Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only 375 Ruger

Found a 12 year old post on this cartridge looking around here about it. A guy I know is funding his trip to New Zeland next year and sold me his still unfired 2008 Ruger M77 Hawkeye in 375 Ruger. He included 3 boxes (60rounds) of Hornady 300gr factory ammo and a Leupold VX-R 3-9x40 in Leupold 30mm rings for Ruger rifles. I've been a 375 whatever fan for a long time with different rifles in 375 H&H, 375 Win, 376 Steyr and now a 375 Ruger. In fact, picked up the 375/350 wildcat that NTO had listed in the classifieds as well. Info I'm finding online is pretty favorable to the Ruger cartridge, hoping to read personal experiences here about it. The rifle is not the Alaskan or African model. And while I have no plans for Africa, an Alaskan trip is on my bucket list. I also moose hunt up in Saskatchewan and don't think I'd mind toting this around there either. Hoping for a good read here, thanks!

I like the 375 Ruger cartridge. The 20" Ruger Alaskan and 270 grain TSX have been a favorite moose hunting combination.

I have an Alaskan with a 23" barrel instead of the 20". Stainless. came with the laminated stock. I put it in a Hogue.
seems like it took some of the sting out of the recoil. put a Leupold 1.75 -6 on it. took it to Alaska for a black bear hunt.
killed the bear plenty good. it shoots 300 gr partitions and about anything else into an inch or 2 at 100. got it from CDNN
in 2015. I don't know how many 23" Alaskns they made but I like it better with the longer barrel. my guide had the 20" version.
For Alaska I don't think you could do much better than 375 Ruger. I sure it would work just as well in Africa.

Here's the old thread I found, some good stuff in it.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/3810748/375-ruger

This one has a 23" barrel and wood stock. The guy I got it from was going to have a barrel mounted front swivel stud so the one in the stock has been removed.

I really like the 375 ruger even though I have little use for one since hunting anything here in the east can be easily done with lesser cartridges. I did use it on a 400 lb Maine bear and he went 5 yards. Like jpex59 mine also has 23 inch barrel and laminated stock. There are reduced loads that I use at the range which shoot to the same point of impact (in my gun) as the heavier factory loads within 100 yds. I would think the reduced loads would be fine for deer and such if one was so inclined.

I had a first year 375 ruger and despised it. Next to my my cz-550 carbine in 9.3x62, it was heavy, and clumsy with the stoopid hogue stock.

I kept the CZ and sold the Ruger.

A decade later, I came back to the Ruger, but in 416.

The one-time LHanders got a better stock than RHanders !!!

This one has, to me, a typical Ruger walnut stock. It does have nice sharp checkering with nice grain. I'll know better after shooting it, it also has a thin red hard butt pad!

I have a 23" African also. Blued with walnut stock. I haven't shot it a lot but seems to shoot fine. I should sell them both as I will probably never have a chance to hunt with them again
but they are both good handling good shooting well made guns.

I have had the Rugers in 375 Ruger pretty much since they first hit the local shelves. I have one of the early 23" blued without barrel band sling stud. I replaced the wood stock with a Bell & Carlson.
I also have a stainless 20" that I had re-barreled, it was suppose to be 23" but is 23.5". I have two other 20" with a McMillan and one with an H-S Precision.

The 20" with the McMillan is carried the most. Has worked, as expected, very well on a couple of moose using 270 gr TSX. My son has a re-barrel to 22.5". He has used the 270 TSX for one moose, with excellent result. All the rifles have grouped the 270 TSX very well.

I loaded some of the 270 gr LRX bullets this past summer. Barnes book, max load of H380. These were averaged 2723 fps; a 5 shot string, if I recall correctly. This was out of a factory 20" barrel.
I am going to play with these a bit more.

I have 375 H&H's and 338 Winchesters. Between these, the Rugers receive the hunting time in my present hunting area. The moose hunting decision has gotten down to use the 375 Ruger or 416 Ruger.

The 416 Ruger has also become a favorite. I hesitated a couple of years to take the plunge. But, with the 350 gr TSX and 20" barrel it is pretty handy. Some of the 100 yd & meter groups have been very impressive from more than one rifle.

I have a 375 Ruger that I built on a Rem 700 receiver I had on the bench, it sports a 19-inch barrel for ease of handling in the brush. Initially I cut the barrel to 23-inch worrying about muzzle flash etc. with a shorter barrel but decided it had to be cut back so on the lathe it went. It is much better at 19-inch then 23 in my humble opinion for what I use it for, black bear over bait in Canada, think short shots in dense wooded areas.

If I was setting up to shoot bears over say 150 yards I would probably grab my 300 PRC, with its 20 inch barrel Th 300 PRC has proven its accuracy out to 1,000 yards, far longer than I would ever shoot a bear, even being on the short and stubby side.

I have what started out as a 23" stainless African. it came in a laminated stock. I had it cut back to 21" and installed a mcmillian mkII classic. I have a 1.75-5x32 burris sig safari on it. It sports a timney trigger as well. shoots about as well I can with the 5X scope most groups are right around 1-1.25". I havent worked up any loads for it really just choose a 270TSX load and went with it.

I know it sounds odd but the 1.5" I cut off the barrel seems to make it feel quite a bit more handy than you would think. Every time I pick up a 23" african it seems too long and when I hold an Alaskan it feels to short.. so goldlylocks says 21.5 is just right.

I have to say I don't have much to shoot with it, shot some steel, shot a doe, but short of a trip to Alaska I don't have much to do with it, i was planning on making some reduced loads with 235 speers but have been busy and haven't gotten around to it.

Got one of the early left hand Rugers with 20 inch barrel and laminated stock. Swivel stud is on the forearm. Killed a bear on Kodiak and when I got home, noticed the stock cracked at the tang.

Sent back to Ruger, fixed in a month with new stock. No issues since. Taken two moose in Alaska. Both bang , flop. Hand loaded Barnes TSX 270 grain over Winchester 760. I will die with this gun.

Scott have the same LH stock and rifle you should bed the stock to prevent that again.

I had a first year stainless Alaskan. 20” barrel. Didn’t care for the Hogue, so I replaced it with a factory injection molded stock. Topped it with a Leupold 1.5-5
Shot Hornady 270 SP’s. Worked great on whitetails at 50 yds to elk at 400.
Wish I would have kept it.

I started with a left hand laminated 20" Ruger, which with Hornady 270 gr. factory ammo would do just over 1 moa on the range. I fell in love with the round but sold the Ruger and built a custom Mauser in 375 Ruger. That will be in my go-to hunting rifle battery the rest of my life.

I am going to experiment with 260 grain Nosler Accubonds/Partitions on whitetail deer next year. I do believe the 375 Ruger could be the "just one gun" worldwide rifle.

I had the first LH 375 Ruger Guide Gun that rolled off the line. At least that's what the factory told me. It would regularly shoot Nosler 260 Partition bullets under 2" @ 300yds with a case full of Varget.

I took a buffalo at about 125yds with that load. He took two shots directly behind the shoulder before he decided to fall over. Both bullets were recovered in the off-side hide. They looked like they came right out of Nosler's catalog. The Barnes 270TSX was also a good shooter in my rifle.