B & R Photography

Well, if you’re back this week, it only means one thing! You want to hear about the Original Thumper. The .375 H&H Magnum, this thing was a monster for the time and was one of the first belted magnum cases designed and it led to a bunch of different cartridges like .300 Weatherby Magnum, .300 Winchester Magnum, 7mm Remington Magnum, etc.

The .375 H&H Magnum was a fantastic cartridge for the time, it was innovative and ground breaking. Originally designed to use cordite the .375 H&H Magnum was built to be a dangerous game and thick-skinned dangerous game cartridge. As other cartridges were being developed in and around Great Britan multiple manufactures took noticed and wanted to come up with a design themselves. Especially after the introduction of the 9.3X62mm Mauser that was introduced in 1905 and had an ever-lasting impact on African hunters seeing as the rifles built by Mauser where easier and cheaper to build compared to traditional double-barreled rifles from Britan.

The original cordite loads where designed to compete with the 286gr projectiles of the 9.3x62mm Mauser. You had a 235gr projectile at 2800fps, 270gr projectile at 2650fps and a 300gr projectile at 2500fps. With newer propellants of the smokeless variety these loads can see a velocity gain of 150 to 200 fps. You can also find bullets up the 380grs for the .375 H&H Magnum.

When the .375 H&H Magnum is zeroed at 210 yards it has a maximum point-blank range of 245 yards with a 300gr projectile travelling at 2530fps. This load produces 4263ft-lbf of energy.

While this was designed with Africa big game in mind. It can also handle the task of taking out the dangerous and large game of North America. Anglers, Hunters and Guides in Alaska, Canada and European artic regions use the .375 H&H as a bear defense rifle in situations that you really need stopping power.

A few notable variants are the .375 Flanged Magnum, .375 H&H Ackley Improved Version and the .375 Weatherby Magnum. As a parent cartridge I suggest you head over to Wikipedia as I find it too many to list. (Info can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.375_H%26H_Magnum )

As far as trajectory goes the when firing a 300gr projectile with a muzzle velocity of 2550 fps, sighted in for 100 yards you get the following drops.

200 Yards: 4.47 Inches.

500 Yards: 61.26 Inches.

1000 Yards: 366.02 Inches.

(Please note the above trajectory information was pulled from https://gundata.org/blog/post/30-06-ballistics-chart/)

Short Notes.

Official Name: .375 H&H Magnum (.375 Holland & Holland Magnum)

Year Designed: 1912

Designed by: Holland & Holland

Parent Case: None (This was a unique case design)

Rifling Twist Rate: 1 in 12”

Maximum Point-Blank Range: 245 Yards

I hope you enjoyed this brief overview of the .375 H&H Magnum and will return next week for our Cartridge of the Week series.

Please remember to always practice safe muzzle control when dealing with firearms and happy shooting.

B