Description
Holland & Holland, a firearms company from England, developed the .375 H&H Magnum in 1912 – a cartridge that would eventually come to be called the “Queen of the Medium Bores.” The .375 H&H Mag was specifically designed for hunting big game in Africa, and it was successful. The cartridge is sufficient to harvest any large game animal on the continent, including the Big Five species. Although it’s been around for over 100 years, it still warrants respect, and is often chosen by both professional hunters and sportsmen. The .375 is the base of Holland & Holland’s most popular cartridge, the .300 H&H Magnum.
A significant advantage to shooting the .375 H&H Magnum is that independent of bullet weight, the same flat trajectory is maintained. Therefore, if a hunter wants to switch bullet weights depending on the hunting situation, the impact point will mostly stay the same. Hunters are provided with the ability to choose bullets with different weights quickly, without the need to worry about a change in the point of impact.
The .375 H&H Magnum cartridge was only the second belted magnum design. This belted design and case shoulder with a gentle slope allowed for the use of higher pressure loadings, but still made case extraction easy. Because of this, the popularity of the .375 H&H Magnum was tremendously boosted – especially for use in tropical climates like those found in Africa and India.
One of the key advantages of the .375 H&H is the wide diversity of bullet types and weights available, which is part of what makes this cartridge so versatile. Bullet weights commonly range between 200 and 300 grains. Soft point bullets are suited well for medium-size game animals and even some of the most dangerous African game. Muzzle velocity ranges between 2,650 and 3,200 feet per second, giving the .375 H&H Mag a muzzle energy in the area of 4,500 foot pounds.
Soon after being introduced in Europe, the .375 H&H Magnum arrived in America and began gaining adherents among the hunters there, where it boasted sufficient power to harvest all North American large game animals. In 1925, Winchester was the first U.S. company to manufacture a rifle chambered for .375 H&H Magnum – including their iconic Model 70 rifle to this day.
