in 375 !! i want to keep one in original length and i have decided to cut the spare barrel down to somewhat shorter and handier length, maybe 22 or 20 inches or even shorter ,but i want at least 2450 fps with 300 gr both solid and soft point out of the shorter barrel.
which shortest  length can still provid these velocity with re15 or any of  medium to fast burning powders?
kind regards
danny

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

  Danny, several years ago, I used a 180 grain Interlock on elk in one of my .300's..while not a 375 caliber, it was an interlock..I hit a 5 point high in the shoulders..he was on a steep, and I mean steep mountain..church roof steep...one shot killed him and he rolled down the mt. probably 200 yards or more..he didn 't run he rolled..he was dead when I finally got up the mt. to him, but on skinning, the bullet was down to 46 grains and no lead in the jacket..375's might hold together better, he was pretty far up the mt. so I am sure the bullet had cooled down... so aftere that exp. I went back to Partitions..they have never failed...

[jro45]

Yes those partitions hold together real good. I use them quite offen myself.

[Just for kicks]

I have a Winchester Model 70 .375 H&H Magnum with a (shortened factory) 20-inch barrel.  My standard .375 H&H load that I use in all my rifles is a 300-grain Hornady Round Nose Soft Point over 78.0 grains of IMR 4350, sparked by a Federal 215 Magnum/Match primer.  Out of the 20-inch .375, this load produces 2400 feet per second.  I don't shoot this rifle a lot, but I've never had to shoot anything more than once with it.  My other .375 H&H rifles have 23- and 25-inch barrels, and the long barrel gun gives me a bit over 2550 fps with this load.  I don't think the .375 H&H suffers as much as the higher velocity calibers when the barrel is trimmed.