What will a 375 H H do to a white-tail deer?

I have a Winchester Model 70 375 H&H that I used to hunt Cape Buffalo in Africa a while back. I was thinking of taking it deer hunting, but would like to hear some people's opinions about how much meat I would lose.

: like to hear some people's opinions about how much meat I would lose.

IMNSHO, if it's big enough for a cape buffalo, it's obviously overkill for a deer. However, if you shoot around the front shoulder and into the boiler room, you won't ruin too much meat, and from the deer's point of view, dead is dead. I would select a bullet that expands a lot faster than that need for a buff.

samg

Just avoid the shoulders and haunches. Face it, you can cut a 3' hole through the ribs and still not lose a 1/4 lb of meat.

put your shot through the lungs you wont lose any.

Jeeze, couldn't you find anything smaller? It'll probably do as well as a thousand other calibers, don't use solids though. You're going to have a hell of a time finding a gun bearer to lug that twenty pound monstrosity through the whitetail woods, and remember when you're in a crowded willow thicket that there is nothing in a willow thicket that will stop that

Depending on shot placement probably not much more meat will be wasted than any other rifle. I think 230 gr. bullets are available and a 30.06 has bullets almost that heavy.

Use exactly the same shot you would use with a 30-06. You will probably end up with less wasted meat because, although the 375H&H is undeniably effective on whitetails, the bullets tend to expand in a very controlled manner. (Conclusion based on the effects of 235 grain Speer spire points and 270 grain Hornady round nosed bullets.) In my experience, shoulder shots destroy a 1-1.5' radius around the bullet path. Just as with any other cartridge, if you hit bone then the bone fragments will spoil some meat.

Keep your stick on the ice,

It'll work fine. Assuming you're using a 270 grain or heavier bullet, you'll destroy less meat with the .375 than a similar hit with an '06 or .270 'deer load' because the much tougher bullet doesn't expend as much energy on the deer. Such a bullet will be going slower and acting much more like an FMJ bullet.

Now, on the other hand, if you drop down to a light ... 235 grain .375, or worse, one of the bullets designed for the .38-55 or .375 Winchester lever action, at max .375 H&H velocity you can really mess up a LOT of venison.

This reminds me of a guy in West Texas who shot whitetails with a .458WM. Everybody expected that he'd blow the deer into a cloud of red jelly, but it was just the opposite: it made a nice, neat 1.5' hole going clean through, just like you'd laid a pipe through it. The blood ran out like you pulled a plug, and the meat wasn't 'shredded' the way high-V calibers are wont to do. I remember watching a guy clean his deer after blowing it through the chest with a 7mm RemMag - jeez, it looked like a grenade had gone off in there.

Ron M.

NONE IF YOU HIT IT IN THE HEAD

If you don't hit bone, you should be allright, but who can count on that. I've seen the big-bad .375 do a pretty good number on moose up here in Alaska and, even here, is generally considered too much gun. The .338 tends to be the upper limit as far as what's actually used (discounting all the hunting guidebooks) in Alaska for everything except brown bear. Where I live here, the people tend to go light, even too light if you ask me. I went out last month with a couple of Alaska natives and watched them take caribou with a .223 and this is pretty routine. Of course they run the animal down with a snow machine and head-shoot it. I had a 30.06 myself and just feel a whole lot more comfortable with it. I use 220 grain softpoints even for moose and do allright. We don't have alot of bear in this part of Alaska (SW Alaska) so the tried and true 30.06 is an excellant all around gun. To get back to your question, I think hunting whitetail with a .375 would be considered a little bit on the overkill side, kind of along the same lines as fully automatic weapons.